End of Holiday Time

"Lazy days
Leo days
August time
Not my time
Hate this weary
Dreary holiday time"

Those are the words of the immortal Hildegard Knef (right), in her summer classic "Holiday Time." (I wrote a tribute to Knef and her delightfully dry song two summers ago here.)

Well holiday time from the creative life is now officially over here at Richard Byrne Inc. Big project of the summer signed off on at last. Playwriting resumes in earnest. And look for posts at this blog to come with increasing regularity in the fall.

There's been a bit of news since I last posted in the midsummer heat. Very good news on a few fronts, in fact, on the topic of my play Burn Your Bookes:

1) The big news first. the Taffety Punk Theatre Company production of Burn Your Bookes did extraordinarily well in the DCTheatreScene's 2009-2010 Audience Choice Awards. The production was nominated in the Favorite Play category and Daniel Flint (who played Edward Kelley) was nominated as Best Actor in a Play.

As you can see if you click the link, Daniel took first place in his category. And the play took second place behind Forum Theatre's production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America in the favorite play category.

All I can say to that is "Wow!" And express my gratitude to Daniel, director Marcus Kyd, and the entire cast and creative team on Burn Your Bookes.

2) My friend Hussein Ibish published a lengthy interview with me about Burn Your Bookes on his blog in June. It was truly an honor, and I think that we covered a lot of interesting ground....

3) Folger Magazine -- which is, alas, not available online -- did a very nice article about the research that I did in the Folger Shakespeare Library in its most recent issue. There are copies available at the Folger if you see a play or exhibit there, and I am happy to send PDFs if any Balkans via Bohemia readers are interested. (Send an email.)

4) Looking to the future: A one-act version of Burn Your Bookes (the same version that won the 2007 Prague Playwriting Festival) has managed to snag a slot at the International Shakespeare Association's annual meeting in Prague in 2011. Stay tuned for details about that exciting journey. We hope to secure permission to do additional performances in Prague in July of next year.

And one bit of news/housekeeping note. You may have noticed that my essay about Dubravka Ugresic has been taken down from Balkans via Bohemia. There is an excellent reason for this. The essay has been acquired by The Common Review and will appear in a forthcoming issue. (I am also interviewing Ugresic for the magazine; that interview will appear online when the article is published.)

The magazine's new editor, Danny Postel, is one of the smartest and most passionate editors and public intellectuals in the biz. You'd do yourself -- and your mind -- a favor by subscribing right now.