MISCELLANY
My page on the New Play Exchange
Fade To Black
Link to the great Fade To Black play festival in Houston, in which I've had a few plays.
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First Play
The first actual attempt at playwriting I made was for The Goodman Theater's David Mamet Write-A-Like contest. I placed third with a Mametized version of The Wizard of Oz. An excerpt of the review is below.
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An excerpt from a review of the contest finalists from Performink online magazine:
Homage and Parody in Mamet
Write-Alike Contest
BY Kevin Heckman
...Which of the above sounds like a more interesting evening? A respectful showcase of works inspired by the stylings of one of our most recognizable scribes? Or an evening of work that lampoons that same scribe? If someone approached you and asked for a short play to be written in the style of David Mamet, for which of the above would you assume you were writing?
I don’t know that the Goodman Theatre thought through these questions in launching the Mamet Write-Alike Contest, but based on the 10 semi-finalists that were read during the Mamet SpeakEasy at the Subterranean on April 6, most of the playwrights, intentionally or not, went for the parody. ...
While each of the three criteria were represented in the 10 pieces that were shown during the SpeakEasy, clearly certain approaches were most popular. Five of the pieces were of the Mamet-meets-genre variety. There was Mamet meets Our Town, Mamet meets Hamlet, Mamet meets My Fair Lady and so on. One of the semi-finalists, in fact, was Glengarry Glen Oz by Kenneth Green, a conversation between the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Wizard and the winner of the official American Buffalo Most Obscenities Appearing in a Scene Award (which I just made up).
Three pieces were chosen to go on to perform in the MametSlam! performance on April 21. There was the Mamet-does-another-genre piece in the aforementioned Glengarry Glen Oz (my personal favorite of the evening) which included the immortal line, “Everybody fucking hates flying monkeys.” ...
Homage and Parody in Mamet
Write-Alike Contest
BY Kevin Heckman
...Which of the above sounds like a more interesting evening? A respectful showcase of works inspired by the stylings of one of our most recognizable scribes? Or an evening of work that lampoons that same scribe? If someone approached you and asked for a short play to be written in the style of David Mamet, for which of the above would you assume you were writing?
I don’t know that the Goodman Theatre thought through these questions in launching the Mamet Write-Alike Contest, but based on the 10 semi-finalists that were read during the Mamet SpeakEasy at the Subterranean on April 6, most of the playwrights, intentionally or not, went for the parody. ...
While each of the three criteria were represented in the 10 pieces that were shown during the SpeakEasy, clearly certain approaches were most popular. Five of the pieces were of the Mamet-meets-genre variety. There was Mamet meets Our Town, Mamet meets Hamlet, Mamet meets My Fair Lady and so on. One of the semi-finalists, in fact, was Glengarry Glen Oz by Kenneth Green, a conversation between the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Wizard and the winner of the official American Buffalo Most Obscenities Appearing in a Scene Award (which I just made up).
Three pieces were chosen to go on to perform in the MametSlam! performance on April 21. There was the Mamet-does-another-genre piece in the aforementioned Glengarry Glen Oz (my personal favorite of the evening) which included the immortal line, “Everybody fucking hates flying monkeys.” ...
A link to a Chicago Tribune article that not only highlights my short play, but includes an excerpt.
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Poetry
I used to write bad-to-fair poetry and participate in poetry slam. Made a few Chicago teams that appeared in the National Poetry Slam. One poem even made it into a book.
"Black Writing from Chicago: In the World, Not of It? - a collection of work from Chicago poets and authors |
A Moving Story
"Welcome To Colorful Colorado": A short story about moving from Chicago to Denver available at Amazon.com
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