San Fran

hello, friends,

first, let me thank those of you who emailed to comment on this blog, offer some suggestions and additional links and wishing me well on both the trip and on the blog. i so appreciate it. i feel so lucky to have such a wonderful group of family and friends.

i've added a couple more links. www.thewreckingball.ca was added on the advice of michael petrasek, a great literary agent in canada. it is run by jason sherman, a playwright you all should know, and some of his cohorts up north. smart, smart stuff with a mission to "bring the headlines to the theater." michael said it was "right up my alley" and he sure was right.

witty, sassy and smart playwright carrie luft suggested www.thenonist.com for their gentle (and not-so-gentle) guidance on blogging, while keeza gave a shout-out from her own blog, www.themonkeehaus.blogspot.com. her site offers some great stories from the 2004 campaign trail, as well as her heroic efforts to educate the masses about truth and social security.

finally, here is a link to my friend nicholas quinn rosenkranz's recent testimony to the house judiciary committee on the subject of international law's impact on our own consitution: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings.aspx?ID=121. you can also navigate to both his written testimony and the video of the session. he's truly one of the smartest people i know (and you all know that i think i am the smartest person i know) and though we disagree often on a variety of political, legal and social issues, he's still the bees knees. you'd be wise to read it, and then dig up his articles for the harvard law review (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=490125). intelligent, accessible stuff.

he also likes sushi and reminded me of: http://www.kamehachi.com, our favorite chicago haunt yummy.

i've been here in san fran for about a day and a half and i have to admit, it sure is swell to be someplace where it is not one million degrees. it's perfect here, and the company (those excellent ATHE and LMDA folks) is superb. tonight is "dramaturg's night out," which offers us all the opportunity to catch up on each other's lives and work. special thanks to dj hopkins for playing host.

my session this morning on "when dramaturgs come knocking: dramaturgy in a liberal arts session" went fantastically well. amy cook of UCSD talked about HAMLET in the bush of africa, while robyn quick of towson discussed national student dramaturgy through KCACTF. richard pettengill provided perhaps the most amusing moment of the session in his talk on THE TEMPEST at lake forest college, when he recounted a student's passionate declaration: "we do not read books! we use the internet!" i'm certain i'll be thinking about that for days to come. finally, amy steele talked about a fascinating production of THE EXONERATED at the alley theater in houston, where the production featured two acts, with act one being the play and act two being a post-show discussion featuring members of the legal and political communities along with recently exonerated individuals. all of these presentations were just aces.

i talked briefly about my experience at washington college in which michael harvey of the business department (see www.nutsandboltsguide.com for a bit about michael and his other projects...) and i joined our theater and business students around the marvelous book by lee devin and rob austin, ARTFUL MAKING (www.artfulmaking.com). i'm still processing our success and failure on our experiment, so keep an eye out for upcoming blog postings about ways different fields of study/interest can collaborate using dramaturgy.

i head to japan tomorrow on an 11AM flight. i am a little nervous, as i've mentioned, and feel profoundly underprepared. i've put my trust in my brother rob, which may or may not be a good thing. he's bound to be an exciting and...um...unique guide for my time on hokkaido.

some of you have asked if i will be heading to the mainland. at this moment, i doubt it. i have little interest in tokyo (hey, i saw LOST IN TRANSLATION...), as i get easily distracted by shiny objects. i had thought about going to hiroshima or nagasaki (on the advice of jason franklin) but ultimately, i don't think it is possible. there is both a pull and a rejection on going, this being the 60th anniversary year and all.

but who knows where i'll go?

i miss philly, my house and of course little cordelia already, but i know that, at least in the case of the latter two, jessica hogan has it all under control. she and cordy have established a really funny and remarkable relationship with one another, so if you are in the neighborhood, stop in and share the love.

finally, on the topic of my little brother. i have shamelessly stolen his signature signoff, "peacelovegodbless." i am indebted to him for passing it along.

i'll sign off for now. i'll see you all in japan!

peacelovegodbless,
volansky