#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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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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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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