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Showing posts with label 1mpf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1mpf. Show all posts
Aug 10, 2018
#1MPF Dallas pieces in rehearsal
Jul 29, 2018
The 2018 Dallas One-Minute Play Festival
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Dec 30, 2017
Looking Back at 2017
For the last several years I've been using this website as a kind of portfolio to collect together my creative projects (to be honest, that's pretty much the only point of this website). I have also been doing a little year-in-review deal over for a while (here's 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). So, here’s what happened in 2017...
Most of 2017 was occupied with my new role as parent. My wife and I brought a beautiful baby boy into the world on December 30th of last year. Obviously, adapting to my new role as a dad took priority over any creative pursuits. So here's a slimmed down look at the handful of theatre and other artistic things I managed to fit in.
In February, I released my play Raspberry Fizz on Kindle. It is the final work in a trilogy of ebooks of short stage plays that I now have on Amazon. Perhaps someday I will collect them together into a paperback edition.
The bulk of the year was just being cozy and domestic. Not until the fall did I get back on the map, so to speak.
In early August I had two plays in the One-Minute Play Fest produced by Kitchen Dog Theater. I went to see them. They went over pretty favorably.
I took my show Robert's Eternal Goldfish to Fresno, California for a two show weekend at an event organized by my friend Grant. It was titled Seattle-to-Fresno Mini Fringe. I had an epic beard.
In September, for my birthday, I started a podcast called the Cultivated Playwright. I released nine episodes over the rest of the year ranging from reflections on Sir Peter Hall, minimalism, Dan Harmon and improv comedy to how Thor Ragnarok fits Goethe's Three Questions of Criticism.
I directed Langdon as well as Jonathan Kravetz's Mr. Crispy. Kravetz's play was a sci-fi tear-jerker that deals with a failed screenwriter endlessly reliving his final night with the song-writing friend he had an infatuation with, through the use of a mail-order robot. It had a great premise, but definitely was not in line with the current zeitgeist, with a controlling male protagonist who self-indulgently manipulates a "female" robot to replay one of his memories/fantasies over and over again.
It was fun to get a chance to direct again, especially my own work.
That's about it. 2017 was a slow year for the ole theatre career, but exciting in a larger sense. I love being a dad, though it has caused a great amount of reflection on where I want to go from here on out and what I genuinely want to accomplish. 2018 should, hopefully, be filled with more balance and more creative endeavors.
Perhaps you would be interested in adding more excitement and romance, adventure and intrigue to your life. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. But I would suggest you subscribe to my newsletter. I mean, who knows? Life is full of surprises. I only send stuff out occassionally, but it is good stuff. Hit the button below...
Most of 2017 was occupied with my new role as parent. My wife and I brought a beautiful baby boy into the world on December 30th of last year. Obviously, adapting to my new role as a dad took priority over any creative pursuits. So here's a slimmed down look at the handful of theatre and other artistic things I managed to fit in.
In February, I released my play Raspberry Fizz on Kindle. It is the final work in a trilogy of ebooks of short stage plays that I now have on Amazon. Perhaps someday I will collect them together into a paperback edition.
The bulk of the year was just being cozy and domestic. Not until the fall did I get back on the map, so to speak.
In early August I had two plays in the One-Minute Play Fest produced by Kitchen Dog Theater. I went to see them. They went over pretty favorably.
I took my show Robert's Eternal Goldfish to Fresno, California for a two show weekend at an event organized by my friend Grant. It was titled Seattle-to-Fresno Mini Fringe. I had an epic beard.
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| Me performing Robert's Eternal Goldfish in Fresno |
In September, for my birthday, I started a podcast called the Cultivated Playwright. I released nine episodes over the rest of the year ranging from reflections on Sir Peter Hall, minimalism, Dan Harmon and improv comedy to how Thor Ragnarok fits Goethe's Three Questions of Criticism.
In December I participated in Nouveau 47 Theatre's A Very Nouveau Holiday (my fifth time in as many years). This time I had a ten-minute play about a bear that refuses to hibernate and instead works in a coffee shop. It was called Langdon, The Seasonal Barista. It went over very well.
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| Emily Faith, Robert Long and Monalisa Amidar in Langdon, The Seasonal Barista |
I directed Langdon as well as Jonathan Kravetz's Mr. Crispy. Kravetz's play was a sci-fi tear-jerker that deals with a failed screenwriter endlessly reliving his final night with the song-writing friend he had an infatuation with, through the use of a mail-order robot. It had a great premise, but definitely was not in line with the current zeitgeist, with a controlling male protagonist who self-indulgently manipulates a "female" robot to replay one of his memories/fantasies over and over again.
It was fun to get a chance to direct again, especially my own work.
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| Charles Ratcliff and Cameron Casey in Mr. Crispy |
That's about it. 2017 was a slow year for the ole theatre career, but exciting in a larger sense. I love being a dad, though it has caused a great amount of reflection on where I want to go from here on out and what I genuinely want to accomplish. 2018 should, hopefully, be filled with more balance and more creative endeavors.
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Perhaps you would be interested in adding more excitement and romance, adventure and intrigue to your life. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. But I would suggest you subscribe to my newsletter. I mean, who knows? Life is full of surprises. I only send stuff out occassionally, but it is good stuff. Hit the button below...
Leave a comment. If you are a robot or a blatant marketer trolling Blogger, then you will be deleted. Humans only, please.
Aug 22, 2017
Dallas #1MPF 2017
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| credit: Ben Schroth |
This past weekend, I participated in the 4th Annual Dallas One-Minute Play Fest, a co-production between local honchos Kitchen Dog Theater and One-Minute Play Festival, a national organization that swoops into communities all over the country and partners up to get a pulse on the zeitgeist. I contributed two pieces. I participated in 2014 and 2015 as well, but this one, this time was probably the most enjoyable. My pieces were directed by Emily Ernst, who I think is an SMU grad. She lead a group of mostly SMU alumni through my plays and several others.
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| This is the cast of the "clump" my two plays were in. |
As always, it is incredibly difficult to get photos from these sorts of events (it is a big criticism of mine as a playwright to not get archival materials, especially production pics, of projects like this... in particular because 1MPF gathers the plays for free. No one is paid.). The best I can do is the pic above of the stage set and ready just prior to curtain and the pic of the cast taken as a selfie and swiped from FB. I know a few of the actors, but I, sadly, didn't get to meet everyone.
The event did garner some nice press... here, here and here.
As I have done in the past, I'll post my one-minute plays here. I was pleased with them this year. I was especially pleased that I didn't fall into the political-activist-low-hanging fruit trap of writing about Trump or some other nonsense. Not that I don't have a lot to say about it, but beciase I don't think a one-minute performance is the right platform to do any real exploration of such a topic. I am also pleased that I managed to make the plays very specific to Dallas, my city. They can't be moved to another festival in another city and still make a bunch of sense (well, maybe the LISTICLES one, maybe...)
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GEOGRAPHY OF A DALLASITE by Brad McEntire
NARRATOR: As a kid...
Two KIDS enter. The age group pairing enters
each time they are referenced, throughout…
KID 1: The suburbs are so boring. man.
KID 2: I wish we lived in the middle of
the city
NARRATOR: In your teens...
TEEN 1: Yeah, Deep Ellum's okay.
TEEN 2: I heard it used to be better.
NARRATOR: In your 20's...
HIPSTER 1: I'll meet you at the Double Wide.
Or Somewhere in Expo Park.
HIPSTER 2: Let's do Bishop Arts. They just put in a
new Microbrew place.
NARRATOR: In your 30's...
THIRTIES 1: I am never leaving Old Monk.
THIRTIES 2: I am never leaving Uptown.
NARRATOR: In Your 40's...
FORTIES 1: I am never leaving the Old Monk.
FORTIES 2: Unless it is to go to… (together) The Lakewood Landing.
NARRATOR: In Your 50's...
FIFTIES 1: Are we going out tonight?
FIFTIES 2: Nah. I might do some work. Or, what is on
to watch tonight on HBO?
NARRATOR: In your 60's...
SIXTIES 1: Honey, I think I'll give some money to
the Arts District. After all, we go once a month.
SIXTIES 2: (on
phone) Yeah, bring the grandkids over. We're just here in the suburbs.
End.
# # #
LISTICLES by Brad McEntire
Lights up. A
group of Dallasites run on in as a mob.
SPOKESPERSON: Okay. What do we want? Serious
journalism?
ALL: (cheering) No.
SPOKEPERSON: Indepth reporting?
ALL: (cheering) No.
NED: Fake News?
Everyone stops cold. The SPOKESPERSON
walks slowly up to NED. Then, quietly, with bottled intensity…
SPOKESPERSON: I will punch you in your filthy face…
NED: Well, what do we
want?
SPOKESPERSON: (turning
to everyone else) What do we want?
ALL: Listicles!
CROWDPERSON 1: 7 Places to Get the Best Queso in Oak
Cliff!
CROWDPERSON 2: Top 5 places to take a First Date in Uptown
for Under $500!
CROWDPERSON 3: Best 9 custom hat shops in Highland Park!
ALL: Listicles!
CROWDPERSON 4: 3 Best Humans in Deep Ellum!
CROWDPERSON 5: 5 Most Disappointing Sports Mascots in
DFW!
CROWDPERSON 6: 9 Most Outrageous Burgers in the
Metroplex!
ALL: Listicles!
NED: Top 10 List of
Listicles!
ALL: Yeah, listicles!
Then they all
run off as a swarm. Blackout.
# # #
Perhaps you would be interested in adding more excitement and romance, adventure and intrigue to your life. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. But I would suggest you subscribe to my newsletter. I mean, who knows? Life is full of surprises. I only send stuff out occassionally, but it is good stuff. Hit the button below...
Leave a comment. If you are a robot or a blatant marketer trolling Blogger, then you will be deleted. Humans only, please.
Aug 19, 2017
Back in the saddle
After a lengthy absence from the scene for the last several months, I have lately returned to the fold. Over the last several weeks I have completed a full-length play that involves a giant monster attacking a city, two "one minute" plays about my city and have begun a ten-minute one-act about a bear working at a coffeeshop.
Creating for the theatre is a joy for me, but also a huge challenge. In fact, writing what I consider a "good" play from scratch, is one of the most difficult things I do in life. And the thing is, I willingly chose to struggle with it. In life, we are confronted with so many challenges that we don't ask for. Playwriting for me is one of those few things that is hard that I purposefully opt-in to.
Anyway, its good to be back.
# # #
Perhaps you would be interested in adding more excitement and romance, adventure and intrigue to your life. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. But I would suggest you subscribe to my newsletter. I mean, who knows? Life is full of surprises. I only send stuff out occassionally, but it is good stuff. Hit the button below...
Leave a comment. If you are a robot or a blatant marketer trolling Blogger, then you will be deleted. Humans only, please.
Sep 22, 2015
Pics from the 2015 1MPF
Last month, two of my plays were presented by Kitchen Dog Theater as part of the 2015 Dallas One Minute Play Fest. I did the 1MPF last year. I was pleased to contribute it again. I was on the road when the plays were put up with a lot of other great pieces from some other hard-hitting local playwrights. I didn't get to see the production that went up at the Greer Garson Theatre at SMU. I recently got some great pics (a rarity with this sort of thing... someone was on their game). Looking at them, I totally wish I had been there.
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| A CAUTIONARY COMMUTE |
Jeremy Schwartz directed my one-minute play RUMBLESHANKS WANTS AN HQ in which my cyborg/ mad genuis would-be world conqueror character Captain Odysseus Rumbleshanks decides where to put his homebase, dropping hint after hint about the suitablenss of Dallas. Schwartz's interpretation was delightfully odd.
Here's the text of RUMBLESHANKS WANTS AN HQ
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RUMBLESHANKS WANTS AN HQ | Brad McEntire © 2015
RUMBLESHANKS
Glenfield, as you know I, Captain Odysseus Rumbleshanks,
part diabolical cyborg, part crazed super-genius am setting out to conquer the
world. Swiftly followed by the entire universe. All I need is a place to locate
my new headquarters.
GLENFIELD
Yes, yes… Where will you situate your homebase, master?
RUMBLESHANKS
Someplace with an affordable cost of living, Glenfield.
GLENFIELD
Yes, Yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
With an expansive interstate system, professional sports
franchises,
GLENFIELD
Yes, yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
World class arts and culture, architecture, shopping and
tech industry
GLENFIELD
Yes, of course, yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
Some place centrally located in North America. On the
vast rolling plains.
GLENFIELD
Yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
A place of big ideas. With a bold history, yes, but an
eye on the future.
GLENFIELD
I know the place, master.
RUMBLESHANKS
That’s right, Glenfield…
BOTH
Tulsa.
End
# # #
Jul 31, 2015
2nd Dallas 1MPF
I did the 1MPF last year and it was (mostly) a blast! It is back again this year and I have two new works in it. Here's the info...
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