Out Of My Head - Learning to Reach People Through the Arts

Co-creator of the Broadway musical RENT, Emmy-winning playwright Billy Aronson describes his bizarre, harrowing, joyful struggle to make a life in the arts in OUT OF MY HEAD. This memoir/how-to book features countless lessons he learned along the way, ranging from tips on finding your voice, finding your audience, and making money with your art, to collaborating on a marriage. Various chapters include: ¿ The story of how RENT emerged from the sidewalks of 1980's New York and Aronson's collaboration with Jonathan Larson. ¿ An inside look at the making of a PBS Kids show, PEG + CAT, from pitch to final product, and script writing for cult-hit cartoons BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD and COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG. ¿ Accounts of Aronson's struggle to keep his brain healthy through the years of self-doubt, near-constant rejection, the extraordinary humiliations only artists can know, and the cutting anxiety and depression to which artists are prone. ¿ Thoughts on making audiences laugh out loud; Aronson's comedic writing has earned critical comparison to Moliere, Chris Durang, and the Marx Brothers. Revealing and encouraging, OUT OF MY HEAD is a love letter to artists everywhere. "In your lonely struggle to get the indescribable stuff inside your head out to the world," Aronson writes, "you're not alone." Also by Billy Aronson (published by Broadway Play Publishing): FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL "A highly sophisticated sex farce...sly and witty, it has the kind of barb and bite that might be found in sources stretching from the plays of Moliere to the novels of John Updike. This is edgy, tricky stuff." - Dallas Star Telegram THE ART ROOM "Leave any expectations of conventional theatre at home. Billed as half farce half romance, The Art Room is a relentlessly wicked little comedy." - Boston Globe FUNNY SHORTS, one-act collection including: Light Years "The shock of totally unexpected passions...it all works perfectly..."- New York Times Night Rules "A timely satire...swift and pungent." - New York Times The News "Touching and surreal." - Variety Little Duck "Madcap mayhem worthy of the Marx Brothers without censorship."- CurtainUp