Author Archive for Kevin Delin
Kevin Delin took a few writing courses (among other things) at MIT from playwright A.R. Gurney and author Frank Conroy. Unable to convince backers to turn his textbook, Foundations of Applied Superconductivity, into the Broadway spectacular it deserved to be, he let his id run amuck and wrote Heat & Hostility instead. With an immodest plot about immodest gender relations, the play was an immodest success: the police never raided the theater. The last mentionable thing he did in a theater (besides seeing a play) was participate in Hollywood Fringe 2012 as both a writer and director in Theatre Unleashed’s 24-Hour production. You can follow him on Twitter @KDelin.
The Other Los Angeles Fringe Theater
Unless you are one of 7 Native Angelenos in my audience (i.e. from the Tongva tribe), odds are you’ve heard this from friends and family: It’s such a long trip to go out to the West Coast, why don’t you come visit us here in the East? As if the direction of travel changes the [...]
Shock Heard ’Round the World
One of the first things they tell you in Acting 101 is this: Never judge a role. Meaning: no realistically written character ever does anything simply because he is “evil.” Oh, sure, you and I may decide a character’s behavior was horrible, awful, or morally depraved. But to the character? The behavior is always justified, [...]
Me and Ebert and the Movies
Once upon a time there was no Internet. That meant you were stuck with movie reviews printed in your local newspaper or what you could catch on that now-ancient medium of television. Local newspaper? The Hartford Courant. Hartford doesn’t inspire a lot of art. In fact, despite Mark Twain’s living there for 17 years, nearly [...]
But What About the Beach House?
If the corner at Hollywood and Highland is blocked off for a full week – artificially snarling traffic that needs no additional help – it must be that time of year when a young actor’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Love of a 13½ inch, 8½ pound gold-plated statue, that is. For most denizens of [...]
10 Things I Try to Remember While Writing
0. Trust. 1. It’s not a blank page; it’s a clean slate. 2. If you can’t play like a child, you can’t create like an adult. 3. Always work with your muse. But also work without her. 4. The audience is not that patient. 5. Structure is for the audience’s unconscious [...]
Where I Found the Toothbrush
Anyone else remember Highlights for Children magazine? Even at age 7, I was kind of offended by its “Fun with a Purpose” tag on every cover. That’s the type of slogan adults will recite to prep you for the “sex is for procreation” line they’ll foist on you a few years down the road. Highlights [...]
Word
When you’re a wee tyke, the waning days of December give you the same melancholy feeling that adults have on January 1: You’re in the middle of a toy hangover. The adrenaline rush of anticipating the toy cornucopia which began just after Thanksgiving (in today’s world: Labor Day) has burned out and the realization has [...]
Secret Santa
As a small boy, I found the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas fairly stressful. It was quite a burden to be a Jewish child in the middle of my very waspy hometown. It wasn’t that I was jealous of the encroaching promise of Christmas’ booty of plastic toys from some Far East country [...]
When They Can’t Take A Joke
There’s an old techie joke — did I just lose half of you? — about a pair of balloonists who are caught in some bad weather and have to make an emergency landing somewhere in Washington state. Fortunately, they are able to touch down safely in a wide field. Completely disoriented and not knowing their [...]
Don’t Need A Santa Claus To Know Which Way The Nose Glows
So, it’s September in Los Angeles and the decorations in the stores remind me that Christmas is just around the corner. That most magical time of year; I love everything about it. Well, almost everything. I’ve always been troubled by one particular Christmas carol I first learned at age 4: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. You [...]
Where’s Your Digital Barbaric YAWP?
“Why do I need a smartphone? I’ve lived all my life without one.” “It’s true, Ma. You don’t need a smartphone. People went thousands of years without them. People also went thousands of years without indoor plumbing.” Some days it seems like it’s easier to update computers than mothers. Perhaps you know a Luddite – [...]
Response to Steve Julian: A View from a Primitive
In a recent editorial, playwright Steve Julian makes the bold claim that live theater in Los Angeles is in trouble because today’s audience is desensitized. The thesis goes something like this: Back in the “golden age” – pre-television – it was far easier to show the audience something new. With news stories now bathing us [...]
