When throwing around words like existentialism, Avant-garde and experimental when referring to theater, one is inevitably lead to believe one is headed for the bleeding edge of acceptable norms in contemporary performance art. Writer/director Michael Wallach dared to take his audience for a thrill ride with his comedy poking fun at just such an effort.

Zen and the Method is a giddy tale of a beleaguered and bewildered actor desperately trying to understand the core reason for performing his no dialog, no movement or plot line of an off Broadway play. Wallach’s story takes his audience to the dressing room of the muted thespian to watch him self-destruct as he is visited by his overbearing, browbeating father insisting he give up his unrealistic dreams of becoming a success in the theater.

Making matters worse, dear old dad has brought along mommy and an old flame from high school that’s too hot to handle for a guy experiencing cold sweats over stage fright. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, and misunderstood by all, our poor protagonist and his fellow cast members still receive raves from an open-minded yet unsuspecting audience. However backstage the edgy wannabes receive the tongue-lashing of a lifetime from a theater critic who uncovers the lack of meaning in the play about nothing.

If the description sounds crazy and borders on the ridiculous, then you got the thrust of Mr. Wallach’s efforts. With all of the schlock that we have seen masquerading as art and hiding behind the adage; art like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is nice to see a clever artist pull the curtain back for the benefit of the artistically challenged. This is delightfully entertaining worth a look-see.

Second on the bill is Gerald’s Method, written and directed by Daniel Gallant. This one act play centers on dark side of a suicide by a former student of an acting professor. Taking advantage of a small class size due to the tragedy, two lone students eager for the details of their late classmate demise, they allow themselves to be manipulated into acting out the life of their professors past to explain who thing led to the death of a friend.

With devilishly diversionary skill, Mr. Gallant leads his audience down roads of humor and drama as they are slowly clued in on the real reason for the professor’s curious lesson plan for his emotionally drained protégés. In a word, this story is intriguing. Both these works are worth the price of admission and we are recommending them without reservation.

Here is what you need to know:

The Place
Center Stage
Opened
May 28, 2008
Closing
June 8, 2008
The Shows
Wed – Sat at 8pm; Jun 8 at 8pm
The Price
$18
The Number
212-868-4444

The Cast
Allen Warnock, Kira Sternbach, Brad Russell, Robert Fitzpatrick, Elya Ottenberg, Daniel Zen, Bethany Libeson, Susana Kraglievich, Charles Roby, Kam Metcalf

With John Conyers, heading up the House Judiciary Committee shoving a subpoena up Karl’s butt to force some conversation, conversation that Karl and the rest of the White House crew has been thumbing their noses at, maybe the tool needed to give Rove the tight screw he has coming. To date Karl has been playing the executive privileged game saying he and his “Boyz” are above it all.
But this well timed book release is forcing the all the ugly and largely ignored stories of what was really going on behind the scenes that led this country to war at a time that has to have Karl “The Pillsbury Dough Boy” shitting bricks.

If any of what McClellan is saying in his book can be tied down, proven to be true and Scotty boy is willing to come forward to testify before congress, America might get the long awaited show trials of this spanking new century.

Many left and independent thinking Americans have been waiting for a break in the White House inner circle’s silence to get a glimpse of the truth and it looks as though McClellan’s efforts to cash in his chips is going to provide the opening, as slim as it may be. A lot depends how far John Conyers, Nancy Pelosi, Pat Leahy and Harry Reid are willing to go to take these bastards down.

Thus far Rove and crew has been able to dictate the battle ground by being allowed to establish the ground rules for how any congressional questioning would go. Team Rove says: any chitchat he’d agree to will be behind closed doors, not under oath, with no recording devices or written record, of any kind, not even a pencil present.

We say (F) that and so should the legislative branch of government.
Here is where the rubber hits the road, for if congress has the balls to follow through, this break could and should lead to the charges of war crimes the White House is clearly guilty of; if not by purposeful design then by criminal negligence and incompetence.

But the White House is not the only culprit in this madness, as the so-called mass/mainstream media played their role of appeasers as they failed the public miserably by not doing their jobs. It is as much the mainstream media’s fault that the country lost 4500 and counting military personnel as it is an incompetent White House. If these bastards had not bent over and gladly took it up the wazoo in order to remain friends with the powerful and maintain their access, things would have never gotten as bad as they have. It is a shame the media in this country will be positioned to reap the rewards from their cowardice when they cover the eventual show trials.

The only silver lining in this tragic stain on America’s history is the emergence of bloggers, citizen journalist and alternative media.