Marissa Skudlarek

@marissaskud

Writes playscripts & computer scripts in English, French, & Python. Proof that there are still artists in San Francisco. She/her.

1,065 Following1,660 Followers1,453 Posts

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Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· 19d

Oh my God, I just remembered I tweeted this back in *2018*, long before we knew that Odysseus & Ripley would *both* be Matt Damon characters!!!

Screenshot of a tweet:

Marissa Skudlarek
@MarissaSkud

you may find it strange that my book club went from reading THE ODYSSEY to THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY but, I mean, they're both about crafty, amoral schemers on the shores of the Mediterranean, they're basically the same thing.

10:55 AM • Jun 18, 2018

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jul 13

Cover of “Death and the Penguin,” by Andrey Kurkov (I know Ukrainian is not Russian but I couldn’t resist the joke!)

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jul 13

Haight Ashbury

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jun 23

c/o my mom

A TV showing a Jeopardy! question:
“THIS JESTERMAXXED
OPERA FIRST PERFORMED IN VENICE IN 1851 WAS BASED ON THE PLAY "LE ROI S'AMUSE", ROUGHLY
"THE KING HAS FUN"”

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jun 18

HAPPY TOSCA DAY! The entire action of “Tosca,” both Puccini’s opera and the Victorien Sardou play it is based on, happens on June 17, 1800… so now, 226 years later, what better day for me to begin work on my new translation of the play? If all goes well you will get to experience it next spring!

Black and white photo of a production of “Tosca” starring Leontyne Price. A woman in a Regency gown holds a dagger and stands over a fallen man in a white wig, who she has just stabbed.

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jun 8

Congratulations to “Schmigadoon,” in its honor I made Corn Puddin’ (well, polenta) for the first time in a while

A dinner plate with polenta, broccolini, and a chicken sausage, and a glass of red wine

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jun 3

tfw your experience of public transit in Raleigh (FREE, clean, spacious bus operated by the university, every 15 minutes between the hotel & the office park) is better than your median experience of public transit in San Francisco

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· May 23

why yes I *have* found myself drawn to the cute little Craftsman Episcopal church in my liberal hippie urban neighborhood, how did it know

YOUR CLOSEST NEIGHBORHOOD
The Episcopal Church (TEC)

founded 1789 • national, urban-leaning
MAINLINE ANGLICAN • INCLUSIVE ORTHODOXY'S AMERICAN HOME

Your taste lives in the tradition
that has become, more than any other in America, the home of inclusive orthodoxy: ancient liturgy, sacramental theology, openly LGBTQ+ clergy and laity, a strong literary culture, smaller but stable.

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· May 12

Counterpoint:

New Yorker cartoon by Tom Toro. In the foreground: a bird and a squirrel perched on a tree branch. In the background: people watching a theater performance in an outdoor theater. The bird says to the squirrel (caption): "Just when you're about to lose faith in humanity, you see Shakespeare in the Park."

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· May 9

As a younger patron, I did always wonder how many people actually purchased jewelry there, but it was still fun because Masha would let you borrow a necklace and wear it at intermission as free advertising. This is me in 2016 (!) in one of her creations

A white woman in her late 20s, wearing a dark green short sleeved dress and an artisan jewelry necklace with 4 rows of large green and gold beads

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· May 8

get yourself someone who looks at you the way Lika looked at Anton

An 1890s photograph of Lika Mizinova and Anton Chekhov on a bench in a meadow. She turns her head to look at him adoringly; he looks at the camera. Taken from https://chekhov-levitan.com/2017/05/12/sweet-lika/

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· May 5

to round out the main roles of "When You're the King" w/ Met Gala attendees & outfits, I'm casting Rachel Zegler as Blanche and Sombr as King François

Rachel Zegler at the Met Gala, in a white corseted gown and a white chiffon blindfold

Sombr at the Met Gala, in a black chiffon cape covered in silver sequins, black trousers with silver beads, and a black lace shirt

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Apr 19

One of my favorite fun facts to share with people is that this isn’t Teenage Taylor Swift… it’s Teenage Victor Hugo 🤯 So I had to ask myself: if Hugo’s “Le Roi s’Amuse” were a Taylor Swift song, what song would it be? Well duh, it’s just about the most “But Daddy I Love Him” play ever

An early 19th century charcoal portrait of a boy of about 13 with fine, light blonde hair in a side-parted bob, who bears a remarkable resemblance to the young Taylor Swift

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Apr 2

This extremely silly wordplay never fails to make me giggle (bonus coincidence: it was posted on a milestone birthday for me)

Tweet by @mattdpearce on 5 July 2017 that reads “Hobby Lobby’s robby hobby: Hammurabi”

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Mar 8

Binders full of ̶w̶o̶m̶e̶n̶ scripts! Thanks for this opportunity, @sfopera.bsky.social !

A table laid out with a row of overlapping black binders. On the front of each binder it says “Page to Stage: When You’re the King, They Let You Do It.”

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Feb 9

Cover of “The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Feb 6

I have to admit I laughed way too hard at this though. "Forgetting it's removable"!

Excerpt of AI-generated slop text with a "Cyrano de Bergerac" theme from a sports betting website.

"Today’s actors face new challenges. They wonder if new tech beats old makeup. But nothing beats the feeling of wearing a heavy nose.

Prosthetic Nose Realities

The nose in Cyrano is a big challenge:
Era Nose Material Biggest Challenge
1897 Stage Wax/Leather Projection through face armor
2020s Screen 3D-Printed Silicone CGI integration
Method Actor Permanent Glue Forgetting it’s removable

Coquelin’s actors had strong jaws from speaking with a nose. Today, actors might prefer CGI. But do they lose something real?"

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Jan 13

so in the 1930s the SF Public Library had an absolutely badass logo for their bookplates and I think they should bring it back Life without letters is dead! 💀🔥📖🐦‍🔥

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Dec 31

From an ocean away, my traditional NYE post: E.B. White in the New Yorker 91 years ago (1934), letting us see that there’s beauty in howling into the uncertain void. Running screaming into 2026 with all of you.

Notes and Comment
THOUGH it's not quite time for it, we can hear in our inner ear the savage and beautiful noise the town makes at midnight of December 31st.
This roar is inaudible if you're in a noisy room yourself. To hear it you have to get to a window, or out on a roof, or in the streets somewhere not too near the core in Times Square. In all life there is no sound like it-the orectic cry of millions of partially lost
souls, grown a year older hating death.
A great common sound, full of all the wild wants that lie between a drunken kiss and a child's prayer.

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Dec 27

well actually what might be even funnier is that this lady on the upper right, the newest member of the troupe (congratulations!) hasn’t had time to get her headshot done in the official style yet

6 headshots of Comédie Française actors. 5 of the photos were clearly taken by the troupe’s official photographer; they use soft golden lighting and the actors have bare shoulders, no visible clothing. Then on the upper right is a harshly lit photo of a woman in a bright blue plaid shirt.

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Dec 27

going to see Molière’s “Misanthrope” at the Comédie-Française tonight and it’s cracking me up that the official headshots of the Comédie acting troupe make everyone, male & female, appear to be topless. Never change, les Français.

Headshots of 6 Comédie Française actors, 3 men & 3 women, appearing to range in age from about 40 to 70. All have bare shoulders and appear to be shirtless.

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Dec 14

me, a sometimes playwright, reading that first sentence:

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Dec 10

so, weirdly, there doesn't seem to be any book, movie, or play from 1937 that I really-truly 😍 LOVE, so I think my top choice here is the Rodgers & Hart song "I Wish I Were in Love Again", and my runner-up is Elsa Schiaparelli & Salvador Dalí's lobster dress

A mannequin wearing a long white sleeveless dress with a coral midriff and a large lobster painted on the front of the skirt, plus a close-up of the lobster painting

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Nov 28

big leftover salad time

A big plate of salad featuring roasted turkey breast, roasted squash, pomegranate seeds, goat cheese, pepitas, and a brown vinaigrette dressing on a bed of spinach.
Recipe is the Smitten Kitchen Fall Bliss Salad

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Nov 27

I can’t believe I’m the first person on the thread to claim this one 🪒🥧

Spotify screenshot showing the last 5 songs of Act One of “Sweeney Todd”

Kiss Me
Stephen Sondheim, Sarah Rice, Victor Garber

Ladies in Their Sensitivities
Stephen Sondheim, Edmund Lyndeck, Jack Eric…

Pretty Women
Stephen Sondheim, Len Cariou, Victor Garber, Edmund…

Epiphany
Stephen Sondheim, Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury...

A Little Priest
Stephen Sondheim, Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury...

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Nov 2

not enough of you are following the delightful & serendipitous @iambic.bot

Reposted by iambic.bot
Darren@darrenjones.bsky.social • 1h
Just fucking brutal. Nothing else to say.

Reposted by iambic.bot
Jonathan Ruggiero @jonathanruggie... • 1h
It ended on a fucking double play...

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Oct 12

I’m at Standard Deviant in the Mission, having a cider and trying to learn my lines for the freewheeling “Much Ado” production I will be acting in here in 10 days! I am playing Don Pedro — the Denzel Washington role, for those of you who remember the Branagh movie.

A Pop Art style theater poster, showing one woman whispering in another woman’s ear.

Text on the poster reads

BAY AREA BAR SHAKES PRESENTS
No DIRECTOR.
ONE REHEARSAL.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
IN TIME THE SAVAGE BULL DOTH BEAR THE YOKE.
TUESDAY 10/21 6 PM
STANDARD DEVIANT BREWING 280 14™ ST SAN FRANCISCO

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Sep 12

Today in Excessively Obvious Metaphors: I just passed by Trump Tower, it is rather chaotic outside because the President is (about to?) pay a visit, and it’s protected from the public by a long line of garbage trucks

Looking south on 5th Ave from 57th St. A long line of garbage trucks serve as a barricade in front of Trump Tower.

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Sep 12

I had a similar feeling yesterday at the NYPL exhibition when I saw how the New Yorker‘s landmark “Hiroshima” issue was first presented

An August 1946 issue of The New Yorker. The cover has a whimsical illustration of people having summer fun in a park. Around the cover is a white paper band printed with the words “Hiroshima - This entire issue is devoted to the story of how an atomic bomb destroyed a city.”

Marissa Skudlarek@marissaskud· Sep 9

Screenshot from my phone just now