Last night, I got to see Oedipus el Rey by Luis Alfaro at Magic Theatre. Absolutely fantastic. It’s superb. I loved it.*

In fact, everything I have to say has already been said by actual critics: “This one blew me away.” “I think you should see it immediately.” And “I stood on my chair clapping with my bowler hat under the chair.”

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* Long-time readers have heard this spiel, but I appear to have some new people checking out this blog, so here’s why my non-review is so short: I’m not a critic; I’m a playwright. I don’t do reviews — the most I do is call out specific language or moments that I really loved. Also, almost every show I see, I probably know the writer, or the director, or sometimes everyone onstage. Which means I’m not objective. I also sometimes, rarely, get in for free. But I don’t write about every play I see; I just give plays I particularly like a shout out in the hopes that other people will go. Someone said that makes me a “theater maven,” but since I don’t know what that is, I go with “playwright.”

I was out of town and didn’t get to attend First Rehearsal of Luis Alfaro’s upcoming Oedipus el Rey. (Attending the first rehearsal of all the shows is one of the benefits of being in the Magic’s Artist Lab.) But lucky for me, Magic Theatre filmed it to give a taste of what the process is like:

Thursday night, I finally got a chance to see Mrs. Whitney by John Kolvenbach at Magic Theatre. This was the play that ran in rep with Kolvenbach’s other play, Goldfish, featuring one of the main characters from that play as seen five years later.

Once again, I was captivated by the language and especially the rhythm and melody of the dialogue. So I wasn’t surprised to read Kolvenbach saying this (from a conversation with dramaturg Jayne Benjulian printed in the program):

Screenwriting is pictures and plays are sound. When I’m working on a screenplay, I try to visualize the story. When I’m working on a play, I want to hear voices…. [One of the reasons] I come to the theatre [is] for the sound of it. I want to hear writing, to hear the writer loving the sound of his or her own work. You can tell that Albee loves the sound of his work, and Mamet and August Wilson among many others.

I also liked this bit, which pretty much sums up my (and probably everyone’s) writing process:

It’s like creative manic depression, a very useful tool. On Monday, you have to believe in what you’re doing, you have to be able to take risks, to be unwise, and then you go back on Tuesday with a critical eye and see if it’s any good. Mostly it’s not. Which, then you have to gather yourself up and do it again…. It would be nice if weren’t work, but it is.

As for the play itself, it’s over, so I won’t belabor it. Suffice to say I felt pretty much the same way as I did about Goldfish. I kind of wish I could have taken advantage of the cool “see them both in one day” opportunities, but I’m still running and playing catch-up and trying to see everything and not succeeding.

One of the benefits of being an Artistic Associate at Magic Theatre is that I get invited to the first rehearsal of new plays, such as the one that opened this season, Goldfish by John Kolvenbach.

One of the very few downsides with having a show of my own in production is that I didn’t actually get to attend said rehearsal, nor the opening, nor any production of it until yesterday. It opened on the same day of our final dress and closes the day after our closing, so I had to do a little maneuvering to finally get a chance to see the show last night.

Man, I’m glad I did. Kolvenbach is a great writer. In fact, here’s what I said off the top of my head when emailing a fellow Magic Literary Committee member about the show, after she mentioned that playwrights in particular have been going out of their way to praise the play:

I’m not surprised playwrights are digging it; there’s some great dialogue there, with brilliant performances to bring it to life. I really enjoyed how he was able to make the emotions front and center without either resorting to irony on the one hand or getting maudlin and soap opera-ish on the other.

And I fully agree with what Nathaniel Eaton said in SF Weekly:

Last year, when Loretta Greco was hired as artistic director for the Magic Theatre, she said she wanted to bring back some of the Sam Shepard-esque energy to its productions. With playwright John Kolvenbach’s Goldfish, she (serving here as director too) does just that.

It’s a great script with powerful acting. And here’s the coolest part, if you jump on it: They’re running Goldfish in rep with Kolvenbach’s follow-up to the play, called Mrs. Whitney, featuring one of the best characters in Goldfish, set five years later.

You can even see both shows the same night, with a dinner served in-between. The last two marathons are Nov 6 and Nov 7, then Goldfish closes on the 8th and Mrs. Whitney continues until Nov 22. Knowing me, I’ll squeak in and catch it the very last week, but that doesn’t mean you have to.

In fact, you should go to the marathon, see them both the same day, and then go to the comments here and tell me what the experience is like. I’d love to do it, but, as I said, my play’s running those exact dates. So there you go.

Goldfish by John Kolvenbach at Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, through Nov 8. Tickets at magictheatre.org.

I’m a bit of a design nerd (which is why I’m a big fan of Cheshire Isaac’s posters for Impact and Berkeley Rep, FYI) so I was surprised when I saw how cool Magic Theatre’s website redesign looks.

Not surprised that it looks cool, but surprised that I hadn’t thought about how boring the old site looked. Whoever did the new design did a great job.

Although I suppose I should say I could be biased since I’m a Magic Theatre Artistic Associate — but I’ve been away so long because of summer and then the production of my play that there’s a good possibility no one remembers that.

You probably know by now that the Magic Theatre’s fundraising efforts paid off, and they’ll be able to continue the season (although with one less show than planned). But if you’re one of those people who was asking how this could have happened in the first place, the Chronicle has an article with a little more background:

The board had set what [Board of Trustees President Missy] Kirchner now says was too high a budget for the 2008-09 season, partly based on incomplete knowledge of the extent of the company’s debts and operating costs. The $600,000 accumulated debt that [Artistic Director Loretta] Greco cited when she announced the emergency fundraising campaign, Kirchner explains, was a combination of a long-standing $250,000 deficit and its financing, which included “a maxed-out line of credit,” other debt and “the key part, accounts payable.”

Added to that were new expenses, such as a pay raise for actors (from $350 to $490 a week), and the loss of a $132,000 Sloan Foundation grant…. But the biggest problems were in accounts payable, ranging from unpaid rent to credit card interest. This was the surprise that Greco had referred to as not being on the books. “I misspoke,” she says. “It was a surprise, but it was on the books…. Any small new play organization that’s left in the ecology of the American theater is operating on the edge…. You take that, with the global economic crisis, which hit us in both earned income and contributed income in one quarter, and it’s not a surprise that we were knocked off balance.”

The good news is that the community came through; that the Magic is streamlining its budget and stepping up its financial oversight; and that the season continues. Thanks to everyone who donated!

Magic Theatre’s been good to me. They gave me a Sloan Initiative commission for my play Gyroball. They put me on their literary committee. And recently they’ve invited me to be part of the Magic LAB, a two-year program that’s like being an associate artist, where a select group of playwrights, directors and dramaturgs work together to help the theater and to create art.

Except, none of that will happen if the community doesn’t come together to save this amazing place, like, right now.

You see, the theater’s apparently had a big chunk of debt for quite a while now. And with the recession and the drop off of donations, things are getting desperate. Today they announced they’re in danger of closing their doors.

It’s particularly unfortunate because, with Loretta Greco as the new artistic director, things have been going great artistically. The last two shows, The K of D and Evie’s Waltz, were huge critical successes. Evie’s Waltz even extended for a couple weeks because of the crowds.

But all that’s not enough. The company is in dire need of help right now, or it will disappear:

San Francisco’s nationally acclaimed new plays theatre, MAGIC THEATRE, is on the brink of shutting its doors. Now in the midst of a staff shutdown, MAGIC may be forced to cancel the remainder of its season and close for good. To keep our doors open we must raise $350,000 by January 9, 2009. This will allow us to bring back our staff, go on with our season, and remain responsible to our creditors….

Our core value of risk over commercial gain makes MAGIC a challenging endeavor in any economy, and in going forward, MAGIC is committed to a new model of financial stability for a new world– without compromising our mission. Today however, MAGIC’s accumulated debt of $600,000, combined with sharp declines in earned and contributed revenue due to the global economy, place us in imminent peril of shutting our doors.

For 42 years, San Francisco’s MAGIC THEATRE has been central to the cultural life of the Bay Area and beyond, giving life to some of the most important, diverse, and powerful voices of contemporary American artists, including four Pulitzer Prize winners. From its humble beginnings in a Berkeley bar, MAGIC has emerged as one of the crown jewels of American Theatre. Please donate now.

The closing of the Magic would be horrible. It’s the second largest theatre in the city. It does some of the most amazing new works around, and this season was set to be the best in years. The company is restructuring to cut its expenses and to lose the debt Loretta inherited. But it needs to raise funds right now:

The Board remains committed to MAGIC’s new plays mission and in concert with the staff has been proactive in drastically cutting its $2 million budget by over $300,000 and raising additional funds in an attempt to close the gap between MAGIC’s expenses and revenue lost as a result of the recession. With rehearsals for MAGIC’s next production–Tough Titty by Oni Faida Lampley–slated to begin in early January, MAGIC must raise $350,000 within the next twelve days in order to continue its 43rd season….

We need YOU to help us raise $350,000 by January 9, 2009. Please help us keep our doors open by making a donation today of $15.00 or more. Please give whatever you can to save MAGIC THEATRE. No amount is too small or too large. Each of you can make a difference.

Please give whatever you can. I know one or two fairly-well-off people read this blog, so I’m particularly hoping they’ll donate, but YOU can do a lot with even $25 or $50.

Read more here. Donate here.