Jul 4 2013

FLASHBACK: 2004

One day in August:

Hair and makeup for film shoot, Come Fly With Ne Nude

TV interview for Fringe Festival Play, in which we portray the characters (Dom Casual & Bella Hagen)  we portray in the film we are shooting of the same name

Shoot film scene where we are being interviewed on television

Nap

Hit the stage

Later that week…Win Best of Fringe

Yes, it was a very good summer indeed!


Jul 4 2013

If you’re also wide awake at 4:36am, and want something to put you to sleep…

… sorry, I got nuthin’.

cropped-amioslogo111

But if it’s riveting reading material you crave, look no further. aMios has posted all of the short plays I’ve written for its Shotz! series on their website! Look for me, Diane Karagienakos. Or just click on my name to the left.

Shotz!  Six plays.  Five minutes each. Three themes. One night only.  Called “A theatrical time bomb” by the New York Times. On the first Monday of every month (or two),  aMios’ actors present spontaneous, hilarious and sometimes heart-warming plays. Written and rehearsed within a month, performed with high-energy fearlessness. aMios has been brewing fresh plays in NYC since 2009 and in San Francisco since 2012.

aMios (which stands for “…art and music in our souls.” – Oscar Wilde) was founded in 2009 by graduates of the National Theatre Conservatory.  aMios is a process-driven company that relies on each artist involved by engaging them in a way that allows them to fully realize their work immediately. The writers are given themes and a specified time to write. The directors and actors are given a specified amount of time to stage the work. Then we produce their work. The end result is inspired, personal, organic and surprising. Every performance is different. Each show, a fresh start.


Feb 1 2013

aMios Shotz now keeps a home on the coast. Lucky coast.

Shotz! Six plays. Five minutes each. Three themes. One night only. Called “A theatrical time bomb” by the New York Times. On the first Monday of every month( in New York) and the second Thursday of every month in San Francisco, aMios’ actors present spontaneous, hilarious and sometimes heart-warming plays. Written and rehearsed within a month, performed with high-energy fearlessness. aMios has been brewing fresh plays in NYC since 2009 and in San Francisco since 2012.

aMios (which stands for “…art and music in our souls.” – Oscar Wilde) was founded in 2009 by graduates of the National Theatre Conservatory. aMios is a process-driven company that relies on each artist involved by engaging them in a way that allows them to fully realize their work immediately. The writers are given themes and a specified time to write. The directors and actors are given a specified amount of time to stage the work. Then we produce their work. The end result is inspired, personal, organic and surprising. Every performance is different. Each show, a fresh start.

Since its October 2012 debut in San Francisco, I’ve been honored to be invited to contribute to all of the aMios ShotzSF performances. It’s a wonderful challenge, and it’s the most exciting theatre you’re going to find anywhere. One performance, and it’s over. It’s living in the moment. It’s theatre.

If you’d like to learn more about my aMios Shotz plays, “#@! You Very Much! Namaste.,” “Sex, Elves, and Videotape,” or “…Best Friend,” I’m happy to send a copy. Just email dianekaragienakos@gmail.com.


Feb 29 2012

“It Is What It Is” and “The Watch Tower”: Three Weekends. Two Plays. One Price.

Poster Design: Tony Edelstein

San Francisco writers Diane Karagienakos and Christopher Barranti met in a writing group several years ago, helping each other with feedback on their work. Now the two are collaborating at the Exit Theatre April 13-29 with a three-week run of two short plays sharing one stage. The two works, both directed by Kathryn Wood and presented with a short intermission, complement and contrast each other with female/male perspectives on love, death, relationships and sexting.

“It Is What It Is” by Ms. Karagienakos is a multi-layered multimedia meditation on what it really means to connect in today’s hyper-connected world. Estranged siblings brought together around their father’s deathbed struggle with buried issues and simmering conflict. As their father’s condition worsens and spoken dialogue becomes explosive, the audience is given a more complete, and often hysterically funny, perspective thanks to their texts, IMs and emails.

In a classic San Francisco bar room set piece, “The Watch Tower” by Mr. Barranti focuses on the passing revelations and deep insights found among a group of strangers at the bottom of a shot glass on a rainy afternoon. Emotionally starved characters experience an unexpected awakening as their facades are swept under the bar mat. Absurdly humorous, combative and revealing, this new play will be instantly familiar to local audiences.

(Blake Weirs)

Tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com.

PS: “LIKE” US ON FACEBOOK, PLEASE!


Feb 22 2012

“The pen is mightier than the glass to the head.”

I recently had the honor and great privilege of being interviewed by the frightfully intelligent — and funny! — Paul Pearson: cynosure of all things interesting, musical, poltical, and entertaining. Check it out — check him out — here on his website. We discuss art, technology, communication and, of all things, feelings. All of which tie into the upcoming premier of my play, It Is What It Is.


Feb 21 2012

The backstory of ”ITISWHATITIS”

That's my daddy.

My daddy.

My father died in the spring of 2007. I wrote a play about it, It Is What It Is, an abreviated version of which premiered at the 2008 San Francisco Fringe Festival. Below is a bit about the real events that inspired (and were later fictionalized) in the play. There’s a lot of multimedia stuff: texting messaging, emailing, that’s a vital theme in the show: the ways we communicate differently with people depending on the medium. And the ways we communicate (via different media) simultaneously with different people.

So…

What makes the death of my father so unique?

Nothing. He was old, he was infirmed, he was ready. It happens to everyone, it’s the cycle of life, blah blah blah.

That’s the point: it’s universal. There’s nothing magical or mysterious about the death of an elderly parent. But what does make the grief-filled periods magical and mysterious are the little gems: The moments of life-saving levity that get us through the times of greatest gravity.

Several branches of my family were torn apart over issues of money when someone died or was dying. The one thing I learned about myself and my brothers — the one way in which we actually ARE alike — is that we were not going to have any of that. When the time came, everyone stepped up to the plate. No questions asked, no complaints. We did what we had to do for our father. It wasn’t easy. Hell, it downright sucked. And he made it as hard as he possibly could for us.

But that’s who he was: he was a fighter. He really died a month before his heart stopped. He died when he stopped fighting. When he laid there saying “take me god take me god”. When he’d close his eyes hoping, hoping hoping — only to open them and say “Christ, I’m still here”. It was actually very funny, the way he’d say it. I didn’t get my father’s humor as a kid. As an adult, I see him as one of the funniest people who ever lived. He was the the lovechild of Bob Newhart and Jake LaMotta, I guess you could say. Understated, deadpan — and deadly.

But back to those moments of levity.

Dying people say the darndest things. Chalk it up to the anger / denial of it all. Lashing out and hurting their kids is the only power they’ve got left. Everything else, their fate: out of their hands. But they can still terrify their kids into feeling like helpless children again. And thensome.

Some of the greatest things he said during that time:

“You, empty your pockets!” everytime one of us walked in the room. Empty your pockets? Was this something they said when they took someone in a back room when he was a hood growing up on the streets of New York, or something they said when they captured a POW in WWII? Empty your pockets? And he meant it. He wanted us to give back his keys, his money — things I assure you were NOT in our pockets.

He wanted us to call him a taxi and a plane to get him out of there. Taxi: okay. But a plane? A plane?

You wonder what’s going on in their head when they say shit like that. But you know, it’s never the time to ask.

But the best, the all time classic, is when he had the three of us together, tearing us a collective new one. And he blurts out — and I quote — “You’re all male prostitutes, the three of yous”. Now first of all, I’m a woman. Secondly, my brothers — well, let’s just say if they actually WERE male prostitutes, you’d never ever, ever never guess. Maybe I’m wrong.

Oh, and then there was the time when the old guy down the hall took me for a prostitute (female, I assume). I was standing outside my father’s room, on the phone with a friend. I made a point of wearing a dress and looking very pretty everyday I was there, for my daddy. And this old, very lucid-looking guy rolls by in a wheelchair. He’s one of the more spritely guys in this place. He looks at me with them porkchop eyes and says “Hello, pretty lady!” So I, in turn, said “Hello!”

Well, I guess he went to the bingo hall and told some tales. Because 15 minutes later, there’s a knock on the door. No one knocks in this place. I answer it, it’s a different old guy. This one not so lucid. He’s looking at me like I’m the first woman he’s seen since the war who’s not a nurse or in a wheelchair — and he’s not sure what to make of that. Finally he says:

“This 204?”

I didn’t know what the hell he meant at first. Then I realized there was a placard next to the door. My father’s room number. Who knew? It was just the third on the left to us.

“Yes, this is 204.”

“You 204?”

“Um, yeah, I guess that would make me 204.”

“Can I come in?”

“What? No, you can’t come in.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m in here with my father, that’s why not.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

So… That’s the way it is?”

“Yeah, that’s the way it is.”

“Well, gee. That’s too bad”

And he disappeared down the hall, to the faded tunes of the player piano…

But even after my father gave up the fight, there were still some killer moments in there. He was having one of those “Christ, I’m still here?” afternoons. He asked me what he should do. I told him his options were pretty limited, that he could try holding his breath. So he did. But that just aggrevated his respiratory infection and made him cough uncontolably – apparently he awakened a dormant volcano of dry green mucous in his lungs, and once it started , there was no turning back. Of course he was so dehydrated the stuff wouldn’t move, and he couldn’t really drink liquid, so he’d have to suck on a piece of ice ‘til it melted, let the water loosen up a small amount of phlem, and spit. Repeat. For a good twenty minutes.  I stood there the whole time, spittoon in one hand, towel in the other. I think he coughed up his own bodyweight in mucous.  I asked him to stop holding his breath after that. (fortunately, that scene never made it to the stage).

Or the time I was leaving and he said wistfully “I want to go with you”. I’m pretty sure that my father never had a wistful moment a day in his life before this, so I’m so happy I was there for it. I told him to close his eyes and float out with me. AND HE ACTUALLY DID. Close his eyes, I mean. I hope he floated out with me. You’d have to ask him. But it was so sweet that he tried.

To kill time between these moments actually worth remembering, I started writing them down — just to be sure I’d remember. It’s hard to eat, read, anything when you’re sitting in a nursing home with one crap channel on the TV. That kind of sleep deprivation makes most all activities requiring an iota of concentration moot. Armed with my laptop (and no wifi), I just started jotting things down. Observations. Drafting emails I would later send when I could get online. I also started taking pictures of everything and anything within my day. With one exception: I did not photograph him. He would never want to be remembered that way, and besides, for better or for worse, I’ll always have the image of him shriveling up and dying in slo-mo burned on the back of my retinas for life.

Easter Sunday, Vegas 2007

Easter Sunday, Vegas 2007

No, just little things and moments of beauty that I might not otherwise appreciate. Having a camera made me seek out beauty. Like the beauty of the older black couple in a ’55 T-Bird convertible on Easter Sunday, old school blinged out. I ran three red lights to catch up with them. They had to think I was law enforcement, chasing after them with a camera hanging out the window. And when I finally caught up?

“Excuse me, you two are just so fabulous, would you mind if I take your picture?”

“No Pictures.”

“Look, I’m just having a really tough week and you’re the first thing I’ve seen in days that’s made me smile and I would really appreciate it if I could have a picture of you to remember….”

“No, I’m sorry, No Pictures.”

“Listen, we just put my dad in a nursing home cos he god diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and he’s 83 and I just want one picture cos you’re the only sight that’s made me smile all week.”

(I can’t even finish tht schpiel without breaking down and crying like a baby. Plus I know the light is about to turn green, and my opportunity will be gone)

“You go right ahead baby, you take as many pictures as you like”.

Mountain ridge west, Vegas 2007

Mountain ridge west, Vegas 2007

Or my Las Vegas touchstone, the mountain ridge to the west that I call “my tooth” because it looked just like my first permanent tooth that came in when I was 4 or 5 or whenever the hell that was. It’s the one thing I know I can count on in Vegas not to change.

Howard the Hungry

Howard the Hungry

But the best is probably Howard. One day I looked out the window in my father’s room onto the terrace and saw a desert tortoise. Not rare in a desert, except that this terrace was fenced in. Since my father couldn’t see it, I thought I’d find my way out onto the terrace to take a picture of it for him. To get out onto the terrace, I needed to go through the lunchroom, then through the kitchen, then through an administrative office. There were a couple of staffers there, and when I told them why I needed to get out onto the terrace, they delighted “Oh, Howard’s out!” He’d been MIA for a while (which made no sense, since this terrace is @ 200 sq. ft.; but I digress). So they got all giddy and ran to the kitchen to get some lettuce to feed hungry Howard. A few elders were in the dining room and were curious what all the commotion was about. Apparently, this is the most exciting thing to happen in this place for a while, because before I knew it, there was a bottleneck of wheelchairs trying to get out onto the terrace to see Howard eat. And all because I was packing a camera.

On principle, I'm normally opposed to photographing sunrises and sunsets. But this one was taken on the morning of day I saw my father for the last time. I couldn't sleep for some reason, and realized I hadn't seen a sunrise in quite some time. The camera just followed along.(On principle I’m usually opposed to photographing sunrises & sunsets. But this one came about on the morning of the last day I knew I would ever see my father. Couldn’t sleep for some reason, and then I realzed the sun was rising and I hadn’t seen a sunrise in too long to remember… and the camera just followed me there.)

My oldest brother Charlie, lived with our father the past 17 or so years. Going through our father’s things, he found a stack of cards and letters to our father, from me. Dating back to when I was 10 years old. Our father never took time off from work to vacation. So every family trip we took, I sent him a postcard or a letter. Nothing too sentimental. Just documenting our travels for him. And I did this up to and including my moves (now well into my adult years) to San Francisco, Melbourne (Australia), London, and back to San Francisco. I never even realized that’s what I was doing. But I did — and he saved every one, in order.

And so I read them all, in order. And each detail in each one jarred my memory. I’d forgotten much, but it came right back when I read it. Which made me wonder: how much other stuff have I forgotten for good, because I didn’t write it down?

And there I was at his bedside, still documenting away.

And that got me to thinking about those emails I was drafting, and those notes and pictures I was taking while my father was dying: I was capturing the things I wanted to remember. Not the full picture. Busted! I’d written to my dad the stuff I thought he’d want to hear, or at least the stuff I thought worth hearing at the time. I was now doing the same, both content-wise and stylistically. I was choosing what to document and using my best voice, tweaking sentences, rearranging paragraphs, grasping for obscure modifiers. To prove to readers (and myself, when I look back): “I can write”. Or maybe “I was cool”, or “I was smart” “clever” “sensitive”. I’m not sure. Kinda like what people do today on Blogs, on Facebook, and in Photoshop. But I digress…

My brothers, on the other hand, don’t seem to remember a goddamn thing. I don’t know if it’s because they didn’t keep a diary as I always did as a kid, or they just don’t reflect much. But I went back to see them several months later to do a little more digging, for ideas for the male characters in the show. And I found that any bonding that my brothers and I were ever going to do in our lifetimes was that month of our father dying. I had my chance, it’s gone. They had nothing. I recalled to them memories I had of things that happened TO THEM when we were kids that I thought affected them for life. No recollection.

So as you know, he died. My brother Michael had left the room 15 minutes earlier. I’d left to return to San Francisco 6 days earlier. My brothers phoned me everyday from his room, and would put him on the phone. You could tell he was between 2 worlds: the present and some shaken snowglobe of life memories. He sounded weak yet abstractly optimistic? There’s no other way to describe it. That final call was a relief. No more “take me god take me god.” No more “Oh Christ, I’m still here?” Yeah, honestly, but the time the call came, relief.

And then the family reunion that was his funeral. He wanted to be buried in the family plot in New York. We have a family plot? Who knew? So we 4 (my 10 year old nephew Nicholas came along for the ride) flew back east, and saw all our Big Fat Greek Cousins we haven’t seen in many, many years. It was good. It was sad, sure. But it was really good. And of course, the family name is misspelled on the mausoleum. Which couldn’t be a more perfect ending. Hey, It Is What It Is.

The misspelling makes it perfect.

The misspelling makes it perfect.


Jan 30 2012

Friday the 13th (of April) double feature: “It Is What It Is” and “The Watch Tower” on one stage!

Join me for the long, long  long-awaited premiere of the full-length production of “It Is What It Is.” No more chopping it down to fit festival time restrictions. This time we’re doing it the right way! But wait — it gets better! Right after, on the same stage will be the premiere of the short play “The Watch Tower,” by award-winning writer Chris Barranti. Both shows directed by Kathryn L. Wood.

It Is What It Is incorporates real-time multimedia (text, email, IM) to illustrate that among the simultaneous conversations we may have at any given time, the medium greatly affects the message.At its core, it is the story of three estranged siblings who reunite at their elderly father’s death bed. In doing so, it comes to light how childhood “memories” (or, are they?) helped define the adults they became. As they struggle through this crisis — and the other issues in their lives — they consciously or unconsciously are “shaping” these new experiences; thus curating future memories. It also explores the idea that what we choose to document (and how honestly we document it) helps impacts not only our memories, but also our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us.

The Watch Tower was born from reflections on Henry David Thoreau’s, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go the grave with the song still in them.”  The action centers at San Francisco bar and grill during a combustible rainy afternoon. All share a unique emotional starvation and intersect at the very height of hunger. The results are combative, absurdly humorous and finally awakening.

All shows at the Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy St., San Francisco, CA 94102. Ticket information will be announced shortly. Performance dates / times (all in  April 2012):

13, 14 (8pm); 15 (3pm) / 19, 20, 21 (8pm) / 27, 28 (8pm); 29 (3pm)

21561 Eddy Street, San Francisco, CA 94102


Jul 15 2010

“It Is What It Is.” Again.

If you missed its sold-out run in the San Francisco Fringe Festival, now’s your chance to see “The play for people who hate theatre” (me). It’s part of the 2010 San Francisco Theater Festival (www.sftheaterfestival.org), a one-day celebration of theater, theater, and theater in & around San Francisco’s beautiful Yerba Buena Gardens. There’s 1 performance only, and it’s Sunday, August 8, at 3:55pm. The location is the second floor of  SPUR (San Francisco Planning & Urban Research — they do some really cool stuff worth checking out) located at 654 Mission Street@ Third in San Francisco. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3qF34bP60M[/youtube]

We are once again blessed to have Kathryn Wood on board as our director, and Cara Newman as Stage Manager. Of the cast, Katarina Fabic, Robert Anthony Peters, & Duane Schirmer return to the roles they originated: Lena, Bink, & George (respectively). New to the team is the absurdly talented Todd Brotze (as Peter), one of the shining stars of Killing My Lobster.

I bet right now you’re thinking, “If this is ‘The play for people who hate theatre’, then what the hell is it about?” Well I’ll tell ya:

The stuff memories are made of...

What do you call that random moment of LOL levity that get us through a time of XXL gravity? Hey, It Is What It Is.

It Is What It Is (IIWII) incorporates multimedia (texting, emailing, IMing), onstage and in real time, to illustrate the many simultaneous lines of communication we conduct at any given time — and how the medium affects the message.

Grown siblings Peter, Lena, and their much younger brother Bink reunite at the deathbed of their elderly father, the curmudgeonly George. In doing so, it comes to light how childhood “memories” (both real and imagined) shaped the adults they became. The seeds of Peter’s need to control, Lena’s obsession with documenting events (while never looking closely at herself), and Bink’s inability to get anyone’s attention, are put under the microscope – and projected onto the stage wall, through their texts, emails, and instant messages; message that often contradict the actual words they speak.

Eventually the sleep deprivation takes its toll and the cocktails kick in: Peter, who has lived with and cared for George for the past 12 years, can no longer control his emotions — and admits why he’s so opposed to George being in a care center; Lena sobers up to the fact that her fabulous world is on the brink of implosion; and Bink discovers that being silenced gave him a power he never knew he had.

As George works his way through the “Grief Cycle,” with his dead wife Nancy as his confidant, his three children – both alone and together – work through this crisis and the other issues in their respective lives. And in doing so they consciously or unconsciously are “shaping” these new experiences — and thus curating future memories. And in the end, they discover that their dad is not the person they’d thought he was. And “family” is never what you expect it to be. But it is what it is.


Nov 9 2008

IT IS WHAT IT IS

What do you call that random moment of LOL levity that get you through a time of XXL gravity? Hey, It Is What It Is.

Oh, you wanted a real answer? Okay…

It Is What It Is (IIWII) incorporates multimedia (texting, emailing, IMing), onstage and in real time, to illustrate the many simultaneous lines of communication we conduct at any given time — and how the medium affects the message.

Siblings Peter, Lena, and their much younger brother Bink reunite at the deathbed of their elderly father, George. In doing so, it comes to light how childhood “memories” (or, are they?) shaped the adults they became. The seeds of Peter’s need to control, Lena’s obsession with documenting events, and Bink’s lack of attention from his father are put under the microscope – and projected onto the stage wall, through their text, email, and instant messages – message that often contradict the actual words they speak.

As they struggle through this crisis — and the other issues in their lives — they consciously or unconsciously are “shaping” these new experiences; thus curating future memories. And in the end, they come to understand the people that they call “family”.

Check out the reviews!

Download the 2008 SF Fringe Festival (abridged) version of the script here. iiwii_2009

CAST & CREW

Lena……………..Katarina Fabic

Bink………………Robert Anthony Peters

George………….Duane Schirmer

Peter………….Colin Stuart

 


Nov 8 2008

Sitcom pilot: Come Fly With Me Nude

To download the pilot script, please click below:

cfwmn_slam

Imagine “Friends” if they were interesting. Imagine “Seinfeld” is they weren’t so Jewish — not that there’s anything wrong with that. Imagine “Taxi” for today. Yeah, that’s it: “Taxi” for Today!