THE BLOOD BROTHERS JUST WANT YOU TO EAT RIGHT

The Paper of Record has seen fit to pick The Brick and The Blood Brothers as a very cost-efficient and satisfying way to spend your All Hallows’ Eve goodwill, cheer, and cash.

Come closing night for a spookily fun post-show celebration and maybe gore effects-guru Stephanie Cox-Williams will let you snack on some of the props.

Buy your tix fast-like and marvel at the scary smoothness of the brothers’ heads in person!

MEDICAL THEATER

From today's New York Post...

ANXIOUS APPLE IS NOW PILL CITY
By ANDY GELLER

Nervous New Yorkers are popping more pills.

Prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs, anti-depressants and sleep aids are surging as residents struggle with the economic crisis, Crain's New York Business reports.

"If we looked to diagnose the city, I'd say it has an anxiety disorder," psychotherapist Dr. Mel Schwartz told the weekly.

In September and October, sleep-aid prescriptions reportedly rose by more than 7 percent, to 366,870, compared with those months in 2007.

You heard it here first - the City is primed and ready for The Antidepressant Festival...

NYTHEATRE.COM'S "PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2008" INCLUDES 3 BRICK ALUMNI!

Congratulations to Gyda Arber, Michael Criscuolo and Ivanna Cullinan on their citations as nytheatre.com's People of the Year 2008!

All 3 are also Master Masons of The Brick.

What was that you said?

What is the ultra-secret society known as The Master Masons of The Brick?

We can't tell you that.

THE GRANDUNCLE QUADRILOGY: LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS HERE!

We had a wonderful opening weekend, and thank you to the many individuals who came out to support us during our first three shows.

I’m opening up this page as a set place for audience members to leave comments about the show, whatever those comments may be. We already received a thoughtful and inspiring mini-review of the Friday performance on one of last week’s posts, and if you’d like to read it click here and scroll down.

We also received a generally positive review on Gothamist, which is exciting. Some key quotes:

If Joseph Campbell ever got really baked and told his grandchildren a meandering bedtime story, it might have sounded something like The Granduncle Quadrilogy… There's an endearing 'let's put on a play' charm at work here... the minimalist set proves you don't need much to evoke an alternate reality in the theater. With just a white backdrop suggesting a desolate snow-blind north country, and Julianne Kroboth's elaborately funky costumes of pelts and feathers, director Hope Cartelli transports the audience deep into the tundra.

There are a couple of comments on that post as well, one of which simply says “I dig this play,” the other of which says “FUR IS DEAD,” in reference to the photo (which happens to be the same one at the top of this post). In response to the latter, let me quote Hope, who told me in an email today that “all fur in the piece is recycled vintage that would have otherwise gone to the trash and is better off serving a show then festering in Staten Island!” So in other words, no animals were harmed in the making of this show.

Let the comments commence!

(Photo of Richard Harrington & Fred Backus: Ken Stein/Runs With Scissors)

"THE FESTIVAL FACTORY"

What do we have in common with P.S 122, Soho Rep, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Civilians, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Les Freres Corbusier, Elevator Repair Service, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Red Bull Theater, the Chocolate Factory, La MaMa and the LAByrinth Theater Company?

We’re all included in this week’s New York Magazine feature about essential indie theater spaces!

It’s tremendous to be in the company of each and every one of these spaces and companies, and we hope to be able to continue contributing to the cultural conversation for some time to come. Thanks to New York mag for the shout-out.

Also, note that our tagline is “The Festival Factory.” Though as you all know we offer much more than just festivals, we’re proud to acknowledge their importance in our overall gestalt.

And what better segue than to mention that we’ll be announcing the theme for the 2009 Summer Festival at this Friday night’s opening party for The Granduncle Quadrilogy? The party’s expected to begin at around 10pm, but we see no reason why you shouldn’t come for the performance ahead of time!

THE GREY LADY AND THE RED NOSE

Nice piece in today's New York Times about the classes we have on offer as part of the New York Clown Theatre Festival. My only quibble is that the article seems to downplay how much damn fun these classes can be. Slots are still available, so this is your last chance to sign up and learn from some of the greats in the field - Jeff Raz, Christopher Bayes, Dody DiSanto, and Eric Davis!

WE MADE A MESS

This past Friday's Parade/Pie Fight/Cabaret night was a slamtacular superccess, and, oboy, do we have the pictures (and video) to prove it.

Billy Parker from Gothamist came by, and snapped photos for the ages.

Here's a lovely video of the proceedings (thanks to Bobbi Williams/Smokifantastic):



Here's The Brick's Flickr set, featuring photos by our own Hope Cartelli.

Lynn Berg (who is also our own) has given us this Flickr stream.

No media from the cabaret, A) because it would have distracted the artists, and B) because there were so many damn people that we had to turn away 30 audience members, many of ourselves included. So to see shots from the shows themselves, well, I guess you'll just have to buy some tickets, wontcha?

The Review Revue, Part I

We've gotten some nice notices for some Film Festival shows, and more are on the way. Since the following shows are closing this week, I want to make sure to draw your attention to what the press is saying about them so you can take advantage of their existence and not allow the fleeting, ephemeral nature of theater to bite you in the ass yet again:

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, by Orson Welles, a Reconstruction for the Stage
Nytheatre.com/Martin Denton

BRING ME THE HEAD OF JOHN FORD/CODE ALPHA
Nytheatre.com/Lucile Scott

This would appear to be an appropriate place to point out that The Film Festival: A Theater Festival has been named Nytheatre.com's Pick of the Week. Thank you once again, Nytheatre.com and all those who allow it to flourish!