“Sexy cast, great scripting, and a brilliantly gothic venue. It finishes on 14 April so be quick (we saw it on Saturday and loved it).” Bizarre Magazine

“Second Skin is a regular on these pages. More so because the company’s plays are so carefully chosen, masterfully written and even better brought to life by their actors.”  ”This play, masterfully directed by Andy McQuade and written by Don Fried, brings this story to the stage with a magnificent cast. Mia Zara makes for an amazing Countess Bathory.”  Theatre in London

“Second Skin Theatre continue their challenging and provocative work with a new play by Don Fried. ”  ”Mia Zara absolutely dominates the evening as the charismatic and mysterious Elizabeth Bathory.” “The production is fast paced and atmospheric. We are drawn into a different world – forbidding and ominous. The lighting design (Anna Sbokou) adds to the otherworldliness, especially in the bookend scenes. Don’t miss this provocative play!”  UK Theatre Network

“Don Fried gives us a clever and intelligent woman, an efficient operator and a prototype feminist battling against male and royal control.” “This is a picture of the way someone can be schooled into transgression, of how the law can be followed and yet manipulated, and how power can be concentrated in an elite, none of which has been limited to sixteenth-century Transylvania. Mia Zara’s Countess Elizabeth goes from oestrogen-driven girl to manipulative woman; when she is on stage things revolve around her.” “There is a layer of ironic humour that lies beneath much of McQuade’s production and Fried’s writing.” British Theatre Guide

“Fringe company Second Skin Theatre continue their run of theatrical hits with this chilling look at Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian Countess accused of murdering over 600 women.  The superb script by Don Fried deftly combines elements of horror, sex and political intrigue combined with a knowing tongue-in-cheek humour that never threatens to descend into parody.  On a technical level, it’s flawless with brilliant use of set and lighting effects maintaining an atmosphere of impending doom. It’s cast with a powerful ensemble who nail their various characters, most notably George Collie as Sigray who gives his initially bumbling character an unexpected sympathetic edge.  Centre of the whole play is the entrancing Mia Zara as Bathory, who delivers a complex and seductive performance.  She charts the character’s progress from naive young girl to crazed Countess with a flawless precision.  Her final moments on stage are a beautifully poetic touch. For theatre that chills, entices and tickles the brain cells “Blood Privilege” comes highly recommended.” Write Out Loud

“Chilling and atmospheric.” “Excellent use of the tiny black box theatre.” “Lighting … brilliantly done.” “Ross Mullan [as the king] mesmerizes.” “Mia Zara is also spellbinding as the murderous countess.” “George Collie [as the judge, Lorand Sigray] gave a great comedic performance.” “Second Skin Theatre is one of the few companies in London doing such intriguing work and the risks they are taking on stage are duly noted.”  Hackney Hive

Get on a plane, come by bicycle, hop on your pogo-stick. Do whatever you have to do, but don’t miss this one!

“Don Fried’s new play Blood Privilege is a feminist powerhouse; the Countess Elizabeth Bathory could be the Hedda Gabler of 16th Century Hungary, with equally tragic outcomes.”

“The Richmond Shepard Theatre production is a showcase for lead actress Jessie Komitor, who handles her role as the doomed Countess with deft skill. She commands the stage in each scene in which she appears .”

“Andrew Rothkin, who plays both her tyrannical husband of convenience, Ferenc Nadasdy and her beautician-physician Pataky made such vastly different choices for each character I had to check my program to make sure I was watching the same man.”

“It must be said that Blood Privilege is very smart and very funny. Mr. Fried writes with a dry wit that had me laughing in my seat.”

“If you can catch Blood Privilege for its remaining run through February 24th, I highly recommend it. I certainly hope his British audiences in their upcoming London engagement will appreciate this show as much as I did.”

Not bad, huh?

Click here to view the trailer

Blood Privilege Trailer from RoseGoldCreative on Vimeo.

The logline that won is:

After catching her husband in a nursing home affair, an elderly woman embarks on a cross-country quest for sexual liberation — only to discover that getting laid isn’t as easy as it used to be. Based on an award-winning play by the screenwriter.

Bodice Ripper is about a middle-aged writer of macho detective novels whose career has taken a turn for the worse.  In desperation, he decides to write a romance novel, but he’s comically unqualified for it, and his two long-time fictional characters are taking on minds of their own.  Bodice Ripper is about the rules. What happens when the rules change, or when what you thought you knew turns out to have been wrong all along?

The play received an Addison Grant from the Boulder County (Colorado) Arts Alliance for a staged public reading at the Theater Company of Lafayette (Colorado) in April, 2011.

You may recall that Coal Creek Theater premiered my play Shakespeare Incorporated simultaneously with Second Skin Theatre of London in March, 2010.   Also, Coal Creek Theater awarded first prize to my short play, “The Code” at its Front Range Playwrights Showcase in 2009.  ”The Code” turned into the first of the 5 short plays in Senior Moments, my most produced play, which I’ve now adapted as a movie screenplay.

And another of my short plays, “L*** Man” was a finalist at the 2012 Front Range Playwrights Showcase.  So I’ve got a history with these guys.  It’s great to have friends.

In “L*** Man” an investigative reporter discovers the truth about L. Dwight Mander and the secretive L*** Cessation Institute, an organization formed to relieve the world of the tragic and epidemic use of the word “like” multiple times in every sentence.

My play Senior Moments won 1st place in the 2009 Showcase, and went on to be presented and win awards at the Colorado and Regional American Association of Community Theaters showcases.  It was published in 2011 by ArtAge and is having frequent productions throughout the country.

The other good news this week is that my latest play, Blood Privilege, will be produced in New York City in February and in London in March, 2013, by Second Skin Theater Company.  Second Skin, which commissioned me to write the play, produced Shakespeare Inc. in 2010, and commissioned me to write Phoenix which is premiering at the Camino Real Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano, California in May.  Watch this space for the announcements of further productions of Phoenix.

Blood Privilege is inspired by the life of Hungarian countess, Erzbet Bathory, who sexually tortured and murdered over 600 young women in the early 1600s and who is one of the inspirations of the vampire myths.  But although the play is a period piece set at the turn of the 17th century, what it’s really about is the current crisis around the consolidation and abuse of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny global elite.

Getting Betta premiered simultaneously in Colorado and California in March, 2011.  There are two runs in Austin; the first is at the Blue Theater as part of the FronteraFest Long Fringe, and the second is at the Howson Hall Theater.  Take a look at the following posters.

I hope to see you there.

At first, of course, I would program the box to record things I thought would impress it –  the grand production of Aida from Cairo, PBS specials on the plight of the Brazilian rain forest, that sort of thing — even though I had no intention of ever watching them.  Eventually, though, I reverted to my preferred diet of old movies on TCM with an occasional UT Longhorns football game thrown in for variety.

But TIVO is constantly trying to dumb me down.  It records dozens of moronic reality shows about New Jersey divorcees and people in jail for driving without licenses.  Last night, I delete nine, count-em, nine Universal Fighting Championship shows!  Japanese anime cartoons for 5 year olds?  I’ve got them by the dozen.  Spanish language soap operas?  How in heaven’s name did TIVO conclude that I would be interested in them?

The worst part is that, unless I specify “Keep until I delete” for everything I intentionally record, TIVO will delete it to record 50 Most Embarrassing TV Moments.  Give me a break, TIVO, and stop trying to turn my brain into porridge.

To be fair, though, TIVO does occasionally blunder on something worthwhile.  I mean, how else would I have chanced on the special on Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue?