Everything you always wanted to know about...

...Arts Orange County & moi in Dave Barton's profile piece in OC Weekly.

My AMERICAN THEATRE article...

Finally got a digital copy of it, and have uploaded it here.

Woo-hoo! I'm featured in OC METRO magazine!

Voila!

My latest article in AMERICAN THEATRE is out...

...in the April 2010 issue. Page 50: a review of playwright David Rabe's DINOSAURS ON THE ROOF, a novel.

Back on stage...

I have to admit, it was fun being up on stage again even if all I was doing was welcoming the audience, introducing speakers and moderating questions for the main speaker at the Dan Pink lecture I presented. More pix from this event here.

Mike Eggers: A true original

Vincent Eggers, son of (and the spitting image of )Mike, paid homage to his late father.

Yesterday, I attended the tribute to Mike Eggers, who died suddenly last month. Though I knew him only for a few years on our homeowners association board together, he was the kind of guy who made you feel like you've known him all your life. Interestingly, he was a freelance publicity for the Laguna Playhouse for a while in the early 80s, before my arrival, but I first learned of him when he became Mayor of Dana Point, a city that owes him a great deal for being instrumental in its incorporation. He was also a key aide to Congressman Ron Packard, whom he helped get elected in an unusual write-in campaign. The memorial at San Juan Capistrano's famed El Adobe Restaurant was packed with politicos--current and former elected officials at every level. It had the feel of a "roast" but was sincere and heartfelt.

"All the More to Love" Debuts - Finally!

I commissioned Craig Bohmler and Marion Adler to write a musical three years ago called All the More to Love, and produced a workshop of it at Laguna Playhouse. The Playhouse first announced it on their 2008-09 season, and then cancelled it. I'm delighted to report that it is at last making its debut in Phoenix. Here are the details.

Jon Marans' "The Temperamentals" gets NY Times rave

I had the pleasure of directing Jon Marans' play "Old Wicked Songs" about 12 years ago at Laguna Playhouse, which is how I met him. We became good friends, and I was able to orchestrate a summer-long residency for him at the theatre in 2002, when I directed the World Premiere of his play "Jumping for Joy." He spent the summer working on "Strange and Separate People," and we held a reading of it.

Though he's written a number of plays, he's not had the kind of attention he received in 1997 when "Rent" edged out "Old Wicked Songs" for that year's Pulitzer Prize. "OWS" has been produced in many languages all over the world.

But now Jon has a bona fide hit: "The Temperamentals." Today's New York Times carries a front page arts section review that's about as good as anyone ever gets from critic Ben Brantley.

The wolf in sheep's clothing campaign ad

Heard about this on KPCC-FM (NPR) yesterday but forgot to check it out. Then, I was checking Rex Parker's New York Times crossword puzzle blog (where he post-mortems the puzzles), about the Thursday puzzle, which was a fun challenge that I completed.

He shares at the end of it the clip of this campaign ad and then comments the following:

Just saw this a couple minutes ago. So ... the people of CA are ... sheep? And Tom Campbell ... well, let's see. He used to be a sheep, but then he got caught on one of those meadow pedestals and when he fell back to earth he was a guy, but he still wanted to have sex with sheep, I think, so he made this vaguely sheep-like costume but forgot that sheep don't have glowing red eyes unless they are really drunk or possessed by demons, so Carly whoever, who won't show her face because staring at it would be like staring at the face of God — awesome but blinding —she noticed Tom "Fake Sheep" Campbell and is now telling the other sheep all about it. I could be wrong.

Funiculi, funicula!

Who knew?

I was astounded to learn this morning that the city of Dana Point opened in December a twelve-passenger funicular at Strands Beach (north side of the Headlands)! Will definitely have to try it out. This year, I rode the one that goes up Castle Hill in Budapest, Hungary, and the multi-car, subway funicular up Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Of course, I've ridden on Angel's Flight in downtown LA, too.