Sylvester Stallone is a writer
Sylvester Stallone is a writer
who stood his ground for his work. Before Rocky was released, Stallone was so
broke he made a soft porn film to pay the rent and was even forced to sell his beloved
dog Butkus outside of a liquor store for $25.00 because he couldn't afford to
feed him. He wrote the screen play for Rocky at age (at the age of 30) in three
and half days. The studios offered him $360,000 for the screenplay (About the
equivalent of $1.7 million today) with the understanding that James Caan would
play the lead. But Stallone wanted the lead because he created the character and
understood him, so he said no to the money. After a lot of negotiations, he
took $30,000 and got what he wanted. The firs thing he did was to buy back his
dog. Rocky has earned almost a half billion today.
Playwrights
Sat 5/8/2021 5:15 PM
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER ONLINE ***
GREAT PERFORMANCES | UNCLE VANYA
Tony Award nominee Conor McPherson breathes new life into Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece with his acclaimed adaptation of the drama, portraying life at the turn of the 20th century filled with tumultuous frustration, dark humor and hidden passions.
S48 E18 | 2:24:55 | AIRED: 5/7/2021 | EXPIRES: 6/4/2021 |
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
The MTB Audio Drama Scriptwriting Competition celebrates exciting aural storytelling with a $250 first prize and $100 second-place prize. Authors retain all script rights.
The theme for 2021’s competition is adventure and comedy scripts that engage and amuse audiences.
***
Announcing JOOK’s 2nd Annual Summer Spotlight Series celebrating Southern writers and new Southern plays! After the success of the first series and the subsequent workshop of Seth McNeill’s NATCHETOCHES in 2020, this uplifting project returns for a second round of submissions.
We are open to reading new works by writers from the South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
We're also open to reading new plays by writers outside of these states if the work is set in the South.
***
BETC’s new play development program, Generations, features the work of parent playwrights with children under 18. The name comes from BETC’s goals for the program: to welcome all generations into the theater to see new plays, and to empower playwrights to generate new work.
Each season, BETC selects one playwright through a national competition to join us in Boulder for a one-week residency. During the residency week, the playwright works with a professional director, dramaturg, and actors to develop the selected script. The week concludes with a public reading and post-reading conversation.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & THEATER ***
CAN A ROBOT AND A THEATRE HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON?
100 years ago, the word “robot” was invented by the Czechoslovak brothers Karel and Josef Čapek. The word appeared for the first time in Karel’s theatre play titled R.U.R. premiered in 1921. The play is about humanoid robots who seem happy to work for humans at first, but later a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race. The play achieved a fast international success when it was performed not only in Prague but also in London, New York or Chicago.
Karel Čapek was one of the first people who thought of a potential threat if machine-robot inventions happen too fast or without a regulation. Did he predict the threats of the 21st century? Or… are robots no danger for us? So far, robots can perform many quite easy tasks, but we want to challenge them!
To celebrate the centenary of invention of the word “robot” we wanted start a project to know if a robot can write a theatre play. Do you think artificial intelligence is able to create an enjoyable theatre script? Can a robot become a playwright like its own father Karel Čapek 100 years ago? We found out the answer on 26 February 2021 during a premiere of the first play written by AI titled “AI: When a Robot Writes a Play”. The play watched 18 450 devices (perhaps up to 30 000 people).
More...
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One hundred years ago, a play by the Czech author Karel Čapek introduced the word “robot,” telling the story of artificial factory workers designed to serve humans. Now, in a metanarrative twist, a robot itself has written a play. And it premieres online today.
“It’s a kind of futuristic Little Prince,” says dramatist David Košťák, who oversaw the script. Like the classical French children’s book, the 60-minute production—AI: When a robot writes a play—tells the journey of a character (this time a robot), who goes out into the world to learn about society, human emotions, and even death.
The script was created by a widely available artificial intelligence (AI) system called GPT-2. Created by Elon Musk’s company OpenAI, this “robot” is a computer model designed to generate text by drawing from the enormous repository of information available on the internet. (You can test it here.) So far, the technology has been used to write fake news, short stories, and poems. The play is GPT-2’s first theater production, the team behind it claims.
More...
***
Computers, at their Turing core, are discrete state machines, i.e. all Turing-complete computers can be sufficiently described by a set of possible discrete states and transition rules (Turing 1936; Hopcroft and Ullman 1979). Importantly, these states are, in the last instance, physical states: configurations of electric charges in the vast integrated circuitry of the hyperobject (Morton 2013) that is the computer. “There is no software”, as Friedrich Kittler famously states (Kittler 2013). Computers are thus fluid, ever-changing objects, jumping from one state to the other, with countless repetitions, loops, and variations.
We find the same kind of objects in theater. We could even say that we find only the same kind of objects in theater: on stage, objects are never static, never resting, always recontextualized with the flow of time. They change when the lighting changes, when the scene changes, when they are picked up or put down. They even change under the gaze of the audience. After all, in the theater, the spectator has the freedom to let their gaze flow freely and focus only on parts of the image that is constructed before them. More importantly however, all of these states are discrete because they are composed. The mis-en-scene establishes a set of theatrical states and transition rules that include each and every thing on stage.
More...
***
From the Electric Mouth further capitalizes on the virtual sphere by using technology to speed up the writing process, AI Generation Manager Justin Evans said. As script-writing lead, Evans said there have yet to be any technological challenges despite using AI as a writing tool for the first time. The AI is fed with content from commercials and game shows such as National Public Radio’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” he said. These texts are then used to build the machine’s neural network, which takes the content, learns from it and creates a new script.
Using artificial intelligence has accelerated the script process to a roughly one-week period, Evans said, creating more flexibility for ThEM and its global participants. However, he said he still has to keep the unpredictable AI within the realm of what would be interesting to a human audience. The main concern with this technology, he said, is its tendency to favor overly mundane topics, which can derail the entertainment aspect of the project. On the other hand, there is also a risk of the script becoming really random and absurdist, but such abstract elements contribute to the playful goal of the project, Cohen said.
More...
***
Annie Dorsen, a Brooklyn-based director and writer, has been named a recipient of the 2019 MacArthur Fellowship. Her work features a blend of theatrical drama and artificial intelligence — and they involve singing laptops, chatbots and an “algorithmic” take on Shakespeare.
The fellowship, often referred to as the “genius” grant, awards $625,000 to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits,” according to the MacArthur Foundation, which announced its new recipients Sept. 25.
Theater and A.I. might not seem like a natural pairing, but Dorsen recently told the Los Angeles Times that “the double nature of theater seems very similar to computer-generated language.”
She first got the idea to combine tech and theater after reading the essay, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” which was written in 1950 by Alan Turing. In it, he posits that humans can artificially produce the effect of thinking.
“The relationship between computer science, machine learning and theater is a strong one, and a fertile ground for exploration,” Dorsen told the Los Angeles Times. “Both have to do with the uncertainty between truth and illusion — what you can trust, how you know what you know, and do your eyes deceive you.”
More...
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The use of expanding technology such as AI (artificial intelligence), AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) in theatre today is encouraging and presents wonderful challenges to storytellers throughout the world. Watch as we follow the teams of Krzysztof Garbaczewski of Dream Adoption Society and the creative visionaries behind Frankenstein AI at The Columbia University School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab develop, demonstrate, and perform with new technology that enhances the audience experience and shows us all what is possible in the next generation of storytelling.
For more information on Digital Storytelling Lab visit http://www.digitalstorytellinglab.com.
***
Measuring Audience and Actor Emotions at a Theater Play through Automatic Emotion Recognition from Face, Speech, and Body Sensors
Abstract: We describe a preliminary experiment to track the emotions of actors and audience in a theater play through machine learning and AI. During a forty-minute play in Zurich, eight actors were equipped with body sensing smartwatches. At the same time, the emotions of the audience were tracked anonymously using facial emotion tracking. In parallel, also the emotions in the voices of the actors were assessed through automatic voice emotion tracking. This paper demonstrates a first fully automated and privacy-respecting system to measure both audience and actor satisfaction during a public performance.
More
***
Random Plot Generator
The aim of this writing prompt is to help you develop a story-line. When you click the buttons, they will generate two characters, a setting, a situation and a theme. Your job is to put the elements together and come up with an idea for a story.
You can change an element by clicking the button again.
Main character Character 2 Setting Situation Theme Character action
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When a government starts killing off poets they cease being a legitimate government
Burma poet dies in detention, body returned to family with organs missing: reports
Khet Thi was at least the third poet to die during protests since the military's Feb. 1 coup
By David Aaro | Fox News
A poet whose works opposed the junta that’s ruling Burma has died in detention and his body was returned to his family with its organs removed, his family said, according to reports Sunday.
The wife of poet Khet Thi told the BBC that her husband never returned after they were taken in for interrogation Saturday in the central town of Shwebo, according to Reuters.
"I was interrogated. So was he. They said he was at the interrogation center. But he didn’t come back, only his body," his wife, Chaw Su said.
Anti-coup protesters hold the flag of the National League for Democracy party of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while others flash the three-fingered salute during a "flash mob" rally in Bahan township in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, May 9, 2021. (AP Photo)
Anti-coup protesters hold the flag of the National League for Democracy party of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while others flash the three-fingered salute during a "flash mob" rally in Bahan township in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, May 9, 2021. (AP Photo)
"They called me in the morning and told me to meet him at the hospital in Monywa. I thought it was just for a broken arm or something … But when I arrived here, he was at the morgue and his internal organs were taken out," she continued.
Reuters reported that Chaw Su did not elaborate on how she knew that her husband’s organs had been removed.
Khet Thi was at least the third poet to die during protests since the military's Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The poet had reportedly written: "They shoot in the head, but they don’t know the revolution is in the heart."
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an activist group, said at least 780 civilians have been killed since the coup began.
"He died at the hospital after being tortured in the interrogation center," the group said. Chaw Su added that she was told her husband had a heart problem.
Khet Thi was an engineer before quitting his job in 2012 to focus on his poetry, according to Reuters. He also supported himself by making and selling ice cream and cakes.
"I don't want to be a hero, I don't want to be a martyr, I don't want to be a weakling, I don't want to be a fool," he wrote just weeks after the coup. "I don't want to support injustice. If I have only a minute to live, I want my conscience to be clean for that minute."
I love these stories when common sense overcomes silliness
100-Year-Old Haunted House Mystery Solved By Professor And Ophthalmologist
Unless ghosts have found a way to break the second law of thermodynamics (and have then used this knowledge mainly to spook the hell out of people in spooky old houses), every ghost story has some sort of logical explanation. Be it fakes, sleep paralysis, or just a good old-fashioned case of a hotel manager trying to drum up tourism, if you dig deep enough it can be solved without having to call upon the services of an exorcist, psychic, or Scooby-Doo.
One such case was solved by a professor and an opthalmologist over 100 years ago. Writing up the story in a medical case report, W.H. Wilmer described a haunting of a whole family, who began to see and hear strange people moving about in the night after they moved into an old, run-down house.
In 1912, the house of Mrs H and her husband G – as they named in the case report – burned down. For the winter, they were forced to look for an interim home. Finding none of good quality, they ended up taking a house that had not been occupied for the last ten years, aside from the occasional renter. Mrs H described it as being on the sunny side of the street, though oddly no warmth or sun seemed to penetrate through the windows and into that large, rambling
It wasn't long after they moved in that they begin to notice strange occurrences, and not long after that before everything went full The Shining.
"G. and I had not been in the house more than a couple of days when we felt very depressed," Mrs H said of the events of that winter. "The house was overpoweringly quiet. The servants walked about on thickly carpeted floors so quietly that I could not even hear them at their work."
The house was as cold as it was quiet, with the very old furnace breaking down two days into their stay. They had decided to stay in the house without the children at first, for that very reason.
"One morning I heard footsteps in the room over my head. I hurried up the stairs. To my surprise the room was empty. I passed into the next room, and then into all the rooms on that floor, and then to the floor above, to find that I was the only person in that part of the house."
When the furnace was repaired, the children arrived, and the whole family began to feel ill, and hear and see things that weren't there. Despite bed rest and iron supplements, Mrs H couldn't shake a headache that had set in two weeks after moving in. Mr H, meanwhile, was having other problems.
"It had always been G.'s habit at night before going to bed, to sit in the dining room and eat some fruit. In this house when seated at night at the table with his back to the hall, he invariably felt as if someone was behind him, watching him. He therefore turned his chair, to be able to watch what was going on in the hall."
A poltergeist will tend to ruin your enjoyment of fruit.
The children became pale, listless, and lost all interest in playing in their playroom at the top of the house. Eventually, Mrs H took them away for a few weeks, leaving him entirely alone with the ghost that liked to watch him eat bananas. He spent those weeks being woken by doors knocking and bells ringing, though when he investigated there was never anyone in sight.
One night, upon her return, Mrs H was woken by footsteps, doors slamming, and pots crashing as if something was going on downstairs.
"Soon I realized that there was no staircase behind the wall, only the thickly carpeted front stairs on which no footsteps could be heard."
All that paled in comparison to what came next, when all residents of the house began to see apparitions.
"On one occasion, in the middle of the morning, as I passed from the drawing-room into the dining-room, I was surprised to see at the further end of the
dining-room, coming towards me, a strange woman, dark haired and dressed in black. As I walked steadily on into the dining-room to meet her, she disappeared, and in her place I saw a reflection of myself in the mirror."
On returning from a night at the opera, Mr and Mrs H did not have a normal one.
"That night I had vague and strange dreams, which appeared to last for hours. When the morning came, I felt too tired and ill to get up. G. told me that in the middle of the night he woke up, feeling as if someone had grabbed him by the throat and was trying to strangle him."
Mr H at first put this down to a prank being played by his wife (I guess strangulation was the 1920s equivalent of being punk'd) until he saw that she was in an unusually heavy sleep, which had only happened since she moved into the house. He had, conversely, been a heavy sleeper before moving in, but now was constantly getting up in the middle of the night to answer a door that hadn't been knocked, or a phone that hadn't been rung.
The family's nurse – who lived with them in the house – soon added to the tales, reporting that on the night that they were at the opera, one of the children had been "attacked". One of them had burst into her room shouting "don't let that big fat man touch me". The next morning, when the child awoke, he asked "why have you been sitting on top of me," and refused to accept the answer that she hadn't.
She was convinced the house was haunted, and had heard the footsteps of an old man walking slowly above her, as well as following her as she walked.
"One night I woke up and saw sitting on the foot of my bed a man and a woman. The woman was young, dark and slight, and wore a large picture hat. The man was older, smooth shaven and a little bald. I was paralyzed and could not move, when suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and I was able to sit up, and the man and the woman faded away."
Other members of staff reported having heard furniture being piled up against a door, only to investigate and find nothing. It didn't help calm things down when the family investigated and found that the previous occupants had had the same experiences as they had, nor when all the plants in the house died – though both gave almighty big clues as to what was going on.
A rational explanation was guessed at by Mr H's brother. He believed that everyone in the house had been poisoned, and called in a professor to assist in finding a rational explanation. Pretty soon after interviewing the occupants and conducting a search of the whole house, he found the culprit: bog-standard carbon monoxide poisoning.
"He found the furnace in a very bad condition, the combustion being imperfect, the fumes, instead of going up the chimney, were pouring gases of carbon monoxid into our rooms. He advised us not to let the children sleep in the house another night. If they did, he said we might find in the morning that some one of them would never wake again."
Years later, the theory would be confirmed by ophthalmologists looking at one of the younger children's eyes, whose vision had become distorted.
"Nothing apart from the exposure to a poisonous gas could be found bearing a causal relation to the ocular disturbance," they stated.
It's possible that other hauntings could be attributed to the same cause. Not supernatural forces, just a boiler in need of a service.
doctor wrote his own obituary
AN Irish American doctor wrote
his own obituary days before he passed away – and it's a remarkable display of
a man facing his mortality with a herculean sense of humour.
Thomas Lee Flanigan a US Army
veteran of two tours, died at 48 years of age, on 27 April 2021.
Flanigan, also a respected
surgeon and doctor, rose to become Lieutenant Colonel during his time in the
forces.
His obituary, which is published
at www.Legacy.com, is at once both amusing and tear jerking.
It opens with: "Well, that's
it. I have completed my shift as the great American cliché... my wild and crazy
life has again taken a new, unexpected turn with my shocking and unexpected,
yet fabulous, exit."
Thomas was renowned for his sense
of humour and rib-tickling New Year's letters, which he would pepper with wry
words of wisdom for the enjoyment of his family and friends on Facebook each
year.
Continuing his playfully stoic
farewell, he wrote to them: "What was I to this world if not a beacon of
light shining upon those who couldn't scan the internet for their own hilarious
and entertaining comic relief?
"I guess what I am trying to
say is that you're welcome and you owe me big time," Thomas jokingly
added.
The doctor is survived by his
wife Amy and their three children Joey, 14, Evelyn 13, and Sylvia, 10, and his
parting wish was that people should "please take good care of them like
the priceless treasures they are".
The obituary continues: “I will
admit that I originally got married for the husband jokes and had kids for the
dad jokes. It did not disappoint.
"The jokes I mean, but Amy
and the kids were pretty good too. Going to school events, dance competitions,
and eight zillion hockey practices at the crack of dawn really makes a man's
life worthwhile.
"I also saw some other
delightful things in my time here - Hawaiian volcanoes, Egyptian pyramids, and
even the advent of air fryers. I will say, it was magical, all of it.”
Thomas’s humour stayed with him
up to the end, as he signed off: "Due to the unknown and cosmic nature of
my next mission, this will be our last communication.
"It will self-destruct in
five minutes.
"My whereabouts are now top
secret, but let's just say I have made some new friends by the names of Elvis
and Kenny.
"The Church of Tom is closed
for business, but please continue to worship me, light candles, and send money.
You know the deal."