John Morogiello - American Playwright » comedy

Matchmaker’s Guide on Amazon

John — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:41:28 +0000

The DVD of The Matchmaker’s Guide to Controlling the Elements is now available through Amazon.com, which is very exciting, despite the insanely low royalty Amazon offers. Here’s what I recommend: buy the thing at the store on JohnMorogiello.com or JTBurianTheatricals.com (it’s the same price as Amazon, but my percentage is higher), then visit the Amazon page and write glowing reviews. Honestly, if you’re looking to give a belated gift to someone you don’t like, who unexpectedly gave you something for the holidays, I’d recommend this DVD. It’s much more edible than fruitcake.

Other news: two play readings are in the works for early 2009, one in New York City (Engaging Shaw) and the other in the DC area (A Thing for Redheads). Details to follow as schedules are etched in stone.

Matchmaker’s Guide

John — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:20:17 +0000

Just in time to be too late for the holidays, I finally worked out all of the problems with the DVD of The Matchmaker’s Guide to Controlling the Elements. It is currently for sale here. At $10, it is the perfect gift for those you don’t want to spend too much money on, and don’t particularly care for. I watched it again just this afternoon, and laughed exactly twice. Becky Herron and Matt McGloin were the reasons.

I made the film in 2007, to keep myself from going insane after the plans for a Boston production of Irish Authors Held Hostage fell through. As such, it served its purpose.

But don’t just let me do a horrible job of promoting it, look at this trailer from YouTube:

I’m planning to revamp my website in the next week or so. There will be a more visible link at that time.

Irish Authors scene

John — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:07:39 +0000

Martin Blanco and I–with the permission of the cast–have decided to put a few scenes from Irish Authors Held Hostage on the web, to interest potential investors/producers. Oscar Wilde is the first:

Last student film!

John — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:05:25 +0000

Glad to be done with this, finally. Though this is the last of the student films I’m posting, it was actually the first one I ever made. Another student had just spent a ton of money to make a full-color, sound synched film called No Girls Allowed, which was to be entered in the Suffolk County film festival. But when it was shown to the kids at school, it was booed off the screen. I hated the movie and thought the catcalls were justified. However, the rest of the film club (New Campus Newsreel) rushed to defend No Girls because of its technical polish. So I dared the club to finance a project of mine: The Tickets. I promised that the audience at school would love it, and that it would be a piece of technical garbage. They accepted the dare.

I shot the thing on Super 8, everything overexposed, with no regard for continuity or coverage, and never venturing beyond a second take. I even processed the film myself! The audience loved it, proving me right. Twenty-three years later, however, I kind of wish I’d paid a little more attention to technical polish.

Second student movie

John — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:42:42 +0000

This was the second student film I made at Stony Brook, again in the style of Buster Keaton. (I’m a little obsessive.) The title is Girls Stink, and Martha Banta plays opposite me. She and I worked together a lot in college–or at least she humored my idiotic ideas. Martha went on to be assistant director of Rent on Broadway, as well as co-founder of the Adirondack Theatre Festival.

A General Mess

John — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:23:02 +0000

I recently reconnected with an old college friend of mine named David Reichhold, who asked for a copy of a student film we both worked on in 1986-1987. So I dug it up, re-edited some of it, and put it on YouTube, so David can see it and torture his wife and children with it. David came up with the cigarette bit on his own, and I think it’s one of the few genuinely funny moments in the whole movie.

Watching the film again, after 21 years, surprised me. I’m still in touch with a number of the performers (David, Richard Schindler, Bill Bruehl, Sabado Lam), and yet there are so many whom I have completely forgotten: names, faces, their entire existence. I also had to laugh at some of the doubling: Georgia plays both the jailhouse guard and a gatekeeper. Robbie plays both the love interest and my captor. Would love to hear from anyone involved who comes across this blog.

Obviously, I was obsessed with Buster Keaton in those days. Still am. I’ve got two other student films along the same lines. If I think they’re passable, I’ll post them too.