CARNIVAL OF CURIOSITIES: my plays in North Hollywood this June!

Dear Friends:

Please join me for a special event premiering this Friday: 3-of-a-Kind Theater’s CARNIVAL OF CURIOSITIES, an evening of plays by…. someone named Ed Valentine!

Yes, it’s true: CARNIVAL features an entire program of my work: 6 short plays, including 5 world premieres.  The show runs in North Hollywood over the next three weekends and I’m proud to have my writing up and running, and presented so lovingly. 

The whole company is doing marvelous work.  All that’s missing now is YOU in the audience. 

So please join us! I would love to have you there as I send these sometimes wild (and, I hope, wonderfully enjoyable) plays out into the world. 

Details / dates / ticket info below, or feel free to write back with questions.  I hope to see you at the CARNIVAL OF CURIOSITIES.

Many thanks!

Ed

(PS: added incentive: cotton candy and popcorn for sale in the lobby!)

CARNIVAL OF CURIOSITIES

Presented by 3-of-a-Kind Theater

SHOW DATES:

Fridays, June 3, 10, & 17 @8pm

Saturdays, June 4, 11, 18 @ 8PM

Sunday, June 19th @ 7PM

THE NOHO ACTORS STUDIO

5215 Lankershim Blvd. 

NoHo Arts District

Tickets $8

Opening night: Friday June 3: “Pay what you can” night

*Reservations are strongly encouraged  - (818) 377-4379

http://w.mawebcenters.com/3ofakindtheatre/

THE PLAYS:

“State of the Union” (directed by Fulya Diner)

A tense young wife.  A startling State of the Union address.  A marriage unmoored.

“The Best Man” (directed by Itai Grunfeld and Kerri Grant)

The Best Man weeps while a new Bride daydreams of her honeymoon – and backwards chronology reveals the underlying passions behind the wedding veil.

“Six For Supper” (directed by Mauro Flores)

It’s Suppertime!  But is this a bright, shiny 1950’s family sitcom, or a Greek tragedy?  Only Uncle Milton knows for sure.

“Dangerous Baby” (directed by Itai Grunfeld and Kerri Grant)

A crib.  Two clown noses.  And an otherworldly infant.

“Mississippi Miracle Play” (directed by Mauro Flores)

Come one, come all!  See hymn-singing Siamese Twins, a Bible-spouting bearded lady, and a grifter’s faith shaken and stirred by a true-blue miracle.

“St. Christopher” (directed by Fulya Diner)

An astronaut in diapers.  A gun.  And a dog-faced saint.

Howdy, Folks! Been awhile!

Yes, it's been - oh, awhile.  All good, but sort of... whirlwindy. 

I'm soon porting this blog over to wordpress - details to follow when I do - but in the meantime....  check out my review of "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" on Extra Criticum. 

The picture at right is not actually Werner Herzog's cave itself.  It's photo I took of Ernesto Neto's gigantic installation at the Park Avenue Armory back in 2009.  I only wish you could scratch and sniff this photo - one room in Neto's installation featured dangling bulbs with herbs and aromatics.  Mmm! 

...But please don't scratch and sniff this blog post - you'll ruin your screen and I'm not replacing it.

Monkey Cake!

Please check out my dear friend Louise Owen's post regarding the now legendary monkey cake she made for Jorge. 

I can attest to the fact that said monkey cake was 100% delicious.  And 110% adorable.  Don't believe me?  Check it out:

Everybody, now: AWWWWWWW!

Can You Tell Me How To Get, How To Get to...

SESAME STREET???

Dear Friends: my first "Sesame Street" script airs this week, a dream come true!

It's an "Abby's Flying Fairy School" segment called "Sheepytime," part of Sesame Street episode 4215: "Chicken When It Comes to Thunderstorms," which airs Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday depending on your local PBS station. (Please check local PBS listings, online HERE.

So please join me for this episode and my segment - or better yet, tune in every day! This season's gonna be fantastic.

Check out Jenn's Puppet Post!

My fantastic friend, JENN SCHMERMUND, has posted about our puppet collaboration on her website.  Please check it out!

Manifesto for the End of August!

Thought I'd share my current inspirational song - and one of the best, craziest videos I've even seen.

Truly, the "dog days of August" may be just starting in actuality... but for me personally: THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER!  (Thank you, Florence and the Machine.)

40 Days of Screenplays

For those of you with a screenwriting bent... I've just stumbled on something fantastic: "40 DAYS OF SCREENPLAYS", on Scott Myers' site "Go Into the Story." Boy, I could get into THIS!

The idea: read and analyze one screenplay a day for 40 Days. I joined the group already in progress on Day 8 (yesterday: "Dead Poet's Society") and just posted a comment on Day 9 ("The Matrix.")

Oh, and they offer links to pdfs of the screenplays themselves, so it's a snap to download 'em and delve into 'em.

I don't know which screenplays are yet to come (that's part of the fun) - but already they've covered "Thelma and Louise", "Die Hard", "Shawshank Redemption"... uh... "Some Like it Hot". And a few others I'll have to catch up on after the 40 days are over.

My comment on "The Matrix" follows. I hope some of you may join me in reading/commenting on the blog. Really, it's a terrific screenwriting education right over your magic internet thingie.

****

Ed's Comment on "The Matrix" screenplay - 1999 by Larry and Andy Wachowski


The Matrix? Wow. That's how it's done, son.

Tell you the truth, I didn't love the movie when I saw it. I remember being confused - and I think I was probably distracted, too, by the whiz-bang special effects, by the violence (and by Keanu's odd affect).

But reading the screenplay? It gave me a whole new appreciation for the form in general, and for "The Matrix" in particular. It's actually crystalline in its clarity and elegant in shape. And also: smart. Soooo smart.

A thought occurred to me, too: it's really "Alice in Wonderland," isn't it? (I'm sure I'm not the first person to light on that.) First the white rabbit reference - and then the main character being obliged to navigate an alternate/sideways reality - and in the end, having to assert his own primacy to survive. I think of Alice's "You're all a pack of cards" and the accompanying Tenniel illustration of the playing cards washing over little Alice in a wave... just as the bullets fly at Neo, yet because of his decision to BE Neo bullets have even less power over him than cardstock on Alice.

Also: expert use of iconic characters... the unlikely hero, the woman without whom the hero could not survive, the mentor, the oracle (literally), the betrayer, the all-powerful baddie(s) - but while I was reading I was never aware of their classical ancestry, but only their individual humanity. How 'stock' those characters could have seemed, in lesser hands!

In the end, I found it a surprisingly human movie - in love with the carbon-based life forms who fight against the machines and their Matrix. Missed that entirely the first time around, since it's told with such slick machine-generated wizardry.

Altogether, it's a beautifully done screenplay. Makes me want to see the movie again (and makes me want to delve into the sequels.) Glad to have had the opportunity to read it with you.