"Pass the Salt, Please." That dirty play people can't get out of their minds.

Boca Raton Magazine featured a review of this year's Summer Shorts Festival at City Theatre in Miami. My short, "Billy Balfoor Wants An Apology" , wasn't accepted. That's OK though. Seems one reviewer (John Thomason) can't seem to shake my play that was featured in last year's festival:

"Matterhorn": A so-called "festival favorite revival", this comedy stars Stephen Trovillion and Elena Maria Garcia doing their thing as a dysfunctional couple in line for a Disneyland ride. It's pretty funny, but not nearly as uproarious as last year's "Pass the Salt, Please." Summer Short, which presented Trovillion and Garcia at their finest.

My question to City Theatre is why dredge up plays that have already appeared at Summer Shorts when you've got a thousand new plays to choose from for this year's festival?

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Gordon McConnell. Director of "Pass the Salt, Please." in Miami.

I never had the honor of meeting actor/director Gordon McConnell, who directed my short play, "Pass the Salt, Please.", at City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival 2009 in Miami this past June. He wrenched his back and was unable to attend the festival the weekend I was there. I finally got an email from him via Facebook:

"nice to hear from you and sorry I missed you. I really enjoyed your play, best of the bunch as far as I'm concerned..."

I would normally ask Gordon's permission to post his quote on my blog, but I didn't feel the need - I mean, why wouldn't any director think the play he directed is the best play of the bunch?? Gordon really did a superb job on the show. Jeff was VERY happy.

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Miami Sun-Sentinel previews Summer Shorts in Fort Lauderdale.

As City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival 2009 heads to Fort Lauderdale's Broward Center for the Performing Arts this weekend to close out the festival, the Miami Sun-Sentinel's John Thomason wrote a preview of what to expect, including another nice mention about my play, "Pass the Salt, Please.".

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"Pass the Salt, Please." is the "AWESOMEST"; heads to Fort Lauderdale.

I never went on Spring Break in college. Never got to go to Fort Lauderdale. But my play is.

After a successful four-week run at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami (which I attended - search blog topics under City Theatre Summer Shorts Festival) my "dirty little play" heads to Fort Lauderdale for one week. One of my biggest cheerleaders, Brandon Thorp of the Miami New Times, gave "PTSP." a very nice review when it opened in Miami a month ago. He ran another article recently to remind people about the Fort Lauderdale engagement:

Thanks, Brandon. "Pass the Salt, Please." and the rest of City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival 2009 moves to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale this weekend to close the festival.

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A nice compliment from a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

"What I love about your work in this play, Jeff, is the fun, sexy, funny and ultimately very poignant writing. Congratulations, Jeff. Well done."

– Gary Garrison, playwright, author, exec. director for Creative Affairs of The Dramatists Guild of America, artistic dir. and division head of playwriting for the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York, on the performance of my short play, "Pass the Salt, Please.", at the Summer Shorts Festival in Miami, May-June 2009.

(thanks, gary. that is a tremendous thing to say, especially coming from someone with your rep.)

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#44 - "Grace Notes from a Bohemian in Wanderlust." "Pass the Salt, Please." a hit in Miami!

("Grace Notes from a Bohemian in Wanderlust" is a series of posts about my 3.5 week May vacation in Seattle, Chicago, Milwaukee, Lake Tomawk, WI and Miami. They are in no particular order.)

Above: My 'dirty little play' - "Pass the Salt, Please.", starring Stephen Trovillion and Elena Maria Garcia (below) at City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival/Undershorts, May - June 2009, at the Carnival Studio Theater, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami.

I attended opening weekend and Stephen and Elena killed! I lucked out. At least from an outsider's perspective, these two are the big-hitters of Summer Shorts. I couldn't have imagined a better performance (I've said that after seeing the shows in Cedar Rapids, Los Angeles and Seattle, but it's true - I have no favorite). Stephen's a veteran of 12 festivals (out of 14) and a perennial favorite. The man gets laughs just for stepping onto the stage. And you would have choked up your Pinot and danish if you had seen in Elena in "Kitty the Waitress" by Christopher Durang - very funny. Special thanks to director Gordon McConnell, who was not in attendance opening weekend (bad back). Click on READ MORE! for a couple more pictures.

Bus stop advertisements for Summer Shorts blanket downtown Miami. That's Stephen T. as a gay sheep from last year's festival.

Elena, me and Stephen.



Me, Stephanie Norman - Executive Director of City Theatre, Michael McKeever - playwright, and Artistic Director of City Theatre Stuart Meltzer.

Carnival Tower at the Adrienne Arsht Center. The Summer Shorts Festival was held in this wing. The tower is left over from when Sears used to inhabit the space. After 2 of the 5 weekends (one weekend will be held in Fort Lauderdale), the houses have been consistently full. The Arsht Center house the 2nd largest stage in the United States.

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#7 - "Grace Notes from a Bohemian in Wanderlust." Hey Mom...I'm in Playbill!

("Grace Notes from a Bohemian in Wanderlust" is a series of posts about my 3.5 week May vacation in Seattle, Chicago, Milwaukee, Lake Tomawk, WI and Miami. They are in no particular order.)

Playbill is the preeminent magazine for theatregoers and has been around since the late 1800's. It's what you're handed when you enter the theatre for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional shows consisting of Equity (or union) actors. That's it in a nutshell, basically. Whatever.



The point is this is my first time listed in Playbill. It's an exciting moment for any actor or playwright. And a stepping stone to bigger things. I hope.

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Two more great "Pass the Salt, Please." reviews! But Hap Erstein hates me (I think).

Here's a review by Miami Artzine publisher Mary Damiano and pictures from opening night:



Also, Edge - Miami, FL contributor & Equity actor Michael Martin's review, which appears in numerous publications throughout Florida:

Now if you're keeping count ('cause I'm certainly not), that's 5 of 5 reviewers who love "Pass the Salt, Please." Wouldn't you know it - ole Hap Erstein from the Palm Beach ArtsPaper came along and ruined my perfect score.

Hey - you can't please everyone and that's perfectly fine. My best friend (she) in California doesn't get "PTSP." and thinks it reads like a 12-year-old's masturbatory fantasy (though she confesses she loves my other stuff). And if an artist can revel in the positive reviews and opinions of people, you have to take the negative stuff with a grain of salt. Though I'd like to point out to Hap that if the actors "SELL it (my play) with deadpan finesse" , doesn't that make the play successful, whether you, the critic, like it or not? They "sold it", didn't they?

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#6- "Grace Notes from a Bohemian in Wanderlust." A man and his cock in South Beach.

("Grace Notes from a Bohemian in Wanderlust" is a series of posts about my 3.5 week May vacation in Seattle, Chicago, Milwaukee, Lake Tomahawk, WI and Miami. They are in no particular order.)

We saw this spectacle while dining at Van Dyke Cafe on Lincoln Road in South Beach. Cockadoodle doo. The bird's name is Mr. Clucky and he has his own website.

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Another great "PTSP." review! I have "control" and should be "emulated". From the Miami New Times!

Reviews don't come any better than this one - from Brandon K. Thorp of the Miami New Times. I've posted some excerpts on "Pass the Salt, Please." .

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Reviews for "Pass the Salt, Please." from Miami...

Here are some reviews (and a preview) of that "dirty little play", "Pass the Salt, Please.", which opened it's 5-week run in Miami/Fort Lauderdale this past weekend. This is all of them, thus far.

Reviews are funny little things. If they're good, you (the actor or playwright) revel in them. If they're poor, the reviewer has his or her head up their ass and you blow them off. Convenient, isn't it? I've been lucky with "PTSP." - reviews in Cedar Rapids, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami have been great.

Bill Hirshman's review in the Miami Sun-Sentinel:

Now, I agreed with most of what Hirshman said in his review of City Theatre's Signature Shorts program (the mainstream portion) and some of what he said in the above Undershorts review. So this isn't a dig at Hirshman...but I felt the need to clarify a few things:

1) My name is misspelled. It's "Ircink". May not be Hirshman's fault.

2) Stuart didn't direct my play, Gordon McConnell did.

3) "Least promising on paper" means that, at first glance, one might not "get it". That's fine - that's why it's performed on stage by actors for the full effect. "What makes it side-splitting..."? That's true. Stephen and Elena were impeccable. But let's not forget that the direction I wrote in the play calls for the actors to be deadpan. It calls for "beats" and "pauses" that are meant to specifically affect the timing of the play. So, really, "on paper" is exactly the way I meant for "PTSP." to be performed on stage. And Stephen told me that during read-thru's, the actors and director were laughing their asses off. So, to them, the play worked "on paper".

All that being said, It's a great review of my play and I'll take it. Itsallgood, as my friend Dawn would say. Here's Alexa Scheer's review in the blog, The Playground.

I like Alexa. Finally, a preview of the Summer Shorts festival in the Miami Herald:

Not sure how many more reviews will appear - certainly one from Fort Lauderdale the last week of the run. I know there were more reviewers in attendance so we'll just have to wait and and see. It was a treat for me to be there and see, not only my play, but all the others. Great job, City Theatre! I am very proud of you and proud of how you honored my play. Bravo!

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Seattle's (and Miami) a-buzzin over "Pass the Salt, Please."!

Me and the cast at The Little Red Studio in Seattle - Michael Blum and Heather Ward.

* "Saw the show at Little Red Studio last night. The whole evening was wonderful, but "Pass the Salt, Please." was utterly brilliant. There was so much going on in it, and just when I thought I had the couple figured out the ground shifted underneath me and I started seeing it from a different angle. Donn's right that there's a reason it closed the show - t would be a very tough act to follow." - Patti Beadle, patron, performance artist

* "It went beautifully! Your play was a total hit!" – Kerry Christainsen, artistic director, The Little Red Studio, Seattle

* "I GOT it" - Michael Blum, actor in "PTSP.", The Little Red Studio, Seattle

* "...there's a reason it was placed at the close of the show." – Donn Christiansen, director/actor, The Little Red Studio, Seattle

* "It was GREAT! I love your script. Michael and Heather had the audience in hysterics... It seems that the three of us make a great team in making your words come to life the way you intended (i hope)...It was from what I heard from audience the *hit* of the night!" – Cherilynn Brooks, director of "PTSP." at The Little Red Studio's Erotic Shorts Festival, Seattle

* "We're all pretty excited about the play." – Clayton Hibbert, director, Seattle Erotic Art Festival

* "I love the play." – Stuart Meltzer, Artistic Director, City Theatre, Miami, where "Pass the Salt, Please." will have a 5-week Equity run as part of the Summer Shorts Festival (specifically, the "Undershorts" program) May 28 - June 28.

* And let's not forget about the couple who sat across the way from us Friday night and didn't bat an eye or smile the whole night. Actually thought they may have come to the wrong festival. Once "PTSP." got underway, they were grinning from ear-to-ear.

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"Pass the Salt, Please." heads to Miami in June for SE premiere in "America's Short Play Festival"!

What do the following playwrights have in common: David Ives, Jeffrey Hatcher, Kenneth Lonergen, Brian Friel, Jose Rivera, David Mamet, Tina Howe, Christopher Durang, Jane Martin, David Lindsay Abaire, Shel Silverstein, Neil LaBute and Steven Dietz?

They've all had at least one short play performed at City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival in Miami. And my award-winning "dirty little play" - "Pass the Salt, Please." - will be among those represented at this year's festival, dubbed as the home of “America’s Short Play Festival”. From City Theatre's website - "With a growing reputation for artistic excellence, the company has a strong following with thousands who celebrate this popular festival as the official kick-off of the summer season and “the COOL thing to do on a HOT summer night”.

With packed houses and rave reviews annually, Summer Shorts is one of the few festivals nationally devoted to World or Florida Premieres of “shorts”, original comedies and dramas running 3 - 20 minutes each. "PTSP." will get a 5-week run in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale from May 30 - June 28 and, as this is an Equity (union) production, I get a contract...which my father is very happy about. Check out City Theatre's site here.

City Theatre also has an artistic alliance with one of the nation’s most prestigious regional theatres, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, which sponsors the internationally renowned Humana Festival of New American Plays. As co-sponsors of the National Ten-Minute Play Contest, City Theatre and ATL receive over 1,200 annual submissions for consideration for the Summer Shorts and Humana Festivals.

Incidentally, I had submitted "PTSP." for the National Ten-Minute Play Contest last year. Probably too risque. City Theatre Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer got ahold of it and I got the call Tuesday. Seems in the last year there's been a demand for "naughtier" productions, so City Theatre added "Undershorts" to their festival's slate. Enter "PTSP."

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I'm of the same caliber as the playwrights I mentioned above. But I will say that a burgeoning playwright such as myself can't ask for better company. This sort of exposure is excellent for the playwright and the play, as well as the opportunity to foster a relationship with two very influential theaters - City Theatre and Actors Theatre.

Check back for updated information.

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