...Sometimes I'm quite insecure.

novaya zemlya or a strange new land

Come join me and Milk Can Theatre company for a reading from my full length play, as well as works by other exciting playwrights.

Plus, you can ask me any question you like. (Be nice.)

A bit about the play: A brother and sister live in an idyllic dacha oblivious to the world at large for over ten years. Many things happen in this time: the Chernobyl meltdown, the fall of Communism, the mass exodus of Jews and the rise of Roseanne among them.

 Come check out an excerpt from Novaya Zemlya next Monday.

The deets: November 12, 2012 - 7pm - Blackbird Bar on Avenue B featuring works by ML Kinney, James Marlow and Mila Golubov Hope to see you there.

Rain, rain go away

On writing...at least this week.

“Never put off until tomorrow 
what you can do the day 
after tomorrow.” 

― Mark Twain

The Mystery Box

Oldie but goodie: Friends & Monsters

“There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments, but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.”

― Anton Chekhov

As performed at the We are Theatre speak out...

Hey all, Just wanted to share a short piece I wrote for Guerrillas Girls Speakout at the Cherry Lane Theatre last night.  Video of the performance plus other funny, inspiring and provocative work by great female playwrights can be found here. 

The script is below plus there's this sad sack gif. Which is pretty much what I look like when I get rejected but with more ice cream and possibly pickles.



A Rejection in Full
A playwright receives a letter in the mail. With high hopes, she reads it aloud to herself. Quickly, she deflates.

                A PLAYWRIGHT
Dear Playwright #454, thank you for submitting your piece“Big Fat Pussy Cat” to the Emerging Feminists of the World Festival. We would like you to know that the following rejection has been a very hard decision for all of us,especially me. After all, at Theatre for the Free People,people are not numbers to us. Not quotas to be checked off. However, we do have only 5 spots to fill this year and only one could be filled by someone like you. Knowing this, we have read each submission diligently, with open hearts and minds. 

In fact, I personally, perused your artistic statement in full and read two pages into your play before deciding it was neither feminist or emerging or worldly enough to compete with our 500 plus submissions this year. She takes a moment to turn over the page.

                 A PLAYWRIGHT
While I was very moved by your personal story of struggleas an immigrant or steelworker or cripple or recovering drug addict, your piece itself lacked a certain international wow factor. 

As I’m sure you know, you’re white. And as a white woman you have yet to master believable oppression in your work. I’m sorry to say but your sci-fi film noir puppet opera retelling of the Cat in the Hat lacks the emotional depth we are looking for.

Please consider more hard-hitting thematics in future submissionssuch as rape, incest, female genital mutilation and/or back alley abortions. While these topics are not mandatory, they are strongly preferred.

While I’m at it, have you considered making the Cat in the Hat a woman. While it is not a requirement to make all the characters in your piece female, we have many generous donors that are making their stage debuts in this festival,including my aunt Agnes. Agnes would make an excellent Cat.

This by no means is an invitation to resubmit “Big Fat Pussy Cat” to the Emerging Feminists of the World Festival again next year, as by then you will be thirty and will have emerged.

She throws the paper on the ground and examines the envelope. There is another page. What is it?

               A PLAYWRIGHT                                       Do not hesitate to join our email list and donate copious funds to our kiss ass Kickstarter, so that Theatre for the Free People can provide year long opportunities and essential development workshops for people more deserving than you. 

Goodbye and good luck, sincerely Mary Allister,intern/writer/producer/director.

Fixing the 8% problem

Come out and see my monologue alongside a lot of other incredible female playwrights as part of the Guerrilla Girls speak out for gender equality in theater. Get your tickets

One More Round for Janet's Cookie

After some laughs and occasional horrified looks in Milford, Janet's Cookie won the audience award and is going on to Festival Stratford. If you happen to be around that area on Friday August 3 at round 8ish, go check it out alongside some other shorts and don't miss some Rome and Juliet action right after.

http://festivalstratford.org/festivalstratford2012-event-schedule/

July Theater Things

Hey all, it’s been awhile since I updated this thing with the various play dates and such. So here goes, by the way that gif was just to get your attention. Did it work?

Eastbound Festival --- July 7,8 and 13,14

If you happen to be Connecticut this weekend, my ten minute play “Janet’s Cookie” the story of a banner ad gone wild is playing in the Eastbound festival. The dates are as follows July 7^th and 8^th at 1pm and 3pm at the Milford Center for the Arts and  July 13 and 14 at Wesport Community Theatre. Check it out, it should be fun.

Some linkage action: http://milfordarts.org/

STYLE & SECTS: The Third Annual No-Doze Festival. July 21st

In New York, I'm doing a 24 Hour festival put on by Coffee Black Productions. I will be assigned a sin, a style and a cast and work overnight to pump out a play. The results will surely be naughty. The performance will be Saturday July 21^st at 6pm.

Get more details here: http://coffeeblackproductions.wordpress.com/

HOT FEST at Dixon Place. July 26^th.
Your favorite Lady Gaga impersonators are back and hotter then ever in Friends * Monsters. See a tale of two men waiting for Gaga on July 26^th at 7:30 following  Black Hairy tongue by Lilian De.It’s free to see and boozy, so come one, come all.

Get all the details here: http://www.hotfestival.org/

And if you miss that one, Friends & Monsters will be playing again at Slamathon by Thespian Products on August 23^rd and August 25^th at 3 and 8.

You can get tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/255949

INSOMNIACS 24 HOUR PLAY FESTIVAL, July 27^th and 28th

Yet another 24 hour play festival. Same rules: I get the prompt and write it all in one crazy night. If you want to see what happens come by the Player’s Theatre.

For more info check out the Grex Group Theatre site:

http://www.grexgroup.com/

Garbage Face

Shot by artist Zinkie Aw, the Republic of Pulau Semakau series centers around Singapore residents and their garbage.

Found on trendhunter

via brainpickings

Comedy and the Brain

'Houses in fairy tales are never just houses;

they always contain secrets and dreams.

'-Kate Bernheimer & Andrew Bernheiner

Working on the fairytale...

My kind of party

"Write without pay

until somebody offers pay;

if nobody offers within

three years, sawing wood

is what you were intended for.”

~ Mark Twain