Sam's Blog
My (short) piece on Campo Santo:
After performing before a packed house, Cully Fredricksen – the lead in Psychos Never Dream, Denis Johnson’s collaboration with San Francisco Theatre troupe Campo Santo – embraces the award-winning novelist and playwright. With his face nestled against Johnson’s broad shoulders, the stalwart actor whispered in Johnson’s ear, “Thank you, Denis. Thank you.” Once Fredricksen leaves, Johnson comments, "Seeing (Campo Santo) acting out my word, seeing my characters come to life, gets to me."
It’s a display of emotion that’s in stark contrast to the dystopia of Psychos Never Dream, but perfectly harmonious with the communal atmosphere of Campo Santo, where the playwright is revered and consulted at every step in the creative process. This heightened respect has transformed Campo Santo into an incendiary hotbed of collaboration. The grassroots collective boasts partnerships with the country's hippest authors including Erin Cressida Wilson, Naomi Iizuka, and Luis Sagar. Sacrament, Campo's upcoming collaboration with Dave Eggers, promises to cement Campo's reputation as one of the premier West Coast theatre companies.
Rapper Ludacris visits Florida high school hit by tragedies
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — A surprise visit by rapper Ludacris to a central Florida high school gave some much-needed diversion to students who’d experienced a string of tragedies in the past year.
The concert came in response to an e-mail from sophomore class president Nada Taha, who explained the school’s rough year after the death of two classmates in a drag race and the loss of a beloved English teacher to breast cancer.
With state testing coming up, Taha asked Ludacris to come and “help our school regain the once-lost spirit and make a difference in our lives.”
“I get a lot of e-mails,” the rapper told the Orlando Sentinel after the performance. “I knew we could make it possible because we were in town and with all the people here passing away, we felt like it was a good thing to do.”
Already in town for a performance at Orlando’s House of Blues, Ludacris and fellow rappers Chingy and David Banner gave a 30-minute performance that set off screams and cheers from the over 2,000 students in attendance.
Ludacris also donated $5,000 to the school district’s fundraising arm, the Osceola County Foundation for Education. The money came from his Ludacris Foundation, a non-profit group that provides gifts, grants and scholarships to youth organizations.
(Swiped from ILM)
Sorry that my entires have been so few and far between recently. I've had a ton of assignments this month (a good thing, considering how broke I've been).
Eric Arnold in this week’s
East Bay Express article on Project Groundation Massive (who sound pretty dope, btw) reported that “DM has just signed a production deal with Jay-Z's label, Roc-a-Fella.” Can anyone confirm this?
A quote from Josh Kun's interview with David Mamet for the SFBG:
"It's a passing political anomoly to pretend weakness. We do it in our geopolitics. We do it in our political campaigns. We pretend weakness. We hypocritically ascribe to a state of being the underdog, It's not just the Jews. The underdog, the asexual, the loser, so-and-so has an affair when he's 60 years old and he has to say boohoo to the public. It's culturally prevalent among the liberals, which is how the conservatives hijacked the government. If we're going to be powerful, let's be powerful and use certain power. Good for them. It's a shame they stole the country though." - David Mamet.
I'm looking forward to the premier of Dr. Faustus, I'm not so sure about Spartan.
