The Artist Kunie Sugiura 2003 x

The Artist Kunie Sugiura 2003 x

The Writer Joseph Caldwell, at Yaddo, 2007

The Writer Joseph Caldwell, at Yaddo, 2007

Choate School Master John Joseph, 1977 x

Choate School Master John Joseph, 1977

Choate School Master John Joseph, 1975

Choate School Master John Joseph, 1975

Choate School Master John Joseph, 1974

Choate School Master John Joseph, 1974

Playwright Portrait, Sheila Callaghan, Excerpt from Lascivious Something x

Playwright Portrait, Sheila Callaghan, Excerpt from Lascivious Something

Lascivious Something

Daphne:

You and he were living out of your small car at the San Francisco Bay. You had no more food. You had not washed yourselves in two weeks besides your feet in the water. You had sex four times a day and were on pot much of the time. You were lying with your stringy head in his lap with your eyes closed. You were talking about molecules moving in your fingers and your feet. You were talking about how your skin was not solid, how the vinyl seat was not solid. You said everything was vibrating in nature at all times, and you said it scared you so much, and you said the only time you felt still was when his voice was in your ears, low and serious. And then you felt a wet drop on your closed lids, and you opened them and he was crying into your eyes. And he said your are so beautiful Liza, you are so beautiful you could crack the sky open. And you said August you are like the universe, you are so big you fill me you fill my eyes and you fill me. He brought his head down to yours and unrolled his tongue into your mouth. And his fingers wound around your hair. And you grabbed his hip with your hand and you said the word NEED, and you wrapped your thick leg around his skinny leg, and said the word NEED, and then you sank your teeth into his hip and bit so hard you came back with part of him in your mouth. And then you made love. And you fell asleep. And when you woke up you had a red smear on your face where you fell sleep in his blood. But he was gone. (A beat) That was the last you saw of him.

Antlers, North Boundary Trail, Jasper, 2004

Antlers, North Boundary Trail, Jasper, 2004

The Playwright A.R. Gurney, 2009 (1930-2017)

The Playwright A.R. Gurney, 2009 (1930-2017)

"Sit up straight and trust in the Lord"

A.R. Gurney,

The Artist and Musician Nancy Arlen, 1984 x

The Artist and Musician  Nancy Arlen, 1984
(1942-2006)

Playwright Portrait, Itamar Moses, Excerpt from Stories 2007 x

Playwright Portrait, Itamar Moses, Excerpt from Stories 2007

Stories
The reader:

The terrible thing about writing, the thing that, sometimes, he finds the most terrible is the way that that initial spark, that maybe orange glowing ember-tip of a new thing, that genesis, that it happens so easily, that the idea for something comes in a flash, which, while, okay, admittedly, is not a very original way to describe a moment of inspiration in the creative process, but it’s true, it’s almost literally true if you think of neurons and the way they make little electrical storms, but how an idea will come in a flash: A man and a woman. Sitting at a table. There is history. There are particulars. That comes, all of it, in a single moment. Or, okay, full disclosure, because that was never the idea, so, more accurately, to be really really truthful, the idea of a scene that doesn’t get to start, because it is hijacked by its own opening stage direction, by someone nameless, identified only as: “The Reader.” This idea comes in a flash, and it’s joyous, it seems right, and good, and like it will be, for as long as it takes to write, it will be the answer to all of my problems. He thinks. But how, and this, finally, is the terrible thing, how the process of actually writing it is nothing at all like that first flash. The rest is just the day to day work of building something. Often frustrating. Often boring. Often seeming to be almost entirely without the prospect of any discernible reward. And that the choices are therefore to write it and feel only deadened by the poor results especially in light of the brightness of the flash. Or not to write it. And to be haunted by it. A chance unruined because it went untried. An impossible choice unredeemed by the fact that even this, even this idea to write about the choice itself, making use of slightly more recently developed but no less contrived meta-formal meta-conventions, as a way of maybe, finally, saying something a little bit near the vicinity of what he wants to say, even this was part of the idea from the beginning. This was always the idea.

Flower on the Forest Floor, Jasper National Park, 2004

Flower on the Forest Floor, Jasper, Canada 2004

Floe Lake, Kootenay National Park, Canada, 2000 x

Floe Lake, Kootenay National Park, Canada, 2000

Portrait of Playwright Bathsheba Doran, at the Flea Theater, 2010 x

Portrait of Playwright Bathsheba Doran, at the Flea Theater, 2010

Playwright and Composer Heather Christian at the Bushwick Starr, 2017

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Playwright and Composer Heather Christian with her Hailen Upright Piano

The Bushwick Starr, 2017

Animal Wisdom

Co-produced by The Bushwick Starr + West Yorkshire Playhouse

Created by Heather Christian

Featuring & made in collaboration with Sasha Brown, Heather Christian, Fred Epstein, Eric Farber & Maya Sharpe

Music, Book & Lyrics - Heather Christian

Director - Mark Rosenblatt

Co-Director - Emilyn Kowaleski

Guitar, Cello, & Vocals - Sasha Brown

Piano & Vocals - Heather Christian

Bass & Vocals - Fred Epstein

Percussion & Vocals - Eric Farber

Violin & Vocals - Maya Sharpe

Lighting Designer & Art Director - Andrew Schneider

Scenic Designers - Eric Farber & Andrew Schneider

Sound Designer - Stowe Nelson

Costume Designer - Heather McDevitt Barton

Dramaturg - Jill Frutkin

Orchestration - Sasha Brown, Heather Christian, Fred Epstein, Eric Farber & Maya Sharpe

Production Stage Manager - Kendall Allen

Technical Director/Associate Lighting Designer - Tater Dave Polato

Producer - Lucy Jackson

Associate Producer - Brittany Coyne

Wardrobe Supervisor and Assistant Costume Designer - Eva Jaunzemis

Sound Engineer - Jay Maury

Lighting Engineer - Eamon Goodman

Production Interns - Sarah Gallegos & Chris Pinto

Orson Welles

Orson Welles, 1977

Portrait of Playwright Jordan Harrison, Main Stage, Playwrights Horizons, 2011 x

Portrait of Playwright Jordan Harrison, Main Stage, Playwrights Horizons, 2011

Portraits of God in the Wilderness x

 God in the Olympics, Olympic National Park,

 Sun on the Mountain, North Cascade National Park

Creek Sun in the Great Basin, Great Basin National Park

Oh My God, St. Mary Pass, Glacier National Park, 1997

Oh My God, St. Mary Pass, Glacier National Park  1997

Robert Wilson, The Watermill Center, 2007 x

Robert Wilson, The Watermill Center, 2007

Playwright Portrait, Young Jean Lee, 2007, Excerpt from Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals x

Playwright Portrait, Young Jean Lee, 2007, 

GROUNDWORK OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALS:

FAH LO SEE:

Everything is fairly clear and straightforward, like on a balcony in bare feet with the stone of the balcony against your face, shot in the back, fallen to the ground with an arrow sticking out of your head.

And I’m sorry to have been such a disappointment to you. I mean that sincerely. But I also feel kind of like, fuck you.

The Playwright Tina Howe 2008 x

The Playwright Tina Howe, 2008

copyright peterbellamy 2010

Why can't you set up your camera in my brain? Bore a hole in my skull and let 'er rip. (Lurid sound effect) There's no plainness here, but heaving oceans ringed with pearls and ancient cities rising in the mist… Grab your tripod, wonders are at hand… Holy men calling the faithful to prayer as women shed their clothing at the river's edge… Click! Jeweled elephants splash beside them, their reflections shiver and merge -- slender arms dissolving into rippling tusks -- loosened hair painting bashful flanks… Click! Now you see them, now you don't… A breast, a tail, a jeweled eye… Click! Macaws scream over head (sound effect), or is it the laughter of the women as they drift further from the shore, their shouts becoming hoarse and strange… (Sound effect) Aim your camera here, Mr. Hugo. (Tapping her temple) This is where beauty lies… Mysterious, inchoate and out of sight! Click!

Portrait of Playwright Katori Hall, at Signature Theatre, 2011, x

Portrait of Playwright Katori Hall, at Signature Theatre, 2011

The Playwright Amy Herzog, New York Theatre Workshop, 2017

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The Playwright Amy Herzog, New York Theatre Workshop, 2017

Mary Jane

By Amy Herzog

Director Anne Kaufman

Scenic Design Laura Jellinek 

cast: Carrie Coon, LIZA COLÓN-ZAYAS, Danaya Esperanza, Susan Pourfar, Brenda Wehle 

 from Mary Jane:

MARY JANE: It’s still raining out there, huh?

TENKEI: Yes. They’re predicting more floods.

MARY JANE : I have a friend…I’m worried about her garden. (brief pause) Oh, no, that’s right. That’s right. She lives on a hill. (she’s briefly comforted by that) My memory…

TENKEI: Sure.

MARY JANE: I keep getting disoriented. They’ve moved Alex’s room a few times. This morning I came out of the bathroom and went to the wrong bed. But not a bed he had been in before. I took a wrong turn, then I went to the right spot in the wrong room. There was a teenager there. A nurse was rubbing him down with lotion. He was staring at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure what my mistake was for a moment. Was it the right bed but the wrong child? The right child, the wrong…time zone?

New York Hall of Science Rocket Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, 1976

New York Hall of Science Rocket Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, 1976

Wolverine Pass, Kootenay National Park, Canada, 2000 x

Wolverine Pass, Kootenay National Park, Canada, 2000 

My favorite camp site in the world is Wolverine Pass.  I spent several days camped in this pass while I photographed in Kootenay National Park. Isolated, yet protected, this poacher's gateway into the park provided a place where I shed my tent and took off on day trips to photograph points further; leaving at dawn and returning at dusk.

Playwright Ian W. Hill, at the Brick Theater, Brooklyn, 2017

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Playwright Ian W. Hill, at the Brick Theater, Brooklyn,  2017

ReFUSE

created by Gemini CollisionWorks

written, designed, and directed by Ian W. Hill

assisted by Berit Johnson

costumes by Holly Pocket McCaffrey

with John Amir*, Rolls Andre, David Arthur Bachrach*, Olivia Baseman*, Philip Cruise*, Ivanna Cullinan*, Linus Gelber, Amanda LaPergola, Leila Okafor, Alyssa Simon*, Anna Stefanic*, and Zuri Washington*part of Gemini CollisionWorks’ 20th Anniversary Season 

You took your picture of me on the set of my play ReFuse in 2017, so I have a quote from that, or rather two -- I prefer the second of these two, but if it's too long for your layout, the first is fine. Both spoken by the same character, The Engineer-Detective:

1.

THE ENGINEER-DETECTIVE

Once there was a Mother, and once there was a Father. There was something about this that made the units work. Can you do the math? There’s a problem here.

For every problem there’s a solution. 

And I held the solution in the palm of my hand.

My weapon was a tool of destiny, and I could fire individual events of creation with the slightest touch. It was easy, then, justice. And I had cornered the market in my corner market.

So I pulled the trigger, and a new world oozed onto the floor. 

2.

THE ENGINEER-DETECTIVE

Reaching one person is reaching an entire world. A hand pulls, and a step is taken. One more day, one more night. Voices in the air. The change occurs. We are altogether the same and in solitary we find the differences that matter. Just the attempt makes for a happy ending. The attempt is a heroic act. My hands are big enough to hold so many, to pull so many to the next step. I want to be joined in this. Voices in the next room. Has this ever happened? Every day. A reason to be in the room. It’s a job. The ethic is in the action. I’m a romantic. Futility makes strength. Get lost. I’m in it for the long haul. These decades are only a start. Voices from outside, and one could be mine. I’ve finished my homework. Lost. Open hearted and newly washed clean, I move forward. One could be mine. 

My Wife Lisa Bellamy, Poet, Greenwich, CT

My Wife Lisa Bellamy, Poet,  Greenwich, CT

Ridge Walking, The Storm Arrives, Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, The Storm Arrives, Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Tip of the Storm, Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Tip of the Storm, Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Assiniboine Provincial Park B, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Assiniboine Provincial Park B, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada, 2000

Ridge Walking, Ascension, Canadian Rockies, 2004

Ridge Walking, Ascension, Canadian Rockies, 2004

Ridge Walking in The Canadian Rockies, Jasper, 2000

Ridge Walking in The Canadian Rockies, Jasper, 2000

The Playwright Diana Oh, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 2017

The Playwright Diana Oh, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 2017

“{my lingerie play} 2017: THE CONCERT AND CALL TO ARMS!!!!!!!!! The Final Installation”

Henry Christiansen III, Attorney, Founding Board Chair of Prospect Park Alliance, 2007, 1945-2017

Henry Christiansen III, Attorney, Founding Board Chair of Prospect Park Alliance, 2007, 1945-2017

Young Boys, With Homemade Basketball Hoop, Astoria 1977

click to enlarge

Young Boys, With Homemade Basketball Hoop, Astoria 1977

The Artist Susan Rothenberg x

The Artist Susan Rothenberg 1986

The Forest Floor, Jasper National Park, Canada, 2000

The Forest Floor, Jasper National Park, Canada, 2000

Floe Lake, Kootenay National Park, Canada, 2000

Floe Lake, Kootenay National Park, Canada, 2000

Above the Storm, Views from Mount Washington, NH, 2002

Above the Storm, Views from Mount Washington, NH, 2002

Playwright Alexandra Zelman-Doring, New Ohio Theater, 2017

Playwright Alexandra Zelman-Doring, New Ohio Theater, 2017

The Itch

by Alexandra Zelman-Doring

Playwright Xavier Galva at the Rattlestick Theater, 2017

Playwright Xavier Galva, at the Rattlestick Theater, 2017

Middle Voices at the Rattlestick

The Parlour

Playwright William Burke at The Bushwick Starr Theater, 2017

Playwright William Burke at The Bushwick Starr Theater, 2017

FURRY!/LA FURIA

by William Burke 

Performed by Modesto "Flako" Jimenez and Olander "Big O" Wilson

Production design by Jeanette Yew

Costume design by Ásta Bennie Hostetter

Happy Anniversary to my Wife Lisa

My Wife Lisa, with Our Granddaughter

Happy Anniversary Lisa with love Peter

Bartender, Brighton Beach, 1977

Bartender, Brighton Beach, 1977

Two Girls, Broad Channel, Queens, 1976

Two Girls, Broad Channel, Queens, 1976

Heart Lake, Olympic National Park, 1996

Heart Lake, Olympic National Park, 1996

FDR Drive, Proverb of New York City, 2017

FDR Drive, Proverb of New York City, 2017

Raising A Baby In

 An NYC Apartment

 Is Like Growing 

An Oak Tree

 In a Thimble