Hi. I'm the Artistic Director of Folding Chair Classical Theatre, Inc. , a small company in New York City. We produce classics (Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, etc.) with a focus on text and actors. We perform (usually) uncut plays on a bare stage -- no sets, no lighting changes, actors wearing street clothes. Our focus is storytelling through language.
As storytellers, we're interested chiefly in plot and character. We want our audiences to wonder what's going to happen next and marvel at how much that character is like their uncle Bob. We're not concerned with ideas or social/political relevance. We're not concerned with directorial statements (other than stating that we love evocative language, unique characters and suspenseful plots). We'll never set "Hamlet" on the moon or "Romeo and Juliet" in Iraq. But we will mine every nuance out of every word in the text; we will explore motivation; we will present a story with a compelling start, an intriguing middle, and a satisfying -- or terrifying -- end.
When I'm not directing plays, I'm writing technical books and magazine articles -- I co-write a column for " Layers Magazine" (or my blog ), teaching computer classes, speaking at conferences (MacWorld, NAB, etc.), drawing , programming or designing. I'm an Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Instructor, Avid Certified Instruct and a licensed teacher in the State of New York.
For fun, I created a creative-writing game site called " twosentences.com ." I done Actionscript and XML programming for Oracle Creative and Nabbr . I'm a regular contributor to MetaFilter.com .
I was born in Queens, NY, grew up mostly in Bloomington, IN, and have lived in London, England; Sarasota, FL; Athens and Cincinnati, OH; Montgomery, AL; and Santa Barbara, CA. I have two living parents and a younger brother, Daniel, who is a sound technician, living in LA. I have worked as a kindergarten teacher, help-desk technician and computer trainer (at Sothebys), graphics specialist (at IBM), and multi-media specialist (Future Media Concepts).
I live in Brooklyn, NY and have been married to my lovely and talented wife, actress Lisa Blankenship , for ten years (as of 2006). We have no kids. We used to have a pet turtle, but we let him go.
