Hi-Ho, the Glamorous Life: App Happy

Marissa Skudlarek gets technical.

As a twentysomething San Franciscan, I have a duty and a prerogative to come up with ideas for mobile phone apps that will harness the power of crowdsourcing/social media/cloud computing/Big Data to disrupt outmoded paradigms. Yes, everyone in this town has a couple of app ideas in their back pocket, and I’m no exception. Here are three theater-related apps that I’ve dreamed up and wish were real.

Cute app name: Anachorrect

The pitch: Spellcheck for anachronisms.

What it would do: Many of our decade’s most-discussed TV series – Mad Men, Downton Abbey, Masters of Sex – take place in prior eras, and there are online commentators devoted to pointing out their inaccuracies or anachronisms. One of the most interesting of these is Prochronisms, or Downton Crabbey – in which a digital-humanities professor named Ben Schmidt uses the Google Ngram text corpus and a computer algorithm to find anachronistically modern phrases in the dialogue of historical dramas. The algorithm reveals fascinating information about the way our language changes over time; I made a few tweaks to my script Pleiades, which takes place in 1971, after reading Schmidt’s post about how the phrase “ought to” was much more common than “need to,” even in the 1960s. Unfortunately, though, there’s no way for you to run your own writing through Schmidt’s algorithm. I would pay good money for that app – and I bet a lot of other writers would, too.

Cute app name: Venuse

The pitch: OpenTable for venues.

What it would do: There’s an amazing resource here called Bay Area Spaces that allows you to search for performing arts venues according to a huge range of factors: location, size, cost, hours, and more. I used this site a lot when I was seeking a venue for Pleiades, and it was really helpful, but it’s not perfect. Some venues post detailed information, including their availability calendar; other venues post the bare minimum. And, in all cases, you need to email or phone the venue manager to get more information and to book the space. With just a few tweaks, this site could become an OpenTable-like app that enabled you to search for venues, see their availability, and immediately submit a request to book the space. Introducing Venuse: helping renters and tenants more effectively use venues. (It’s pronounced “VEN-yuse,” by the way. The allusion to Venus is a bonus.)

Cute app name: StageSeen

The pitch: Goodreads for theater.

What it would do: For years, I’ve been keeping detailed lists of the books I read and the plays I see. I finally wised up and joined Goodreads last summer, and have found it an extremely well-designed, user-friendly app that makes keeping track of my reading even better! I seriously love it, and that’s a big deal for me to say, because Goodreads is owned by Amazon and I hate Amazon. So why can’t someone rip off the Goodreads interface and create a similar site for theatergoers? Sure, Goldstar tries to do that with its “Event Journal” feature, but the obvious flaw there is that it only works for shows where you purchase the tickets via Goldstar. Like Goldstar (and Goodreads), my proposed StageSeen app could offer discounts, giveaways, and other perks, but the important thing is that it’d be free and open to all theater fans, functioning more as a place for discussion and appreciation than a place for selling tickets.

Do any of these pitches grab you? Of course, as the person who came up with the concept, I will take a controlling interest in the new startup, but if you get in on the ground floor, you, too, could become a millionaire when we strike it rich and list on NASDAQ! Who wants to be my CTO?

Marissa Skudlarek is a San Francisco-based playwright and arts writer. One of the reasons she wrote this post is that she’d like more friends on Goodreads. Find her there, on the web at marissabidilla.blogspot.com, or on Twitter @MarissaSkud.

Working Title: Lost in Transition

This week Will takes a look at Custom Made Theatre’s free reading series showcasing Dealing Dreams, a new play by Jeffrey Lo.

Transition. We all take notice of the big shifts like graduating college or getting a big job but the micro shifts (or lack of shift) in our daily lives comes to define who we will be. A work in progress, we all are. Anyone familiar with the creative process knows how integral change and refinement are to creating something of value. Custom Made Theatre is inviting you to a part of that process. Their Free Reading Series continues this month by showcasing a new work by local playwright Jeffrey Lo. Lo’s new play, Dealing Dreams, concerns itself with the myriad transitions that mark the lives of many modern mid-twenty-somethings.

These characters are smart, talented and college educated. Yet, they can’t quite shift away from the trapping nest of youth adulthood. Some cannot fly off to adult jobs, some cannot fly to adult relationships, some just cannot fly. It’s about many things: technology, adulthood, self identity (who am I without a job…who am I out of school…what’s my purpose…I was supposed to take over the world), who grows up, who needs to take steps back wards to step forwards.

The play reminds me of a thematic mash-up between Noah Baumbach’s 1995’s meandering college wit-fest Kicking and Screaming and David Fincher’s brooding, gaze into social alienation, The Social Network, (the best film of 2010, in my opinion). The former follows a group of friends who are about the leave college. They are smart, educated, and possibly terrified at the thought of life after college. They are witty enough to sharpen their tongues around campus circles but will that help post graduation? Is that a useful life skill or academic party trick? Which of them will be set adrift without class to attend? Kicking and Screaming spoke to me at a time when I was about to leave college unfinished and drift around my home town for a few years without purpose. You bet I identified with these intellectual loafers.

The Social Network is less about purpose and more about our place in the world. These characters do not loaf about parading out their witty words around for kicks. The characters in The Social Network wield their intelligence like a weapon and purposefully lash out with it to gain an upper hand, what they perceive as an upper hand at least. Though social warfare has consequences. The Kicking and Screaming crowd have a strong circle of friends with romantic possibilities but no where to go. As The Social Network fades to black our antihero has built the most far reaching and influential social site to date yet looks upon the vastness of it alone. Was it worth the cost?

Dealing Dreams lives around this playground; the youthful playground of purposeful ambitions, social fissures and ambling self-development. Like all good pieces surrounding technology, Jeffrey Lo’s new work also reminds us that these plays are not about technology; they are about how we use modern tools (social networking, online dating, genius playlists, etc) to navigate our world and how those tools affect how we define ourselves and relate to one another. Only when we look back can we see what was lost in transition.

Custom Made’s new free reading series piece will be directed by Christine Keating and will show Tuesday, Feburary 25th. For more information check the facebook event page, Free Reading Series – Jeffrey Lo’s “Dealing Dreams” http://www.facebook.com/events/253231238191609

Sources:

Kicking and Screaming (1995). N.d. Photograph. IMDB.comWeb. 18 Feb 2014.

The Social Network (2010). N.d. Photograph. IMDB.comWeb. 18 Feb 2014.

Cowan Palace: Sci-Fi Thoughts and Imagining the Future

This week Ashley Cowan shares some feelings about the sci-fi genre.

Looking for an escape from reality? In a land where anything is imaginable? You’re not alone!

Theater Pub’s newest production THE PUB FROM ANOTHER WORLD offers you a chance to experience the infinite possibilities of science fiction with the timeless art of the theater. Which, let’s be honest, is rather rare as the impressive imaginings of the genre can be hard to capture live on stage. But this is Theater Pub we’re talking about here! It’s full of magic! And beer!

But seriously, what’s up with sci-fi? And why is it worth exploring? Well, for one thing, it’s relatively tricky to properly outline as the number of subgenres associated with science fiction continue to populate. But just to give you some food for thought, here are six reasons sci-fi is important:

1.) It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment science fiction became the category it is today. Some believe it grew out of the scientific revolution while there are those who consider it a result of human history as it’s often used as a reflection to explore a variety of cultural and social progressions.

2.) It’s everywhere. It’s not just in literature anymore; pop culture has developed sci-fi into a genre found in television, movies, video games, and even theater. Science fiction provides a creative outlet to further question our human relationship with the world surrounding us. As scientific developments continue to boggle the minds of citizens everywhere, the sci-fi genre grows as well.

3.) Science fiction opens a door of opportunity. It allows us to explore the inquisitive nature of “what if”. Often operating in accordance to basic scientific rules, works of this genre take the principles one step further by incorporating imagined technologies. What is potentially exciting (and possibly terrifying) is our fictional tales of today may be the scientific realities of tomorrow.

4.) Beyond science though, the root of the genre lies within the human condition and putting it under a different microscope. Facing unexpected tribulations is something we can all relate to; and the stories involving people just like us who are forced to survive the complicated twists and turns of solid science fictional antics often prove to be the most rewarding as they provide a glimpse into what may be next for mankind and how we’ll handle it. Science fiction has become a means of expressing feelings of change and a tool for thinking about the future. We can envision a world that may be different than our existing one by meeting current challenges and honestly identifying our opinions on them.

5.) Thinking about the development of science fiction, it’s interesting to imagine what the genre meant throughout various points in history. As we’ve used storytelling as a means to connect for centuries, the imaginings before modern advancements like electricity would be vastly different that those of today. Some say science fiction is a product of ancient mythology and it’s a fascinating concept to envision what impossibilities that once filled their thoughts have become a part of our day-to-day life.

6.) Have I mentioned the subgenres? They are endless! Here are just six of the big ones:

·      Hard Science Fiction: it’s the most hardcore of the group using a base of the smarty pant sciences like chemistry and astrophysics.

·      Soft (and Social) Science Fiction: this one deals in more psychological elements. Usually, the main focus is on the emotional content of the characters.

·      Time Travel: if you were a kid in the Cowan household then this one may be for you. We were raised on The Time Machine (both the book and film), which is said to be where the term “time machine” originated. Since then though, it’s become incredibly popular as a means to explore the concept of our actions in relation to their true consequences.

·      Alternate Reality: this category operates on the idea that perhaps our lives are comprised of several different possible existences and allowing those to play out in altered ways can yield endless stories.

·      Fantasy: this magical subgenre can be a big one as it combines elements of supernatural powers with some of the more common sci-fi themes.

·      Horror: made for those who appreciate gore and a good jolt. Sometimes graphic, sometimes frightening, this subgenre can assume a variety of scary stories.

As you can see, science fiction is a pretty big deal. So unless you have a time machine ready, mark those calendars for this Monday, May 20, at 8pm and watch some of these ideas come to life. You’ll laugh, you’ll be amazed, and you’ll get to escape to a place where monsters can enjoy a drink with a unicorn, superheroes and scientists can share a laugh, and where anything is possible.