Filed by Lance at 3:48 pm under General, Hatemail, Shameless Plugs
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…if we only gave you one thing to do with your hate.

Here are two:
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 4:40 pm under General, Pop Culture, The Arts
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Through my work with the Bite Size Arts Ensemble, I came up with this idea to get kids actively involved in creating theater.

I came up with a simple “script,” really just a bullet point list of the flow of a scene. I usually based this off of some ideas they had, or fleshed out a story they told me. I then came up with a list of assignments, i.e., Director, Art Director, Cinematographer, Actors, and gave them specific assignments, then turned them loose, guiding them and making suggestions as the “Producer.”

Here’s the results, I’m really proud of these kids:

Filed by Lance at 2:01 pm under General, Hatemail, Pop Culture, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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Start time: 1:00 PM
Media Personnel in attendance: 1
Pounds of Flesh consumed: 15
Kegs we polished off: 1, plus how many bottles??
Hatemail pieces we recorded: about 5
Pounds of vegetables we grilled: 6
True stories about Kelsey Grammer I heard: 1
New friends I made: 3 or 4
Friendships I deepened: several
Cups of coffee we served: 20
Cups of coffee I drank: 3
Twitter updates we sent: 7
End time: I left Trevor’s at about 1:30 AM

Congrats to you, Bil, and to you, Trevor, our gracious host, for another amazing Hatemail Recording Session! The next one takes place just before my birthday, Sunday, August 29th. Be there! Add to the numbers!

Filed by Lance at 2:45 pm under General, Hatemail, Shameless Plugs
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6:50 PM

DINNER’S SERVED!

6:35 PM

Kathryn Daniels just told us the story of the time she interned for the Boston company doing MacBeth (you can’t type that on a theater-ish blog, can you?). The press night party was in the real Cheers, Kelsey Grammer was playing MacBeth, and Diane Venora, playing Lady Macbeth came up and laid one on her. Hot. This is why I love actor stories!

6:10 PM

We’ve had this wonderfully simple, heartbreaking Hatemail in the stack for a long time called “Dear Rapist.” It’s one of those Hatemails that’s so personal, so frighteningly real and simple that it’s difficult to approach. Sher Sheets stepped up, had the courage, and did a great job of giving it a straightforward, uncomplicated reading. Congratulations to her!

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 10:31 pm under General, Love, Pop Culture, Social Issues, The Arts, The Media
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In honor of our British opponents in today’s World Cup match, let’s start with some 90’s BritPop:

She’s in a family full of eccentrics
She’s done things I never expected
And I need more time

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 9:04 pm under Fightin' Words, General, Love, The Arts
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What’s the value of a critic?

What’s the value of criticism?

They’re two completely separate things.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 11:58 pm under General, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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That’s right, world – I may be blogging, and I may be using a Mac, but I am not at Starbuck’s. Not anymore. I was there earlier, with my giant hipster headphones over my ears, typing thoughtfully with one hand and tapping mindlessly in time with the Grateful Dead with my other hand. Yeah, I was working on my novel, not blogging.

That’s when I was discovered by people I know, so I scrambled to look less like some pretentious English major and more like a professional something-or-other, but I’m pretty sure I failed. I’m just glad I didn’t spill (much) coffee on my precious white MacBook.

Whatever.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 6:00 pm under General, Hatemail, Love, Stuff to Read, The Arts, The Media
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I ran across THXTHXTHX [via], and thought it’s really interesting. Thank-you-note-blog. An Anti-Hatemail!

Filed by Lance at 11:38 am under General
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This is a quick public thank you to Trevor for all of his hard work on last night’s Hatemail LIVE.

Bil has been in rehearsals for Dream Theatre’s Electra (opening this Thursday… hint hint), so Trevor and I said, “No problem! Bil’s making theater, so we make Hatemail!” As fate would have it, the past couple of days, I’ve been mostly bedridden with something that’s behaved sort of like the flu, sort of like a cold, and sort of like allergies.

So the vast majority of the planning and execution for last night’s success fell on Trevor’s shoulders, and he delivered. (Of course he did… in case you didn’t know, he’s a Joseph Jefferson Award nominated composer!)

When Bil and Trevor first told me about the Hatemail project, I was really skeptical about it. “Won’t it be sort of one-sided?” I wondered. I had no idea how funny some of the material could be.

I was a little skeptical about doing some of these live, too: lesson is, I need to stop being skeptical of things that Bil and Trevor say. We had a wonderful time last night, there were some amazing surprises, even though I’d heard most of the Hatemails before, and the live music by Zach Livingston and Trevor was so much fun!

There will be more coming soon about last night’s Hatemail LIVE, including video, audio, and whenabouts we plan on doing a Hatemail LIVE again, but for now, thanks again, Trevor, for saving the day!

Filed by Lance at 3:35 pm under General, Hatemail, Shameless Plugs, Stuff to Read, The Arts
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Here is every Hatemail we recorded last Sunday, presented in a slightly different format for your visual delight: