Page To Stage — The Interviews
⊆ August 31st, 2006 by lorraine | ˜Well theatre fans, this weekend is the annual Kennedy Center Page To Stage Festival for new works in the realm of theatre. Who but DC Theatre Reviews is going to bring you the behind the scenes coverage you want to read. We were batting around how to let everyone know about some of the really cool stuff that will be at this years festival. Lorraine as usual came up with a really great idea and we went to work contacting some of the brilliant people behind some of the great shows this year. What we have for you is a virtual round table of artists discussing their new projects. We asked the questions and they provided the answers. So without further ado here is DCTR’s Page To Stage Interview Fest
So here we go with our interviews…
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Mark Scharf
Baltimore Playwright’s Festival 3 plays
2 pm, Saturday, Sept 2
LIKE WHITE ON RICE
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
I want people to laugh - to be riveted as they wonder how long can I keep this up since every line in the play is a cliche. Let me respond on two levels - one, when I write I always look for cliches to replace; they’re easy ways to communicate something and maybe I can say it better, so I replace them and I always thought it would be fun to write a play that was entirely composed of cliches - and have it actually tell a story! Using everything from worn-out pick-up lines (”What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”) to threadbare quotations from sources as wide-ranging as Alcoholics Anonymous and Shakespeare, I want to establish a fleeting romantic triangle. On another level, I want people to think about how we communicate and that maybe using the “shorthand” of cliches is too easy - that maybe we should spend the time to really communicate the specifics of how we think and feel about something.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
Again, I am always most interested in the audience reaction - that’s the point, isn’t it? Are they leaning forward in their seats and when? When are they restless? How do they react to each moment in the play?
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Something funny and fun!
WILDERNESS
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
I was concerned with loss and how people deal with that. I also am very interested in the increasing homogenization of our neighborhoods and what our responsibilities are to each other and the lack of tolerance. I identify strongly with those older folks who bought houses in neighborhoods where they are now surrounded by McMansions - where they could no longer afford to buy.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
I hope the things I think are funny are indeed funny, too! I hope I have been subtle, “painting” successfully with small brush strokes and am not simply being obtuse…
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Something that is gently funny and easy to identify with and I hope is something that touches them…
MEMORY GARDEN
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
I spend a lot of time on the road driving back and forth and I pass many, many of those crosses beside the side of the road - I could not help but wonder and think about who these people were and how did they die and how do the people who were left behind, the ones who put up and maintain these memorials, feel and keep going. For me the play talks about the things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, the things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and the people we cannot live without but have to let go. I think that out life is not defined by what we do so much as how we get up and keep going after falling.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
I am always most interested in the audience reaction - that’s the point, isn’t it? Are they leaning forward in their seats and when? When are they restless? How do they react to each moment in the play?
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
An event that I hope they can identify with - an acknowledgment that everyone really does have his reasons and nothing is truly black and white - and an affirmation in our ability to survive the things we fear the most.
Deborah Randall
Venus Theatre
THE SPINDLE by Carolyn Gage
7:30 pm Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
Gage has taken a format that is traditionally for children and told a tale that adults need to hear. In using the children’s theatre format along with her amazing sense of levity, she has created a very safe and fun world where dangerous things can be explored. I love that. It’s rare I’m so in love with this work because it speaks a deep truth about what happens to survivors of incest, about what that deep sleep is really all about, about how terrifying it is to awaken, how disorienting. I find that liberating. It’s more courageous than words can merit.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
I want to know what happens when we step into dangerous waters bouyed by light and laughter. I want to know how that will be received.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
A playfulness created by an age-diverse fascinating cast speaking specific language that resonates on deep levels. We have a middle school student and a college student coming in and sharing the stage with very seasoned players.
Audrey Cefaly
Quotidian Theatre Company
MILL TOWN GIRLS by Audrey Cefaly
7:30 pm, Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
I have a need to chronicle the stories and places of my youth along the Gulf Coast. I try to search for truthful and organic struggles and tell them in a naturalistic way. My short play Fin and Euba was begging for a companion piece. People all over the country would get so invested in the characters and their struggle and they wanted to know more about these two women. So earlier this year I decided I would write a prequel to see if I could continue their story, and that is how the idea for Mill Town Girls came about.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
I want to see where the holes in my script are. I want to know if the piece has the same kind of resonance with the audience that Fin and Euba has. I hope the audience will tell me what I can do to improve upon the piece before I finalize the script for our April production at Quotidian Theatre Company. The artistic director, Jack Sbarbori, has allowed me the creative freedom to do whatever I need to do with the piece. I feel I have a huge responsibility to make it great.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
I think they will see some very real life struggles of Interesting and quirky southern characters. The writing is similar in style to Beth Henley’s writing… a lot of humor and a lot of pathos.
Marcus Kyd
Taffety Punk Theatre Company
THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE by Erin Mitchell
6 pm, Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
From the very first days of collaborating, Erin and I believed that Shakespeare’s “The Phoenix and Turtle” provided a brilliant opportunity toward fulfilling our mission (to establish an ensemble of actors, dancers and musicians who ignite a public passion for theatre by making the classical and the contemporary exciting, meaningful, and affordable). It’s one of the first projects we discussed. Often overlooked, this poem’s strength is its economy of expression that resolves into one of the most stunning laments ever uttered.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
As this is still very much a rough draft, we’re looking for feedback of all kinds; most importantly we’re looking for where the fusion of Shakespeare’s poem and our work succeeds and where it fails. There may be tension among the text, and music, and dance and that can be very very good. But if something happens that pulls people out of the context, we want to know.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
We’re all excited about Mindy’s aerialist section. She’ll be dancing while suspended from the ceiling in silk ropes.
Shawn Northrip
Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions
CAUTIONARY TALES FOR ADULTS and
THE MANY ADVENTURES OF TRIXIE TICKLES
7 pm, Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
It’s actually two short plays performed in ensemble:
The first is called CAUTIONARY TALES FOR ADULTS and is a 20 minute musical in which a scary librarian reads stories from a picture book to a group of adults seating around the Magic Carpet of Mystery. In each story, the main character is given a choice between doing the right thing and the wrong thing. Despite choosing the right thing to do, the adult always dies as a result of their actions. The most popular song from the show, The Woman Who Took Her Kids to the Zoo and Was Eaten by a Lion.
The idea for this play, in part suggested by the book with a similar name by Hilaire Belloc, actually came from my own laziness. I was in bed one morning, struggling to get up and go to work, and started thinking about a variety of ironic deaths awaiting me that I might avoid by spending the day in bed.
The second is THE MANY ADVENTURES OF TRIXIE TICKLES. Riffing on the library book theme, Trixie Tickles is a ficticious children’s book character who has recently become the main character in her own children’s sing-a-long television show on a local public broadcasting station. The catch, every song has a sweet hook, but a bad message: like being pretty is all that matters.
I was trying to come up with an idea to help make CAUTIONARY TALES a full evening of theatre, but didn’t want to just pad out the script. Trixie was very much inspired by the cartoon character that lives inside of Casie Platt, who plays the librarian in CAUTIONARY TALES. I just starting thinking how funny it would be if Trixie led a group of children in a rousing chorus of, “When you poo / you lose a part of you.”
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
Honestly? I’m terrified of the second piece. We’ve performed CAUTIONARY TALES a few times, and everytime it’s been really successful. I’m a bit insecure that the second piece won’t live up to the first. I just want to hear it in front of an audience and see if they react, or if it’s back to the drawing board.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Casie Platt.
Deborah Kirby
Journeymen Theater Ensemble
IN SERVICE OF THE QUEEN by Bo Wilson
4:30 pm, Mon, Sept 4
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
I was at the Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat 4 years ago when Bo Wilson first was working on this play and fell in love with it. It a play with a strong, older woman as the main character who finally feel like she had received her “calling” in life to bring the first bees over to Australia. This is the backdrop for the true adventure story about crossing the high seas to reach a land that holds the beauty and mystery that one finds when going to unknown territories and meeting the peoples that inhabit that land. I love this story due to its magnitude and profound mystery of the lengths of what someone will do when feeling that they have finally discovered their calling and passion.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
As the producer, I hope to see if this is a play that, in its more final state, is ready for a production and if there is interest from the audiences point of view. Bo has great talent and I enjoy helping playwrights bring new works to life!
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
I think that the audience will be treated to a great story told well! We have assembled a terrific cast and it is being directed by, Jessie Gallogly, a very talented director who is new to this area. So - I am thrilled that the audience can also be treated to some new talent in town as well as some familiar faces such as Ellen Young, Scott McCormick, Matt Dunphy, and Manolo Santalla.
Callie Kimball
DC Dollies and Rocket Bitch Revue
SAFEWORD by Callie Kimball
8:30 pm, Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play? I have a friend on the inside of the DC alternative sex scene (I don’t really know what it’s called but that sounds about right) and she would tell me about very powerful men who enjoy giving up control to professional sex workers. My eyes just about bugged out of my head at some of the things she described. I became fascinated by the psychology of this subculture and wondered if during these role-playing scenes, if people’s eyes are closed or if they’re connected to each other in the middle of this emotional and physical catharsis with its agreed-upon rules of play. I started wondering why someone would need to pay someone to humiliate them in order to reach some sort of balance of psychological power in their world. Then I started drawing parallels with more traditional forms of therapy, and how so many of us pay someone-a therapist, a masseuse-to get our basic emotional and physical needs met. There’s always an exchange of power going on, a negotiation of sorts in all our interactions with each other. I think modern technology and the pace of city life does much to alienate us from each other, and that to really look at each other, to listen, to understand and be understood are necessary but sadly rare in our day-to-day lives. That kind of connection takes time, work, and emotional courage. I built the play around two visual moments-a moment of unexpected grace and a moment of cathartic humiliation. They both come near the end of the play. I think sometimes the most significant moments drop in quickly and then just as quickly leave. It’s only later that we realize the importance of such moments in our lives. And I also think we never really tidy these things up as much as we’d like to believe we do.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
Well, this is the sixth draft, so mainly i’m interested in the audience’s response at this point. This play was an O’Neill semifinalist, and everyone who’s read it has had good things to say about it, but as the playwright i’m too close to it to have any idea if it’s any good at all. I find that experiencing a play with an audience is the best way to tell if I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. I feel very connected to the audience as I write, so it’s always a thrill and a bit surreal to have it all come to life. I’m blessed to have two of the actors I wrote parts for coming down from NYC to be in it-Kimberly Gilbert and Mark Sullivan. The entire cast is AMAZING and Sarah Denhardt is guiding us all through the reading with her wit, compassion, and deep insight-she’s been interested in the script since the first draft last October and I’ve relied on her greatly during this process.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Of course, the obvious, titillating answer is not one but TWO dominatrixes but I actually don’t think it’s a very sexual play-it’s not eroticized. What I really hope for the audience is that they see themselves in these characters, that they see these characters with compassion, that they might even laugh at the same time they feel a bit squirmy.
Ed Herendeen
Contemporary American Theater Festival
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS by Richard Dresser
7:30 pm, Monday, Sept 4
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
The Pursuit of Happiness” is the second play in a new trilogy written by Richard Dresser. CATF recently presented the world premiere of the trilogy’s first play, “Augusta,” during the 2006 Season. Each play in the trilogy looks at a different social class in American society. “Augusta” concerned the working class. “The Pursuit of Happiness” deals with the middle class and the third play, “A View from the Harbor,” will deal with the upper class. Each play examines the question, what makes us happy? This timely subject is something playwright Richard Dresser and CATF are excited to explore through each of these plays.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
It is always helpful to hear a new play with a live audience. Is the story clear? Does the audience get it? This is a comedy, so I am very interested in listening to the audience response.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
We have assembled a stellar cast of veteran Equity actors. It should be a productive, entertaining reading. The cast includes Matthew Arkin, Mark Blum, Kevin O’Rourke, Jamie Proctor and Janet Zarish. In addition, playwright Richard Dresser and Founder and Producing Director Ed Herendeen will be available for a post-reading discussion with the audience.
Carolyn Griffin
MetroStage
WORDS AND MUSIC: The Stephen Schwartz Review Project
6 pm Saturday, Sept 2
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
It was an exciting opportunity to work with Stephen Schwartz music and lyrics and create a new revue of his work both familiar and less familiar with new arrangements which make them sound urban, current and hip
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
It gives us an opportunity to give the audience and Stephen a sneak preview of where we are going with this project and with the Bingo Long project as well.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Some great talent, great songs and medleys, new arrangements, and a preview of things to come.
(on the podcast)
Michael J. Bobbitt
MetroStage
THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL STARS AND MOTOR KINGS
Selections you will hear are sung by ensemble except
‘Mr. Posey Man’ sung by Eleasha Gamble
6 pm, Saturday, Sept 2
Susan Austin Roth
Women’s Work Writer’s Group
MISSING PAGES
2 pm, Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
The character of George, a master spy-catcher during WII, is based upon my own father, although I must emphasize that the play is fiction! My father was a difficult, often angry man, who loved his family but did not know how to show it. After his death from Alzheimer’s in 1999, when we cleaned out his house I discovered a little diary he had kept at the beginning of his days overseas in the C.I.C. (Counter Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army). Events described in the diary were quite a surprise - things he never talked about - as was a lot of correspondence I found. I began to read as much as I could find about the C.I.C. - some of it has only recently been declassified. Researchers at the Truman Library copied about 500 pages of documents and correspondence that had my father’s name in them. About that time, I read a chance newspaper article about Alzheimer’s, which reported that WWII veterans who develop dementia often show signs of P.T.S.D. (post-traumatic stress disorder} and begin reliving the trauma of their war experiences. I believe this was true of my father, although we never realized it while he was alive. So I wove all of my research into the character of George and in places I used actual words that were in my father’s diaries or other papers. Creating a fictional George helped me make peace with my real father.
The family that I put George into is totally fictional. The main story line is about George and his estranged son, Andy, forgiving each other before George totally looses his mind to dementia. To make the story dramatic, I had to raise the stakes, so I made Andy a Vietnam deserter. I read a lot about the Vietnam War. One memoir, And a Hard Rain Fell…a GI’s true Story of the Vietnam War by John Ketwig, bowled me over. I couldn’t put it down. So, with permission from Mr. Ketwig, I borrowed incidents from the memoir to create Andy’s past. I wanted Andy’s Vietnam experiences to be real ones. Mr. Ketwig is coming to the reading. I am really excited about that.
I did become passionate about my subject - about the lingering aftermath of war and what it does to the lives of our soldiers - our fathers, husbands, and brothers. And I got really involved in reading about the intrigue associated with spying during WII - a lot of things happened that most people don’t know about. I think Roosevelt could have been impeached if it had been revealed how he got the U.S. involved in spying with England way before Pearl Harbor. The play is political in that regard. But it’s really about a family finally finding out who they each are and accepting that.
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
I am hoping to find out if the way I reveal George’s past - and Andy’s - works for the audience. The biggest challenge for me in writing the play was to time the revelations so that as Andy and Charlotte piece together what their father really did during the war, the audience is learning the truth through George’s flashbacks to WWII. I wanted this to happen almost simultaneously.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Members of the audience for a reading of an earlier version of the script told me it was “powerful” and “very interesting” - interesting perhaps because of the history that’s thrown in, but also because the story is captivating. Those who’ve had experience with Alzheimer’s patients found George very realistic - and the actor, Larry Sifford, is amazing. He’s a man in his 80’s and he got George nailed perfectly! The other actors are great, too. Aniko Olah plays George’s Polish aide with great wit for some comic relief, despite this being a serious drama. Tamara Johnson is coming up from Williamsburg to play George’s daughter Charlotte. She’s gorgeous and very emotive. David Elias is Andy; a bit sarcastic and bitter, but devoted to his sister. Bryant Sullivan has a French accent to die for (and the looks, too) as the spy Pierre.
Paata Tsikurishvili
Synetic Theater
FRANKENSTEIN
3 pm, Sunday, Sept 3
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
First, it’s a timeless story that has been produced in a variety of different mediums over the years. I’m always looking for familiar stories like that which we can put our own spin on and bring to life in unique and unexpected ways. Also, the title of Mary Shelley’s novel contains a lesser-known subtitle, The Modern Prometheus, so having come from the Republic of Georgia, the birthplace of the Prometheus legend, this story also has a personal relevance for me, beyond the obvious modern implications of science and morality becoming disturbingly and uncomfortably intertwined.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
As always, our goal is to blend a variety of theatrical elements- dance, music, text and movement- to create a powerful whole. We always aim to give that to our audiences and, through unique presentation, hopefully get them to think about the themes of a great piece of literature and how it is relevant to today’s world.
Chris Stezin
Charter Theatre
SLEEPING AND WAKING by Christ Stezin
7:30 pm, Monday, Sept 4
What is there about the play’s subject matter that made you passionate enough to write (or produce) the play?
The idea of technology, which seems to be taking us into uncharted ethical/moral territory at a terrifying, ever-accelerating pace - and how that bumps up against our spiritual impulses. That’s an idea that fascinates me. And I think I consider creative/artistic impulses to be spiritual impulses of a kind - so how will these instincts be effected by what science has in store for us in the next half-century…?
What do you hope to learn this weekend?
This weekend I hope to learn that my play doesn’t suck.
What can audiences most look forward to seeing in your production?
Christopher Lane, one of the finest actors in this or any other town - and Hope Lambert, an incredible actress - both of whom will make this worth seeing even if it does, indeed, suck…oh, also - a monkey in a cowboy suit…no, not really, there’s no monkey…
Listen here.
and here.
Bingo Long- Page To Stage [11:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (215) Steven Schwartz Page To Stage [13:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (178)
September 1st, 2006 at 7:50 am
One small correction — my play LIKE WHITE ON RICE is being presented by Accokeekcreek Theatre & Bowie State University as part of their Shortstack V2: A New Play Festival in the South Atrium at 7:30 p.m. on 9/2 — this presentation has nothing to do with the BPF event at 2 p.m. Thanks!
September 4th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
[...] Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions helped make the world safe from optimism with two Shawn Northrup shows, Cautionary Tales for Adults, followed by the PBS-on-heroin children’s show, The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles. These little musicales were each about a half hour long. The first gleefully explains that no matter how good your intentions, you’re going to die, and probably unpleasantly. Casie Pratt plays a deranged librarian who bullyrags four adults (Staphanie Hammel, Alessandra Migliaccio, Lucas Maloney and Joe Pindelski) into singing songs about how characters very much like themselves met their demise. For example, Migliacico’s character, to quiet her screaming twin eight-year old boys, allowed herself to be eaten by a lion in the zoo. I feel ya, sister. Maloney’s character doesn’t actually die, only retires, but after that he’ll die, for sure. In Trixie Tickles, Pratt is a hyper-obnoxious, made-for-TV child — the product of a spectacularly dysfunctional family — on her first day of school. Her addled day is spent getting bad advice: from her vodka-soaked mum (Migliaccio); her embittered teacher (Hammel), who sings "everything you do is bound to fail…"; and her cheerfully oblivious father (Pindelski). The evening climaxes when Mum delivers Trixie the startling news that girls don’t go to the bathroom because "every time you poo/you lose a part of you." ("…there goes your soul/ right down the bowl….") The cast is uniformly good and Pratt is a little ball of demonic energy in these two shows; Pindelski demonstrates a terrific set of pipes; and they are backed by a tight little band (Andy Wilchel, Bob Bonson, and Jacob Jackovich. You can read more about these two shows exclusively in dctheatrereviews here.) [...]
September 5th, 2006 at 8:10 am
I attended the Stephen Schwartz Project and the Bingo Long Preview. I frankly found the experience very boring. The best I can say is that I did see some pretty good talent. My comment on the Schwarz Project was the choice of the second piece (Sorry, I can’t even remember the name of the piece.) It was a male solo…Very unrememberable or remarkable. Also, although all the singers had LOVELY voices, the woman in the middle of the ensemble (caucasian brunette) was so distracting with constant fidgeting that it broke the continuity. Bingo Longe may have some potential as a script, but so much was lost because of the miking and staging (unimaginative directing) that it was hard to catch much. Certainly the Mr. Posey song was powerfully delivered.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:50 am
ED Note.. Remember these are readings. The idea is to see if there is potential to bring the play or musical to stage where the staging will get proper attention.