Heads up!

Blogging is s0 2006, don't you think? I think 2008 will be the year that blogging died. Or theater blogging. Or theater blogging by overworked theater editor types who spread themselves too thin. You heard it here, folks. Maybe I'm just ashamed of my bland, infrequent postings, my inability to sustain much of an argument, impress you with my erudition, jargon and theoretical sophistication or participate pugnaciously in a community of concerned citizen thinkers. So I'm pretty much useless until further notice.

FURTHER NOTICE! You haven't seen any work by avant-garde Italian directorial genius Romeo Castellucci? I guess you missed the episode from Tragedia Endogonidia that came to Montclair State University in 2005. Alison Croggon has a fine write up of an episode from that cryptic, brilliant, nightmarish 11-part cycle here. Well Castellucci is back with a show called Hey Girl! (pictured above). I'll be at MSU's Kasser Theater tonight and tomorrow night, conducting pre-shows with Stanford PhD candidate and Castellucci expert Daniel Sack. More details here. TONY's wonderful Helen Shaw wrote a preview piece here; and here is a fine article by Yale's Theater editor Tom Sellar in The New York Times.

IN OTHER NEWS: Iceland is having its first international theatre festival and those fine Reykjavikkers (?) have invited me to cover it (the aforementioned Mr. Sellar has accepted an article) March 4-9. So I ask both of my dear readers (that includes you, Mom): What do you know about Iceland? Books? Movies? Folklore?

IN OTHER OTHER NEWS: Still working on the libretto, which will have a closed reading with these outstanding folks later this month. If all goes well, this concoction between me and this guy will have its premiere thanks to these folks. And still working on the play, which fills me with dread and joy.

Comments

[isaac]

Hey David,

As a erstwhile bookstore employee, it is my solemn duty to inform you that there's a very highly regarded collection called SAGA OF ICELANDERS that collects various icelandic sagas (ancient chronicles of warlords and mythical beasts and such) that has an introduction by Jane Smiley.

Also, I believe that Iceland is now very well known for its music scene. I think Sigur Ros are bullshit, but there are a lot of people who LOVE them. and there's plenty of other artists where that came from.

[Alison Croggon]

I went to Iceland for two weeks, visiting under the guise of a poet. This is how I discovered something charming about Icelanders: they may appear absolutely modern and 21st century, but ancient superstitions are still alive and well just under the skin. As I was walking through immigration, I was pulled out of the line and questioned by officials. I was somewhat flustered, and when they asked me why I was visiting, I blurted out that I was a poet and I was visiting to read poetry, something I would never normally confess to any immigration official. They immediately looked alarmed, apologised profusely and sent me off. I was quite surprised by their reaction. My friend who picked me up, an Icelandic poet himself, said that was because people still believe that poets have the power of cursing. I'm sure somebody will show you the modern roads that curve around the elf hills...

I'd love to go back. It's an amazing place. It has more artists per square inch than any country on earth, and its very rich literature includes a Nobel prize winner, Haldor Laxness. It's also geologically fascinating. The National Theatre in Reykjavik is an amazing piece of Fascist architecture. I was told that despite the fact that the entire population is about 250,000 people, the theatre gets an audience of 500,000 a year.

Oh, and avoid the dried fish, especially the shark.

[David Cote]

Isaac, Alison: Thanks for the suggestions. I've been hearing a lot about elves, medievalism and tectonic plates. Also, HEY GIRL! was amazing. The preshows went well. I may blog about it later. For now, though, swamped.