Gertrude Stein used to say that ” the only thing that changes is what people are looking at “,which, given…
Michael McDonagh
I'm a widely published poet, dramatist-filmmaker-director-actor, and writer on the arts. My poems have appeared in Mirage, Stanford's Mantis, and many other places. I have written 3 fine art books of my poems with www.garybukovnik.com -- "Before I Forget" (1990) -- www.nypl.org Bryant Park, Rm 308 -- the single copy "Once" (1996); and "All Kinds of Weather" (2016) www.norfolkpress.com.
My live theatre work includes the three actor "touch and go " which Zack's Common Cultural Practice premiered in a San Francisco show called NEW WORD ORDER. My theatre piece "Sight Unseen" premiered in 2011 on 9/11 week-end at NY's Bowery Poetry Club with painter Elizabeth Murray's daughter Sophie Holman performing the role of "Speaker" before an illustrious crowd which included the late painter Chuck Close, and Ada and www.alexkatz.com and their family. I shot a film version of "SU" wth Hermann Eppert at www.studiocherie.net, Berlin (2013) with www.birgitstauber.de, and have played its "Speaker" many times, especially in a 2014 live performance in a 2-part bill with a set of my poems at The Berkeley Arts Festival, Ric Louchard pianist. I also wrote, produced, cast, acted in, and directed my theatre pieces "Speaking Terms" in 2016 at BAF, with Misha Khalikulov, cellist, and a cast of 4 in A RUSSIAN NOVEL [ Anna and Vronsky ] pianist Jim Jowdy, which I co-directed with the Lebanese actor Nassim Aboufaraj, who played Vronsky.
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The widow of the celebrated film composer Alex North (1910-1991) -- Anna North ( 1940-2005 ) -- hired me to write for www.alexnorthmusic.com. I've also written about this consummate artist for www.ebar.com; www.classical-music-review.org; www.varesesarabande.com; and wrote, directed, and realized the DVD ALEX NORTH VIVA ZAPATA! 2010 with videographers Bauer and Hibdon, which www.alejandroescuer.com and www.onixensamble.com played live to in Puebla Mexico, 2010. I co-hosted " Who Is Alex North? " with Tony Gualtieri, with whom I did 8 other live shows on KUSF-FM, including 2 with guest composers Joan Jeanrenaud and Gerhard Samuel. I've covered books,music, art, architecture, and film for www.sfchronicle.com; www.latimes.com; www.advocate.com; Keyboard; www.sequenza21.com; Antiques and Fine Art;The San Francisco Review of Books; and many other places. Gerhard's setting of my poem "3 " as "night and trees " can be heard on www.sfcco.org I have also authored fine art catalogs for Contemporary Romanticism, UC Hayward (1986), and painter Matt Phillip's 2012 www.meyerovich.com show. I'm currently working at casting, acting in, and directing an online production of my "for Mahmoud Darwish" for which I hope to engage a superb Syrian musician of international repute as well as some of my Bay Area Arab friends. I'm currently writing "Tolstoi and Stalin Meet for Tea " for podcast and/or radio, and will be putting ALEX NORTH VIVA ZAPATA! 2010 online. AND? a fourth book of my poems called "and others".
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