Kate Mulley

This Sunday marks episode two of the theatrical series I’ve been working on. Information below:

Get in on the second episode and follow the exploits of Audrey, Felix, Lena and Miles. Can their passion lead them to their ultimate goal? Or will the daily grind wear them out?

This time, join the intrepid book shop staff as they navigate callbacks, reality show producers and craigslist in our belated Valentine’s day episode.

Episode Two: Missed Connections

Sunday March 6, 2011 7pm

Drama Book Shop 250 W 40th Street

Written by Matt Alspaugh and Kate Mulley

Directed by Matt Alspaugh

Featuring: Sean-Michael Bowles, Sharone Halevy, Abigail Hardin, Rachel Karp, Carmen Meyers, Kate Mulley and Shawn Verrier

In June I made a list of plays to read. My co-workers at the book shop gave me MANY suggestions and I made a syllabus (that I’m not quite following) of about 40 plays to read before the end of the summer. It’s basically like my American Drama class from sophomore spring, except the plays are a little more obscure. I’ve enjoyed mostly all of the plays I’ve read, though I’ve definitely noticed a trend of dysfunctional family dramedies. I remember my tutor, John, making this generalization about American plays when I studied in London and it appears that he’s not all wrong.

In the flurry of all this reading I also realized that I had to pick a play of the week for the bookshop. I had just read Two Rooms by Lee Blessing on a plane ride and loved it. Even though it’s an older play, it’s very very timely and well-written. So I’m linking my review here. Just in case any of you would like to buy/read it. I’m only slightly biased, as I worked with Blessing at the Sewanee Writers Conference four years ago. He is an inspiring writer and a very smart man.

Once I’ve finished my summer reading mission (not that that’s really possible), I’ll make a list of plays that I would consider must-reads. Stay tuned.

I’m a little late posting about this, but I went to see Clybourne Park at Playwrights Horizons last week and really enjoyed it. I loved The Pain and the Itch when I saw it at the Royal Court back in 2007 and had high hopes for this new play by Bruce Norris. It’s a riff on A Raisin in the Sun. A couple is moving out of their house in Clybourne Park and they find out that a black family has bought the house. 50 years later, in the same house, a white couple hope to renovate and move into the same house. It’s a grim play, with lots of laughs and self-recognition. It plays with stereotypes effectively and efficiently and while I was surprised by what felt like an abrupt end of Act 1, by the beginning of Act 2, I understood its necessity to the structure of the play.

The cast was great, the direction solid, with constant banter, arguing and conflict. A lot of fun to watch and definitely lots of material for post-theatre discussion.

In non-theatrical news, Pierce Brosnan came into the book shop last week and rendered me cotton-mouthed. After he left the information desk, a customer asked if we got celebrities in the shop often, I said “yes, but this was our first Bond.”

I’m also just starting to get myself into my work for Nylon Fusion Collective. I’m both dramaturging their production of Fuente Ovejuna and starting a Writer’s Collective. Applications for the Collective were due today and we have two weeks to select the members. Lots of strong applicants makes it a tough job, but I’m looking forward to reading some plays, getting to know new writers and seeing how we can develop some exciting new work together.

I have a post from a month and a half ago with this title that’s been sitting in my dashboard waiting for me to write it. Other than a few phrases about things I wanted to include, I didn’t really know what I planned to write. But now it feels like time to write something.

Back in December I attended a meeting organized by the Dramatists Guild about gender parity in the theatre. One doesn’t really need to see the statistics to know that the majority of plays produced are written by men, but the ones that are out there are pretty frightening. The meeting was pretty enlightening (and actually reminded me a little of the scene from The Heidi Chronicles where they have the women’s meeting? Would Wendy be proud!). Sometimes it’s really nice to get a group of people in one room to talk about all the issues, perspectives, etc. We had a second meeting in January and I’m a member of the Mentoring committee, which we’re still in the process of defining, but are definitely on the right track. It’s nice to think that I’m actively working to change this, through my writing and through my time and effort with the Guild.

The book shop is another place where this comes up frequently. Recently someone approached me and asked me for a play written by a woman in the past 10 years, for an assignment at NYU. I think I accept more responsibility than I should when customers ask me for help, but I especially did with this one. I hemmed and hawed, wondering what play I could give this 19 year old actress that could really change her view of theatre. I settled on A Number by Caryl Churchill (I think we had run out of Far Away). I now find it interesting that the play that I thought summed of plays by women in the past 10 years is one for two men written by a 70 year old British woman. And that I tried to sell it to the girl by saying “Daniel Craig was in it in London.” I’m hoping she loved it and went out and read more plays by Churchill and recognizes the way that she has changed British (and by extension world) theatre in the past 40 years or so. She was certainly a revelation for me.

And finally, I have a title/concept for a new play and can’t wait to start writing. I love this feeling of burgeoning creativity, it’s been awhile.

courtesy of Theatre Communications Group

This week was my turn to write the Play of the Week at the Drama Book Shop. Here’s my pick. I’ve seen both plays here and in Edinburgh, so it seemed like a good choice. I also found Enda Walsh completely lovely and charming when I met him at the NHB office and during the talk-back after The New Electric Ballroom last month.

I currently have a stack of plays from the library that I need to read, Caryl Churchill’s Plays 1 (I’m much more familiar with her later plays), Theresa Rebeck’s Plays II, Other People by Christopher Shinn and The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane. I also have a stack of plays that I own and still haven’t read. This sort of thing was easier when I was doing a Masters and didn’t have a full-time job.