Marissa Skudlarek
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marissaskud.bsky.social
Marissa Skudlarek
@marissaskud.bsky.social
1.5K followers 960 following 1.2K posts
Writes playscripts & computer scripts in English, French, & Python. Proof that there are still artists in San Francisco. She/her.
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marissaskud.bsky.social
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!
💀🔥📖🐦‍🔥
A 1930s logo for the SF Public Library, pasted into a book to hold the checkout record card. The logo is a round medallion depicting a book and a phoenix rising up out of flames. A banner reads “Vita sine literis mors est” (Life without letters is death”)
January 13, 2026 at 8:58 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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.
December 31, 2025 at 9:51 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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.
December 27, 2025 at 3:06 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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.
December 27, 2025 at 2:54 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
me, a sometimes playwright, reading that first sentence:
"Sickos Guy" cartoon from The Onion
December 14, 2025 at 5:22 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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
December 10, 2025 at 12:02 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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
November 28, 2025 at 10:10 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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...
November 27, 2025 at 5:55 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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...
November 2, 2025 at 6:04 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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
October 12, 2025 at 12:28 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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.
September 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
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.”
September 12, 2025 at 3:03 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
Screenshot from my phone just now
To help you diagnose the problem
September 9, 2025 at 7:46 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
Such a lovely wishteria vine we are all collectively growing tonight 🙏
A very large wisteria vine covered in purple flowers
August 30, 2025 at 6:49 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
TIL that the French equivalent of "the quick brown fox…" is this sentence about "naïve Lætitia," who, with "a disappointed heart but a joyful soul," goes to "exile herself near the maelstrom"
A passage used to demonstrate French handwriting, containing all the letters of the French language including accents. French passage: Quittant le wharf de l'île de Croÿ, le cœur déçu mais l'âme en joie, son fez brûlé sur la tête, la plutôt naïve Lætitia crapaüta en canoë au delà des Kerguelen, pour s'exiler où? Près du mälström! Translation: Leaving the wharf on Croÿ Island, with a disappointed heart but joyful soul, her fez burning on her head, the rather naïve Lætitia explored in a canoe beyond the Kerguelens, to exile herself where? Near the maelstrom!
August 16, 2025 at 11:32 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
got an email from a clothing co. advertising their new "Marissa Dress — a modern reinterpretation of 18th century silhouettes" and I can't help feeling they should have called it, like, Eliza or Georgiana instead. No one was named Marissa in the 18th century!
A young woman is browsing in a bookstore, wearing a long cotton calico dress with a square neck and trumpet sleeves.
August 15, 2025 at 3:49 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
Major props to @bardtheatre.bsky.social for having their online ticketing form pre-populated with fake data that gave me a giggle! This is the kind of stuff I do to amuse myself when I'm testing software & I appreciate the attention to detail here
Screenshot of an online order form for a theater ticketing site, pre-populated with data that includes Name: Harold Hill Address: 76 Trombone Avenue, River City Email: harold@garyconservatory.com
August 13, 2025 at 12:50 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
I saw this post, & then I saw this ARC from a British author I follow on Instagram. Maybe not quite the same b/c only 2 colors, but that distinctive text placement again!
Cover of the ARC for “In Love with Love” by Ella Risbridger. Notably, the words IN LOVE run across the top of the cover and WITH LOVE along the right edge, turned 90 degrees. The cover has red text on a pink background & an illustration of two lobsters reaching out for each other.
August 4, 2025 at 2:25 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
I strongly suspect the painting on the left behind Bilal is by Yukari Sakura, the local disabled artist who did the poster for my (pandemic-cancelled) “Cyrano”!
A framed, brightly colored painting depicting two playing cards on a blue background. The top card depicts a large, red heart pierced by an arrow. The bottom card depicts a large nose. Original artwork by Yukari Sakura, intended as poster art for “Cyrano” at Cutting Ball in San Francisco in spring 2020.
July 18, 2025 at 10:10 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
a still from the "Word Crimes" music video: silver balloons spelling out 'WEIRD AL' YANKOVIC HAS A BIG DICTIONARY
June 17, 2025 at 1:09 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
Successful li’l West Coast Tony Awards party feat. my “Operation Mincemeat” turkey meatballs, “Oh, Cherry!” clafoutis, and Audra McDonald crop top
Atop a stove: 2 baking sheets full of turkey meatballs, and a pot of red sauce A cherry clafoutis (French dessert featuring whole cherries in a custardy batter), cooked in a cast iron skillet Selfie of a white woman in her 30s, wearing a black-and-white-striped T-shirt with “AUDRA McDONALD” appliquéd on it in red felt
June 9, 2025 at 4:01 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
this is the best San Francisco street sign prank since someone changed all the Bush St signs to Obama St on Inauguration Day 2009
A street sign in downtown San Francisco, which usually reads NEW MONTGOMERY ST, has been modified by a prankster to read NEW NEW MONTGOMERY FINAL
May 24, 2025 at 2:20 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
so the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is ideal reading before going on a wine-tasting excursion in Uncertain Times
Verse 7 from the Rubaiyat: VII COME, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling : The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing. An engraving by Edmund Sullivan of an eagle in flight through a cloudy sky, grasping an hourglass in its claws.
May 1, 2025 at 4:31 PM
marissaskud.bsky.social
Stand with Duo the Owl, not Hedwig the Owl
A screenshot of a German Duolingo exercise, which reads: Magst du die Bücher mit Harry Potter als Figur? Ja, aber meiner Meinung nach ist die Autorin gemein. Translation: Do you like the books with Harry Potter as a character? Yes, but in my opinion the author is mean.
April 2, 2025 at 6:14 AM
marissaskud.bsky.social
Peter Sarsgaard has the ideal look for ‘80s Steve!
A closeup of actor Peter Sarsgaard
March 22, 2025 at 3:58 PM