Play Slam

​I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm not ignoring anyone. Just found my cell phone and have about a billion messages (maybe half of them from grammarsquirrel). I've been ridiculously busy at work, and now that I'm no longer an insomniac, my body requires rest. Today was my first non-Sunday off in a while, and I couldn't even get out of bed until 5:00 PM, and I was meeting people at 6:00.

I'll try and get in touch with everyone this weekend. In the nicewhile, if you need to get in touch with me try my house line. If I'm home, I'm much more likely to be able to find that than my cell. Also, I check that voicemail everyday. Cell phone voicemail...every other week or so.


Tonight, Su, Delisile, Oz and I headed out to The Play Slam at BC's Playwright's Theatre. Six ten-minute-plays (and one sacrifice) judged by five random audience members. Much like a slam except that props and musical accompaniment are allowed. They also don't have a specific time penalty rule.

The plays were...exactly the same crap you'd see at a slam. The pieces went: lesbian identity, lesbian identity, post 9-11 world, white people can't understand black people, Latino identity/the upper class are bad, and a really original piece called Dumpster Dan.

The sacrificial play was confusing and not well-written, and while the younger actress was engaging and wonderful, her older counterpart (the author) was atrociously bad. The second Lesbian Identity piece was fairly well-written, very well-acted, and hysterical. The 9-11 piece was weakly written and poorly performed. The piece about white people and Kwanzaa was HORRID. If we were at The Green Mill, I would have started stomping and screaming "Route 2." Delisile and Oz nearly got up and walked out. It was so poorly conceived. The writing was vapid and 1/2-dimensional. The "angry black" character was portrayed by a woman who probably has a full-time job as a mannequin during the day. The mother character and the "not-angry black" character did their best to salvage a script that should have been left on the bottom of the birdcage from which it was shat out. The Latino identity/upper-class play was mildly amusing but completely predictable.

The saving grace was the last play of the evening. A two-person play about a kid whose Dad gives away all their posessions, and their apartment to go live in a dumpster. It was to the play slam what Kwesi Davis was to poetry slam (if you don't count that whole Providence 2000 debauchle). COmpletely different. Somewhat abstract, but navigable. If David Ives had written a poem on this subject it would have turned out fairly similar.

I gave it a 10 (yea, I judged). It won. Wooha.

It was an entertaining way to spend an evening. And interesting to note which Boston poetryslam fringe people were involved in this blatant theft of Marc Smith's idea. I wonder how long they'll call themselves BostonSlam before Michael Brown threatens to sue them, the way he threatened the poets who used that title for their in-school projects.
Current Mood:  sleepy but heaterphobic
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 06:53 am (UTC)
bajatierra: sorry to have bugged youAnd welcome back to the world.
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 08:12 pm (UTC)
akamuuYou didn't bug me. I feel awful that I've been so bad at getting back to you.

I'm not really back in the world for long, though. My one day off this week is The Cambridge Poetry Awards/Lizard Lounge night.

I'll try and give you a call inbetween them. It might even be earlier if I can manage to wake up more than ten minutes before I leave for work.
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 07:01 am (UTC)
thisisstari'm so sorry i didn't call you earlier about not being able to come.
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 08:10 pm (UTC)
akamuuNot a problem. I'm sorry you weren't there to hang out with us. The slam was a blast, and afterwards we had some far-too-expensive and frou-frou Japanese food. Next time we're Starnapping you.
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 07:27 am (UTC)
kattullusCan you explain the Route 2 thing?

(my guess is it's the fastest way out of whichever burg The Green Mill's in)
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 08:09 pm (UTC)
akamuuFastest way out of Chicago (at least according to Regie Gibson, who explained it to me a couple of years ago).
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Sat, Feb. 7th, 2004 10:02 pm (UTC)
akamuuDunno. I'm relating the story as Regie told me. Regie was quite drunk. I was quite drunk. It was also about...three years ago or more.

Regie used the "Route 2" shout at his short-lived series at The All Asia Cafe.
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 08:08 pm (UTC)
akamuu: Re: Play slamWhile I don't think The Elevator was terribly original, I agree that it was acted brilliantly. The carpenter almost caused me to bust a gut.

I'm reasonably sure the kid who played Dumpster Dan was about fourteenish, and Marlon (the guy who played the father) looked about eighteenish...but who knows. Regardless of age they showed the most range of the night.

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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 09:29 pm (UTC)
akamuuHe did seem familiar but I have no idea where I would have seen him before. I think he just has that generic "cute, nerdy kid" look to him.
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 05:55 pm (UTC)
bobdapoet: Just so you know...I was not trying to call you. You can relax :)
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Thu, Feb. 5th, 2004 08:04 pm (UTC)
akamuu: Re: Just so you know...Whew.

Actually, Phil was the only slam person trying to get in touch with, as far as I know. Most were former co-workers (loads of people got laid off while I was in AZ) who occasionally troll my LJ.