2023 Holiday E-Card
Hi, all! It’s that time of year again. That time of year when I remember I have a website. Also, it’s that time of year when I make an e-card! I free-handed the pelican in pencil and ink and digitally colored it with textured brushes in the GIMP. Then I fished out a photo of some riprap at my local beach on my phone (which doesn’t have a great camera), and somehow when I put my digital painting into the photo it wound up looking weirdly more real than the real stuff. To offset that, I painted a little hat on the egret that was standing around in the photo ^_^. For the record, while I’m home for the holiday, my pelican-Santa (Pelicanta?) is just passing through. The pelicans with the white/yellow heads only show up at our beach in the winter. The year-round pelicans are all brown.
Wishing you all a fun, restful, and happy Christmas and New Year- E.G.D.
Gi60 Houston 2023 is up on YouTube!
My friends, while we rocket into the Fall 2023 season’s rehearsal processes, we can also enjoy the Summer 2023 production on YouTube! We presented Gi60 Houston 2023 at Houston Community College Stafford Campus on July 6th and 7th, and it was incredibly fun for everyone involved. The complete show is now up on the Gi60 YouTube channel for everyone to enjoy! The titles are a little hard to read, so here is the title slide information:
1. Soda Pop Art by Alicia Ana Hernandez-Roulet — Indianapolis, IN, USA
2. The Deal by Todd Snider – Stafford, TX, USA
3. The Talk of Men by Mark Harvey Levine — Indianapolis, IN, USA
4. Take Part by Juan Ramirez Jr. – The Bronx, NY, USA
5. I Speak Fortune Cookie by Risa Lewak — Long Beach, NY, USA
6. Like by Edgar Chisholm — New York City, NY, USA
7. Crime of Passion by Ava Love Hanna — Austin, TX, USA
8. Tiny Swan by Barry Wood — Lincoln, UK
9. Origin Story by Brandon M. Crose — Derry, New Hampshire, USA
10. Nemesis by Bill Triplett – Santa Fe, NM, USA
11. Rebound by Amy Pieri — Manitou Springs, CO, USA
12. Just the Facts, Please by Sophia Vitkovitsky — Toronto, Ontario, Canada
13. Heaven is Heaven by Elena Naskova – Seattle, WA, USA
14. A Grape by Mark Harvey Levine — Indianapolis, IN, USA
15. The Magic Words by Alan Jozwiak — Cincinnati, OH, USA
16. Maid of Honor by Risa Lewak — Long Beach, NY, USA
17. Time and Money by Gary Wadley — Louisville, KY, USA
18. Dragons in Dungeons by J J Condon — Astoria, NY, USA
19. Game Night by Tom Moran — Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
20. What Are You Reading? By Matthew Hopkins — Caldwell, NJ, USA
21. Say It Isn’t Love by Donald Loftus – New York City, NY, USA
22. Sound the Alarm! by Lucille Loren Vasquez – The Bronx, NY, USA
23. Fa La La La Llamas by Claudia Haas — White Bear Lake, MN, USA
24. Deadline by John Lane — Stanton, CA, USA
25. Fairy Tale by Valerie Gramling — Miami, Florida, USA
26. Border Crossing by Joe Weintraub — Chicago, IL, USA
27. Getting to Yes by Lynda Crawford — New York, NY, USA
28. I Don’t Need Your Help by Emma Grace Denton – Houston, TX, USA
29. Paper or Plastic by James McLindon — Northampton, MA, USA
30. Holiday Decorations by Helen Cheng Mao — Olney, Maryland, USA
31. Keep the Change by Kevin and Catherine Clyne — Babylon, NY, USA
32. The Pistachio Muffin by Matthew Weaver – Spokane, WA, USA
33. Novel Idea by Barry Wood — Lincoln, UK
34. It’s Your Shuffle by Richard Uzzell – Houston, TX, USA
35. Donuts or Macrons by Colette Murphy — Temecula, California, USA
36. Would Have, Could Have by Madi Fabber — Cambridge, MA, USA
37. Garden Restaurant by Raphael Badagliacca — Montclair, New Jersey, USA
38. Horror Flick by Sandra Hosking — Spokane, WA, USA
39. A Well Made Play by Wayne Colbert – Fullerton, CA, USA
40. Proverbs by Donna Latham – Houston, TX, USA
41. Memory Serves by Nicky Denovan — Reading, Berkshire, UK
42. Podcast Magic by Debra Cole — Lawrence, Kansas USA
43. Losers Weepers by Rob Kirby – Orange, CA, USA
44. No Remains by Kendra Preston Leonard – Humble, TX, USA
45. The Beat Drop by Bethany Dickens Assaf — Oviedo, FL, USA
46. The Elevator by Bethany Dickens Assaf — Oviedo, FL, USA
47. Just Like Falling by Rebecca Kane — Astoria, NY, USA
48. Surprise, Surprise by Dena Douglass and Liz Gallagher — Stamford, CT, USA
And without further ado:
You know, I need to update this site more often…
Well, this is awkward. The semester is very nearly over, and I haven’t bothered to update this website at all! I suppose the most interesting thing that happened this semester is that I produced, directed, and designed a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Expressionist play The Hairy Ape and HCC Spring Branch. The performers knocked it out of the park!
Next up is Gi60 Houston 2023, which we will be hosting at HCC Stafford this summer. If you are interested in submitting a one-minute play script, we will be opening for submissions very soon for our local crowd, but submissions are open internationally until 5/15 here: http://gi60.blogspot.com/ It’s always a good time for everyone involved.
Take care, stay safe, and hopefully we’ll see some of you there- E.G.D.
2022 went by like lightning! Also, the holiday card.
What a year! Theatre is fully back at HCC, and we brought it back with a bang. I directed a melodrama (The Spoilers), directed half of Gi60 Houston 2022, Costume/Prop/Makeup designed for Dance Nation, and worked Prop/Set/Paint crew (and crew supervision) for The Frogs. Of course, I also music directed Santa’s Christmas Magic the Musical, but that one was at SanJac like usual, rather than at HCC. Really, I’m just saying it was a great year for theatre.
It was also an interesting year for other reasons. One of those reasons is that a dog dug her way into my yard over Spring Break, and she’s still here. The other dog who lives in my house was not pleased for the first few months, but they get along pretty well, now. As you can see, she was slated to be the subject of one of my more stylistically typical cards, but it turns out she is fantastically difficult to draw, and I balked at the idea of trying to color the line art in the usual way. It’s hard to capture her in photography as well (she does not stay still), but I think this shot is just about good enough.
Happy holidays, everyone! I hope 2023 treats us all well- E.G.D.
Gi60 Houston 2022 at HCC!
Friends, it is good to be back in the theatre in front of real, live audiences. We could not advertise widely because we had limited seating and needed to reserve spaces for students and family/friends of participants, but we have had two fantastic live play productions at Houston Community College so far this year! I’m a little biased, of course, because I directed one of them (a melodrama called The Spoilers, which we mounted at HCC Stafford). Moving into the summer, I am delighted to announce that we are once again hosting Gi60 Houston! Here are the details, if you are a playwright and would like to contribute:
Gi60 (Gone in 60 Seconds) Houston! One Minute Theatre Festival 2022 – Deadline: May 23, 2022
Submission Guidelines:
Gi60 is open to everybody; all you need is an idea and an internet connection. Since its inception in 2003, Gi60 has premiered thousands of new works written by people of all ages and backgrounds from around the world. Please email all 1-minute play submissions to hccGi60@gmail.com.
Gi60 Houston will perform LIVE at Houston Community College Stafford Campus on July 7 & 8.
The Guidelines:
· Submissions must not last longer than 60 seconds.
· IMPORTANT: Submissions should be sent in the body of your email**(see below), as well as in an attachment in RTF or Word format only: NO PDF DOCUMENTS.
· Scripts in PDF format will not be considered
· The Title of your play should be in the subject line of your email
· You may submit as many one minute plays as you wish, but only one submission per email.
· All work must be totally original and the author’s own work.
· Include your name and address/geographic location before the title of your work.
· Plays should not have been previously produced.
· Please do not submit plays that have been submitted to Gi60 prior to 2022 for consideration.
· Entries from schools should include a teacher’s contact and the School name, as well as that of the author.
Email all submissions to: hccGi60@gmail.com prior to the submission deadline of May 23, 2022.
Terms and conditions:
· There is no submission fee, prize or payment for Gi60 participation.
· Copyright remains with the author.
· Plays lasting longer than 60 seconds may not be considered.
· The organizers may use individual plays to promote the Gi60 festival.
· Final play selection will be announced on the Gi60 Website and Gi60 Facebook Groups.
· Gi60 is staffed and created by professionals who are volunteers, and give their time free of charge.
· The organizers reserve the right to cut scripts without notification where necessary. E.g. if a play is running significantly longer than 60 seconds, we may delete some small lines if their intention is communicated elsewhere in the script.
· Gi60 festivals are recorded and made available for viewing on the Gi60 YouTube Channel. To view past plays: Gi60 Channel YouTube
PLEASE NOTE: due to the high volume of plays we receive each year we are unable to write to individual playwrights to notify them if their play has not been selected.
**We annually receive between 700-900 submissions; by including the text of the play in the body of the email, it saves play readers time to not have to open attachments. If your play is selected, the attachments in Word/RTF make it easier for us to then share those scripts with the creative teams.
If you are at all curious about Gi60 Houston from 2021, all you need to do is scroll down to the earlier post! Thanks, all, and I do hope you consider contributing- E.G.D.
E-Card 2021
It’s that time of the year again… the time when I make a silly doodle holiday card! This year, the card started out with paper, a pencil, a sharpie, and a digital photo of my sun room decked out for the holidays. Please note the very green grass and bright sun out the windows, because this December has been extremely warm! I edited it all together and colored the doodle using Gimp software, but anyone who has popped in to view previous years’ cards probably already jumped to that conclusion.
Cheers to a fantastic holiday season and the march toward that predicted new normal in 2022- E.G.D.
Santa’s Christmas Magic 2021
Because the students, faculty and staff of San Jacinto College and the community of Pasadena, TX have been very good this year, Santa has granted their Christmas wish, and Santa’s Christmas Magic is back after only one year of COVID hiatus. The show had a great first week, and there are still three performances left in this, the second week of the show.
Once again, I was the music director for the show, and it has been great to see both old familiar faces and new smiling in song.
For more information, you can visit this article from the Houston Chronicle or this article from the SanJac website.
Happy end-of-finals, everyone! Cheers- E.G.D.
HCC Central’s Production of Anon(ymous) streams between now and midnight! HCC Stafford’s production of Everyman starts on Monday.
My friends, I am always running late with these things, so I hope you were looking for this link elsewhere! HCC Central’s fabulous production of Anon(ymous), a modern adaptation of Homer’s Oddesy, is streaming on Broadway on Demand:
https://www.broadwayondemand.com/series/8d3bYZ3oi7vO-anonymous–houston-community-college
It started streaming on 11/17, and ends at midnight tonight 11/20. If you get the chance to watch it, I hope you enjoy it! If not, you can find HCC Stafford’s production of Everyman here starting on Monday:
https://hcc.events.idloom.com/everyman-sw-drama-fall21
I was the costume designer and fight choreographer for Anon(ymous), and my Stagecraft I class worked a little on props for Everyman. All of the students in both productions did a fantastic job!
Cheers to having live audiences next semester- E.G.D.
One very good thing to come out of 2021: Gi60 Houston
My friends, I shall let the video speak for itself:
I am so happy for my Practicum and Stagecraft students! I hope they are as happy with the results of their work as I am. If you would like a program, here it is:
Enjoy! Also, GO TEAM Gi60 Houston at HCC! -E.G.D.
Gi60 Houston at HCC
If you happen to be a theatre person/writer (perhaps an old friend or associate) wandering by and you happen to want to be involved in a new works event, have I got a call for submissions for you! Alternately, if you have a one minute play sitting around on your hard drive, we are accepting previously produced works, as well.
The drama department at HCC (Houston Community College), for which I serve as faculty, is excited to host the first Gi60 Houston one minute play festival, and we’re looking for great one-minute plays. Here’s the link to the call for submissions: http://gi60.blogspot.com/
If you’re interested, there are two weeks left to submit! Even if you don’t submit, you will definitely have the opportunity to see the show on Gi60’s YouTube channel once we’ve gotten the show on its feet. Our student performers are awesome, and it’s going to be fantastic.
I’ll keep you posted! -E.G.D.
Worlds of Words 