Lee Wochner: Writer. Director. Writing instructor. Thinker about things.


Blog

Playing in traffic

January 13th, 2012

I have a new play, “Dead Battery,” in next month’s iteration of “The Car Plays,” produced by Moving Arts in conjunction with the La Jolla Playhouse down in San Diego. Here’s a nice bit of press we just got from the San Diego Union Tribune (with a focus, naturally, on the San Diego-affiliated talent). I’m thrilled to have Paul Stein (I knew him when he was Paul Nicolai Stein) directing one of my pieces again; he’s a gifted director, and someone I always learn something from. (I’m always on the lookout for talented people I can learn from.) And I’m very proud of the ongoing success of the little theatre company that some of us founded back in 1992. We didn’t know it would be our legacy — we just wanted to do new plays — but when you’ve hit your 20th anniversary, I guess that’s what it is. I’m grateful to Paul for the car plays concept, and to everybody at Moving Arts who keeps our engine humming.

The marriage of comics and theatre

January 12th, 2012

My friend Jason Neulander, a director and writer in Austin, shares two of my great passions:  comics and theatre. Here’s the latest very cool thing that Jason has done:  turned his radio play “Intergalactic Nemesis” into a graphic novel, which he then turned into — a live theatre piece combining elements of a stageplay, foley sound effects akin to radio drama, and visuals from the graphic novel.

In the 1990’s, I got to work with a “non-radio radio” group called Smugly Absurd several times, producing their shows at my theatre, Moving Arts; they were (and are) amazing actors, able to do numerous voices, ably accompanied by our late friend David Krebs, a premiere foley artist who could sonically convince you that you were boarding a train, scuffling in the dirt, taming a horse, or otherwise sharing in the adventures. I just wish we’d thought to produce a graphic novel and build that into it, too.

How Mitt Romney celebrates

January 12th, 2012

I’ve been to many a political celebration (or “meet-and-greet,” as with my Congressman, last Sunday) and there’s usually alcohol, and sometimes cigars. Which begs the question, what’s camp Romney been doing about this, given the Mormon sanction against such vices. I was especially interested in this, given that I have some Mormon friends. So I found this explainer from Slate especially illuminating.

It’s a whole new “you”

January 11th, 2012

If “you” were digitized into something more beautiful and completely false.

Science vs. crap

January 11th, 2012

Praise the demiurge, this infographic has been updated. Thank you, sci-ence.org.

2012-01-09-redflags21.jpg

A sign that you might want to consider dropping out

January 11th, 2012

When you haven’t won a contest yet, and a recent poll now has you running behind a fictional character, you might want to drop out.  That means you, Jon Huntsman.

Political thought of the day

January 10th, 2012

As of this moment, Rick Perry has .7% of the vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary. I didn’t even run, and I’ve probably got .6%.

Today’s bonus music video

January 9th, 2012

And here’s the low-budget puppet theatre version. All I can say after watching this is: I’ve worked with smaller budgets.

Today’s music video

January 9th, 2012

Who doesn’t love that great Talking Heads song about babies, “Stay Up Late”? Especially when it’s played on accordion and tuba.

The ringtone you’re gonna want to secretly stick on someone else’s phone

January 7th, 2012

George Takei saying, “You are… a douche bag.”