Next: A Really Really Long Play Title

At Rorschach we end up abbreviating a lot of our titles. Typing The Master and Margarita over and over again in emails is jilly when you could simply type M&M and be done with it. It may be needlessly flip to throw around play titles like short order cooks but time is indeed precious. So sometimes you will see me throw around terms like LOF, FLGPC or even GOV.

Some plays get one or two word short-hand, the full title of Family Stories is actually Family Stories: A Slapstick Tragedy. And there is Clearing, Ubu, Letter and Tale.

Even the plays with one word titles can get the treatment. Monster and Behold! are pretty safe (though God forbid you forget to use the exclamation mark after Behold!). But do you know how long it took me to be able to spell Rhinoceros without having to look it up, Rhino saves embarassment and spell checking.

I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the most efficient and clear ways to shorten all of our play titles. And if someone would come up with a way to shorten J.B. I would take it.

Now I come to the mother of all play titles, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot.

I have come to think that this title is both a dream and a curse.

A dream because it shoots through your brain like a hot nail and sticks there. It has sex and a famous name, two things you always look for when marketing a play, and that makes it a dream as well.

What is the Curse you might ask? Well you can not abbrevaite it and have it stay as sexy as you want it to be. RSDMMH? Does nothing for me. And if you take any of the words on their own they lose their magical juice. The closest you come to something approaching appropriate is Salvador Dalí, but even that loses the sense of title and it just becomes a name.

There is no solution that makes me happy, so I will type it all out every time I suppose. Or I will get lazy after the first week and just call it References and see who complains.

Here is the 411. First read is next Saturday and we will have a reporter on the inside from the beginning.

References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot

by Jose Rivera

Directed by Shirley Serotsky

April 14 – May 13

Previews begin April 11 (Washington Premiere)
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Strange things happen in a moonlit backyard on the edge of the California Desert. The cat talks with a dangerously seductive coyote and the moon plays his violin for a lonely woman awaiting her husband's return from war. When he arrives, broken and distant, the reality of their relationship seems as strange as the apparitions in the desert night. Jose Rivera, a contemporary master of magical realism and the painful and gritty realities of human relationships, has created a suddenly relevant play that explores the scars of war both on those who fight it and those who get left behind.

FEATURING: Company Members Scott McCormick (God of Vengeance, The Illusion, Ubu Roi, The Master and Margarita, After the Flood, Scarlet Letter, The Beard of Avon and Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards) and Yasmin Tuazon (God of Vengeance, The Illusion, J.B. and Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards). Also featuring Gabriella Fernandez-Coffey, Cesar A. Guadamuz (Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards and Rough Magic), Andrew Price (The Hairy Ape, Rhinoceros and Family Stories)

DESIGNED BY: Robbie Hayes (Set), Andrew F. Griffen (Lights), Pei Lee (Costumes), Matthew Nielson (Sound), Jean Ann Douglas (Props), Connor Dale (Asst. Lighting Design), Justin Titley (Asst. Set Design)

DRAMATURGY: Jacqueline E. Lawton

STAGE MANAGED BY: Cecilia Cackley (Rough Magic)

SHOW SCHEDULE: APRIL 14-MAY 13 Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm

MORE SHOWS TO BE ADDED SOON (including the matinees)

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN PREVIEWS APRIL 11-14

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 8pm