Austin Film Festival Semifinalist!

My latest stage comedy, Free Speech Zone, is a semifinalist in the 2020 Austin Film Festival, Playwriting Category.

Free Speech Zone tells the story of an absurd on-campus confrontation between Megan Wallace, a conservative college sophomore, and Deborah Sprecher, a liberal English teacher. The fallout from their actions reach the highest levels of the university administration and state government, ultimately subverting the freedom speech for everyone involved.

For information on the script, please reach out!

What Lorne Michaels Can Teach You About Compassion

PC: Joe Pugliese

This week’s Hollywood Reporter cover story is about the remarkable year SNL has had making fun of Donald Trump and our current political swamp. When you step back to look at how they’ve successfully navigated a particularly divisive cultural moment and walked away with a ratings bump of 11 million viewers, it’s truly amazing.

It’s particularly impressive given that so much of what’s happened in the news is either really serious and scary to many people, or is so absurd that it in-and-of-itself goes beyond parody. What I appreciate about their approach in these instances is that they often simply repeat what actually happened, giving us all a second to laugh out loud at it. It turns pain into catharsis, and makes SNL a type of antidote that people have to tune in to get.

In the interview, Leslie Jones quotes Lorne Michaels commenting on the numerous celebrity self-pitches to play other administration officials – most notably Rosie O’Donnell as Steve Bannon. What he says, I think, is actually incredible advice for how artists must approach despicable characters who do unsavory things, whether real or invented. Continue reading What Lorne Michaels Can Teach You About Compassion

Ryback scored short film “30 Nights” an Official Selection Broad Humor Film Fest, 2015

This Saturday, September 26th @ 5pm, come to Venice, CA to see this hilarious short film I scored. It’s an official selection of the Broad Humor Film Festival – celebrating funny films by funny women.

The festival is held at the Electric Lodge Performing Arts Center at 1416 Electric Ave, Venice CA, 90291.

Get ticket and schedule information here.

Gentrification Madlibs

Willmington

This Handy Guide to Gentrification written by Buzzfeed contributors Michael Albo and Amanda Duarte is, frankly, too good not to share.

Written in the form of a multiple-choice Madlibs, it tells the story of Wilmington (read: Williamsburg, Brooklyn or Venice, California), which goes from a dangerous den of “spongecake” addicts with cheap housing, to a community of genderqueer youths and pour-over coffee colonic spas, to a neighborhood packed with Wholefoods full of babies where no one can afford their own artisanal hand-milled toilet paper anymore.

Read, enjoy, laugh – but always remember the days when the Cinnamon Toast Festival was just about the cinnamon and the toast, and wasn’t the corporate sellout monstrosity it is now!!

The “Jane Austen Writers Group” Buzzfeed Parody

enhanced-18710-1433951267-13

This wonderful buzzfeed “What If” created by contributor Shannon Reed is a hilarious read and hits a lot of great points.

The first, and most obvious, is the frequently useless critiques that writer’s groups provide. Between batches of patting one another on the back, there’s a tacet “I’m smarter than you” subtext that pervades their friendly notes.

And then there’s the endless harping on “Why.” Yes – we must understand the motivations of a character. But sometimes the motivations of a character are implicit in the actions themselves. We relate to their actions and thus we understand “why.” We do not need to be told, and not everything needs to be explained away.

But I think I’m most fascinated, on my subsequent reads of this article, at the (perhaps-not-so) subtle sexism. The labeling of “chick lit;” the constant comparisons to “superior” works by men (Chaucer, Shakespeare); the sexualization of Kitty; the criticizing of having too many women in the piece; and the suggestion that the active protagonists should be three men who discuss war, while Mrs. Bennet “lies unconscious in the background, holding a ribbon.”

Well parodied, Ms. Reed.

In more re-affirming news: Check out this article on new plays empowering young, Latina women!

Modern Family

Catch me this Wednesday, December 10th, at 9/8c on ABC for an appearance on Modern Family.

It’s Haley’s 21st birthday, and the family takes her out to a bar to celebrate. While there, Mitch and Cam encounter a younger gay couple – me and my friend Sterling Sulieman – who make them feel a lot less cool. (Mostly it’s Sterling who makes them feel less cool. If it was just me, they’d definitely feel more cool.)

Here’s Sterling and I making faces on set:

IMG_3396

Broadway Bound in La Mirada

photo(2)I’m thrilled to share the news that I will be playing Stanley Jerome in McCoy/Rigby’s production of Neil Simon’s masterwork BROADWAY BOUND in La Mirada.

I’ve long been a huge fan of Simon’s work and this is the first chance I’ve gotten to play one of his characters.  The semi-autobiographical story centers around the Jerome family as they all move on from their home in Brighton Beach.

IanAlda200x280
Ian Alda

Eugene and his older brother Stanley are working toward becoming comedy writers for CBS amidst family troubles that threaten to tear the home apart.

Ian Alda
, with whom I performed in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, plays my brother Eugene.

The rest of the cast includes Gina Hecht, Cate Cohen, John Mariano, and Allan Miller.
Jeff Maynard directs.

We have a short run of performances from Sept. 20 – Oct. 13, 2013.
(W-Th: 7:30pm, F: 8pm; Sa: 2pm & 8pm; Su: 2pm.)

Get your tickets at the Box Office at 562-944-9801 or ORDER ONLINE.

Discounted tickets are available from Goldstar!

Getting Away with Murder

I’m so freakin excited to share this with you guys.

This summer, I will be heading to New York City to make my Off-Broadway debut in Second Stage’s production of Murder for Two by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair. m42_center

Mixing classic musical comedy with a dash of Agatha Christie, everyone is a suspect in this house of eccentric characters unfazed by the dead body on the floor. But this whodunit comes with a killer twist: one actor investigates the crime, the other plays all thirteen suspects, and they both play the piano! This madcap mystery will tickle the ivories and your funny bone.

I will be playing the young investigator, and musical theatre/Broadway mainstay Jeff Blumenkrantz will play…everyone else.

murderfortwo If you don’t know, Jeff is an established songwriter as well as a Broadway actor.  One of his most famous pieces is “I Won’t Mind”, recorded by Audra McDonald.  Which begs the question…between Jeff, Joe, Kellen, and myself – how many songwriters does it take to mount a two-person show in New York City?  (Also – whoever at broadwayworld.com put Jeff and I shoulder-to-shoulder in that picture is a freaking genius.  Can anyone say Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen solving a murder on the UWS?)

The production will be directed by Scott Schwartz (which adds another songwriter to the mix if you count his father Stephen) and is scheduled to run from July 10 – August 10th.  So DO NOT miss this NYC.  I mean YOU.

For tickets and more info click here.