Tickets are now available for my newest play, The Lazarus Years, which is part of a Jamboree at the Red Room at 85 East 4th Street. It’s a longer form 24 hour play festival. I was given my prompt on Saturday afternoon and the play was cast last night. Rehearsals will start today or tomorrow. I’m sure it will be mad-cap and a little insane, but hopefully a lot of fun.
Archive for June, 2009
Tickets are now available for my play Sezze Sun which will be performed at the Capital Fringe at the end of July. If you’ll be in DC between the 22nd and 26th of July, come check it out, it should be a lot of fun!
A friend just sent this article to me and it’s a topic that’s been hotly debated recently. The Guardian had an article by Theresa Rebeck last September about Broadway’s glass ceiling and the statistics of the New York Theatre season. The comments are about as interesting as the article, and I remember there was a response from Amanda Whittington, whose plays are produced by amatuer companies more often than any playwright on the roster at Nick Hern Books (minor plug for my former employer). I faced this issue today, actually. After meeting with a director who was not particularly interested in my short play about Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf in a parallel universe, I headed to the Strand Bookshop to indulge in my favorite pastime, obsessing over what book to buy. I perused the Social Sciences and Psychology books and I found the Drama section and picked up some plays that I should own: The History Boys and The Norman Conquests. Both by British male playwrights over the age of, I believe, 60, if not 70. I scoured the shelves for plays by female playwrights that I wanted and didn’t already have (I have the almost complete works of Caryl Churchill thanks to working for her publisher), and couldn’t really find any.
I then went to the front of the store to find a fiction paperback to entice me back into reading (reading and moving to New York have not gone hand in hand), and settled on The Satanic Verses. Another British man over the age of 60. But didn’t really think of it until after I had left the store.
I don’t have a problem with this, but I do wonder what it means, if anything. How do we define writers? By gender, by country of origin, by talent, by subject matter? It’s an interesting debate, and one that I open up to my readers (hello readers!).
Exciting news from New York. My play, Sezze Sun, has been cast and our first rehearsal will be Sunday afternoon. We have a fantastic cast after some really terrific callbacks and I can’t wait to start working with the actors and devising/rewriting. It’s funny when you’ve written a play that’s based somewhat in reality and people take it and run with it. I feel like a lot of that will happen over the next month or so, and I’ll have to stay true to the vision of the play, but also see the artistry in other peoples’ suggestions. Good things!
I’m also taking part in a Jamboree this, which is like a 24 hour play festival, but over the course of a week. Performances will be next week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) at the Red Room and should be excellent. Especially because I have no idea what I’ll be writing yet. I love short-term writing projects. There’s something oddly satisfying about going from nothing to finished product in a short period of time. Especially when a lot of long-term projects have been in the mix for awhile.
When I worked in New York four years ago, one of my responsibilites was casting assistance for two different theater companies. There was something about it that I really enjoyed, seeing who these people were, what they had done, where they had trained. And how they chose to present themselves to the outside world (of casting directors). When I was going through headshots taken of me last week I was thinking about that. How do I, as a writer, want to present myself to the outside world? My choice is on my About page. And I think it’s pretty representative.
Now that I’m in production of a play of my own and have the resources of online casting sites, it’s a very surreal experience. Here are hundreds of actors who want to be in my play! Without knowing anything about it. We’ll see how they feel after they’ve read some of it… But it’s still a bit of a shock, to have a full 6 hours of casting lined up for tomorrow. I’m missing auditions on Sunday for a wedding, and we’re having callbacks on Tuesday night. And then we get to start having fun with the play! Can’t wait.
Now that I’ve moved back to New York, I have to start paying attention to the shows on and off-Broadway, who’s writing them, who’s directing them, who’s in them. By the time I left in September 2006, I had a pretty good handle on who was doing what and how well it was being done. Almost three years later, some things are the same, but there are a lot of new names to pay attention to. To that end I’ve been asking people what I should see now that I’m back.
On Friday I saw American Hwangap, produced by Ma-Yi Theater Company. I volunteer ushered for one of their shows in 2006, and remember liking it a lot. And I really enjoyed this show. It was funny, it explored America, the American Dream, family, betrayal, all good things. All-around a very good production to start out on. Unfortunately, it closes today, but they’re definitely a company to pay attention to.
I’m also looking forward to seeing The Norman Conquests, which I missed in London. Most people I know who have seen it thought it was fantastic. Perhaps before it possibly wins a Tony I should book some tickets!
I also need to see Things of Dry Hours, Ruined and possibly God of Carnage(another one I missed in London, with Ralph Fiennes, no less).
Yesterday I went to the Museum of Modern Arts to take advantage of my leaving present from NHB and while wandering through the museum, I happened upon the end of the Stage Pictures exhibit. It was costumes from an opera that Picasso designed. Earlier this year I read a biography of Picasso that dramatically changed my opinion of him (from artistic genius/role model to womanizing cad who was too prolific for his own good) so I know a lot more about his foray into stage design than I used to. So I went through the glass door and there was a whole exhibit on drawing for performance. It’s a great collection and along with drawings they have videos of some of the performances: ballet, theatre, opera. Definitely worth checking out. It runs until August 24.
