Greg Romero

RADIO GHOSTS, New York City, and Boomerangs

2011-12-08T23:30:00.008-05:00

On Sunday November 20th, collaborator Mike Vernusky (electronic music composition) and I presented an in-progress staging our theatrical project, RADIO GHOSTS, as part of Boomerang Theatre Company's "First Flight New Play Reading Series".

Mike Vernusky and I drinking mystery drinks at Boomerang Theatre's
"Flights of Fancy" event (Nov 19, 2011).

Mike and I have been at work on this project since 2006, putting up early, unfinished versions of the work in various forms in several cities. However, our collaboration with Boomerang in New York marked the first presentation of the completed script, which I finished at the end of 2010 after stepping away from the project for three years.

After spending a highly enjoyable and productive few days with Mike, director Marielle Duke, and our wonderful group of actors, I feel encouraged by the response to the material (both from my collaborators and from audience) but also aware of the considerable amount of work ahead of me. I am proud of what's there, but unsatisfied with what's missing.

I look forward to upcoming opportunities to get inside the work again-- first with director Cara Blouin who is directing Radio Ghosts for The Painted Bride Art Center's "Bridal Salon" in January 2012 (in Philadelphia), and then with the good folks of New Leaf Theatre in Chicago later in March, as part of their "Treehouse Reading Series".

In the meantime, I am hugely grateful to Tim Errickson and Boomerang Theatre Company for their continued interest in my work and for their big-time generosity of spirit and enjoyable companionship (and for the good times at "Flights of Fancy!"). Big thank yous to the Radio Ghosts/Boomerang team of director Marielle Duke and actors August Schulenberg, Cotton Wright, Jon Dysktra, Kate Kertez, John Greenleaf, Michael Mraz, and Max Burrough-- you all taught me a lot and in lots of fun ways.

Performers August Shulenberg (William Tell), Kate Kertez (Lucy Walters),
John Greenleaf (Dr. Abernathy), and Jon Dykstra (Henry Mondarma).

Big thanks yous to the friends who came out to the event, especially the ones who traveled all the way from Philly (you know who you are!)

Huge thank yous as well to Daniel Maldonado (and Jen!) for giving me and Mike a floor to sleep on for three nights, and lots of fun art-sharing and conversation (and spider soup).

rock on,

ROMERO

DALLAS at The Shipley School

2011-11-13T22:15:00.006-05:00

Even the earnest and sincere high-schoolers out in Bryn Mawr couldn't save President Kennedy. But from November 11th - 13th, 2011, they did an excellent job trying.

The wonderful students of The Shipley School, led by teacher and director Emma Gibson, took on the brave challenge of performing the ten-minute "electro-theater" collaboration, DALLAS, and I was totally moved by their work, getting goosebumps during the final theatrical image with which they ended their performance.

The students of The Shipley School (Bryn Mawr, Nov 13, 2011).

The Shipley production made some wonderful additions to my and electronic music composer Mike Vernusky's work-- adding a couple extra patrons in the diner, some mood/world-shifting lighting choices, and some breath-taking video work to bookend the performance. All of these choices expanded the piece even further, all while staying true to their own personal discovery of the play's heart. I was impressed by the quality of their work, and moved by their enthusiasm and commitment to putting up a theatrical piece so unfamiliar to them-- both in form and content-- making their performance achievements, their imaginative and emotional ownership of this piece, that much more remarkable.

I never imagined this piece could be performed (and so well) by high school students, so I thank them all for expanding my imagination in that way as well.

Big thank yous to The Shipley School, Emma Gibson, and to my collaborator Mike Vernusky. Thank yous also to Cody R. Kirk and Michael Kranes (whose voices continue to come through the walls of the diner), and Dianna Schoenborn-Marino, for whom the play was originally written. Thanks also to Wally Zialcita and Theresa Epp, who road-tripped out to Bryn Mawr with me, and Tom Tansey who joined us for pumpkin pie.

Rock on,

ROMERO

DALLAS Lives Undead

2011-09-18T13:55:00.005-04:00

Saturday, September 17, 2011, marked the closing performance of DALLAS, as part of THE UNDEAD project at the Philly Fringe Festival.

I feel very satisfied with this experience, proud of all the work done on this piece, and with the multiple layers of discovery found during the process and performance. I am humbled by the excellent work done on this project by the artists who brought it to life.

John F. Kennedy (Jonathon Phipps), Jacqueline Kennedy (Angela Smith), and Clinton J. Hill (Tom Tansey). Photo by Aaron Oster.

This work, created in collaboration with electronic music composer Mike Vernusky, has now performed in three separate incarnations (in four different venues) in Philadelphia, as well as one in New York City. And while I have loved all of them, this particular one, the Undead/Philly Fringe version, may be my favorite for a number of reasons.

Of Dallas's productions, this version was the only one with an extended run, as it played for eight performances in the "Playground" space of Philadelphia's Adrienne Theater on Sansom Street. This run allowed me to bear witness to the growth possible within the run of this work, borne out through the expressive bodies, faces, and gestural choices made by the five wonderful actors performing the work (as some of you know, there is no live dialogue in Dallas, all of the live performance is through gesture and movement exploring dynamics of speed, shape, and memory). With each performance, the actors grew more confident, lived more deeply inside the unfamiliar demands of piece, expressed their stories more fully through their entire bodies. Dallas, delivered by the performers, continued becoming more of itself.

This process made me aware of another truth of this production-- that the performance actually takes us through something. As audience, we arrive someplace different than where we were when we sat down in the seats of the Adrienne. As someone obsessed with rites of passage, with journeys, with relationships between performance and audience, I'm thrilled by this discovery, as I feel offering the audience a journey, especially a difficult one, is one of the most generous gifts imaginable.

Man Behind the Counter (Ryan Ruggles), Waitress (Lynnia Shanley), and Jacqueline Kennedy (Angela Smith). Photo by Aaron Oster.

Creating this experience were six collaborators who were new to me, and with whom I sincerely hope to keep working (this was another of my favorite parts of this particular production-- my introduction to new collaborators who I like a lot). The group, as a whole, was thrilling and really enjoyable to work with.

Director Theresa Epp lead us through a wonderful process, one that was full of creative moments, of deep listening, of generosity, of graceful willingness to take risks. Terri's approach to this piece opened up even more layers of complexity, creating and illuminating even more worlds than I thought were present. Actors Jonathon Phipps (John F. Kennedy), Ryan Ruggles (Man Behind the Counter), Lynnia Shanley (Waitress) Angela Smith (Jacqueline Kennedy), and Tom Tansey (Clinton J. Hill) proved to be a talented, thoughtful, brave, and lovely ensemble, full of exciting choices, rigorous attention to detail, and willingness to live fully in multiple time-spaces at once.

Completing the experience was the participation of long-time collaborator Mike Vernusky, whose work on this piece excites me every time I listen to his haunting, brilliant composition. Visiting Philadelphia from Austin in early September, Mike was able, for the first time ever, to see our collaboration work with live artists. During a rehearsal near the end of our process, Mike was able to experience of how Dallas collides in multiple dimensions, and to contribute his thoughts to how the work can move through space.

Clinton J. Hill (Tom Tansey). Photo by Aaron Oster.

One of the culminations of this work was the opportunity to share it with eight audiences, the last two performances packing the house of the Adrienne Theater. I'm thrilled that I got to share this piece with so many people, and I hope they all (collaborators and audience) enjoyed it as much as I did.

Big thank yous to all the collaborating artists in Dallas, as well as all the other Undead offerings (which I enjoyed sharing company with), including the hot live music of Up Your Cherry. Special thanks to Wally Zialcita, who produced this project with lots of generosity and sensitivity.

Continued thanks to actors Cody R. Kirk and Michael Kranes, whose voices continue to come through the walls of the 24-hour diner, and to Dianna Schoenborn-Marino, for whom the script was originally written.

Rock on,

ROMERO

TWO BUBBLES Three Years in Print

2011-08-12T12:51:00.003-04:00

An August 12, 2008, my 10-minute play, TWO BUBBLES, made it to print through Playscripts, Inc. Included with 9 other plays in "Great Short Comedies, Volume 3", my play shares a volume with wonderful writers Steven Dietz, Sheri Wilner, and Rolin Jones.

Brendan Ahearn, Tiffany Feng, Brad McEntire, Laurie Farris, Jeff Hernandez, and Shannon Marie in Two Bubbles, Audacity Productions / Rover Dramawerks, Plano, Texas (2002). Photo: Carol Rice.

In the past three years, copies of this volume have been sold in over 40 of the United States as well as to countries Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, India, Japan, New Zealand, Serbia and Montenegro, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The play has been produced in three different cities, and was a Finalist for the Heideman Award.

HOT.

Not bad for a play that I originally wrote in a few hours, overnight, as part of a 24-Hour theater festival.

It is my hope that the play continues to live on, but for now, the journey has definitely been fun.

If you're interested in reading or buying it, you can go HERE.

Thank you to all the good people that have made this possible-- Audacity Theater Lab and Rover Dramawerks for producing the One (More) Day Only Festival, and to all the artists who have breathed life into this 10-minute, all-night epic.

rock on,

ROMERO

Awesome ICE HOLES photos

2011-06-23T14:17:00.008-04:00

Now playing (through July 2nd) as part of Source Festival in Washington DC, some OUTSTANDING photos are surfacing of my 10-minute play, Ice Holes.

Admiral Robert Peary and Erik the Red

Awesome work by C. Stanley Photography.

There have been three performances already of the 10-minute program, "Heroes & Villains", of which Ice Holes is included. Two performances remain-- Saturday June 25th at 1:00 pm, and Saturday, July 2nd at 4:00 pm

Admiral Peary, Erik the Red, Ponce de Leon, and Sir Francis Drake

I will be in attendance for the closing performance, these photos make me even more excited to see the slammin' work going on.

Ponce de Leon (background) and Erik the Red

Big thank yous to the good folks at Source Festival!

rock on,

ROMERO

DALLAS selected for Deep Wireless Festival and CD Compilation

2011-06-03T15:08:00.006-04:00

My collaborative project with Mike Vernusky, Dallas, continues to get lots of wonderful attention (which is awesome).

Most recently, the 11-minute electro-theater collaboration was selected to be part of New Adventures in Sound Art's (NAISA) annual Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art. As part of the Toronto-based festival, the recording of Dallas is also published on their website and included in a CD compilation with other selected works.

You can listen to the recording HERE, and learn more about the CD compilation HERE.

I am thrilled to be able to continue sharing this project in many different forms and for many different audiences (and in many different countries!).

Big thank yous to Mike Vernusky (for continuing to be so awesome), to actors Cody R. Kirk, Michael Kranes, and T. Lynn Mikeska, whose voices continue coming through the walls of the diner/memory, and to Dianna Marino, for whom the piece was originally written (as part of American Potlatch Road-trip: The Travel Plays).

rock on,

ROMERO

Podcast of DANDELION MOMMA from New Leaf Theatre in Chicago

2011-05-29T12:46:00.004-04:00

The awesome people of New Leaf Theatre (Chicago) have posted a podcast of the plays from their play development program, "The Treehouse Reading Series". Included in this series is my play, Dandelion Momma, which is presented beautifully by this talented and sensitive creative team.

You can go HERE to listen to the play in a high-quality podcast of the reading from March 30, 2011 at Chicago's Lincoln Park Cultural Center.

Big thank you to director Jessica Hutchinson, dramaturg Josh Sobel, and performers Lona Livingston, Claire Kander, Gabe Franken (whose voice sounds eeirly like my own), and Mary Winn Heider.

rock on,

ROMERO

UNDER MY COAT to be Revealed in New York City

2011-03-19T21:23:00.004-04:00

My short play, Under My Coat is the Truth, will play for one night in New York City, at 7:00 pm on Sunday, March 20th, 2011. Produced as part of the One-Minute Play Festival by Adaptive Arts Theater Company, the piece will go up at the IRT in the West Village, along with 32 other one-minute works.

The play is directed by Adaptive Arts's Artistic Director, Marielle Duke, who I worked with previously as part of Boomerang Theatre Company's crazy awesome workshop production of The Travel Plays (October 2009).

I'm thrilled that this short play is now in its third production (and will go up in a fourth during April in Philadelphia), originally produced as part of Specific Gravity Ensemble's Elevator Plays and, most recently, as part of the Don't Blink Short Play Marathon produced by Three Wise Moose in Anchorage, Alaska (October 2010).

This New York presentation will be unique in that it is the first to cast two females (instead of two males) in the roles of "John" and "Harrison".

Big thank you to Marielle Duke, and the good folks of Adaptive Arts Theater Company (an off-off Broadway Theater company dedicated to raising awareness of Autism) for the opportunity to share my work again in the Big Apple.

For more information about the event, please click here.

rock on,

ROMERO

DALLAS at the Annenberg Center

2011-03-13T15:55:00.006-04:00

On Saturday night, March 12th 2011, my collaboration with electronic music composer Mike Vernusky, DALLAS, took the stage of the Montgomery Theater in the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

John VanZelst (Man Behind the Counter), Darin J. Dunston (John F. Kennedy) and Haley McCormick (Jacqueline Kennedy). Photo by Jules Victor.

As part of the MERGE program produced by the Annenberg, me and Mike's 10-minute electro-theater piece shared the stage with six other short works, most of them created by Philadelphia artists. The "merge" theme comes from producer Brian Grace-Duff's interest in creating an evening of theater that collides local professional work with student-driven work as well.

With DALLAS, we even "merged" within our project, as it was performed by a mix of Philadelphia-area professionals Darin J. Dunston, Haley McCormick, and Aaron Oster with Drexel University students Laurel Hostak and John VanZelst.

Aaron Oster (Clinton Hill) and John VanZelst (Man Behind the Counter). Photo by Jules Victor.

The event as a whole was a success in many ways-- the performances played to a near sold-out house of 110 seats, with each of the 7 events showcasing strong, original work. The event was well organized, enthusiastically received, and offered the opportunity for new friendships among artists of the seven different groups who merged together for one night.

Aaron Oster (Clinton Hill), John VanZelst (Man Behind the Counter), and Laurel Hostak (Waitress). Photo by Jules Victor.

The DALLAS project itself was its own reward. This was the piece's first full-production, and it was, as always, a gift to see the work come to life through the creative choices made by brave, talented actors. This process, though a short one (we rehearsed for a total of 10 hours over 4 meetings), was committed, creative, and full of discovery. Also the director of the piece, it was completely satisfying to work with such a smart, thoughtful, and enjoyable group of artists.

Haley McCormick (Jacqueline Kennedy) and Darin J. Dunston (John F. Kennedy). Photo by Jules Victor.

Big thank yous to Brian Grace-Duff for organizing, producing, and inviting me to participate in this event; to Drexel University for its continued generosity (especially Nick Anselmo who picked up the tab for a caravan of supportive Drexel students to attend the performance and then helped me carry two 3 foot by 3 foot tables across West Philadelphia after the event!); to the Dragons who showed up to support their classmates; to Michael Kranes and Cody Kirk whose voices (as Arlen Specter and Clinton J. Hill) continue to come through the walls; and to Dianna Marino, for whom the play was originally written.

Aaron Oster (Clinton Hill), John VanZelst (Man Behind the Counter) and Laurel Hostak (Waitress)

HUGE thank yous as well to Jules Victor, for all of the amazing photographs.

rock on,

ROMERO

THE BABEL PROJECT at Drexel

2011-03-08T11:43:00.011-05:00

Sunday evening, March 6th 2011, seven Drexel University students and I shared the discoveries we made during our 8-week laboratory workshop on THE BABEL PROJECT.

Emily Kleimo (Worker 4) and JuliAna Nawn (Worker 3). Photo by Jules Victor.

Staged in the Filbert Space/URBN Center Annex, and presented as an "open rehearsal", the performers and I were greeted by a supportive and friendly group of 40-45 fellow students, friends, and family for this hour-long event, which included scenes/moments from the play colliding with live music/rhythms created by the actors, colliding with structured interruptions/activities and electronic music. Together, we experienced the first-ever public viewing of this particular collaboration between me (script, direction) and Mike Vernusky (electronic music composition).

Allison Brobst (Office Worker 1), Emily Kleimo, JuliAna Nawn, and Grace Buttery (Office Worker 2). Photo by Jules Victor.

It was a wonderfully fun learning experience for all of us, and it was incredibly enjoyable to be with these talented, creative, enthusiastic young actors for roughly 40 hours of rehearsal time. A true ensemble project/process, the actors all contributed considerably to creation of the work, and to all elements of production and design. I am very proud of all of them for the commitment, bravery, sense of humor, and willingness to explore the unknown, and feel privileged to have worked with all of them.

Katie Lynch (Worker 5), Laura Calderone (Worker 6), and Nikki Zusman (Bartender). Photo by Jules Victor.

Big thank yous to Nick Anselmo and the entire Drexel University family for their continued support of my creative projects, and to all the lovely people who participated in this evening of discovery.

rock on,

ROMERO

BELIZE'S PLACE Rehearsal Photos, Day One

2010-12-14T12:33:00.006-05:00

Currently directing BELIZE'S PLACE by Tav Keyinde, I am working with an exceptionally creative and brave ensemble of actors who are blowing this play up.

Belize (Jerry Rudasill) cuts up meat (Jim Jackson) with a cleaver. While a cigar (Jake Blouch) hides in the corner.

In development of the play, and in preparation to share this work with a small audience at The Painted Bride Art Center on Wednesday, December 15th, the actors and I (and dramaturgs Wally Zialcita and Jason Tremblay) are attempting to learn the play by rehearsing it (rather than by reading it).

Our goals include staging as many of the impossible moments of the play we can, to see how the play can move most theatrically through space, and to see what kind of wild creativity the play inspires.

So far we are learning a lot, and I, for one, am having an incredibly fun time witnessing the deeply powerful imagination of this ensemble.

Belize (Jerry Rudasill), Rollergirl (Samantha Tower) and a Cigar (Jake Blouch)

Dubkid (Mary Tuomanen) gets a horrible idea (Jerry Rudasill, Jake Blouch, and Jim Jackson)

To see more of this work, please join us at the Painted Bride Art Center (230 Vine Street; Philadelphia PA) on Wednesday, December 15th at 7:30 pm.

rock on,

ROMERO

Romero Plays (in photos from) Alaska

2010-11-19T17:44:00.007-05:00

On October 8th and 9th (2010), Three Wise Moose and TBA Theatre staged two of my works, Under My Coat is the Truth and New Orleans, in the frozen tundra of Anchorage, Alaska.

Brett Gillam as "The Trumpeter" in New Orleans

Unable to make the performance, the good folks of Three Wise Moose and TBA Theatre generously sent me some lovely photos from the production, Don't Blink One-Page Play Marathon, which gives me an idea of some of the nice work they did with the plays.

All photos taken by Jamie Lang Photography (thank you, Jamie!).

Jaron Carlson and Billy Worthy in Under My Coat is the Truth

Billy Worthy and Jaron Carlson (Under My Coat is the Truth),
directed by Ryan Buen

Brett Gillam in New Orleans, directed by Erin Dagon Mitchell

Big thank yous to all the artists who worked on this project and to Dawson Moore for asking me to send the Moose some of my work to consider for production.

rock on,

ROMERO

Statement of Disaster

2010-10-15T16:15:00.011-04:00

In celebration of my recent selection as one of three playwrights chosen for the inaugural PDC/Plays and Players Playwriting Residency, I'm posting the statement of purpose I wrote for my original application.

I re-post it here also to become my reminder and watchdog for those days when I don't live up to my own pronouncements.

Big thank yous to the selection committee of Wally Zialcita, Daniel Student, and Rebecca Wright for their trust, and to Philadelphia Dramatists Center and Plays & Players Theater for offering their vision and the opportunity to grow.

===========================================

PDC Playwright-in-Residence at Plays & Players

Statement of Purpose

Greg Romero

My goal is to ignite an explosion of possibility for at least the next 100 years.

To explain—I ask:

What is more exciting than a disaster on stage?

I don’t know, so my plan is to continue to create the possibility for them, knowing that disaster is often a doorway to the profound.

And maybe the disaster becomes more interesting if we remove (take the stage away) or re-move (shift where our idea of the stage is) it? Is the disaster is more glorious if the audience participates? How many languages does a good disaster consume? How is this danger theatrical? And how can I make these disasters go from the live event into your bones?

And is this a play?

These are only a few of the questions that haunt me.

For the past ten years I have worked tirelessly as a playwright, creating live works that explore memory, imagination, pain, dreams, rites of passage, transformation, transportation, and the flawed and fascinating guts and souls of human beings. My characters are troubled, resilient, scarred, searching, trapped, tied to chairs, historical icons, lovers, killers, magicians, ghosts, beauty queens, animals, musicians, children, time travelers, dreamers—all bravely taking on impossible, necessary journeys. They speak to each other through time, dimension, ocean waves, black holes, gesture, lines in their bodies, holes in their chests, silences, holograms, and their deepest regrets. I have created work performed in theaters, elevators, porches, warehouses, loft apartments, punk stages, museums, sidewalks, hotels, basement crawl spaces, and public bathrooms in New York, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Louisville, as well as in Toronto and Zurich.

I have worked many times with electronic music composer Mike Vernusky on live performance projects including The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting (with choreographer Ray Eliot Schwarz, 2004), The Eulogy Project (with opera-trained performer Jorge Sermini, 2005), Radio Ghosts (2008), and, currently, The Babel Project, in a form we are calling “electro-theater”, a performance limbus between written text, recorded electronic sound, and live performance.

My work has been honored as a finalist for the Heideman Award, a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award, and a nomination for the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theater Artist in Philadelphia. In 2008, I was selected as the first-ever Resident Writer for ArtsEdge, a year-long residency created by The Kelly Writers House and the University of Pennsylvania.

However, I have now reached a place in my creative development where I’m trying to further explode the framework of what I call a play, and to create something that more deeply blurs the boundaries between what is real and what is make-believe, what is performance and what is experience, what is a gift, and what is the point. I am searching the flashpoint for the most dynamic, most powerful, deepest- cutting performance vessel for humans to connect to one another and to themselves—or, to borrow from Zeami, I want to create live events that help us all awaken the flower.

For these reasons, I am applying to be the PDC Playwright-in-Residence at Plays & Players.

Specifically, these two stated gifts offer me seeds for the fire:

· The providing of a safe space for experimentation

· The focus of this program is artist development, not the development of an individual work.

It is through these offerings that I intend to continue to explore the ideas of performance as gift-exchange, the depth of expression without using words, the impression and intimacy of memory (individual and shared), the complexities within the creative use of space and place, the volume of a gunshot, the limits of transformation, a further (and with your help, an assisted) self-education into artists I am inspired by (Meyerhold, Artaud, Grotowksi, Foreman, Oliveros, Bausch, Wilson) and deeper exploration into forms I am seduced by but not completely familiar with (Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku, Kathakali, and the Circus).

Specifically, I would use the 13-month residency to continue work on at least three boundary-stretching projects already in-progress (The Babel Project: a collaboration with an electronic music composer exploring language through the real-time construction of a present-day Tower of Babel made up of words, quarry stones, gestures, and lost memories; Tugboat Headache: a non-narrative about a Mermaid’s journey through loss, bodily voids, and 10,000 flying arrows while traveling up The Traum River; and the on-going development of Material v. Memory: a site-specific performance experience in which audience walks through a gauntlet of perishable writing events, each of which is non-replicable, intentionally ephemeral, and disappears while being viewed) all while exploring things I love but don’t fully understand, risking everything all the time, as well as beginning work on whatever new obsessions consume my listening process.

In short, I expect to use the next year (and beyond) having as much fun as possible creating the most exciting live projects imaginable, all while deepening my skills, understanding, awareness, and sensitivities as an artist. It is my hope that I will be able to have fun listening, growing and creating with you.

=====================================

ROMERO

Romero Plays Alaska

2010-10-08T14:27:00.002-04:00

Two of my short works, Under My Coat is the Truth and New Orleans, go up in performance on October 8th and 9th in Anchorage, Alaska as part of TBA Theater and Three Wise Moose's annual project, The Don't Blink One-Page Play Marathon.

The only thing that would make this event even more awesome is if I had the means to travel there and party with the moose (wise or not), elk, caribou, and foxes of Anchorage.

Big thank yous to Dawson Moore for inviting me to send in my work, and for all the fun people who make Don't Blink an annual, fun event.

rock on,

ROMERO

Transported

2010-09-29T12:45:00.002-04:00

Last night I walked through:

A birthday memory on an airplane; an exhausting of Kelly Writers House; a shared memory of water, chalk, and bodies; an offering of grapes; a continual search for family and trains; a stranger picking up a cougar; a dream-filled trolley with the best martinis on the beach; a message written in pennies/wishes, stolen from a bridge; a cigarette-filled rant full of gods; a candle-lit dance in the gravel and under the stars; and a message written in sand, leading to wine underneath my feet.

Thank you, Material v. Memory artists, for transporting me.

And thank you for those of you who took the journey with me.

I hope we can all travel again together.

sincerely,

ROMERO

Material v. Memory

2010-09-22T10:50:00.006-04:00

Which is more real?

Me and 13 other artists challenge this question by creating 11 short events/experiences that are, by purpose, completely ephemeral, non-replicable, and unique to the group of people who live through them on Tuesday, September 28th.

There will be no material residue of this experience, only our individual and collective memory of it.

Is memory located in your brain? In your muscles?
Inside of place? Inside of an event?

Will we remember it?

Is memory stronger than material? Does memory become material?

And what do artists create when confronted with these questions?

The full details from co-producers Kelly Writers House and Philadelphia Dramatists Center:

______________________________________________________

MATERIAL V. MEMORY
a walk through 11 perishable events

with GREG ROMERO

Tuesday, September 28, at 6:34 PM in the Arts Café
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk
No registration required - this event is free & open to the public

_______________________________________________________

Organized by playwright and former ArtsEdge Resident, GREG ROMERO, MATERIAL V. MEMORY is a guided walk through eleven perishable writing events, each designed to be experienced by a unique traveling audience for three to five minutes, and then to disappear forever. Site-specific, un-replicable projects created by playwrights, poets, dancers, architects, fiction writers, designers, musicians, and performance artists explore questions of space, place, birth, loss, and our infinite/intimate relationship with memory.

Creative Artists include:

MIKE AGRESTA
BRIGHT LIGHT THEATRE COMPANY
BIDISHA DASGUPTA
PAULA DIEHL
NICOLE GARMAN
BRIAN GRACE-DUFF and WALLY ZIALCITA
CLIFFORD HALL
SHANE HANSON and ALICIA RODRIGUEZ
GREG ROMERO
JEFFREY A. STANLEY
MICHELLE TARANSKY

------------------------------------------------

Big thank yous to the wonderful group of artists collaborating on this project, The Kelly Writers House, and Philadelphia Dramatists Center.

rock on,

ROMERO

tokafi Article on Vernusky/Romero collaboration

2010-09-15T11:35:00.007-04:00

International music journal (based in Munster, Germany) tokafi serves up some awesome coverage and contemplation about the work me and electronic music composer Mike Vernusky are collaborating on.

Album cover for Mike Vernusky's Music for Film and Electro-Theatre

Slammin.

You can read the article by Tobias Fischer by going HERE.

Big thank yous to tokafi for the words, and for all the awesome people who worked on "Dallas" and "Under My Coat is the Truth" with me and Mike.

rock on,

ROMERO

Someone Stabs Me While I Explore Space

2010-09-13T13:53:00.003-04:00

Earlier this year The Kelly Writers House invited me to participate in the annual "Seven-Up" project, in which seven "experts" gather to discuss/question/explore a common topic. In 2010, the topic was "SPACE", and I posed the question "what is a performance space?".

The video below captures my 7-minute attempt, which, if you listen closely enough, you can hear the people heckling me.

Is this a performance space?

Big thank yous to Jessica Lowenthal and the Kelly Writers House for continuing to offer such a lively, fun community to participate in, to the six other space experts (including Kate Watson-Wallace), and to the friends (Megan Slater, Rachel Gluck, Tyler Woods, and Kate Raines) who came to heckle and stab me.

rock on,

ROMERO

Vernusky/Romero Collaboration on CD

2010-08-31T11:59:00.004-04:00

My long-time collaborator and friend Mike Vernusky has just released a new CD, Music for Film and Electro-Theatre, in which lives a couple of projects he and I worked on together.

Within the 9-track recording are two works, "Dallas" and "Under My Coat is the Truth", which Mike and I created together using my text and his sounds. These two projects are part of the body of work we're exploring together under the umbrella, "electro-theatre".

Like all of Mike's work, the entire recording is mind-blowing, space-changing, imaginative and virtuosic. It's a pleasure to work with this guy and I'm totally proud of the recordings we did for this specific project.

You can listen to some of the work here, as well as snag a copy or two if you love it (CD or MP3).

(Mike was also generous enough to give away copies to audience of our most recent public collaboration, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard).

Big thank yous to Quiet Design for making this happen, and to the actors (Jeffrey Carlson, Elena DeAngelis, Cody Kirk, Michael Kranes, T. Lynn Mikeska) who worked with me and Mike, bringing the work to life.

rock on,

ROMERO

GOODB(EYE) IN THE SKY: A Re-Post

2010-08-19T13:41:00.004-04:00

As Audacity Theatre Lab tools together Episode 3 of their EYE IN THE SKY PROJECT: an innovative experiment in epistolary radio drama, they are re-posting Episode 2, which presents work from myself, Daniel Talbott, and Erin Courtney.

You can go HERE to listen to Daniel, Erin, and my responses to this challenge:

"For one week in the middle of the summer a giant eye appears in the sky over the city. At the end of seven days it disappears as suddenly as it had originally materialized..."

Big thank yous to Artistic Director Brad McEntire for continuing to involve me in ATL's fun projects, and to actors Jeffrey Schmidt and Lydia Mackay for bring my piece, GOODB(EYE), to life via the Internet airwaves.

rock on,

ROMERO

LULLABY at The Rotunda

2010-08-05T15:34:00.004-04:00

We don't know yet what will happen.

But on Sunday, August 15th, a talented group of collaborators and I will share our discoveries on our experiment with my play, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard.

We welcome folks to join us at 7pm at The Rotunda (40th and Walnut) to work on the project with us.

postcard design from world premiere production, City Attic Theatre (NYC)

Some of you may already have seen or read (or worked on!) the play before, but this project aspires to be a new experience as I am working with long-time collaborator (and electronic music composer) Mike Vernusky to explode/explore this piece even further.

In short, we are removing one of the play's characters (The Narrator) and replacing them with a recorded composition, created by Vernusky specifically for this project. We are attempting to get at the heart of this work by removing words and replacing them with sound.

The actors now, in addition to the play's original demands and restrictions (the characters are stuck in chairs for the entire play), will be working with the added challenge of playing within and against a wildly imaginative recorded electronic score, compelling us all to listen more closely than ever.

It is kind of an impossible task and we have no idea if this will work.

But the question excites us, and we have a team of ACE-talented folks who are up for the challenge, digging deep and finding gold.

Our event at the Rotunda is our continued exploration with additional questions (how does this piece work in a performance space? With an audience? With production elements?), and we look forward to discovering/breathing in the piece together.

I look forward to it and I hope you do too.

........................................................

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
script by Greg Romero
music by Mike Vernusky
directed by Ken Kaissar
performed by Kevin Meehan and Megan Slater

Sunday, August 15th, 7:00 pm
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St
Philadelphia PA 19104

Admission: Pay What You Want

.......................................................

Big thank yous to the awesomely talented artists working with me (both in the present moment and in the moments leading up to this one) and the folks who have made this particular workshop possible.

Thank you Gina Renzi, Drexel University (Nick Anselmo, Nan Gilbert, Mark Andrews, Beng Lin Yeo), Jodi Alonzo, Laurence Becker, Hugh Craig, Betsy Currie, Josh Emmons, Jackie Goldfinger, Chris Herdt and Nicola Grissom, Jenny Kokai, Taylor Maddux, Christiana Molldrem, Abby Pudlewski, Dustin Puryear, Don Slater, and Angela Turner.

rock on,

ROMERO

Breathing Fire Full-Time

2010-08-02T20:03:00.006-04:00

Beginning September 1st, 2010, I begin a year-long assignment as "Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater" at Drexel University.

NICE!

Me and Mario will be hangin' out on a full-time basis

This is a temporary promotion from my previous assignment as Adjunct Faculty at Drexel (and other universities in the area) and I look forward to the new challenges and rewards of being a full-time college professor.

During the upcoming Fall, Winter, and Spring terms (Drexel uses the quarter system), I will continue teaching a rotation of courses in "Theatrical Experience", "Theater History (I & II)", and "Dramatic Analysis", and will also lead and organize the "Director's Lab" as well as lead the course "Let's Go!" (whose goals are to bring students to Philadelphia-area theater productions/live events).

My previous year teaching at Drexel was a good one as I like my teaching partners and I like the students. After getting to know the faculty and student community, I was hoping to become more involved with the school, and the universe heard me.

I look forward to continuing to find my creative abilities as a teacher, to continue developing my listening skills, and to continue learning how my teaching and artistic projects continue feeding each other.

And I definitely look forward to getting to know the students better, and how we can help each other break it open.

Big thank yous to Cecilia Fitzgibbon and Nick Anselmo for believing in me enough to bring me into the fold, full-time, and to the students for making the job so much fun.

Go Dragons!!

ROMERO

Interview on REP Radio

2010-07-29T14:24:00.006-04:00

On July 17, 2010, the good folks of REP Radio interviewed me as part of their series "Inside the Writer's Mind". The interview was a lot of fun to do and I'm happy with how well it captures the personality of my work.

We talked about why I was wearing a mask, the strange live event/gift-exchanges I am creating, what it's like to be locked in a pharmaceutical clinic, why I give people toilets for their birthday, how I'm trying to re-create the rite of passage between life and death, and why I juggle ice cream at Reading Terminal Market.

Lots of fun names come up in conversation-- thank you for giving me stuff to talk about: Megan Slater, Andy Merkel, Lucy Walters, Andrew Beal, Sarah Bowden, Christiana Molldrem, The Rotunda, Chris Morse, Working Man's Clothes Productions, Audacity Theatre Lab, Austin Texas, Nicole Garman, and my Mom (and many others).

Big thank yous to Represented Theater Company, and to the intrepid Todd Holtsberry and Krissy Scatton for taking the time to get to know me.

You can access REP Radio's achives here, click on episode 107 ("Greg Romero") to check it out.

rock on,

ROMERO

Awesome Creative Team for LULLABY Workshop

2010-07-07T13:16:00.009-04:00

In the ongoing spirit of experimentation and collaboration, Mike Vernusky and I are set to engage in an August 2010 (in Philadelphia) workshop exploring the collision of my play, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard, with Vernusky's electronic music composition.

Postcard from World Premiere Production in NYC (City Attic Theatre, 2007).

This project attempts to remove one of the play's characters (The Narrator) by replacing them with Mike's music, composed specifically for this work. We have no idea if the experiment will fly, though the early dreaming Mike and I have done has us really excited and it will be a fun learning journey no matter what.

We enter this process with a lot of exciting questions and have assembled a talented group of artists to break it all open. We will work together for roughly 15-20 hours in early-mid August, including an open rehearsal/work-in-progress sharing (more details to be announced soon).

Joining us/contributing to/exploding this project are director Ken Kaissar and performers Megan Slater and Kevin Meehan. I am beyond excited to be working with such a talented group of artists and totally can't wait to get in the rehearsal room with these people.

I have worked with Ken on multiple projects (Dallas, Thirty-Three) and his direction has always been sensitive, imaginative, fun, and highly smart.

Megan Slater and Kevin Meehan are two of my favorite actors in Philadelphia and will, no doubt, bring a lot of their intelligence, brave risks, creativity, and humor to the process.

(OMG this will be awesome!)

HUGE thank yous to the generous friends (Laurence Becker, Hugh Craig, Betsy Currie, Jackie Goldfinger, Chris Herdt and Nicola Grissom, Jenny Kokai, Taylor Maddux, Christiana Molldrem, Dustin Puryear, Don Slater, and Angela Turner) for making this workshop possible by flying Mike Vernusky to Philadelphia.

Big thank yous as well to Drexel University (Mark Andrews, Nick Anselmo, Nan Gilbert and Beng Lin Yeo) for their continued support of my creative work.

And of course-- big thank yous to the collaborative team for their commitment and enthusiasm. I look forward to the discoveries ahead.

................................................................................

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
script by Greg Romero
music by Mike Vernusky
director: Ken Kaissar
performers: Kevin Meehan and Megan Slater

.................................................................................

-- ROMERO

FATHER to be Published

2010-06-21T02:20:00.010-04:00

Father Goes to the Aquarium on Monday and the Arcade on Thursday, will be published (as a short story) by The Brighton Post, a literary/arts zine from Brighton, Massachusetts.

Originally presented as part of the live performance THIRTY-THREE (if you were in attendance for this March 2010 event, you received a copy of this story as a gift), the piece will be part of The Brighton Post's inaugural issue exploring "Pandemonium", to be published in July, 2010.

Big thank yous to GerRee Hinshaw, who originally provided the title as one of the challenges for the THIRTY-THREE project, and to Violette Carb for just being Violette.

=======
ROMERO

7-UP on SPACE at the Kelly Writers House

2010-04-13T23:38:00.005-04:00

I am obsessed with space. I write plays and create live events BECAUSE of their unique use of space. My students call themselves "the Space Cadets". And I am obsessed with space.

It is a great honor, therefore, to participate in a Kelly Writers House event that explores "SPACE" through 7 different perspectives from 7 different experts on the subject.

As one of the 7 experts, I will have 7 minutes to explore the subject. And it will be cosmic.

HOLY MOLY.

Below is the information.

.....................................

Friends,

Personal space, the space bar, astronomy, astrology, choreography, outer space, inner space, virtual space, space music, architecture, urban sprawl, and Sun Ra: it's 7-UP ON SPACE!

Please join us for musings by Arkestra Aficionado GRACE AMBROSE (C'11), experimental cosmologist MARK DEVLIN, trickster philosopher THOMSON GUSTER (C'10), computer whiz CHRIS MUSTAZZA, playwright GREG ROMERO, architect HARRIS STEINBERG, and choreographer KATE WATSON-WALLACE, who will each speak (sing, demonstrate, what have you) for seven minutes about SPACE.

Come occupy our space, eat some space food, and join in the discussion!

Excitedly yours,
WH Staff
________________________________________________________________________

The Kelly Writers House presents:

7-UP ON SPACE

Featuring:
GRACE AMBROSE (C'11)
MARK DEVLIN
THOMSON GUSTER (C'10)
CHRIS MUSTAZZA
GREG ROMERO
HARRIS STEINBERG
and KATE WATSON-WALLACE

Monday, April 19, at 6:00 PM in the Arts Café
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk
No registration required. Program is free and open to the public.

Event page on Facebook.
________________________________________________________________________

The 7-Up series is an annual program for which we invite seven guests to speak for seven minutes each about a topic. Each speaker gives their insight on some aspect of the chosen theme; interesting interpretations and musings always result! For information on past 7-up events visit http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/programs/7-up/.

Thank you for THIRTY-THREE

2010-03-25T16:03:00.005-04:00

I am thrilled to write that the performance of THIRTY-THREE on Monday night, March 22nd, was a wonderful experience.

"Thirty-Three Man". Photo by Tom Gattone.

An enthusiastic audience of about 30 showed up and all seemed to have a really fun time. I am very happy with how well the show came together-- with how unique an experience we created, with how much fun it was, and with how creatively we all engaged each other. I love that we created something that was more of an event than it was a play.

Having not performed much at all in the last ten years, I was incredibly nervous, but it helped considerably to see so many friendly faces show up at the theater. From what I could tell, everyone showed up anticipating a good time, and that helped us all a whole lot.

As for the performance-- there are things I wish I could have done better, but I am extremely proud of what we shared on Monday night. I feel certain that we gave the audience a totally fun evening that was unique and memorable.

And once the show ended-- no one left. The audience stayed at the Rotunda for some time, continuing to commune with each other, to enjoy the food (the show provides both Moo Shoo Pork and Moonpies) and to enjoy the experience. This, to me, is what I always hope for-- for the performance to continue even after it's over.

This communion was made possible by the extraordinary work done by collaborators Ken Kaissar (director), Clifford Hall (sound design), Nicole Garman (projection design), Megan Slater (recorded voice), and Mike Vernusky (music composition). Everyone truly did outstanding, creative, imaginative work. And well all had so much fun!

Big thank yous to the collaborative team, to Gina Renzi and the Rotunda, to Drexel University, to all the awesome people who showed up Monday night, and to all the Awesome People whose gifts made this event possible.

rock on,

ROMERO

Collaborative Team in Rehearsal for THIRTY-THREE

2010-03-19T10:36:00.026-04:00

Greg Romero (as "Thirty-Three Man") and Director Ken Kaissar (photo by Tom Gattone)

As we gear up for our March 22nd presentation at The Rotunda, Wednesday's rehearsal of THIRTY-THREE brought in almost the entire (awesome) collaborative team for this project.

Director Ken Kaissar and I welcomed the rest of the team to the rehearsal space (big thank yous to Drexel University!) for a productive and fun evening. Photographer Tom Gattone was also present, documenting the rehearsal for us.

Seen here is Megan Slater (The :nv:s:ble Play, Hysteria) working with sound designer Clifford Hall (Noises Off, The Seagull) on the pieces "A Dream About Pear Trees" and "A Peacock at My Parent's House".

Megan Slater (as "The Peacock Lady") and Sound Designer Clifford Hall (photo by Tom Gattone)

Also at rehearsal was Projection/Visual Designer Nicole Garman, seen in the photo below, as we worked on the opening piece "Thirty-Three Man". Ken, Nicole, and I also continued working on "Benoit Spills the Gay" and explored various ways to perform "Father Goes to the Aquarium on Monday and the Arcade on Thursday". We also continued our ongoing brainstorm, continuing to ask questions about the overall design of the production, how the pieces fit together, and how to make this as interesting, dynamic, and memorable a performance as possible.

Greg Romero (as "Thirty-Three Man") and Projection Designer Nicole Garman (photo by Tom Gattone).

We are all very excited by the challenges of this unique event, and we all look forward to the continued work and the eventual sharing of it with an audience.

.........................................................

The Collaborative Team:

Nicole Garman (projection designer) is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where she studied architecture and creative writing. She was also a member of the Varsity rowing team and gives a fantastic, well-informed tour of the Penn campus.

Clifford Hall (sound designer/composer/violist) While attending Peabody back in the late 90s, my comp teacher told me to learn the violin so I don't write too ridiculous things for the instrument. My rebellious streak took to the viola. Meanwhile, composition took me to the theater (The Seagull, Tartuffe, Noises Off, HMS Pinafore, Ragtime). When not writing music, it's all teaching orchestra to the Youth of America. Up on the horizon: staging and recording my one act musical "That is Life!" (you can learn more about me at my website: www.thesoundword.com)

Ken Kaissar (director) just directed Noises Off at the Tri-County Performing Arts Center. His work has been seen mostly in New York City where he directed in the Culture Project’s Women’s Center Stage Festival and at the Epiphany Theatre Company where he directed a new production of A Doll House. He is also a playwright and his adaptation of The Canterbury Tales was commissioned by Columbia University in 2008. Ken holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University .

Greg Romero (playwright/performer) has seen his works performed in New York, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, New Orleans, Louisville, and in elevators, porches, warehouses, loft apartments, punk stages, living rooms, museums, hotels, sidewalks, basements, gardens, and in the bathrooms of Actors' Theater of Louisville. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas and was the first-ever Resident Writer for the ArtsEdge Artist Residency. He currently teaches at Drexel University.

Megan Slater (performer) has worked with Azuka Theatre, Flashpoint Theatre Company, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Simpatico Theatre Project, The Wilma Theater, and most recently Philadelphia Theatre Workshop.

Mike Vernusky (additional music composition) is a composer, performer, and sound artist. He writes music for concertized, theatrical, and filmic environments, primarily through the use of electronic media and live performance. Vernusky won the Grand Prize in Music for the Digital Art Awards in Tokyo and holds degrees from The University of Texas and Mercyhurst College. His music is published on MIT Press, Capstone, Spectrum Press, and Quiet Design.

..................................................

Greg Romero and Ken Kaissar (photo by Tom Gattone)

For more information about THIRTY-THREE, you can visit here or here. You can also find us on Facebook.

We hope to see you on March 22nd!!

sincerely,

ROMERO

THIRTY-THREE at The Rotunda

2010-03-03T20:02:00.002-05:00

THIRTY-THREE
Conceived and Performed by Greg Romero
Directed by Ken Kaissar

Created and Inspired by:
Alexandra Bassett, Ilana Brownstein, Hugh Craig, GerRee Hinshaw, Kate Houlihan, Deven MacNair, Nancy Mouton and Chester Forest, Dustin Puryear, Greg Romero, Sean Schneyer, Hank Schwemmer, Don Slater, Heidi Taylor, Angela Turner, and Jeff Williams

Additional Gifts by:
Jodi Alonzo; The Burn Ward Theater Company; Deena Gerson; Wanda, Doyle, and Kristi Reeves; and Pat and Johnie Romero

......................................................

WHEN: Monday, March 22nd, 2010; 7:33 PM

WHERE: The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St
Philadelphia PA

ADMISSION: Bring a gift!

.......................................................

Last year I asked every person I knew to give me three dollars. I was trying to create a "patron collective" in an effort to give myself continued time to work on a number of artistic projects.

I have been incredibly moved by the response.

As a return gift, everyone who offered their generosity has their name archived inside the creative works I created last fall. For all time.

The full list of Awesome People is found here:

And for people who were especially generous, I promised I would create and perform something, anything, just for them.

And that's what THIRTY-THREE is (it's also how old I am).

It is a gift-exchange, a theatrical promise kept, a dare, a rite of passage, a live performance inspired and created by friends originating from a place of generosity and challenge and a sense of fun.

And it will be performed by me, even though I haven't performed much at all in the past ten years.

At THIRTY-THREE you will see: a wrestler, a thanksgiving dinner, an affair with a turkey, Hideki Matsui, Mou Shou Pork, birth, death, dreams, pear trees, Moonpies, phone calls with love on the other end, a multi-gender prostitute, a ghost, a peacock, an alien, and my mom.

You will see some of the most personal writing I've done since The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard.

And this all scares me to death (in a good way).

I look forward to sharing this experience with you, and ask that you bring the gift of your attendance, as well as a gift for me, Ken, or The Rotunda.

We promise to give you many gifts in return.

Big thank yous to all the gift-givers, to Gina Renzi and The Rotunda, and to Ken Kaissar for his direction.

Sincerely,

Greg Romero
THIRTY-THREE

p.s. if you plan to attend, you can RSVP here.

DANDELION MOMMA Plays at the Painted Bride

2010-02-19T20:52:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday, February 17th, my play DANDELION MOMMA was staged at The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia as part of their on-going new play development series, "The Bridal Salon".

The play was staged by Anthony Kamani, a stranger to me before the event started, who quickly became a wonderful new collaborator. Kamani enlarged the play, skillfully seeing both my vision of these worlds as well as bringing his own to the party. Anthony introduced me to lovely new actors I've never worked with before, brought in a live cello player to accompany the reading, and generally brought a whole lot of fun, enthusiasm, and good energy to the play. This staging expressed the play with added dimension, new rhythms, and gravitas (embodied beautifully by actress Meryl L. Brown as "Augustine").

The Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia PA

As with all these opportunities to step inside my writing, I learned a lot from being able to see the play brought to life for a moment. Of this particular process, I experienced a wider sense of possibility for these characters, some new discoveries, and a renewed passion for the play.

It was my hope that the Bridal Salon process would convince me to continue believing in this play, and to continue to seek opportunity for sharing it with a larger audience.

Big thank yous to the Painted Bride, LaNeshe Miller, Anthony Kamani, Meryl L. Brown, Carly Bodnar, Khalil Munir, Izzy Forte, Emma Berry, and Monica McIntyre for bringing life to the play, and to the friends in attendance who shared the moment with us.

rock on,

ROMERO

ZOMBIE HEART SALAD SANDWICH at The Shubin Theatre

2010-01-24T16:53:00.004-05:00

My short play, ZOMBIE HEART SALAD SANDWICH, will play at Philadelphia's Shubin Theatre on Tuesday, February 9th.

Selected to be part of "Primary Stages", a developmental program produced by Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC), the staged reading will be directed by PDC Executive Director Wally Zialcita and performed by Mark W. Robson and Megan Slater.

I am thrilled to step inside this play again, and look forward to the challenges and discoveries ahead of us. Big thank yous to PDC for its continued support of local playwrights, and to my awesome, fun collaborators on this project.

rock on,

ROMERO

UPDATE: Feb 9, 2010: Due to weather conditions (a blizzard!) this project has been postponed to a date to be announced.

THIRTY-THREE Begins

2009-12-07T15:44:00.010-05:00

In the spirit of on-going gift-exchange, last fall I made the following offer to my friends:

For any gift larger than $ 33 (2 dang 3s, plus that's how old I am), I will perform ANYTHING you ask me to, for up to three minutes. Send me a piece of writing, a challenge, a piece of music, a dream, an object, a demand, a question, a drawing, an impossible task, and I will perform it, somehow, on January 1, 2010. For serious. Make it something awesome. Dare me. I will perform anything and everything asked of me as part of the performance, Thirty-Three.

Eighteen very generous friends responded, twelve of them giving me a performance challenge. I am now working, for the month of December, on creating a performance project from their generosity.

Thank you to those of you that helped, here is the performance challenge inspired by you:

--------------------------------------

Family of 9 at the dinner table. And you're all 9 of em. And oh shucks Benoit just spilled the gay.

A monologue about birthdays: 13, 23, and 33

Father visits the aquarium on Mondays and the arcade on Thursdays

A monologue from Hideki Matsui's perspective about Game 6 of the World Series

A project involving wrestling

My birthday and my name

Something re: mou shu pork

Something in Outer Space, no Zombies allowed

"Moonpies" by Hank Schwemmer

A dream about pear trees

A bit from The Wind in the Willows as Mr. Toad

The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and Abu Graib torture photos

A peacock at my parent's house

Something about cell phones

-----------------------------------

These gifts (along with the dozens of other gifts offered to me through the project, Three Dang Dollars), have given me the opportunity to work on a number of creative projects that I otherwise would not have the time for.

THANK YOU very much, my THIRTY-THREE collaborators:

Jodi Alonzo
Alexandra Bassett
Ilana Brownstein
The Burn Ward Theatre Company
Hugh Craig
Deena Gerson
GerRee Hinshaw
Kate Houlihan
Deven MacNair
Nancy Mouton and Chester Forest
Dustin Puryear
Wanda, Doyle, and Kristi Reeves
Pat and Johnie Romero
Sean Kendall Schneyer
Hank Schwemmer
Don Slater
Heidi Taylor
Angela Turner
Jeff Williams

sincerely,

ROMERO

THE MILKY WAY CABARET Completes Another Journey

2009-11-30T16:00:00.008-05:00

Late Saturday evening, November 22nd, Amazing Arnie's life was spared one last time by his daughter, Travlin' Alice, who traveled through 28 years of black holes to stop a bullet before it reached the alcoholic magician's body.

Angela Parsons as Travlin' Alice

After journeying to Dallas, Texas, to watch several of Audacity Theatre Lab's performances of my "time-traveling tragicomedy", THE MILKY WAY CABARET, it is my hope that Arnie will get another shot at his magic acts, that Alice will continue to brave the stars, and that Buzz and Charlotte will keep re-growing their hearts together while staked-out for their next assassination.

Buzz (Tyson Rinehart) and Charlotte (Rhianna Mack)

I learned a lot from this play's second production, thanks to the good work put in by the good folks of Audacity Theatre Lab, and to some good conversations with my own traveling companion (the lovely and talented Megan Slater). This trip taught me that, though the play has its flaws, there are a lot of good things about it-- there is a lot of beauty, pain, imagination, and magic inside of it. And the artists of Audacity did a wonderful job bringing out the play's strengths.

Jeff Swearingen as Amazing Arnie

In addition to the good work, I was moved by the company's hospitality, generosity, and companionship while I was in town. It is these kinds of experiences that make me thrilled to be an artist and feel privileged for the opportunity to share my work.

Big thank yous to Brad McEntire, Ruth Engel, Jeff Swearingen, Jeff Hernandez, Cassidy Crown, Tyson Rinehart, Rhianna Mack, Angela Parsons, Trista Wyly, Jaymes Gregory, Sarah Barnes, and Megan Slater, for a wonderful, memorable journey.

Thank you also to the friends who came out to see the show (you rock, Jason Tremblay and Sheila Doyle), and to Mark Lowry for his thoughtful press coverage of the performance.

Travlin' Alice out in space

As with all of these projects, I loved the experience, and I look forward to the next one.

rock on,

ROMERO

DALLAS to Play at The Shubin Theatre

2009-11-24T11:00:00.005-05:00

My project, DALLAS, will be presented for one night, November 24th, 2009, at The Shubin Theatre in Philadelphia as part of Primary Stages, an ongoing developmental forum for new short plays, co-produced by Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC) and The Secret Room Theatre.

The play steps inside a 24-hour greasy-spoon diner inside the haunted brain of Clinton J. Hill, the Secret Service Agent who couldn't quite save John F. Kennedy's life.

Clint Hill on the back of the President's limousine, November 22, 1963

The piece, originally written as one of 37 of TRAVEL PLAYS, has become another collaboration between me and electronic music composer Mike Vernusky. Vernusky has created an 11-minute composition that includes a re-creation of the voices of Arlen Specter (voiced by Michael Kranes) and Clinton J. Hill (Cody R. Kirk) from the 1963 Warren Commission hearings after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The project finds its performance legs in the shared space between the script, the composition, and the movement/gestural language created by director Ken Kaissar and performers Chris Braak, Porter Eidam, Anabelle Garcia, Felicia Leicht, and Aaron Oster.

The play is one of six short works beginning at 8:00 pm at The Shubin Theatre (4th and Bainbridge).

Big thank yous the collaborative team for their great work on this presentation, to co-producers Todd Holtsberry and Bill Rolleri for putting the project together, to Nick Anselmo and Nan Gilbert at Drexel University, and to Dianna Marino, for who the orginal play, DALLAS, was written.

rock on,

ROMERO

I Breathe Fire More

2009-11-20T00:21:00.005-05:00

I am happy to learn that I will continue teaching at Drexel University for both the Winter and Spring terms of 2010. A quarter system, I will teach consecutive 10-week terms, beginning early January through early June.

Hot!

Currently teaching "Dramatic Analysis" (and totally enjoying it), I will have the privilege of teaching two courses each upcoming term: "Theatre History I" and "Theatrical Experience" in the Winter (January-April) and "Theatre History II" and "Theatrical Experience" in the Spring (April-June).

Because I am not a historian, these assignments will add to my own theatrical education, which I am thrilled about. This assignment will force be just as much as a student as the Drexel undergrads, which is something I always hope for/attempt to create while teaching. Together we will make some fun discoveries through thousands of years of studying live events and I look forward to the journey.

rock on,

ROMERO

The Amazing Arnie at THE MILKY WAY CABARET

2009-10-15T16:28:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite actors, Jeff Swearingen, transforms himself into "Amazing Arnie" in my play, THE MILKY WAY CABARET, opening in Dallas on November 12th.

Jeff Swearingen as "The Amazing Arnie"

I am very excited about this production, and thrilled to see what other kinds of magic Audacity Theatre Lab brings to the party.

Tickets, by the way, are NOW on sale.

HOT!

rock on,

ROMERO

THE TRAVEL PLAYS Journey to NYC

2009-10-05T16:37:00.006-04:00

On Wednesday, October 7th, my potlatch/roadtrip project, THE TRAVEL PLAYS will begin a journey through a four-day, ten-hour workshop/discovery process with Boomerang Theatre Company in New York City.

The project, 37 different plays written for 37 different friends (taking place in 37 different locations), will be explored by six different directors leading six different creative teams. Each team will work on 6-7 plays, exploring/exploding these works with one leading maxim-- be as imaginative and as creative as possible. And have a fucking blast!

The work will culminate in a group-sharing event, open to the public on Saturday, October 10th at 5:00 pm. (if you are reading this and in the NYC area, I would LOVE to see you there!)

I am thrilled to continue working on this project, as it continues the multi-layered gift-exchange between me, my friends, and my work. I am excited to meet a large group (six directors, over 20 actors) of mostly new collaborators and to continue to make exciting theatrical discoveries about these plays and about live performance in general.

Big thank yous to Tim Errickson, Artistic Director of Boomerang, for his interest in this project, and for organizing and producing the event.

====================

THE TRAVEL PLAYS
by Greg Romero

Directed by:
Adriana Baer, Marielle Duke, Michael Flanagan, Andrew J. Merkel, Daniel Talbott, and Jordana Williams

Dramaturgy by:
Wally Zialcita

Produced by:
Tim Errickson and Boomerang Theatre Company

--------------------------------------

Saturday, October 10th, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Shetler Studios
244 W 54th St 12th Floor
New York NY

(To view the Facebook event page, go here.)

--------------------------------------

rock on,

ROMERO

Rehearsals and Press Coverage Begin for MILKY WAY

2009-10-04T22:28:00.005-04:00

This week, THE MILKY WAY CABARET began rehearsals for Audacity Theatre Lab's November production of the play. Director Brad McEntire tells me things are off to a good start, and that the group is already having a good time diving into the work.

The show also gets a mention by Dallas/Fort-Worth area arts writer Mark Lowry in the popular theater site, Theater Jones. Lowry also links the production's "trailer", which I freaking love.

For more information on the Nov 11-21 production in Dallas, you can visit the online home of Audacity Theatre Lab.

Big thank yous to Brad and Mark for their work.

rock on,

ROMERO

The MILKY WAY to Crash Land Collide with Texas

2009-10-02T11:38:00.006-04:00

The Milky Way gang is headin' to Dallas, bringin' some noise and the entire galaxy with them.

Watch the magical, heart-breaking, hula-hooping, cigarette smoking, impossible journey through black holes:

I Breathe Fire

2009-09-17T15:41:00.004-04:00

Because I am a Drexel Dragon.

Tuesday, September 22nd begins my first day teaching in the Performing Arts department of the Antionette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University.

(can you feel the heat?)

As an Adjunct Faculty member, I will be leading a class of mostly first-term Playwriting/Screenwriting students through "Dramatic Analysis". We will get our hands super dirty taking apart a handful of plays from (and not from) the Western theater canon. And we will compare the dramatic structure of plays to the dramatic structure of the surrounding campus and West Philadelphia architecture.

And we will, of course, spend lots of time traversing through space.

I look forward to the adventures ahead, and thank Nick Anselmo (Theatre Program Director) for bringing me into the University. I look forward to getting to know another group of students, another campus, and to all of the wonderful discoveries ahead.

rock on,

ROMERO

DANG! (Huge Response = Huge Responsibility)

2009-09-08T16:30:00.005-04:00

As the gifts continue to slowly trickle in, the response to my call for help with Three Dang Dollars and Thirty-Three has been beautiful, moving, generous, and highly motivating.

I have received over 90 individual gifts totaling around $ 1,500, which is, of course, incredibly useful and empowering. These gifts will allow me to give more time to my creative projects without having to take on a third job (for now).

(to see the full list of gift givers go HERE and HERE).

The outpouring of help has fueled me with even more motivation to go deeper inside of these projects, and deeper inside of myself as an artist and human. I am overwhelmed now with the urge to give back for all of the generosity I have received. And the best way I know to do that is to create the best work I can, and to work with people on these projects in the most thoughtful, bravest way possible.

These are promises confirmed by your gifts, and I thank you again.

Since the time of my original ask for help, the production dates for The Milky Way Cabaret have been confirmed (November 4-14 in Dallas, Texas) and the creative team of Audacity Theater Lab met just last night to begin exploring the play and to lay the creative groundwork for the production process.

Additionally, the workshop dates for The Travel Plays (An American Potlatch Road-trip) have been set (October 6-11 in New York City) and the good folks of Boomerang Theatre Company and I have begun organizing the creative teams for that project.

Your generosity has helped make these projects possible.

Thank you again to everyone for your gifts, and for believing in me. You are awesome.

Sincerely,

ROMERO

Production Dates Announced for THE MILKY WAY CABARET

2009-08-14T13:46:00.007-04:00

My full-length play, THE MILKY WAY CABARET, will go into production with Audacity Theatre Lab from November 11-21, 2009, in Dallas, Texas.

HECK YEAH.

Travlin' Alice (Cherie A. Roberts) will take another journey through the Milky Way Cabaret.

Originally commissioned by The Cardboard Box Collaborative (Philadelphia), this will be the play's second production, and the second leg of the "3P/3Y Collaboration".

The production will be directed by ATL's Artistic Director, Brad McEntire, and be performed in the black box theater of Teatro Dallas.

Big thank yous to the gang at the Cardboard Box for commissioning me to write the play, to the creative team from the original 2007 Philly Fringe production, and to Brad McEntire and Jeff Swearingen at Audacity for taking an interest in continuing the play's life.

This is a work that I am really proud of, and I am thrilled to be working on it again, and sharing it again with an audience.

rock on,

ROMERO

GOODB(EYE) In the Sky

2009-08-07T16:51:00.003-04:00

"For one week in the middle of the summer a giant eye appears in the sky over the city. At the end of seven days it disappears as suddenly as it had originally materialized..."

As part of Audacity Theatre Lab's radio theatre project, Eye in the Sky, my short work, GOODB(EYE), is now playing as part of the project's second episode.

Audacity Theatre Lab hand-selected a number of playwrights from around the country to take part in this innovative collaboration. The short blurb above served as the launching point for the playwrights to create one to three page scenes, monologues, letters, songs, newspaper clippings, thoughts, etc.

There's an eye in the sky. How has it effected those on the ground? What does it mean? Where did it come from?

From the contributions of the playwrights, Audacity has launched a large-scale project to that will stretch on for the entire first half of 2009. 6-7 episodes, each featuring three radio pieces will be engineered and posted on this website. By the end of the summer, we plan to have the whole series up online.

To listen to GOODB(EYE) as part the three-play episode (featuring additional plays by Erin Courtney and Daniel Talbott), visit the ATL website.

Thank you to Artistic Director Brad McEntire for inviting me into the project, and performers Jeffrey Schmidt and Lydia Mackay (who both, amazingly, appeared in one of my very first plays ten years ago...I love this big small world).

rock on,

ROMERO

Your Three Dollars is Four Months of My Writing

2009-08-05T09:35:00.021-04:00

Dear Friends,

As I near the end of my time as the Resident Writer of the ArtsEdge Residency (which I have totally loved), I am full of ideas on how to continue finding support for my creative work. Because I am determined to stay committed to my writing (and to the time necessary to write as much as possible), I am not above asking for help.

So I am.

I am asking you for THREE DANG DOLLARS.

I am asking you to reach into your pocket, or your change bag, or your milk jar, and pull out three crispy (or crumpled) bills, three bucks worth of coins, three dang dollars.

Why Three?

Because three…is the magic number (yes, it is).

And because I have done the Math, and if everyone I ask throws down three dollars, I will have enough support to get me from September (when my residency ends) through the end of December.

Therefore, Three Dang Dollars = Four Dang Months.

Together we can be an awesome, grassroots Patron Collective.

But for the Math to work, I need help from everybody (and feel free to give more, just in case!).

So why should you give me three dang dollars?

1. Because it’s a generous gift, without being burdensome. Those three dollars will probably come back to you next time you have a beer with me.

2. Because your three dollars will allow me time and space to work on the following awesome projects:

A: The Most Beautiful Lullaby You’ve Ever Heard. I am collaborating with Austin-based composer Mike Vernusky in a slammin’ new production featuring his electronic music composition (which sounds INCREDIBLE). Our target date for production is the 2010 Philly Fringe Festival.

B: Completion of the first draft of The Babel Project. “Babel” is another collaboration with Vernusky—an “electro-theater” event that is cracking open our understanding of language and sound (audible and non). It is our biggest, most ambitious project to date. Our early work on it has us ridiculously excited. We are creating the project for full production in the Fall of 2011.

C: Continued work and production of Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich. I am developing this 15-20 minute piece for production with two additional Zombie-themed plays written by Philadelphia artists. We are targeting a brain-eating, Fall/Winter 2009 or early 2010 production.

D: Fall/Winter production of The Milky Way Cabaret. This full-length play is going into a November production with the cool cats of Dallas-based group, Audacity Theatre Lab. I am working on the script in preparation for what is its second production (it premiered in the 2007 Philly Fringe Festival).

E: Continued work on The Travel Plays: An American Potlatch Roadtrip. Many of you have already helped on this project (and thank you!). I am in conversation with a New York theater company about a potential Fall/Winter workshop in the Apple (we are going to bust it open!).

F: International, multi-city staging of The Marco Polo Project. I am organizing a worldwide event, which will perform this site-specific piece about cowboys, clowns, world explorers, and loss, in bathrooms all over the globe.

G: The live project, Thirty-Three, which will be performed on January 1, 2010 (01/01/10 = 3). This public performance will be based completely on your response to THIS fundraising letter. (Yes, you read that right...you are participating in a performance possibility at this very moment.)

And that should be enough work to do for the next four months. :)

BUT!!—to make all of this work come to life, I need your THREE DANG DOLLARS (or more!) for the necessary time and space to create and complete these projects.

Very simply, without your help this work cannot be done.

And to thank you for your support, I offer these gifts in return:

I will acknowledge you on my website on the page “Awesome People”. I am happy to hyper-link your name to your personal, business, or favorite web address.

In every script I create from now until the end of December 2009, I will include your name under the heading, “The following work was made possible by the support and awesomeness of the following Awesome People”.

A beer or coffee (or cupcake) when you and I hang out again.

For gifts larger than $ 33 (2 dang 3s, plus that's how old I am), I will perform ANYTHING you ask me to, for up to three minutes. Send me a piece of writing, a challenge, a piece of music, a dream, an object, a demand, a question, an impossible task, and I will perform it, somehow, on January 1, 2010. For serious. Make it something awesome. Dare me. I will perform anything and everything asked of me as part of the performance, Thirty-Three. (I will archive these offerings here).

So let’s do it!!!

THREE DANG DOLLARS!!!

And if you are feeling more generous (and want me to perform something for up to three minutes!):

36 dang dollars gets me through a day
250 dang dollars gets me through a week
1,000 dang dollars gets me through a month
4,000 dang dollars gets me through the end of the year

The best, quickest way to send your gift is to PayPal me at the email address: gregoryromero@yahoo.com

Otherwise, you can mail your gifts to:

Greg Romero

322 N 39th St

Philadelphia PA 19104

THANK YOU for helping me create live performance!!

Have an awesome dang day!!

Sincerely,

ROMERO

Thirty-Three

2009-08-05T09:27:00.037-04:00

In a recent fund-raising pitch, I have offered a special gift to the generous folks who offer a gift of Thirty-Three dollars or more.

The offer:

For gifts larger than $ 33 (2 dang 3s, plus that's how old I am), I will perform ANYTHING you ask me to, for up to three minutes. Send me a piece of writing, a challenge, a piece of music, a dream, an object, a demand, a question, a drawing, an impossible task, and I will perform it, somehow, on January 1, 2010. For serious. Make it something awesome. Dare me. I will perform anything and everything asked of me as part of the performance, Thirty-Three.

I will list the donors on this page, as well as what they are asking me to perform. I will also keep this page updated with any other specific performance information.

I look forward to it!

Gift-Givers (and their gift to be performed)
--------------------------------------------
1. Jodi Alonzo (TBA)
2. Alexandra Bassett (Family of 9 at the dinner table. And you're all 9 of em. And oh shucks Benoit just spilled the gay).
3. Ilana Brownstein (TBA)
4. The Burn Ward Theater Company (TBA)
5. Hugh Craig (a monologue about birthdays: 13, 23, and 33)
6. Deena Gerson (TBA)
7. GerRee Hinshaw (Father visits the aquarium on Mondays and the arcade on Thursdays)
8. Kate Houlihan (a monologue from Hideki Matsui's perspective about Game 6 of the World Series)
9. Deven MacNair/Fire! (a project involving wrestling)
10. Nancy Mouton and Chester Forest (my birthday)
11. Dustin Puryear (something re: mou shu pork)
12. Wanda, Doyle, and Kristi Reeves (TBA)
13. Pat and Johnie Romero (TBA)
14. Sean Kendall Schneyer (Something in Outer Space, no Zombies allowed)
15. Hank Schwemmer ("Moonpies" by Hank Schwemmer)
16. Heidi Taylor (A dream about pear trees)
17. Angela Turner (a bit from Wind and the Willows as Mr. Toad)
18. Jeff Williams (The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and Abu Graib torture photos)

--------------------------------------------
To donate your Thirty-Three Dollars, you can PayPal me at gregoryromero@yahoo.com

Or mail me at:

Greg Romero
322 N 39th St
Philadelphia PA 19104

To read the entire fund-raising letter, go here.

Thank you!!

sincerely,

ROMERO

Awesome People

2009-08-02T21:21:00.074-04:00

My creative work is made possible by the support and awesomeness of the following Awesome People (who rule):

(to become an awesome person, go here)

Jodi Alonzo
Alexandra Bassett
Chuck Bradford/Dr. Brad Chuckly
Ilana Brownstein
The Burn Ward Theater Company
Gregory Scott Campbell
Molly Casey
Central Dollars Gang and Sxxxy Chocolate (Jodi Alonzo, Jeff Carpenter, Erena Messina, and Bryan Nelson)
Bella Bear Coyne
David Coyne
Hugh Craig
Betsy Currie
Rob Cutler
John D'Alonzo
Kimberly Dilts
Rebecca Ennen
Beca Fried
Amparo Garcia-Crow
Deena Gerson
Lucy Gillespie
Jenae Yerger Glanton
Steve Gleich
Megan Gogerty
Lisa Grande
Jennifer Haley
Stacey Hardke
Rand, Barb, Mae Mae, and Precious Harmon
Anna Hebden
GerRee Hinshaw
Kate Houlihan
Cameron Ingram
Richard Jensen
Tim Johnson
Greg Kalleres
Spring Karlo
Danielle Kindt
Richard Kotulski and LiteraryManager.org
Lindsay Krieg
Robby Lambert/Earthquake McGoon
Daniel LeBlanc
Larry Loebell
Deven MacNair/Fire!
Eve Harrington Scholarship Winner Taylor Maddux
Jennifer Maisel
Eddie Manes
Jamie Marchi
Elizabeth McDonnell (to raise money to fight breast cancer, go here)
Brad McEntire
Jennifer Meisinger
Andrew J. Merkel
Christiana Molldrem
Christi Moore
Dawson Moore
Nancy Mouton and Chester Forest
Erica S. Nagel
Patti Neff
Osric Publishing
Jen (the Hen) Patureau
"The Nature Boy" Randy Pease (Woooooo!)
Misty Pelas
Sean Petrie
Sarah Pitre/Powder Blue
Ted Powell
Abby Pudlewski
Dustin Puryear
Joe Rawley
Wanda, Doyle, and Kristi Reeves
Cherie A. Roberts
Francisco Rodriguez
Will Rogers
William Rolleri
Chantel Rome
Pat and Johnie Romero
Genevieve and Aaron Saenz
Eric Sanders
April Feld Sandor
KC Scharnberg
Robert Schenkkan
Sean Kendall Schneyer
Hank Schwemmer
Jeffrey Skinner
Don Slater
Megan Slater
Fraser Snowden
Vanessa L. Sparling
Ms. Such
Jules Tasca
Heidi Taylor
Angela Turner
Mike Vernusky
Lucy Walters
Skipper Chong Warson
Miriam White
Allison Whittinghill
Jeff Williams
Gavin Witt
Rachel Wood
Abe Louise Young
Wally Zialcita
Lauren Zinn

THANK YOU!

Sincerely,

ROMERO

The Hawk Never Dies

2009-08-02T20:11:00.004-04:00

I just received word that I will be returning to my teaching position at Saint Joseph's University (Philadelphia). I had a wonderful time at SJU last year and am thrilled to continue my position as Adjunct Faculty, teaching the course "American Theater" in the Fine and Performing Arts Department (to read about the awesome final projects from last semester's "Intro the Theater" class, go here).

Thank you to all my students for such a great experience, and to Renee Dobson for the opportunity to teach, and for her continued support of my work in the classroom.

I look forward to the year ahead--to meeting new students, to continuing the relationships with last year's group, to our continued journeys through "space" together, and to my own continued journey through teaching/learning and how to explore/explode dynamic, imaginative, creative ways of engaging with people and information. I look forward to continue helping people learn, including myself.

It will be fun to see what objects we stand on, how we change the space of the room, how we surprise each other, how we connect huge ideas, how we look through the lens of live art to view our country and our lives, how we rip it up, and how we transform each other by deepening our own understanding of self.

It should be a fun time! Cheers to a good year ahead of us.

GO HAWKS!

rock on,

ROMERO

My Second Year in Philadelphia

2009-07-30T00:57:00.022-04:00

Mark Cairns as The W. K. Webb Sportsplex in The Travel Plays at The Kelly Writers House, Philadelphia PA (January 2009).

After a rewarding and busy first year in Philadelphia, I spent my second year (from the beginning of July 2008 through the end of June 2009) trying to top myself.

I am not sure if I succeeded, but I definitely feel fulfilled by a full year's worth of work. It was another year of learning, of exciting opportunity, of deep questioning, of getting deeper inside the City of Brotherly Love.

As a highlight reel (and to compare it to Year One):

JULY 2008
Worked as a dramaturg on Jennifer Haley's play, Breadcrumbs, as part of the 2008 PlayPenn New Play Conference. It was my first experience in some time working as a dramaturg, and I was generally just happy to be working on the conference (of which I am a fan). I liked Jen's play a lot, and got to work with a lot of new people (both in Philly and nationally) that I didn't know, but was thrilled to meet and experience.

AUGUST 2008
My ten-minute play, Two Bubbles, is published by Playscripts, Inc as part of the anthology Great Short Comedies, Volume 3. The play, originally written in 24 hours, shares a volume with Steven Dietz, Rolin Jones, and others.

Brendan Ahearn, Tiffany Feng, Brad McEntire, Laurie Farris, Jeff Hernandez, and Shannon Marie in Two Bubbles, Audacity Productions / Rover Dramawerks, Plano, Texas (2002). Photo: Carol Rice.

If you are wondering, YES, copies of the play are still on sale.

SEPTEMBER 2008
Began my second year of teaching at The University of the Arts.

Began a new teaching job at Saint Joseph's University, teaching "Introduction to Theater" and "American Theater", mostly to non-theater majors.

My one-act play, Valentine's Day, goes into production as part of the Philly Fringe Festival. The play is produced by The Burn Ward Theater Company as part of the project, Mittens Descending and Other Tales. The play was directed by Andrew J. Merkel and performed by Molly Casey on September 5th and 6th.

Cherie A. Roberts as "Elida" in Shovel.

My Butoh-inspired piece, Shovel, is re-imagined as a site-specific project, 4 x 4, which featured four short, theatrical pieces staged in environmental spaces inside of Plays and Players Theater (Shovel was performed in the theater's catacombs). The play, also part of the Philly Fringe Festival, was directed by Andrew J. Merkel, performed by Cherie A. Roberts, with costume design by Jamie Grace-Duff.

Elected to the Board of Directors of Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC) and appointed as the Board's Secretary.

OCTOBER 2008
Moved to West Philadelphia, beginning the first-ever ArtsEdge Residency, created by the University of Pennsylvania and The Kelly Writers House. I begin an eleven-month term as "Resident Writer", offered subsidized living and studio space in the West Philly community. The Residency introduces me to a number of wonderful people, writers, and events, as well as to a part of the city that was unknown to me. Big, continued thank-yous to Jessica Lowenthal, Erin Gautsche, Al Filreis, Greg Djanikian, and Gina Renzi for making it all happen.

Complete the short piece, Goodb(eye), written for Audacity Theatre Lab's Eye in the Sky project.

The Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series and I get pepper-sprayed in the ensuing Broad Street riots. I also am almost crushed by a dumpster that was on fire.

NOVEMBER 2008
A pretty historic (and awesome) event takes place, sending the city into its third riot within six days. I do not almost die, but feel reborn.

My Butoh-inspired play, Shovel, goes into performance as part of the inaugural New Orleans Fringe Festival. The piece is produced by Austin-based Cisne Negro Productions and performed in the dive bar, Hi-Ho Lounge, on St. Claude Avenue.

Briana McKeague and Odile Nicole Del Giudice of Cisne Negro Productions.

DECEMBER 2008
Attended a free lecture given by Robert Wilson at Drexel University, which opened with him standing in silence for ten minutes at a podium. He later declared that we should burn down the universities. I became an even bigger Bob Wilson fan.

Completed Doctor Helix and Keggy the Keg, a ten-minute play written as a gift for my microbiologist, home-brewing brother-in-law, Adam Guss. The play is a fictional re-telling of the kidnapping of the unofficial mascot of Dartmouth University.

Keggy the Keg, before he was kidnapped.

JANUARY 2009
Began my second semester teaching at Saint Joseph's University.

Began teaching Creative Writing at The University of Pennsylvania, my first Ivy League teaching gig. The course I taught was: "Space, Place, and Character in Playwriting and Fiction". We read plays and fiction, wrote every class period, explored lot of weird spaces on campus, participated in a Flash Mob, field tripped to the Annenberg Center, to the Mutter Museum, created characters and expressed them through MySpace profiles, watched a play together, had class in the dark, had class in the park, and the students wrote A LOT of great work.

An in-progress version of the epic project, The Travel Plays, is presented at The Kelly Writers House as part of my ArtsEdge Residency. The project is directed by Wally Zialcita and performed by a really talented, fun ensemble: Mark Cairns, Michael Dura, Tomas Dura, Lyndsay Hart, Dawn Harvey, Brittany Holdahl, Aaron Oster, Jerry Rudasill, and Andrew J. Tardif.

The Travel Play, "Jackson", written for Tim Fawkes. From left to right: Michael Dura (blurred) as Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew J. Tardif as Johnny Cash, Lyndsay Hart as Andrew Jackson, Jerry Rudasill and Mark Cairns as The Bar That Burns Down.

FEBRUARY 2009
Organized and curated "The Zombie Bake-Off" (along with help from Philly-based director and actor, Daniel Student), a writing event connected to the inaugural Philadelphia New Play Initiative Conference, whose keynote speaker is Paula Vogel. The event, hosted by Plays and Players and Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC), inspires almost 20 new plays about zombies, abuse, and chicken salad sandwiches (truncated versions of the three "ingredients" given to the writers), including my offering, Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich.

MARCH 2009
Completed the first draft/journey of The Travel Plays (An American Potlatch Road-trip), a collection of 37 short plays that journey from the Walt Whitman Bridge to Ozona, Texas, and back. All 37 plays are mailed to each of the 37 friends who inspired their individual play.

Belize's Place, a full-length play co-written by me and Austin-based playwright/musician Jason Tremblay (under the collaborative pseudonym "Tav Keyinde"), is given a first-read.

Joined InterAct Playwright's Forum, a collective/support-group of invited Philadelphia playwrights that meet monthly at InterAct Theatre's home in the Adrienne Theater.

Nominated for the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theater Artist, a $10,000 award given annually to a Philadelphia theater artist of exceptional promise. This is a huge honor for me, especially considering the brief time I've spent creating art in Philadelphia. I do not win the award, but am thrilled to be considered.

APRIL 2009
A workshop production of my full-length play, Dandelion Momma, is presented at The Kelly Writer's House, as part of my ArtsEdge Residency. The project is directed by Wally Zialcita, dramaturged by Terri Epp, and performed by Kevin Bergen, Wendie Hetherington, Brenna Schiman, and Miriam White.

Brenna Schiman as "Delores" in Dandelion Momma.

MAY 2009
My one-act play (one of my first plays ever!), The Ride, is presented at Saint Joseph's University, as a senior project directed by Fine and Performing Arts major (and Varsity basketball player) Edwin Lashley.

My one-act play, Valentine's Day, is performed at the University of San Diego, also as a senior project, by one of my former National Theater Institute students, Stacey Hardke.

Another production of Valentine's Day (another university project, another former NTI student, Ben Smolen, directs it) is scheduled for production at Wesleyan University, but canceled due to an unfortunate campus tragedy.

My one-act plays, Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich and Doctor Helix and Keggy the Keg, go into production in Austin, Texas, by Debutantes and Vagabonds at the Rollins Theater at the Long Center for the Performing Arts as part of the project, Are You Alive? The plays are directed by Amanda Garfield, and the production runs for three performances, May 14, 15, and 16.

Began creation of a new collaborative work, The Babel Project, with on-going creative partner and electronic music composer Mike Vernusky.

JUNE 2009
Celebrated my 33rd birthday with fireworks at a Camden Riversharks game in New Jersey.

Contributed (along with seven other unknown/anonymous writers) to the collaboratively-written (in the style of Tennessee Williams) play, We Share the Same Air for a Moment, as part of Anonymous Theater, produced by Philadelphia Dramatists Center.

Returned to The National Theater Institute (at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT) to work as the Playwriting Faculty for the Summer Intensive Training Program: TheaterMakers.

Ate really amazing blueberry pancakes at The Broken Yolk Cafe in New London, CT.

In all, it has been an outstanding, rewarding year. In addition to the work, I have continued to learn the city, feeling more and more like Philadelphia is my home. I have found more friends, more beauty, more of the city's little secrets, and more truths (and questions) about myself.

I am looking forward to the journey of Year Three, and hope that I can continue to contribute to the city, as well as find new ways to grow as an artist and human.

Thank you to everyone for a really good year.

rock on,

ROMERO

ZOMBIE HEART SALAD SANDWICH to be Served in the Barn

2009-07-17T20:23:00.005-04:00

My one-act play, ZOMBIE HEART SALAD SANDWICH, will go up before an audience in the Margo and Rufus Rose Barn Theater at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center (in Waterford, CT) on Tuesday evening, July 21st (2009).

The performance will be part of the National Theater Institute's Summer Intensive program, where I am currently teaching Playwriting. Each Tuesday during the summer, the students create and prepare an entirely new production of new works, which express an on-going laboratory for the advanced "TheaterMakers" to explore and apply their intensive training in a collaborative and project-based process.

I am thrilled to be invited to contribute my own writing to this ongoing project/process, and am excited to be working with guest director Gregg Wiggans, and NTI student performers Aaron Profumo (Oberlin College) and Kristen Johnson (Carleton College).

The play was originally written in two and a half days during February 2009 as part of a "Bake Off" created to celebrate Philadelphia's New Play Initiative Conference and its keynote guest, Paula Vogel. The play has since seen production earlier this summer in Austin, Texas, with Debutantes and Vagabonds as part of Are You Alive?, produced in The Rollins Theater at the Long Center for the Performing Arts (directed by Amanda Garfield).

The experience at the O'Neill, however, will be my first time in rehearsal with the play and I am looking forward to the discoveries and exploration ahead with my talented collaborators.

And I am LIVING A DREAM to have my writing up and being performed in the historic Barn Theater, adding my own contribution to the unique and rich legacy of The O'Neill Theater Center.

Thank you to Jeff Janisheski, Artistic Director of the National Theater Institute, for inviting me to contribute my work, as well as Nick Roesler, Associate Director of TheaterMakers, for making it all happen in the awesomest way possible.

rock on,

ROMERO

Anonymous Theater in Philadelphia

2009-07-14T11:00:00.005-04:00

Having kept the secret long enough, I can now reveal that I contributed (along with a number of Philadelphia playwrights--- none of whom knew who the other contributors were!) to a really fun theater event, Anonymous Theater, produced by the Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC) at the Wilma Theater on Monday, July 13th.

I was unfortunately unable to attend (I am still at The O'Neill), but the early responses I've received have all been very enthusiastic. From what I understand, it was a hugely fun evening and I was happy to contribute to the good times.

It was a sincere blast to find my inner Tennessee Williams, allowing me to return to my southern roots and my love for Williams' writing. I only wish I could have seen and heard the performance out loud.

But I am encouraged by the responses, and I am hopeful that this event will continue to contribute to forward momentum being created by PDC (and others) in the effort to more deeply transform Philadelphia into a more dynamic, creative, highly fun new-play city.

Big thank yous to Richard Kutolski for producing the event, Wally Zialcita for his organizing and dramaturgy (and for inviting me to participate), Daniel Student for directing what must have been an impossible (and impossibly fun) process, and to the other writers and the performers for taking such a bold and risky creative leap into the void.

Below is a description of the event:

....................................

Anonymous Theatre:
The World Premiere of a Play by
(a group of writers writing in the style of)
Tennessee Williams.

A play is written in secret by a group of playwrights whose identities are kept secret--even to each other.

The play is cast with actors whose identities are kept secret--especially from each other.

The actors rehearse one-on-one with their director, but never with each other, and never in the theatre.

On the night of the performance, the actors arrive in street clothes, indistinguishable from the audience members. As you wait in the lobby, then take your seat in the house, you wonder ... who among us is in the play? Is it that nervous fellow sitting on the aisle? Is it this quiet woman sitting right in front of me? Is it someone in my party?

The actors in the play are thinking the very same thing. As each of them comes to their entrance cue, they will stand and start speaking their opening lines as they make their way to the stage. And only on the stage, in front of a live audience, will they discover for the first time their collaborators in drama, romance, conflict, redemption .... or the actor's nightmare.

For the first time ever, PDC is presenting an original play, raising the stakes even higher for a concept that was already full of risk. All of the playwrights involved are PDC members save one -- the adopted muse for this play.

For one night only, come see the spirit of Tennessee Williams brought back to life in this world premiere event.

.................................

ROMERO

The Other Room

2009-06-10T22:38:00.004-04:00

I awake but I can’t open my eyes. And I wonder how long I’ve been trying. I go to pry them open with my hands, but my hands are tied behind my back. I feel the strain on my shoulder as I try to break free. Little knives dance down my arm as it wakes up from its own slumber.

I have no idea where I am or how I got here.

Am I dreaming?

I try to stay still and listen to what’s surrounding me, try to make sense of what is going on. I can hear the traffic sounds…cars passing by on a nearby street. I don’t hear any people, so I wonder if I’m outside the city. From what I can tell, I am in a room (I am definitely inside) with an open window…or maybe an open door. I can almost feel a breeze.

The cars continue passing, but they do not notice me…it is the only sound, lonely as a single vibrating violin string, humming forever across an empty continent.

And I wonder if I’ll ever be able to play again.

Should I scream for help?

I am too scared of calling attention to whoever might be holding me captive, so I remain silent.

And then, the stench hits me. Urine. And shit.

I have been bound in this chair (I assume it’s a chair…a wooden one?) for so long that I have emptied my bowels all over myself. I adjust my body enough to feel the wet sand I am sitting in, confirming that I am full of waste.

How long have I been here? Hours? Days?

Is there any way of knowing?

I try to stand up, but my entire body is bound and I am filthy and helpless.

I try to piece my memory together—do I remember anything?

Nothing stirs in my mind. No clues reveal themselves. Blank and soiled, I sit and continue to listen to the cars pass on the road, and a few of them begin to sound like the ocean.

I feel myself drifting, but I cannot allow myself to dream…I must find a way out.

I scream for help—maybe my voice is urgent enough to reach into a distant passerby’s ear. The air fills my lungs and I cry out, but my voice is stopped by something in my mouth…a rag? A towel? A gag? The texture pushed against my tongue is rough, perhaps an entire bathrobe is shoved in my face.

I keep screaming and can feel my voice filling my own ears, and I continue, desperately, until the screams press upon my temples and blanket my brain. But none of the sounds can get out and I begin to taste the blood from the back of my throat, all for nothing.

Why am I here?

I have no idea.

I rock my chair side to side, trying to tip myself over onto the ground. The wood creaks under my weight, and I am sickened by the excrement mushing under my body as I shift myself from one side of the chair to the other.

Finally, I fall over to the ground, landing hard and loud onto the floor. The side of my face tells me I’m on hardwoods, perhaps…pine? No, maple.

I hear a door slide open…glass doors? I hear footsteps walk towards me from the other room, their sound echoes through the vibrations I feel pass against my face pressed onto the floor. The footsteps walk closer, until I know they are right next to me.

Who is standing over me?

A voice above me says, “Walter?”

It is a man, and he knows my name. And, of course, I cannot answer.

He presses the heel of his shoe against my face, taunting me. Slowly, he shifts his weight until my cheek feels the entire burden of his body. And, of course, I cannot scream. I can only wait and hope for him to stop.

Something in my face pops, I don’t know what it is, but it is a bigger knife and it is stabbing me just underneath my left eye.

He finally removes his foot from my ruined face and I can smell the fresh blood, feel its warmth as it slides down my cheek, an adagio of pain.

I want to ask him who he is, why he’s put me here, but I can’t, and it hurts too much anyway.

“Can you hear me?”

I know of no way to answer him but to squirm my body on the ground, enough for him to assume I’m still barely alive and listening.

He takes this as a “yes”.

“Do you recognize my voice?”

I don’t quite. The voice is sonorous, younger than mine, but somehow timeless.

“Do you remember me?”

I wish I could. The voice is still unplaced but not unfamiliar. It is a voice that comes on the end of a comet’s tail if it were swimming through a river.

I can’t make sense of the next few sounds—I know the man steps away from me and I hear three individual snaps. A creaking—a case of some kind opens. What is in there? A gun? A sword?

I hear the footsteps walk more about the room—his steps are direct. Is he looking for something? I hear an object dragging on the floor towards me…a chair?

Yes…he drags the chair next to me, still lying, bound, on the floor. I can feel one of the chair’s cold, metal legs pressed against my forehead. I am sure this is intentional.

I feel the chair bear the weight of the man as he sits down in it. What will happen next?

He clears his throat. And then I hear it—the bow glides over the violin strings and out come the first two, unmistakable, haunting notes. And inside the perfect vibrato of his second note, I know he is playing “Clair de lune”.

He continues playing, elegant and masterful, and I am no longer on the floor, bound to a chair, soaking in my own shit. I am with the angels. I am drifting above the sea with the other lonely and delicate, night-time souls, the moonlight illuminating the water in its wonderful half-light.

The violin sounds naked, even more vulnerable and magical without the piano accompanying, and it sends my soul even higher.

This stranger, my tormentor—or is he my angel?—continues gliding through the music, richly, perfectly, his notes impeccably placed, elegant and longing, his phrasing is graceful and mournful, and I feel he must be certain this is my favorite piece of music, the most perfect piece of music, and also the only piece I have failed to master. Dozens of years of attempting, but I don’t have the skill to play. I’ve always known I couldn’t play it because I loved it too much.

I know he is nearing the end of the music and I never want him to stop. I would lie on this floor, bleeding and broken, if I could continue to listen him play forever.

He reaches Debussy’s final note, capturing and gently holding it in the air for as long as possible, though it will never be long enough for me.

I hear him finally untuck the violin from his neck, the piece is over, but the final sounds continue passing through my mind. I am distracted from mentally replaying the music only when I feel the violin bow puncture my neck and pass all the way through my throat.

I lie on the ground, completely ripped open and spilling on to the floor.

The man stands, and I hear his footsteps leave the room. All is silent now, except for the cars that continue to pass, unchanged, outside the window. I still can make no sense of these last few moments.

Of course, at this point, it doesn’t matter.

I know my time is done. All I have left is the music, which I continue to listen to in my mind as it slowly, painfully fades away, and everything is completely gone.

=================
ROMERO

Profiled in Live Arts & Fringe Festival Blog

2009-05-26T18:24:00.004-04:00

I was interviewed recently for the Live Arts & Philly Fringe Festival Blog. The profile is now posted on the Festival website, with several fun photos. To read the entire article, go HERE.

Big thank yous to Jennifer Hannan for taking the time and interest in interviewing me, and for the lovely write-up.

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ROMERO

Returning to the National Theater Institute

2009-05-20T00:39:00.006-04:00

I am THRILLED that I am asked to return this summer to The National Theater Institute. I will return as the core playwriting faculty, working with the students of the TheaterMakers Summer Intensive Program. Housed on the campus of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, the NTI program is one of the most prestigious and exciting training programs in the country.

I taught at NTI last summer and loved every minute of it. The students were talented, brave, smart, dedicated, and showed a lot of guts by testing themselves in the 7-day a week (no kidding), 6 week program. For 42 days straight, the NTI students push it to the max, and I will be there doing my best to stoke their creative fires, to continue to learn from them, and to help all of us explode the thing wide open.

I also look forward to rejoining several talented teaching artists, including Yuriy Kordonsky (Wesleyan University) and Broadway performer (Passing Strange) Colman Domingo, among others. My work at NTI last summer undoubtedly made me a better teacher, more aware of ways to embody the teaching/learning process, and more dynamic and bold in my own use of space. Because of and motivated by the talent that will surround me, I see this teaching opportunity as a way to challenge own skills as an educator, and to push against my own teaching expectations.

As an added benefit, the summer training will be in session during the National Music Theater Conference, as well as the National Playwrights Conference, and there are lots of fun overlaps betweens these programs as well as a lot of high-quality work to witness.

It is a TRULY exciting place to be during the summer, and I can't wait to get started. We are still sorting through some of the details, but it is likely I will be in residence for the entire six-week program, beginning June 14th through July 27th.

Big thank yous to Jeff Janisheski for re-hiring me this year, and to Nick Roesler for being so radical and mystical. And thank yous again to all of the 2008 crew-- the students and staff-- for such a memorable summer last year.

FORT GRISWOLD OR BUST!!

===============
ROMERO

DANDELION MOMMA Covered in the Live Arts and Fringe Festival Blog

2009-05-15T21:23:00.005-04:00

My play, DANDELION MOMMA, got a nice story in Monday's Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival Blog.

Brenna Schiman as "Delores"

Thank you again to The Kelly Writers House, to the wonderful artists who worked on the project, and to Jennifer Hannan for taking the time to come to the event and share her experience with others.

To read the article, go HERE.

=======
ROMERO

Two Plays to Open in Austin

2009-05-11T21:03:00.007-04:00

From May 14-16, Austin performance group, Debutantes and Vagabonds presents ARE YOU ALIVE?, an evening of short, macabre performance pieces confronting the audience's awareness of whether they are really alive.

The live theatrical performances will be coupled with live music from a different Austin band each night (how Austin!).

Two of my plays, Doctor Helix and Keggy the Keg and Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich, will be part of the line-up.

Doctor Helix was written as a Christmas gift for a brother in law (the title character is based on him-- the doctor, not the anthromorphic beer keg). Zombie was written as part of a city-wide "Bake-Off" project I organized in Philadelphia in February. Both are dark and funny and strange (both plays involve people/things being tied up and abused), and are being fully produced for the first time (Zombie was read out loud during Philadelphia's New Play Initiative Conference).

I unfortunately will not be in attendance for this production, as I am always looking for an excuse to go down to Austin and see good friends and take in the wonderful Austin air. It is my hope that friends still in A-Town will go out and check out the show in my stead.

Big thank yous to Frank Rodriguez for asking me to send him some plays to consider for this project, and to him and Amanda Garfield for selecting these plays and putting so much work into them.

The show funs May 14-16 in the Rollins Theater in The Long Center for the Performing Arts (701 W Riverside).

Here is the info from the producers....

===========================

DOUBLE STEREO and DEBUTANTES & VAGABONDS have co-produced three (3) nights of theater and live music at the Long Center for the Performing Arts on May 14th – 16th with White Ghost Shivers, The Georgian Company, and Scott H. Biram.

Directed by Amanda Garfield and Paula Russell, "Are You Alive" presents an evening of twisted theatre (macabre vignettes written by Hunter Davis, Aimee Gonzalez, Fred Jones IV, Francisco Rodriguez, Greg Romero, and Sarah Saltwick) that will leave the audience wondering what it really means to be alive. Each performance will feature live music from a different Austin band.

* Thursday, May 14th - White Ghost Shivers *

* Friday, May 15th - The Georgian Company *

* Saturday, May 16th - Scott H. Biram *

After each show, the Tiniest Bar in Texas will host a party with complimentary beer and alcohol.

**Performances begin at 8PM and tickets are $15. For tickets or more information, please visit www.dnvtheatre.com.**

==========================

If you are on Facebook, go to event page, HERE.

Rock on,

ROMERO

Saint Joseph's Students ROCK Their Final Projects

2009-05-08T20:40:00.007-04:00

On Thursday, May 7th, students of the "Introduction to Theater" course at Saint Joseph's University presented their final projects before an audience of their supportive and enthusiastic classmates (and me).

Their final projects were to take at least three of the (nine) plays we've read over the course of the semester, to smash them together in some way, and create a performance out of their collision. The rest of the details were up to them.

The biggest expectations I impressed upon them was to make use of what they'd learned over the course of the semester about the plays they've read, their understanding of the uniquely theatrical elements ("what is theater?"), their observations made from witnessing live events, and their in-class experiences with performance, somehow creatively expressing all of this semester-long learning in a 15-20 minute original work of live performance.

But most importantly, I just wanted them to have fun engaging their own creativity.

I deeply believed in all of them, yet the class still exceeded my expectations.

And because I am so thrilled with the projects they came up with and presented to each other on Thursday, I wanted to share them publicly.

Project One was an episode of "Celebrity Jeopardy", hosted by Alex Trebek, with contestants Romeo, Georges Seurat, and Willy Loman. They answered questions from categories like "Plays by Stephen Sondheim", "Shakespearian Tragedies", humorously expressing the tragic flaws of all three of these leading men. Loman wins the final, decisive round, as Romeo and Seurat (bursting into song) both answer incorrectly the question, "what is theatre?". Loman is thrilled that he can now support his family and tell his boss to stick it.

Project Two was a parallel telling of three plays-- Crimes of the Heart, Romeo and Juliet, and Oedipus Rex, as Mafia/crime family adaptations. Re-imagining the McGrath sisters as "three incompetent New Jersey brothers who eagerly await the return of their father from prison", Crimes of the Cannoli was a five-minute play exploring the "main themes of family, loyalty and misfortune". Group Two's second play re-visioned the opening moment of Romeo and Juliet with servants Sampson and Gregory and Montague kinsman Benvolio instead as two warring mafia families (the Lucianos and Costellos), with "Vinnie"/Benvolio as an associate from the Luciano family. A fight breaks out (instigated by "Frankie"/Tybalt), prompting the head of the Gambino family (Prince Escalus as "Nicky Gambino") to threaten the warring families into peace with each other. Their third adaptation was the moment in which Tiresius (as wise "Dr. Milano") reveals the prophecy to Oedipus/"Vinnie Bruno" about his doomed fate as his wife/mother Jocasta/"Concetta Bruno" attempts to console him.

Project Three presented two short plays-- a smashing together of two plays each. The first, Romeo & Juliet: The Seven Year Itch, transformed the final moment of A Doll's House, expressing the Ibsen's Torvald and Nora through Shakespeare's young lovers, thirteen years after their re-imagined union in the Elizabethan tragedy. Juliet tells Romeo she's leaving, that she knows of his affair with Rosalind, and that the young lovers have grown older and distant. She exits amidst Torvald/Romeo's protests, slamming the door in his face. The group's second piece places Crimes of the Heart's Babe (McGrath) Botrelle in a therapy session with Equus's Martin Dysart, in which they both continue to question and come to an understanding about healing and passion and "normal" behavior.

Project Four, titled: Attrition, imagines Babe Botrelle again, this time during her fifth year of institutionalization in Whitfield Asylum. She's visited by Dora Strang, five years after the final curtain of Equus (and now separated from her husband) on a soul-saving mission to the mental hospital. The students took a lot of inspiration from Shaffer's use of space, creating in the classroom an encircled playing area in which the two live actors were divided by a single partition (a piano bench). The third performer (a member of the SJU Softball team and out of town at a tournament) was summoned via an Ipod and narrated the emotional action through the character of Tartuffe's Elmire Pernelle (and in ryhming couplets!). As Babe and Dora gained emotional closeness, the actors invisibly crept forward in their rolling chairs, expressing their emotional distance physically (they also changed time and space during sections of the play by adjusting themselves differently in their chairs and directly addressing the audience with their inner thoughts).

Project Five was a couples group therapy session led by Equus's Martin Dysart. The play opens with Dysart questioning his ability to counsel while the four couples all sit on stage, much like the chorus/horses in Shaffer's drama. Dysart attempts to counsel the Helmers (Nora and Torvald), the Lomans (Willy and Linda), the Maxsons (Troy and Rose from August Wilson's Fences), and Georges Seurat and his pregnant mistress, Dot. The couples find places of intersection and disconnect (even within themselves-- Willy continues searching for his brother Ben, Georges at one point places a cardboard cut-out of himself while he leaves to "finish the hat"), eventually resisting Dysart's counsel and exit, leaving the psychiatrist to contine questioning himself alone on stage.

In short, the students did wonderful work digging into their creative reservoirs and birthing new ways to inhabit and present these plays. They tapped into their creativity in ways that surprised them, and expressed themselves in ways they thought impossible. And more thrilling, it was evident that were really ENJOYING it, evidenced by their hard work, attention to detail, and the sparkle in which they presented themselves.

As an additional assignment, I asked the students to reflect upon their experience working on these creative projects, and I was thrilled with their personal discoveries. Of these, I wanted to share a couple:

"After about 20 minutes into writing, we began to have a great time with the script. We were coming up with new, fresh ideas and the project did not seem to be a burden at all. The problem of not being able to write enough quickly turned into a problem of writing too much and having to edit many parts out to be conscious of time. We became so engulfed in our work that if we were permitted to, would have continued to write an entire script because we were having so much fun with it. Never did I imagine I would have this much fun with the project and so much curiosity would be sparked in me. I learned many things from this project. The main thing I learned was to approach all things with an open mind. Secondly, I learned that I had a creative side of me that I never really thought I had."

"Overall, throughout the length of the semester, I learned how theater in and of itself is a continued experience of the creative journey; and I have a much deeper appreciation for theatrical works. While I learned a great deal, I am well aware that the learning process will only continue long into the future."

These reflections from my students are the highest reward they can offer their instructor, because it demonstrates that they have been transformed by their experiences, and feel more alive because of them. Witnessing their revelations teaches me to continue to search for my own, and to continue finding the joy inside my own creative expression and teaching.

For them, it is my hope that they continue and deepen their dance with this awareness and with their creative selves, as it is clear to me that they all became brave, curious, and joyful learners, open and engaged and full of light.

Thank you again, HAWKS, for a lovely semester.

Sincerely,

ROMERO

Sending Hugs to Wesleyan

2009-05-07T18:20:00.006-04:00

Because of an unfortunate campus tragedy at Wesleyan University on Wednesday, the production of VALENTINE'S DAY is canceled.

The bigger concerns are with the students and University community as they deal with a strange and traumatic event. I send you all my love and hugs, and hope that you are safe and surrounded by good people.

Thank you again Ben Smolen and Emily Vallillo for all that you have given me, I wish I could offer you more right now than just my play.

Sincerely,

ROMERO

VALENTINE'S DAY at Wesleyan

2009-05-06T00:28:00.003-04:00

My solo-performance piece, VALENTINE'S DAY, goes up at Wesleyan University on Friday and Saturday, May 8th and 9th.

The piece is one that is dear to me, originally written for a friend in February 2007. Since that first production (produced by RedHouse Arts in Austin, Texas), the play has gone up once more at the Philly Fringe (September 2008, by The Burn Ward Theater Company) and I am thrilled that it continues its life.

The play is about Opal (who is one of my favorite characters I've ever written) who decides every Valentine's Day if she's going to kill herself. She makes lists, she makes pizzas, she rollerskates, and she's afraid of hula-hoops.

The project is being directed by a former student of mine from The National Theater Institute, Ben Smolen, and I trust with his talent and passion that he and actress (and fellow Wesleyan student) Emily Vallillo are doing excellent work. With the generous support of the University, I plan to Amtrack up on Saturday to Middletown to see the work they are doing, and to offer my thanks and encouragement and to continue to learn the play through them.

Thank you Ben and Emily.

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ROMERO

The Riot is The Goal

2009-05-02T00:19:00.000-04:00

I was invited recently by the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia to apply for its F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theater Artist.

This is a huge honor, and one that I am not taking lightly. In general, I am not a huge fan of awards, but the Haas Award is one I believe in because its aims seem well-visioned, and because its history of winners, finalists, and semi-finalists are some of the more talented theater workers in the city of Philadelphia. It is my hope to become part of this group of honorees.

As part of the application, they asked the artists to write a 1-2 page letter to the committee, an artist's statement that tells the committee a little about ourselves and our work (which I have copied below).

Big thanks to the Theater Alliance for inviting me to apply, and for all the folks that continue to make my creative journeys so full of fun and rewards.

==============================

Dear F. Otto Haas Award Committee:

I participated recently in a riot.

On October 28th, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series. We celebrated by running through the streets, turning over cars, setting dumpsters on fire, ripping out our souls and throwing them into the flames, screaming and beating our chests, and breaking bottles over our heads, turning the fresh blood into war paint. It was a bestial, untamed expression of human exuberance— a triumphant, barbaric yawp shattering the body through our collective vibrating voice screaming as loudly as possible. That night we were a feral animal expressing itself through a sentient mind. This is the beauty of being human—the glory of being both wild and introspective.

That night changed me. And it keeps me thinking about my own art and its ability to move and transform people, leading me to this missive:

If it creates anything less than a riot (internally or externally), the play is a failure.

The riot becomes the goal— for the process, the performance, and the aftermath; a transformative, dangerous event, uncontainable, uniquely alive, exhilarating, and life-changing: a razor-edged rite of passage for the soul.

With this introduction, it is with great pleasure that I write to you about myself, my body of work, and my goals for the future. I thank you for nominating me for the F. Otto Haas Award and am humbled by my inclusion to an impressive roster of Philadelphia artists whose work I greatly respect.

As for myself, I have worked in many different ways in the professional theater, but I apply to you foremost as a playwright.

I have been fully dedicated to writing for the theater since 2003, completing seven full-length plays: The Shelter (2002), The Mishumaa (2003), The Most Beautiful Lullaby You’ve Ever Heard (2005), Dandelion Momma (2006), The Milky Way Cabaret (2007), Belize’s Place (2008) and The Travel Plays: An American Potlatch Road-trip (2009).

These plays, along with a number of one-act and shorter works, have been produced off-off Broadway by City Attic Theatre and Working Man’s Clothes Productions, as well as across the country by Salvage Vanguard Theater, Rude Mechanicals Theatre Collective, and Theater In My Basement, among others.

My work explores memory, imagination, pain, dreams, rites of passage, the overlapping of time, and the flawed and fascinating guts and souls of human beings. My characters are troubled, resilient, scarred, searching, trapped, tied to chairs, historical icons, lovers, killers, magicians, ghosts, beauty queens, animals, musicians, children, time travelers, dreamers—all bravely taking on impossible, necessary journeys. They speak to each other through time, dimension, ocean waves, black holes, gesture, lines in their bodies, holes in their chests, silences, holograms, and their deepest regrets. Inspired and haunted by space, I have created work performed in theaters, elevators, porches, warehouses, loft apartments, punk stages, museums, sidewalks, hotels, basement crawl spaces, and public bathrooms.

I believe in cross-disciplinary collaboration, and have worked several times with electronic music composer/sound artist Mike Vernusky on live performance projects including The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting (with choreographer Ray Eliot Schwarz, 2004), The Eulogy Project (with opera-trained performer Jorge Sermini, 2005), and currently, Radio Ghosts, in a form we are calling “electro-theater”, a performance limbus between written text, recorded electronic sound, and live performance.

Since 2003, my work has been recognized with commissions from The Cardboard Box Collaborative, Austin Script Works, and Audacity Theatre Lab, and has been honored as a finalist for the Heideman Award, and a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award.

After living for several years in Austin, I moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 2007 to take on the professional challenge of creating work in a bigger, tougher, more explosive environment, while taking on the personal challenge of living in a new city in a new part of the country (I was born and raised in the Southern United States).

In short— I moved to a city that riots over baseball championships, but also to a city that I feel is ready and willing to riot over transcendent theater. With the help of other talented Philadelphia artists, it is my goal to tap into that same vein that bulges from the flushed forehead of Edwin Forrest, creating an Astor Place riot of the soul, quaking the city’s creative culture into an even louder roaring animal.

I have been working to stoke my own creative fires during my two years in Philadelphia, enjoying local productions with The Cardboard Box Collaborative, Philadelphia Dramatists Center, and The Burn Ward Theater Company, as well as developmental projects with Plays & Players, and The Kelly Writers House. Most recently, I was selected as the first-ever Resident Writer of the ArtsEdge Residency, created by The Kelly Writers House and The University of Pennsylvania—a one-year residency awarded to an emerging Philadelphia writer to support the creation and sharing of new work and to build bridges between the artistic communities of the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia at-large.

During the past two years, I have also continued to stay active on the national level, guiding my plays into productions with Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Specific Gravity Ensemble (Louisville), Audacity Theatre Lab (Dallas), Cisne Negro Productions (Austin) and City Theater Company (Wilmington, Delaware) and through development with The Dramatists Guild of America and City Attic Theatre in New York City.

My creative work also extends into the classroom, where I have taught at The Wilma Theater, The University of Pennsylvania, The University of the Arts, and Saint Joseph’s University, as well as the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Theater. My goals in the classroom are the same as in my creative projects—to provoke, to challenge, to learn, to listen, to enjoy being in a shared space as completely as possible with other engaged and interested humans as we dig as deeply and as actively as we can into our own guts.

And while I am active as a teacher, the artistic body of work I am creating has been possible due to my long-standing commitment to seeking no more than part-time employment. I scrap out a living (and sometimes I don’t), giving myself the continual challenge of hustling for work, living simply, eschewing routine, and staying creatively hungry. This commitment has borne itself out in a number of rewarding ways—with the creation of many new projects, with the development of numerous new professional relationships, with the time to dedicate to the advancement of my art and myself as a human, with the continual surprises that come with a creative lifestyle—all of which help me keep pushing against the edge of expectation until it topples over and something new and incredible busts out of the broken pieces.

The generous support provided by the F. Otto Haas Award would afford me to continue this commitment for at least a full calendar year, while offering the invaluable resource of time. These resources would allow my full attention to the completion of multiple projects already in progress (Radio Ghosts, and The Journey), the further development of recently completed works (The Travel Plays, Belize’s Place, and Dandelion Momma) and the presentation of live productions (an electro-theater version of The Most Beautiful Lullaby You’ve Ever Heard, a Philadelphia production of Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich, and a second production for The Milky Way Cabaret in Dallas). A continued year of full-time creative work will also, undoubtedly, lead me to find even more creative opportunities for the following, successive years.

Lastly, in addition to the financial, temporal and motivational resources the Haas Award provides, it will offer me the immeasurable opportunity, as an emerging artist, to introduce myself more fully to the artists, theater workers, and audience in this city whom I don’t know, and who don’t know my work yet. The Haas Award will challenge me to a higher standard of working, and put me in conversation with Philadelphia’s most talented, most dedicated artists, helping me find fellow conspirators willing to inspire one another to find the place in us where the riots live, the ways in which to unleash these riots into performance, and the means to incite them in our audience, who will carry the transformation with them, euphoric and changed, into the Philadelphia streets.

I thank you in advance for considering me for this award, and I look forward to hearing from you. I wish you all the best of luck with this project, and I thank you again for the opportunity to share my work with you.

Sincerely,

Greg Romero

THE RIDE at Saint Joseph's University

2009-04-27T21:45:00.005-04:00

My one-act play, The Ride, will play Friday, May 1st at 7:30 pm at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. The production is part of "Senior Projects in Performing Arts", a public forum for senior fine and performing arts majors to showcase their work.

The play is directed by SJU senior Edwin Lashley, and is performed by Lashley and fellow fine and performing arts major Reid Smith.

This work is one of my first plays-- completed eight years ago in 2001-- and has played to audiences in Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, and Marietta, Ohio. It is based on the 1984 capital murder trial of Calvin Burdine, in which his court-appointed attorney fell asleep while defending him. Calvin, who pled "not guilty", is still in prison and will be for the remainder of his life.

The writing of this work was made possible by Mr. Burdine himself, as well as his new attorney, Robert McGlasson. I thank them again for their guidance and help and bravery.

I am happy that this story will be told again before an audience, and I look forward to continuing to learn the play through the choices made by these young artists.

Thank you to Renee Dobson, head of the Fine and Performing Arts Department, for requesting my plays for the students to work on, and big thank yous to Edwin and Reid for the work they've put into the project.

For those of you in Philadelphia, I'd love for you to attend the event. It will be free, and, as always, it is nice to see friendly faces in the audience. You can check out the rest of the details on the Facebook event page.

ROMERO

DANDELION MOMMA to play at the Kelly Writers House

2009-03-19T22:42:00.005-04:00

On Monday April 20th, I am presenting a staging of Dandelion Momma, a play written during the summer of 2006. While in Austin, I worked on this play previously with Yellow Tape Construction Company (you can read an interview of the process), and have been looking for opportunity to get back to the play for the past three years. The ArtsEdge Residency provides me a wonderful opportunity to step back into this play, to continue to learn what its worlds are, and to listen to what these characters need.

Director Julianna Taylor and actress Faith Taylor (as Delores) in the 2006 workshop presentation (Yellow Tape Construction Company; Austin TX. Photo by Wylie Maercklein)

The April staging will take place outdoors in the garden of the Kelly Writers House (Philadelphia) and will be directed by Wally Zialcita.

The play's action takes place all on the same porch in the southern United States, but told through three different sets of characters over three different time periods. It is also largely my second attempt at a "great depression" play.

I have always liked Dandelion Momma (the young character, Delores, has always been one of my favorites), but have not taken enough time to fully develop it. I look forward to the work ahead on it, and to sharing it with another audience.

A short description of the play:

An eight year-old girl takes care of wayward dandelions and sees the lights inside of people. A farm girl and a writer search for life inside of each other while planting seeds in the hardened soil of the Great Depression. A one-hundred year-old woman reflects back on her life through broken pieces of memory. The ground becomes harder, the girl becomes tired, the air becomes heavier, and something new must be born.

More details will be posted as they come. In the meantime, feel free to check out the event page on the KWH website.

(Big thank yous to Jessica Lowenthal and Erin Gautsche.)

===============
ROMERO

The First Complete Journey of THE TRAVEL PLAYS

2009-03-08T21:35:00.003-04:00

Last night, Saturday March 7, 2009, I finished the short play, "Schuylkill River", the 37th and final "travel play" in a series of works that journey from the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia, through both the mythical and real Ozona, Texas, and back to the "Cradle of Liberty".

Along the way, the plays move through Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and back through Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. All tolled, the trip covers over 4,000 miles, traveling through 32 cities in ten different states.

During the trip, we meet: Walt Whitman, Two Orioles, A Faceless Man, Martha Washington, Hercules, Robert E. Lee, a Giant Elephant, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Ted DiBiase, Ted DiBiase Jr, aTrumpeter, Willie Nelson, Jimmie Rodgers, Howlin' Wolf, Bjork, the Statue and Ghost of Davy Crockett, the Statue and Ghost of Elizabeth Crockett, identical-twin political scientists, John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy, Andy Kaufman dressed as Elvis Presley, Dr. Martin Luther King disguised as Jerry Lawler, General Lafayette, Jimmy Winkfield and his horse, Joni Mitchell and her smokes, Terry Funk, a one-armed Stonewall Jackson, Wilt Chamberlain, two thousand giant bears, conjoined twins, a Blue Whale, Hiawatha, George Washington, a deer, the ghosts of two first-graders, and the SS United States (and others).

And the best part is that all 37 plays were inspired by and made possible by gifts from 37 different friends (or groups of friends).

I have been writing these plays since the summer of 2008 and have enjoyed every minute of it.

This first completed collection will always be, foremost, a gift. And now, secondly, a possibility, in whose continued life the gift will keep on giving.

In January 2009, a team of collaborators and I began the first three-dimensional exploration of these plays. With the help and support of The Kelly Writers House and Philadelphia Dramatists Center, we staged the first 14 plays and read the remaining 12 that were written at that time. We learned a great deal about these impossible plays and the impossible amount of imagination they require to fully come to life. Because these plays were never intended to be staged-- they were always intended to exist only as gifts-- there was never any attempt on my part to observe some of the normal constrictions that theatrical writing insists upon. The result is that we are faced with a seemingly unachievable and glorious challenge of imagining how to present and express these impossible works/gifts. A challenge that will require the full strength of our imagination, which is exactly what I could have hoped for.

As they stand now, the 37 plays are a dream-like journey through American history, geography, people, and possibility, exploring time and place and gift-giving. It is my hope that, through continued work and development, they will become even more.

I look forward to the journeys ahead for these plays, and thank everyone again for their gift. It is my hope that this return offering is worthy.

The full sojourn of The Travel Plays's first leg:

The Plays and The Gift-Givers:

1. Walt Whitman Bridge, for Sarah Bowden
2. George C. Platt Memorial Bridge, for Christiana Molldrem
3. Abingdon, for Brian and Jamie Grace-Duff
4. Crossville, for Marshall "Spaz" Richard
5. Huntsville, for Gigi Naglak
6. Guntown, for Joy Cutler
7. Lake Lamar Bruce, for Eve Tulbert
8. Fellowship and Oak, for Kristin Leahey
9. W.K. Webb Sportsplex, for Jason Tremblay
10. Tupelo, for Stephen Colella
11. Starkville, for Ruth Engel
12. Jackson, for Tim Fawkes
13. Clinton, for Kristy Chouiniere
14. New Orleans, for Rand, Barb, and Mae Harmon, and Paul Carney
15. Austin, for Shelby, Jess, and J.P Goggin (and their awesome pets)
16. Kerrville, for Lee Pucklis
17. Ozona, for Wally Zialcita
18. Barnhart, for Jessica McMichael
19. Granbury, for Robin Rodriguez
20. Dallas, for Dianna Marino
21. Sulphur Springs, for Ilana Brownstein
22. Memphis, for Jeff Williams
23. Horse Cave, for Nancy Mouton
24. Versailles, for Andrew J. Merkel
25. Chilesburg, for Cherie A. Roberts
26. Weston, for Larry McGonigal
27. Morgantown, for Tim Long
28. Paw Paw, for Tim Errickson
29. Funkstown, for Genevieve Saenz
30. Chantilly, for Mark Jude Sulllivan
31. New Freedom, for Tom Tirney
32. Hershey, for Timothy Verret
33. Deena Museum of Art, for Deena Gerson
34. Reading, for Megan Breen
35. Plymouth Meeting, for Leah Walton
36. John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, for Paula Diehl
37. Schuylkill River, for Richard Kotulski

Thank you again.

Sincerely,

ROMERO

Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich

2009-03-08T01:16:00.004-05:00

As part of the Inaugural Conference of Philadelphia's New Play Initiative, I collaborated (under the auspices of Philadelphia Dramatists Center) with Plays & Players to curate a "Bake-Off" event.

The Bake-Off was created partly to provide a generative/creative event to the conference, and partly to honor the conference's keynote guest, Paula Vogel. Philadelphia playwrights had from Thursday, January 12th until Sunday, January 15th to bake a totally new play (of any length), using the following ingredients (offered by Bob Jude Ferrante, Seth Rozin, and Dan Student) :

1. A zombie must, in some way, appear.

2. A chicken salad sandwich must be involved, preferably in a sexual, fetishistic or politically compromising situation. The sandwich can have capers on it, but they are optional.

3. He/she was abused, as a child, by a trusted neighbor.

The event yielded almost TWENTY new plays (including mine, Zombie Heart Salad Sandwich), and we had an incredibly fun time reading as many of them as possible that Sunday afternoon.

Three of the plays were selected for inclusion in Plays & Players's upcoming Mmmmm Brains New Play Festival (March 20 & 27), and it is my hope that the other plays created that weekend will all live on as well (because they were all so good!). It was a really encouraging, fun event, full of discovery, surprises, and many new friendships.

Fuck yeah, new plays.

Rock on,

ROMERO

Dream Like a King

2009-01-19T19:10:00.001-05:00

Thank you, Dr. King. Happy Birthday!

-----------
ROMERO

9 Assumptions about Writing Plays

2008-12-31T00:35:00.004-05:00

To end the year 2008, I'm posting an in-class assignment I gave myself and my UArts students. In response to Jose Rivera's "36 Assumptions about Writing Plays", each of us came up with nine of our own. I offer mine (and would love to know yours):

1. The play must be impossible to exist in any other form.

2. The play must make us all experience pain in some kind of satisfying, delightful, intense and memorable way.

3. It should have an elephant in it.

4. People who see it should revisit the play in their dreams.

5. If it creates anything less than a riot (internally or externally) the play is a failure.

6. Every play should risk everything.

7. It should be written free of embarrassment, but instead, a proclaiming of everything the writer is ashamed of loving deeply.

8. It is not a play if there is no death or birth.

9. The form of the play follows the content, which obeys the characters-- a chambered nautilus, ever expansive, working itself from the inside out.

ROMERO

Thank You to UArts

2008-12-29T19:44:00.003-05:00

I have decided not to return to The University of the Arts for the spring 2009 semester.

I have already told my current students the news, which was a difficult moment. By and large, the University of the Arts students are bright, creative, talented, hard-working, sincere, and highly fun young people. Affectionately called "The Space Cadets", I have loved my students dearly and will miss them like crazy. It is because of them more than anything that I almost talked myself out of this decision numerous times.

I've also continually been impressed with the level of talent among the faculty, and sincerely believe in the school's president, Sean Buffington. The University of the Arts is a quality institution and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to teach there. I regret that there wasn't more opportunity for me within the university.

Thank you to Gene Terruso for hiring me, and thank you to Charlie Gilbert for keeping me aboard once he took over as Director of the School of Theater. I appreciate the risk each took on such a young teacher.

My experience as UArts has undoubtedly made me a better teacher and a better artist. I appreciate the opportunity and space that UArts gave me to explore teaching as a creative activity, and to apply my own ideas of art and live performance into the classroom. On a good day, the classroom felt more like a playground, which continued to be a fun discovery.

A moment in "Survey of Theater Arts", December 2008

I thank all of my students for making the experience fun, for answering the challenges we gave each other, for continuing to surprise me with their creativity, for their energy, for the willingness to learn, for their trust, and for a number of truly purposeful moments that I will always remember. It was a privilege to work with them and learn from them.

It is my hope to continue friendships with the people I've met through The University of the Arts because UArts is a place full of talented, engaging people. I feel fortunate to have participated and contributed to such a vital, energetic, educational atmosphere.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

ROMERO

THE TRAVEL PLAYS Journey to The Kelly Writers House

2008-12-15T15:56:00.004-05:00

In the season of gift-giving, it is a fitting time to announce that my project, The Travel Plays, will be presented in January 2009, at The Kelly Writers House.

Hot!

In the spring of 2008, I was raising money to travel to Dallas, Texas for the production of my play, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard (produced by Audacity Theater Lab). I approached a number of friends and told them if they donated money, I would re-pay their gift by writing a play just for them.

31 generous friends responded, giving me the task of writing 31 custom-made plays.

And because I wanted to honor the theme of traveling, I figured out a process by which these plays themselves could travel through the country. I did the math, figuring out how much money I needed to get to Dallas, and then calculated how many miles a dollar could earn (one dollar equaled five miles). Then I mapped out gifts chronologically by receipt date, and figured out which cities these gifts landed on. I determined I would write a play for that particular donor about the particular place their gift traveled me to.

For example, the first gifts I got were two single dollar bills in an envelope, a dollar each from Philadelphia theater artists Sarah Bowden and Christiana Molldrem. Mapping out the first five miles from my house got me to the Walt Whitman Bridge, which became the setting for Sarah's play. Five miles beyond that, Christiana's gift traveled me to The George C. Platt Memorial Bridge.

And so on.

At the time of this blog, I've written 16 of the 31 plays, and have had an extraordinarily fun time with them. It has my pleasure to create these theatrical gifts for friends, and I am thrilled that they will be presented to the public (which is another gift-exchange).

It is my hope that we have a full audience, and I hope the audience is full of as many of the 31 folks for whom this project is inspired by.

I am collaborating with two organizations on this project-- The Kelly Writers House, and Philadelphia Dramatists Center, who will act as co-producers.

The plays, as a collection, have become a really fun journey through place and time and American history.

The project will be as much of an exploration as it will be a presentation (we have no idea what form some of these plays will take), and is being directed by Wally Zialcita.

Wally and I are currently putting together an ensemble of brave actors to play roles such as Walt Whitman, An Oriole, A Faceless Man, Robert E. Lee, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Ulysses Grant, Ted DiBiase, Willlie Nelson, Martha Washington, Hercules, Jimmie Rodgers, Howlin' Wolf, Alexander Pope, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Bjork, and a Giant Elephant.

We are performing at the following time and place:

Thursday, January 22nd. 7:30 pm
The Kelly Writers House
3805 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, 19104

The event is FREE and there will be snacks!!

Big thank yous again to all of the gift-givers:

Sarah Bowden, Megan Breen, Ilana Brownstein, Kristy Chouiniere, Stephen Collela, Joy Cutler, Ruth Engel, Tim Errickson, Tim Fawkes, Shelby, Jessica and J.P. Goggin, Jamie and Brian Grace-Duff, Richard Kotulski, Kristin Leahey, Tim Long, Larry McGonigal, Jess McMichael, Andy Merkel, Christiana Molldrem, Nancy Mouton, Gigi Naglak, Lee Pucklis, Marshall "Spaz" Richard, Cherie A. Roberts, Robin Rodriguez, Genevieve Saenz, Jason Tremblay, Eve Tulbert, Timothy Verret, Leah Walton, Jeff Williams, and Wally Zialcita.

And thank you to The Kelly Writers House for their continued support of my work.

rock on,

ROMERO

TWO BUBBLES Tops the Century

2008-12-10T02:21:00.004-05:00

This week my ten-minute play, TWO BUBBLES, went over the century-mark for sales through Playscripts, Inc.

Brendan Ahearn, Tiffany Feng, Brad McEntire, Laurie Farris, Jeff Hernandez, and Shannon Marie in Two Bubbles, Audacity Productions / Rover Dramawerks, Plano, Texas (2002). Photo: Carol Rice.

Hot!

I have no idea if this is a high figure or not, but the 104 copies have be sold beginning August 12th when the anthology, Great Short Comedies: Volume 3, went on the market.

If you buy a copy, you'll be giving at least ELEVEN holiday gifts all at once (you, me, and the other nine writers of the anthology).

So do it!

And Happy Holidays!

rock on,

ROMERO

SHOVEL to play in New Orleans

2008-11-06T19:38:00.002-05:00

Just on the heels of its recent September production in the Philly Fringe, my piece SHOVEL will be performed in New Orleans in November, 2008.

Hot!

SHOVEL will be part of a production called "The Top Secret Play Project: Something for Odile" as it was originally written as part of a series of commissioned works specifically for performer Odile Del Giudice as a birthday present.

The piece is being produced by Del Giudice and Briana McKeague of Cisne Negro Productions, based in Austin, Texas, as part of the New Orleans Fringe Festival. I am thrilled that this piece will continue its life, especially through the performance of the actress it was originally created for.

McKeague and Del Giudice of Cisne Negro Productions

I'm also thrilled that this is one of the few times my work has gone up in my home state of Louisiana (and the first time my work will be seen in New Orleans!), which means some of my family might be able to see my work in production, and that makes me happy.

The show will perform three times at the Hi-Ho Lounge, a live music venue on St. Claude Ave:

Thursday, November 13 @ 8:30 pm
Saturday, November 15 @ 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 16 @ 5:00 pm

You can check out more information about the project, by clicking on the New Orleans Fringe Festival, the Top Secret Play Project, or the complete show listings in the festival.

Big thank yous to Odile and Briana for their work!

rock on,

ROMERO

I Will Be Teaching Quakers

2008-10-24T17:56:00.004-04:00

Beginning in January, 2009, I will begin teaching in the Creative Writing program at The University of Pennsylvania. I am STOKED about this, and hope to make my creative writing class as creative as possible.

My class is called, "Creative Writing: Space, Place, and Character in Playwriting and Fiction" and has the following course description:

This course will take a close look at the relationships of space, place and character in the effort to illuminate, appreciate, and explore the differences and similarities in Playwriting and Fiction. Weekly writing exercises will allow you to look as three-dimensionally and as actively as possible at various physical spaces, using them as a ground to form your short plays and short fiction. Through writing assignments, we’ll ask what is a "theater" space? How do different uses of space change the writing, and vice versa? What kinds of writing/language do specific spaces inspire? What kinds of character?

Coursework will also involve readings of plays, short fiction, and articles/manifestos/dialogues about writing and space. Through in-class and out-of-class assignments, students will generate a large volume of work, turning in a 20-25-page portfolio of their own short plays and fiction at the end of the semester.

...........................

If anyone reading this (or has a friend who) is a student at UPenn, you should totally take this class. You can go to the departmental page here.

Thank you to Jessica Lowenthal, Director of Kelly Writers House; and Greg Djankian, Director of the Creative Writing Program, for making me part of the team. I am totally looking forward to it.

Rock on,

ROMERO

On the Board

2008-10-07T17:14:00.002-04:00

In late September, I was elected to the Board of Directors of Philadelphia Dramatists Center. I am very thankul for this opportunity and look forward to continuing to contribute to this organization now from a leadership position.

This year's board has an exciting task-- to develop and create the organization's new strategic plan. This new plan will reflect the organization's goals to expand and offer increased and varied services for the playwrights in Philadelphia and the surrounding area.

As for my part, it is my goal to contribute by organizing a least one new forum (in addition to the ones already in place) for playwrights to develop and explore their plays (a Writer's Laboratory, modeled in part on the "Monday Night Lab" I helped organize at The University of Texas); to help create and manage a National Advisory Board; to foster relationships between PDC and local producing companies and organizations (such as The Kelly Writers House), and to continue to identify and recruit new, talented member writers and theater artists to the organization.

I am thrilled to be part of this work, and look forward to continuing to help the organization grow and to continue to help Philadelphia find its legs as a "new play" culture.

Big thank yous to Richard Kotulski for asking me to submit my name for consideration, and to the organization's members for voting me in.

Sincerely,

ROMERO

I am Moving to ArtsEdge

2008-09-27T16:14:00.005-04:00

Dear Friends,

On October 1st, I will be moving.

I will leave my familiar digs of South Philly/Beck Street, to head to West Philadelphia. I am moving because I was recently selected as the FIRST-ever Resident Writer for a project called ArtsEdge, a new program created by the Kelly Writers House and the University of Pennsylvania.

The program is designed with a couple major aims in mind: to nurture cross-disciplinary art collaborations and to build bridges between UPenn and the artistic community of Philadelphia at-large. To do this, they're partially-subsidizing an apartment in West Philly, which will house myself and a visual artist, encouraging her and I to create at least one on-going project together that can be shared with the community.

The visual artist (her name is Adrienne Gale and her work is really impressive) and I will also receive dedicated studio space (for free) with several other artists as part of the 40th Street Artists project. The residency lasts until the end of August, 2009.

In conjunction with this, starting in the spring, I will be teaching a class in the Creative Writing department of The University of Pennsylvania. Which means, I'll be teaching at an IVY LEAGUE school. Holy cow!!!

All of this is very exciting to me and this opportunity should continue to push me towards becoming a better artist and a better human. Additionally, West Philly is my favorite part of the city (because its creativity, activity, and beauty makes it feel like Austin to me) and I will be much happier living there.

Big thank yous to the awesome people at Kelly Writers House (Jessica Lowenthal and Erin Gautsche), The Rotunda (Gina Renzi) and the Creative Writing Program at UPenn (Greg Djanikian) for making this possible. Huge thank yous as well to Philadelphia artist Rebecca Ennen for sending me ArtsEdge's original call for artists.

My new address (home also of my new writing studio), come and visit me there!!!

4007 Chestnut St
Philadelphia PA 19104

rock on,

ROMERO

LULLABY in Video Documentary

2008-09-23T20:22:00.003-04:00

The good folks of Audacity Theatre Lab have posted a wonderful mini-documentary about their production of The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard in May 2008 in Dallas, Texas. The documentary features pieces of the performance, rehearsal, interviews, etc. and gives a taste of what ATL's production was like, and who these lovely people are.

You can view the documentary by clicking here.

Thank you to Brad McEntire and company for their continued good work on that production.

Rock on,

ROMERO

SHOVEL Opens in the Philly Fringe

2008-09-09T23:03:00.003-04:00

Just as Valentine's Day closed, my short play, Shovel, opens in the Philly Fringe as part of 4 x 4, a staging of four short new plays in four different and environmental 4-foot by 4-foot spaces in Plays and Players Theater.

The production opened on Sunday, September 7th and runs through Saturday, September 13th.

I attended the production Sunday evening and enjoyed traveling through the multiple environments of Plays and Players and seeing the numerous creative uses of theatrical space. I appreciate this production's innovation, and I thank collaborators Andrew J. Merkel (director) and Cherie A. Roberts (performing the role of "Elida") for their hard work.

For additional information about the show, you can visit HERE.

For a direct link to tickets and information via the Philly Fringe Festival website, click HERE.

Rock on,

ROMERO

VALENTINE'S DAY Opens in the Philly Fringe

2008-09-05T16:39:00.005-04:00

As part of the project, Mittens Descending and Other Tales, my short one-act play, Valentine's Day, opens on Friday, September 5th and runs for four performances this weekend. Heck yeah.

I've had a good time working with The Burn Ward Theater Company as they've proven to be a talented, resourceful, creative, lovely group of young theater artists. I am happy to be getting to know them and their work.

I've also enjoyed my continued collaboration with director Andrew J. Merkel and thank actress Molly Casey for her brave work in the role of the suicidal, rollerskating, pizza-making, hula-hooping character, "Opal".

I always welcome a new process, as each time I work on my plays I discover something new about them and find ways to make them stronger and braver. This process has been no different, and I thank Andy, Molly, (production designer) Cherie A. Roberts, and The Burn Ward, for continuing to teach me about the play, for helping me find the play's guts, and for making clear where the stronger choices were inside of the work.

I look forward to the performances and hope to continue a friendship with everyone involved.

Details about the production below:

..............................................................................

Mittens Descending and Other Tales
Friday, September 5th, 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm
Saturday, September 6th, 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm

Plays and Players Theater
1714 Delancey St
Philadelphia PA

The PLAYS:

Mittens Descending by Eamon R. McIvor
A tale of bipolar rocker Lenny. Lenny has just been dumped by his goth chic girlfriend, Rebecca. He's hell-bent on getting her back, so he enlists the help of his childhood imaginary friend, a militaristic cat named Mittens. It's "Harvey" meets "Hot Topic" in this demented tale about the redeeming power of creepy love.

Big Red Button by Eamon R. McIvor
A short play about what really happens if you press the infamous big red button.

Valentine’s Day by Greg Romero
Opal decides every Valentine's Day if she's going to kill herself. This year, she makes lists, she makes pizzas, she rollerskates, and she's afraid of hula-hoops.

To purchase tickets or for more information, click HERE

...............................

Rock on,

ROMERO

I'm a Saint Joseph's University Hawk

2008-09-04T17:57:00.007-04:00

Wednesday, September 3rd was my first day teaching at Saint Joseph's University. Home of the "Hawks", St. Joe's is a wonderful, liberal-arts based, Jesuit-founded/influenced university. I am teaching two courses, "Introduction to Theater Arts" and "American Theater". My students are mostly new to theater, whose majors range from Fine and Performing Arts (there is no "theater" major at SJU) to Health, to Management, to Accounting, to Marketing, to Psychology, to Elementary Education. This means that my course "Introduction to Theater" truly lives up to its name. I look forward to bringing theater to these students, and see it as an opportunity to help them find their creative core, as well as continue my work bringing theater into more cultural conversations in this country.

I'm one of only three faculty members (the others are an Associate Professor and a Technical Director) on the Theater Arts department, and look forward to helping this program grow into an even more active, more rigorous place of learning.

I am also happy that my teaching opportunities continue to grow, and that they continue to provide me with my own opportunities for learning and growth.

Rock on,

ROMERO

Returning for Another Year at U/Arts

2008-08-20T12:30:00.006-04:00

After a wonderful first year of teaching at The University of the Arts, I am returning to reprise my position as "Lecturer" at the University's School of Theater Arts. I will again be teaching "Survey of Theater Arts", which I enjoyed immensely, largely because of my bright, enthusiastic, creative, big-hearted, brave, and hilarious students.

I am grateful to be re-hired, and look forward to meeting this year's class and to keeping in touch with last year's group. I also look forward to continuing to learn how to grow as a teacher, how best to engage with my students, and how all of these things can continue to feed my art and my life.

Rock on,

ROMERO

TWO BUBBLES Now In Print!

2008-08-12T23:12:00.003-04:00

My ten-minute play, Two Bubbles, is now officially published by Playscripts, Inc.

Heck yeah!

They notified me of upcoming publication in December (2007) and the process of publication is now complete.

Brendan Ahearn, Tiffany Feng, Brad McEntire, Laurie Farris, Jeff Hernandez, and Shannon Marie in Two Bubbles, Audacity Productions / Rover Dramawerks, Plano, Texas (2002). Photo: Carol Rice.

Two Bubbles is anthologized with nine other plays in Great Short Comedies: Volume 3.

You can see all the details (as well as buy copies and license the play for production!) here:

http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=1334

Huge thank yous to all the awesome people who helped make this thing. As with all works, it took a village to create and stage this play.

From the Acknowledgements (pg 115):

Thank you Audacity Productions and Rover Dramawerks for making me stay up all night to write this play.

Thank you to Brendan Ahearn who directed the original production of this play on very little sleep. And to the six actors who first brought Mark and Sheila to life: Brad McEntire, Laurie Farris, Jeff Hernandez, Shannon Marie, Brendan Ahearn, and Tiffany Feng.

In addition to the published acknowledgements-- thank you Andrew H. Beal, Ishaq Clayton, Erin Delperdang, Matthew Dell'Olio, Jonathan Kim, Felicia Leicht, Adrienne Mackey, Kate May, Andrew J. Merkel, Sara Pauley, Cherie A. Roberts, Sarah P. Robinson, Tommy Schoffler, Jeff Swearingen, Nicole Whiteside, Olivia Whitmer, Cliff Diver Productions, rm 120 theatre, and City Theatre Company for your work on this play.

Rock on,

ROMERO

SHOVEL In Rehearsal

2008-08-07T17:22:00.005-04:00

My project, SHOVEL, is now a couple weeks into rehearsal and I am excited about the strange and horrifying things collaborators Andrew J. Merkel (director) and Cherie A. Roberts (playing the role of "Elida") and I are discovering.

Cherie A. Roberts as "Elida" in Shovel

The piece is a solo-performance (12 - 15 minutes) that explores script and Butoh-inspired movement. We performed a work-in-progress version of it in June and have further developed it for production during the upcoming Philly Fringe Festival.

The work is very dark and dreamy and kind of its own form. I am thrilled to see how things continue to develop and, as always, am enjoying the collaboration with Andy and Cherie as we tackle another project that exposes all of us and has no real easy answers.

SHOVEL will be part of "4 x 4" at Plays and Players Theater-- specific production details to be announced soon.

Rock on,

ROMERO

My First Year in Philadelphia

2008-07-22T01:21:00.017-04:00

I moved to Philadelphia in July 2007 to seek new adventures, relationships, opportunities, confront some fears and, after living in the South all my life (and in Austin for the previous seven years) to shake things up a little bit.

It's been a pretty good year.

I've worked on a number of my plays in production, written some new pieces, landed a number of additional production opportunities, began several challenging teaching gigs, traveled around the country, made a lot of wonderful new friends, and learned A LOT about myself.

If I can create another similarly productive year (and accrue less debt doing it), I will be a happy human.

As a highlight reel:

JULY 2007:
Moved to Philadelphia, driving cross country (beginning in Austin, stopping in Baton Rouge, Nashville, Louisville, Ann Arbor, and Pittsburgh)

City Attic Theatre toured the off-off Broadway production of my play, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard, to Philadelphia for a one-night only performance (July 14th), hosted by The Cardboard Box Collaborative at Plays and Players Theater.

John Conor Brooke ("The Man"), Dianna Marino ("The Narrator"), and Lucy Walters ("The Woman")

AUGUST 2007:
Began teaching at The University of the Arts, my first University teaching job.

SEPTEMBER 2007:
Opened production of The Milky Way Cabaret, originally commissioned and produced by the Cardboard Box Collaborative, as part of the Philly Fringe Festival. The production runs for eight performances (Sep 6 - 15) at Plays and Players Theater.

Katy O'Leary ("Charlotte"), Brittany Brazill ("Lorraine"), Cherie A. Roberts ("Travlin' Alice), and Daniel Higbee ("Amazin' Arnie).

Traveled to Louisville for tech rehearsals and the opening of the second production of The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard, produced by Specific Gravity Ensemble. The production runs for ten performances (Sep 21 - Oct 4) at 21 c Museum/Hotel. This production becomes the first time a full-length play of mine gets a second run, and the first time I've opened two full-length plays in the same month.

Christopher Shiner ("The Man"), Julia Leist ("The Narrator"), and Jennifer Poliskie ("The Woman")

OCTOBER 2007:
My ten-minute play, Sharpen My Dick, is produced as part of "The Sex Plays" staged by City Theatre Company in Wilmington, Delaware. This is the play's second production (originally produced off-off Broadway by Working Man's Clothes in the spring of 2007).

NOVEMBER 2007:
My one-act play, Three Card Weasel, is presented as a staged reading by Philadelphia Dramatists Center as part of "4 x 4", a forum which stages new plays in a 4 foot by 4 foot space. One of the actors walked at the 11th hour, forcing me to perform for the first time in a couple of years. I was rewarded with donuts and cupcakes slammed and smeared into my face and beard (as per the script).

DECEMBER 2007:
Notified by Playscripts, Inc. that my ten-minute play, Two Bubbles, will be published as part of an anthology of the year's best short plays.

Completed first draft of first act of Radio Ghosts, a collaboration between myself, electronic music composer Mike Vernusky, and director Andrew Merkel.

JANUARY 2008:
Began my second semester teaching at The University of the Arts.

My play, Under My Coat is the Truth, opens as part of "Elevator Plays", a site-specific project produced by Specific Gravity Ensemble and performed in the elevators of the Starks Building in downtown Louisville. The production runs for 16 performances from January 25 - February 10.

My collaborative project, Radio Ghosts, is presented as a works-in-progress production at the Community Education Center in West Philadelphia on January 31st.

FEBRUARY 2008:
Radio Ghosts is performed at The Dramatists Guild of America in New York City (on Broadway!) as part of "Friday Night Footlights" on February 1. Standing room (and sitting on laps room) only.

MARCH 2008:
My site-specific project, Marco Polo, is performed in the bathrooms of the Actor's Theatre of Louisville during The Humana Festival of New Plays as part of "The Late Seating".

Completed first draft of full-length play, Belize's Place, co-written by Jason Tremblay.

Completed one-act play, LARPing, co-written by Brian Grace-Duff.

Began teaching "Playwriting Fundamentals" at The Wilma Theater, a ten-week course as part of the Wilma Studio.

Audacity Theatre Lab announces "3P/3Y" a unique commitment to produce three of my plays over the next three years.

MAY 2008:
The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard opens in Dallas, Texas. Produced by Audacity Theatre Lab, the show runs for ten performances from May 7 - 17, marking the play's third full production (another first for one of my plays).

Jeff Swearingen ("The Man"), Tyson Rinehart ("The Narrator"), and Paula Wood ("The Woman")

JUNE 2008:
Present ten-minute piece, Shovel, as part of Philadelphia Dramatists' Center on-going project, "4 x 4" on June 3rd.

I turn 32 years old (June 12).

Complete new ten-minute play, Ice Holes, (written in serial with two plays by Melissa Gawlowski) which is presented as a staged reading as part of City Attic Theatre's CAT Tales in New York City on June 14th.

Begin as the Playwriting Faculty for the National Theater Institute's "TheaterMakers" program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center-- an incredible experience.

Begin teaching a ten-week Playwriting course with Philadelphia Dramatists Center.

................

Not bad a year of work. And, as much as I love Austin, this year's body of work confirms that Philadelphia is a better place for me to be at this time in my life.

With the first year of work and learning under my belt, I look forward to my second year in Philadelphia. There is still an incredible amount of learning to do about this city, its people, and the art that is being done here. I look forward to the work ahead and to continuing to be part of the city's creative heart-beat.

Rock on,

ROMERO

PlayPenn, Dramaturgy, and Breadcrumbs

2008-07-14T22:35:00.006-04:00

I returned to Philadelphia at 5am, Thursday July 10th, from my gig at the Eugene O'Neill National Theater Institute. After an outstanding three and a half weeks working as the Playwriting Faculty for the TheaterMakers program, I began a new gig the very next day. Times are good.

After a wonderful weekend "retreat", in which the playwrights, dramaturgs, directors, and interns of the PlayPenn New Play Development Conference got to know each other, each other's work, and learn each other's drinking habits, we began rehearsals today (July 14th), officially launching the two-week new play development process for six new works.

This is a really strong group of artists, and wonderful people to boot. I continue to feel very fortunate about the opportunities I have been given and will continue to do my best to enjoy them as much as possible.

Specifically, I am the dramaturg assigned to Jennifer Haley's play, Breadcrumbs, which is a beautiful new play about a writer struggling with Alzheimer's, the young woman who tries to care for her, the fluidity of memory and our journey, as humans, to find our purpose in a very confusing and strange world. Plus, these stories are told through a fractured framework of fairy tales and gingerbread houses.

I like our creative team very much (Jennifer Haley, playwright; Katie Pearl, director) and am beyond impressed with the collection of talent gathered at this conference. I am encouraged by the continued impact that the PlayPenn Conference will have in the city of Philadelphia and on the theater community at-large.

Rock on,

ROMERO

I am teaching at The O'Neill Theater Institute

2008-06-15T01:40:00.003-04:00

And I am incredibly excited.

Beginning Monday, June 15, for two weeks I will be teaching Playwriting at The O'Neill TheaterMakers Summer Program. For two weeks I will be working with three bright college students within a collaborative, project-based process. And we will be working in the same soil through which some of the greatest American playwrights came to blossom.

I don't know how I got so lucky, but I plan to make the most of it.

I look forward to meeting my students, my fellow teachers (Michael Cadman, Acting; and Yuriy Kordonskiy, Directing), and the rest of the good people at The O'Neill. It will be an education as well for me, and the assignment will require my best listening skills, my sharpest collaborative acumen, and the tippy-top of my imagination.

In creating as challenging, dynamic, and as fun as process as possible for my students, I look forward to sharing my generosity with the rest of the talented, creative folks in Waterford, and will do my best to stay humble, thankful, and gracious for one of the most exciting opportunities in my life.

Rock on,

========
ROMERO

ICE HOLES as part of CAT Tales 2008

2008-06-10T13:18:00.005-04:00

As part of CAT Tales 2008, the good folks of City Attic Theatre asked fellow playwright Melissa Gawlowski and I to write three serial plays to be included as part of their second biennial Playwriting Festival.

Melissa sent me a wonderfully fun play, full of world explorers, an Inuit, and the North Pole. My response was to write a follow-up piece (largely about Erik the Red, game show contestants, and an Inuit who continually fishes into the ice) Ice Holes, which will then be followed by another Melissa Gawlowski play to end the serial.

It should be great fun!

The three short plays will be performed during the festival (one play each night), and followed by a staged reading of the finalists' plays for this year's festival.

City Attic Theatre are the lovely folks who first produced The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard off-off Broadway (May - June 2007) and they are lovely, talented, highly outstanding people.

All of the fun details below:

..................................................

On the momentous weekend of Fathers Day, Flag Day, and Friday the 13th, City Attic Theatre presents…

CAT Tales
our second biennial Playwriting Festival!

From over 200 entries, three scripts were selected for our reading series. In addition, the Festival will open with a reading of company member Jeff Scot Carey’s new play Paint.

In a new twist to this year's Festival, CAT Tales 2006 Winner Greg Romero and CAT resident playwright Melissa Gawlowski have collaborated to create a series of three short pieces, which will be performed as staged readings at the beginning of each evening.

Festival Schedule:

Friday, June 13th at 7 p.m.: Paint by Jeff Scot Carey
Can you forgive and love the brother that you'll never understand? How much can you learn and change while still staying true to yourself? And how much can you give without giving up?

Saturday, June 14th at 3 p.m.: Touch by Drew Larimore
A young man living in the forest and dwelling on a painful secret befriends a park ranger and her eccentric aunt, who are fighting to save their home in the woods from an encroaching coal company. Over time, the three learn to make peace with their pasts and forge a new beginning.

Saturday, June 14th at 7 p.m.: Parens. by Alexander Danner
For years, Eloquence and Bill have been ferrying recorded messages between their grammar-obsessed parents, who never speak face-to-face. But after a decade of silent cohabitation the family is at a breaking point, and the parents must face their misguided rituals of communication or divide their family forever.

Sunday, June 15th at 7 p.m.: Lost Nation by Tira Palmquist
Evan Drake returns from Iraq as his rural hometown wrangles with the construction of a new "big box" store, which promises new jobs at the expense of farmland in which their history is literally buried. As Evan comes to grips with what haunts him from the war, he finds himself pulled into the battle for this town, for its people, for the land itself.

CAT Tales will be held at the Stella Adler Studios, located at 31 West 27th Street (between 6th Ave. and Broadway), 2nd Floor.

==========
ROMERO

VALENTINE'S DAY to be included in Philly Fringe

2008-06-08T23:04:00.007-04:00

My short solo-performance work, Valentine's Day, will be part of the 2008 Philly Fringe Fest. Originally produced by Red House Arts (Austin, TX) in February 2007 (originally performed by actress Melissa Ann Rentrop and directed by Chris Humphrey) as part of The Last Castrato Valentine's Extravaganza, the revised work will be produced by The Burn Ward Theater Company and directed by collaborator and partner-in-crime, Andrew J. Merkel.

Valentine's Day is about a woman, Opal, who decides every Valentine's Day if she's going to kill herself. This year, she makes lists, she makes pizzas, she rollerskates, and she's afraid of hula-hoops.

The Burn Ward is a theatrical group/outgrowth from a handful of talented, enthusiastic students/alums/dragons from Drexel University. I look forward to working with and getting to know these folks.

In addition to Valentine's Day, we will be producing two works from local Philly writer Eamon R. McIvor-- Mittens Descending, and Big Red Button.

The good times will be in view of the public on September 5th and 6th at 7pm and 10pm each night-- more production details forthcoming.

In the meantime, I look forward to getting back to work on a short piece I have alot of affection for and to continuing to get to know and work with more Philly artists.

=======
ROMERO

More MILKY WAY Photos

2008-06-04T18:28:00.003-04:00

The good folks of The Cardboard Box Collaborative recently sent me photos from our September 2007 production of my play, The Milky Way Cabaret. These photos (taken by Paola Nogueras) capture the fantastic worlds we created and is a great reminder of the wonderful work done on that production.

Kudos again to all.

Cherie A. Roberts as "Travlin' Alice". Design work by Stephen P. Hungerford (set, lighting), Andrew J. Merkel (lighting) and Jamie Grace-Duff (costumes)

Charlotte (Katy O'Leary), Lorraine (Brittany Brazill), Travlin' Alice (Cherie A. Roberts), and Amazin' Arnie (Daniel Higbee). Design work by Stephen P. Hungerford (set, lighting), Andrew J. Merkel (lighting) and Jamie Grace-Duff (costumes).

Buzz (Steven Wright), Charlotte (Katy O'Leary), and Travlin' Alice (Cherie A. Roberts). Design work by Stephen P. Hungerford (set, lighting), Andrew J. Merkel (lighting) and Jamie Grace-Duff (costumes)

=========
ROMERO

SHOVEL to be presented on June 3rd

2008-06-01T00:20:00.008-04:00

My short piece, Shovel, will share a bill with three other new plays as part of Philadelphia Dramatists Center's Project, "Primary Stages: 4 x 4". The 4 x 4 project is a forum to develop new works by staging them inside of a four-foot by four-foot space.

The work I'm developing, Shovel, is a 10-15 minute solo performance-piece about a woman who tries to dig up pieces of her memories in between moments of blacking-out. Her story is told through script and Butoh-based movement, all confined to 16 square feet.

The rehearsals have been fruitful and challenging, and director Andrew Merkel and performer Cherie A. Roberts are really doing brave work. After Saturday night's rehearsal, I am very eager to see how this project lands on an audience.

The work will be presented at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, June 3rd, in the Meeting House Theater at the Community Education Center (CEC) in West Philadelphia (3500 Lancaster Ave).

You can find more information about the event at PDC.

=====
ROMERO

Another LULLABY completed

2008-05-25T23:56:00.004-04:00

On Saturday May 17th, 2008, the curtain came down on another production of The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Heard. It's third production, I thank the good folks of Audacity Theatre Lab for continuing the life of a play I love very much and hope to continue sharing with the world.

Thank you Brad, Ruth, Jeff, Paula, Tyson, Jeff Hernandez, Cassidy, and the rest of the awesome people that made this show happen.

Jeff Swearingen, Tyson Rinehart, and Paula Wood.

Tyson Rinehart and Paula Wood.

Jeff Swearingen, Tyson Rinehart, and Paula Wood.

Tyson Rinehart, Jeff Swearingen, and Paula Wood.

For additional information about the show, visit Audacity Theatre Lab.

=====
ROMERO

LULLABY opens/continues in Dallas

2008-05-15T00:02:00.005-04:00

On May 7th 2008, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard continued its journey with Audacity Theatre Lab's smart, sharp production in Dallas, Texas.

Director Brad McEntire and performers Jeff Swearingen, Paula Wood, and Tyson Rinehart have done good work, finding the clarity of this play, staying truthful to the script, and delivering a very strong show.

Big thank yous to all of them for their hard work and dedication.

I attended the opening weekend's productions and was moved, particularly by Friday night's show. The production made me re-enthusiastic about this play and hopeful for its continued life through continued brave productions.

The Dallas production runs through May 17th, nightly at 8:15 pm and an additional performance on Saturday at 5:15.

It is my hope that more people go out and see the good work these guys are doing:

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
by Greg Romero
Produced by Audacity Theatre Lab
Directed by Brad McEntire
Performed by Jeff Swearingen, Paula Wood, and Tyson Rinehart
at Risk Theatre Initiative
3605 Ross Ave
Dallas TX
Tickets $ 10 - 15
(214) 621-9683
www.myspace.com/audacitytheatrelab.com

=======
ROMERO

Send Me on a Journey and I Will Write You a Play

2008-04-25T18:51:00.003-04:00

An Open Fund-raising letter (please donate!):

...................................................

Dear Friends,

First of all-- THANK YOU!

When I recently asked your help for my project Radio Ghosts, your response was HUGE. My collaborators and I received enough gifts to cover almost all of our costs-- a serious accomplishment considering the project ended up needing $ 2,000 to complete.

With your help we were able to pay for travel expenses, acquire necessary materials, rent rehearsal and performance venues in Philadelphia AND New York City and present a highly successful presentation in TWO cities!

Additionally, it was really nice to re-connect with many of you and re-establish a correspondance (how are you doing?). Plus, all of the wonderful notes and cards and messages were outstanding. I still have all of them and plan to do something highly creative with them.

In short-- You Rule.

So....I come for your help again, this time for a journey that will last the next THREE years.

Three years?

Holy Moly!

The press release below explains in more detail, but the short version is that Dallas-based company, Audacity Theatre Lab, has agreed to produce THREE of my plays over the next THREE years.

You heard that right.

Three plays. Three years.

Yowsa!!

We're calling this project 3P/3Y and it launches in May 2008 with a production of The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard.

This is a HUGE undertaking and we need your help to make it happen.

:)

So how can you help, you might ask?

Audacity Theatre Lab has flown me in once to help with the production process for Lullaby. To help out, I have volunteered to raise enough money to fly me back to Dallas for opening weekend (May 7-10!).

Thus, my immediate goal is to raise $ 300.

However-- because I am feeling ambitious, Audacity Theatre Lab and I have agreed that any additional funds raised during this ask will go directly to additional 3P/3Y needs.

With that in mind, I am setting the goal to raise $ 2,000.

And because I'm asking something from you, I want to EARN your gifts.

So, to symbolize the incredible journey ahead (and because I love road trips), here's what I want to do.....

Philadelphia and Dallas are roughly 1,500 miles apart. I need you to donate enough miles to get me from Philadelphia to Dallas.

Using the immediate goal of $ 300, you can donate miles for 20 cents a piece! For a dollar, you will send me five miles! For a hundred dollars, you will send me 500 miles!

And here's the fun part:

I will map your donated miles, beginning from my house in Philadelphia towards my destination in Dallas. And whichever city I land in (whichever city you send me to!), I will write you a play inspired by that city and send it to you in the mail.

How about that?!

I will write a play for YOU and mail it to you.

How long of a play? (you might ask).

It depends on how many states you send me through. I will write you a page for every state that your gift makes me pass through.

For example!:

When you donate 50 dollars-- at 20 cents a mile-- you've just sent me 250 miles! Which means...you've sent me to Mount Jackson, Virginia!

Imagine a play written just for you about Mount Jackson! This would be a 4-page epic being that your gift sends me through Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

And if that's not good enough, for just over 100 bucks, I will write you a 5-page play about Blountville, Tennessee!

Or-- if you prefer, you can pick your own destination. Say-- you want me to write you a play about Washington DC. DC is 150 miles away! For $ 30, I would write you an awesome play about Washington DC! And the play would be 3 pages because I'd have to pass through Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

How fun is that?!

And all the while (let us not forget), you will be contributing to the production of THREE PLAYS over the next THREE YEARS!!

Everyone Wins!! Could there be anything better?!!

So what do I do to hop aboard this train? (you might ask)

Here's how we make it happen:

1. Send donations (and fun notes) directly to me (by May 1st):

Greg Romero
214 Beck St
Philadelphia PA 19147

2. When I receive your gift, I will email you, confirm receipt, and let you know which city I'll write your play about (and how long the play will be).

3. I will mail you your completed play by the end of June, 2008.

It's that simple!

A play just for you! And THREE PLAYS over the next THREE YEARS for me!

:)

Thank you in advance for making this happen!

Sincerely,

ROMERO

3P/3Y Collaboration

2008-04-16T23:47:00.010-04:00

Below is a recent press release sent out by Audacity Theatre Lab in Dallas, Texas. It is CLEARLY really good news.

Life is good.

..............................

DALLAS – Audacity Theatre Lab is proud to announce a special commitment to Philadelphia-based playwright Greg Romero. Called 3P/3Y, Audacity has pledged to develop and produce three of Mr. Romero’s plays over the next three years.

3P/3Y kicks off this May with ATL’s production of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LULLABY YOU’VE EVER HEARD. First produced off-off Broadway by City Attic Theatre in May 2007, the play received a second production with Specific Gravity Ensemble in Louisville, Kentucky, in September. This will be the play’s Regional Premiere in Dallas. A semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award, LULLABY is a non-linear exploration of a young couple’s relationship as they journey through their broken pasts, broken futures, broken skin, and across worlds to find the beautiful place together inside of the knives.

"LULLABY comes to Audacity Theatre Lab at a perfect time in the play’s life. Having been through two productions with it, it’s time now to discover how well the play stands up on its own without too much of my parenting. I feel fortunate to be able to hand the play off to the folks of Audacity Theatre Lab, who I completely trust to carry the play through this particular rite of passage with a daring and brave production," comments Romero.

In 2009, Mr. Romero and ATL will develop and produce his play THE MILKY WAY CABARET, a work originally commissioned and produced by The Cardboard Box Collaborative in Philadelphia, of which Mr. Romero is currently a Resident Artist. THE MILKY WAY CABARET is a wonderfully careening piece with assassin clowns, an alcoholic magician, an ex-hula hooping homecoming queen, a dildo-wielding club owner and a daughter who travels back in time, through black holes, to try to save her father’s life.

Romero says," I highly anticipate the work ahead on MILKY WAY. ATL’s production of this play will be MILKY WAY’s second time before an audience and, through collaboration with ATL, I look forward to using what I learned from the play’s original production to create an improved draft of the play. Brad and I have already begun talking about ideas for further development of the script, how to build workshop time into the production process, and for the best ways to tackle the play’s second journey. A larger, more sprawling play than LULLABY, MILKY WAY will be an opportunity to work with more of an ensemble and to involve myself more within the collaboration. THE MILKY WAY CABARET is the ideal play for a second production with Audacity Theatre Lab.

The third installment in the three-year plan is an as-yet-unnamed project commissioned especially for and in collaboration with Audacity Theatre Lab.

"Of the three plays with Audacity, I might be most excited about the third one. This third production will be an opportunity to create something from scratch, inspired by the artists I am currently working with. It will be an opportunity to write something for the specific strengths (and fears) of the company, an opportunity for a deeper collaboration with the talented artists of Audacity, and a way for me to continue to stretch myself by writing a little bit inside of the performer’s voice," says Romero.

ATL Artistic Director Brad McEntire says, "I believe important, dynamic art often grows out of fruitful, mutually beneficial artistic relationships. That’s what we want with Greg."

"I am highly excited about 3P/3Y." says Romero. " As a working playwright for the past eight years, I have learned the importance of creating artistic friendships that are built on trust, truth, and continued inspiration. Brad and I (and actor Jeff Swearingen) share a similar commitment to our work, our work ethic, and our vision for the theater. We are embarking on a brave commitment to continue an intense artistic conversation together over the course of three years and through the production of three plays. It is my hope and expectation that this engagement will stretch and challenge all of us in ways that will help us all become braver, sharper artists."

"It is admittedly a bold step for a new company, but we believe in Greg. He has a wonderfully unique and very theatrical way of writing and isn’t afraid to tackle big themes. That’s the kind of theatre we want to explore here at Audacity. It’s a good fit," adds McEntire.

"I wish this kind of agreement between playwrights and producers was more commonplace and not that out-of-the-ordinary. Then again, we don’t mind being trail-blazers…," McEntire slyly winks. Romero adds, "It is also my hope that our commitment to 3P/3Y will serve as a successful and dynamic model for other companies and playwrights to engage with each other in the development and production of new work."

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LULLABY YOU’VE EVER HEARD plays Wednesdays thru Saturdays, May 7^th to 17^th at the Risk Theatre Initiative Space , 3605 Ross Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204. Tickets are $10 - $15. Student and Senior discounts available. Call (214) 621-9683 for more information or to make ticket reservations. Additional information about ATL can be found at www.myspace.com/audacitytheatrelab.

Audacity Theatre Lab is dedicated to the development and production of dynamic new works for the stage. Whether bold new interpretations of existing works or the incubation and exploration of original works by emerging playwrights, Audacity seeks to present relevant, engaging stories that challenge and enrich our cultural community.

......................

ROMERO

LULLABY enters rehearsal with Audacity

2008-04-09T12:04:00.005-04:00

On Thursday, April 10th, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard launches into rehearsal with Audacity Theatre Lab in Dallas.

I am excited about the play entering its third production process and look forward to continuing to learn the play through the brave artists who take it on. Knowing some of the Audacity artists already, I expect they will be rigorous and creative, will ask good questions, and will have a sense of humor and fun with the work. I regret being too far away to join them (because it would be fun), but the distance comes at a good time as I continue my own process of letting this play live on its own without me.

As the journey continues, these are the good folks who will set sail together:

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
by Greg Romero

Directed by Brad McEntire
Co-produced by Ruth Engel

Performed by:

The Narrator................Tyson Rinehart
The Man.....................Jeff Swearingen
The Woman.................Paula Wood

Thank you to Brad, Ruth, Tyson, Jeff, and Paula for breathing life into the play once more, and bon voyage!!

ROMERO

LULLABY Continues Journey in Dallas

2008-03-15T12:46:00.002-04:00

In May 2008, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard, enters its third production, this time with Dallas-based company, Audacity Theatre Lab.

I am very excited about continuing to share this play with the world, and am happy to bring it back to Dallas where it was previously workshopped as part of Kitchen Dog Theater's 2006 New Works Festival.

I am thrilled to be working with ATL's artistic director, Brad McEntire, and jazzed that close friend (and wonderful actor) Jeff Swearingen gets a crack at the role of "The Man".

More details will follow soon (including information about how this project is part of a larger commitment between myself and Audacity Theatre Lab). For now, here are the dates and place for the 2-week, 10-performance run-- if you are in the area, start making plans now! (I will be at opening weekend).

.................

Audacity Theatre Lab presents:

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
by Greg Romero

Directed by Brad McEntire

May 7-10, 14-17

At Risk Theatre Initiative
3605 Ross Ave
Dallas TX 75204

Tickets $ 10 - 15
Call 214-621-9683 for info/reservations

................

ROMERO