Oh man, it's been waaaay too long since I last posted. It's been a CRAZY few weeks. And here's the litany:

I spent a week up a Vassar workshopping my new play Crossing America with the New York Theater Workshop. Which was intense and wonderful and challenging and rewarding. And now I have a stronger play that still needs some more work, but it's in a very good place. I also was able to hang with my good friend Alex Thomas who was there at Vassar as artist-in-residence. Alex, who now lives in London, presented a new piece he's writing about Blacks in Germany during the Nazi regime. His play is about a black German who befriends a African-American jazz musician living abroad in Berlin. And how their lives unfold during a horrific time in our world history. Amazing piece and I am so thrilled to have heard it read. I also saw some great excerpts from the Mitu Theater Group... these folks are the real thing. The kind of stuff I like: dark, poetic, haunting, fresh, sexual, probing into religion and gender and God, and very very quirky. A brother is thrilled about Mitu.

Onward to the Hip Hop Theater Festival. Which was a lot of fun. Jimmie and Regan, the actors in my play Hollis Mugley's Only Wish, were great. And I believe the audience enjoyed the play. Those actors worked hard and Obie-Winner Robert O'Hara even stepped in and helped shape the staging so that shit would pop! And I believe it did.

Onward to my Brooklyn apartment: It's beautiful, it's quiet, it's damp, there's not enough room for my furntiture, the staircase is so old that when my landlord comes and goes it sounds like the ceiling's crashng down on my head. And that's some uncool stuff. Oh, and there's a mosquito infestation in the entrance of my apartment so I've had to buy a UNMOSQUITO machine because, yes, those babies have found a way into the damp apartment... OH, whenever it rains, and it has been raining A LOT [FOLKS, PLEASE GO AND SEE INCONVENIENT TRUTH. THE FILM ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING. IT'S A MUST]... and so whenever it rains, which is a lot, the back terrace floods and it's only a matter of time before we get one of those 7 inchers like D.C. got yesterday within 24 hours and the water comes rolling into my kitchen. Needless to say, I'm moving by August 1.

Onward to the Allliance Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm here now. Workshopping my newer brand new play with the lovely folks down here. I'm being treated SO well. Celise Kalke, my good friend and amazing dramaturg/Director of Play Development at the Alliance, told me the Alliance was my home. And I tell you, it's what makes a playwright feel good.

Well.. I'll have more time to fill in the details of my journeys once I'm finished here in Altanta. I'll be back in Brooklyn on Saturday.

Until next time,

Keith

It's Wednesday and I'm here at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. I'll be here until Tuesday with the New York Theater Workshop workshopping my new play Crossing America under the wonderful direction of Liesl Tommy.

I'm surrounded by trees among trees, groundhogs and their pups, and lots of food that's ripping up my insides... but I'll survive because it's about the art and not a nice grilled piece of salmon and a plate of steamed veggies... no, it's about art, and conversation and uplifting community through storytelling even though if I see one more quiche pie made with ham and cheese I'm gonna explode. LOL.

Until next time,

Keith

Whew! What a week!

I made my deadline! Actually, I asked for two more days to turn in the draft of the script and the kind folks obliged. So for now, I'm all about R and R. Well, until Tuesday morning when I leave for Vassar College for a one-week writing residency and a workshop of a new play. But for the next two days it's all about me, my sandals, my sunglasses and some cool spot to chill in Fort Greene, or Williamsburg.

Being back in New York City has been mind-blowing. Not only has it gotten younger and whiter and cleaner, but there are more high-rise condo towers than I can count. Donald Trump has a luxury condo tower going up at Central Park North [formerly known as 110th Street for those die-hard Harlemites]. And bicycles. There are bicycles everywhere you wink. Which is great for me 'cause I love bike riding. It's a matter of life and death. Like it's mandatory I drink water; it's also mandatory I ride my bike. But... this time around in good ole NYC most of the bike riders are riding ANTIQUE BIKES. I'm talking the kind of bikes folks rode in the 60s and 50s. With baskets. And these bicyclers are riding in Jimmy Choos and the best in men's Italian and... flip flops. The thing to do in NYC is to ride antique bicycles in the lastest and trendiest [and sometimes most expensive] footwear.

Wow.

And as I walking up Gates Avenue in my beautifully tree-lined neighborhood of Clinton Hills I couldn't help to hope that one day soon NYC will be much like Amsterdam, a city that transports itself on bikes.

Until next time,

Keith

I've been BUSY. Between transitioning back into New York City, working on a writing deadline with a June 7 due date and trying to figure out if my landlord walking like an elephant over my head is something I should tolerate, I've had little time to blog.

I won't stay long, but I will fill you in on a few things. My very good friend and fellow playwright DIANA SON has written a wonderful new play called SATELLITES currently playing at the Public Theater. Diana invited me to the final dress rehearsal and it looks great. I really appreciate Diana. Not only does she write these economically yet impacting plays, she also ALWAYS writes plays that feature multi-ethnic casts and storylines. And that's just not my kudos, many actors say the same thing about her work.

In SATELLITES, Diana has probed into the world of gentrification in Brooklyn and race and expectation and loyalty and alliance and a new baby that seems to throw everything and -one into a tailspin. Check it out!

My play HOLLIS MUGLEY'S ONLY WISH will be produced at the HIP HOP THEATER FESTIVAL on Wednesday June 21 in NYC. If you're in town, check it out. It stars my good friend Jimmie Woody and is minimally directed by Obie Winner Robert O'Hara.

Well, that's all for now. I need to get some more writing done before I fall deep into a comfy sleep.

Until next time,

Keith