Monthly Archives: May 2013
THE OLDEST ESTABLISHED, PERMANENT FLOATING MONOLOGUE NIGHT IN NEW YORK IS BACK!!!–AT THE DRAMA BOOK SHOP FOR ONE SHOW ONLY, THURSDAY, JUNE 13 (6-7 PM)–NOW CELEBRATING KIDS AND CHILDREN’S THEATRE!!!! · May 22nd
ABSOLUTELY ONE NIGHT ONLY—CANNOT EXTEND—THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 6:00-7:00 PM, FINAL PERFORMANCE.
The Oldest Established, Permanent Floating Monologue Night in New York is returning to the place where it all began—the Arthur Seelen Theatre at the Drama Bookshop–AND YOU'RE INVITED FOR FREE!! The Tony-winning theatrical mecca for actors, writers, and stage aficionados, established in 1917, will sponsor an evening of monologues for actors, aged 7-15, taken from Applause Theatre & Cinema Books’ new release:
One On One: Playing with a Purpose, Monologues for Kids Ages 7-15 (view on Amazon at: http://tinyurl.com/oc7vbhq).
The participatory event–for all ages–will bring together young thespians, stage veterans, college world literature students studying Don Quixote, exciting playwriting and directorial talents like Bara Swain, Crystal Skillman, Maria Aladren and actors from MCVTS Theatre School, Dylan Dawson, Steve Fife, Marit Shuman, and Bob Shuman, among others, plus a surprise mystery guest.
They will be celebrating the burgeoning world of youth theatre, so bring a young thespian—or anyone interested in theatre—and join us for a participatory evening of new and classic work. Meet new friends and reconnect with old ones, network, brainstorm, and help get kids INVOLVED WITH THE THEATRE WE LOVE AND THE KIND OF WORLD WE WANT TO LEAVE THEM. Watch new actors, hear amazing writers, celebrate the new book, and join us for goodies and festivities upstairs in the bookstore at 7:00!!!
CRYSTAL SKILLMAN * BARA SWAIN * MARIA ALADREN AND ACTORS FROM MCVTS THEATRE SCHOOL * STEVE FIFE * MARIT SHUMAN * DYLAN DAWSON * ELOISE ROLLINS-FIFE
in Association with
JOYCE E. HENRY * REBECCA DUNN JAROFF * BOB SHUMAN * APPLAUSE BOOKS * STAGE VOICES * PLUS MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM THE LOS ANGELES PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM, WORKING WITH THEATRE ARTISTS FROM CENTER THEATRE GROUP
Proudly Present Works from the Applause Theatre & Cinema
Books series:
ONE ON ONE: PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE, MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS 7-15:
Including selections by
Eloise Rollins-Fife and Stephen Fife * Sophocles * Tom Stoppard * Marit E. Shuman * Bara Swain * Connie Schindewolf * Oyamo * Christina Linhardt * Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett * Kayla Cagan * Paul Zindel * Jennifer Kirkeby * Andy Bragen
* Crystal Skillman * Susan Rowan Masters * William Shakespeare * Carrie Hamilton and Carol Burnett * Craig Wright * Israel Horovitz * Wendy Graf * Euripides * Jeri Weiss * José Rivera * Carson McCullers * Asher Wyndham * Chloe Whitehorn * Edith Ann, as told to Jane Wagner * Nilo Cruz * Naomi Wallace * Alexander Devriendt and Joeri Smet * Brenda Ross * Catherine Castellani * Lucy Wang * Lanford Wilson * Lily Tomlin * Michael Edan * Sofia Dubrawsky * Caridad Svich * Lorraine Hansberry * Jean-Rock Gaudreault * Henrik Ibsen * Mark Twain * Bernardo Solano * Israel Horovitz * Lisa Loomer * David Wood, adapted from Roald Dahl * Cervantes * James Joyce * Dylan Dawson * Annie Wood * Bob Shuman * Lewis Carroll * B. J. Burton * Sandra Croft * Donald Margulies * Aesop * Kelly Younger * David Wood * Arabella Field * J. M. Barrie * James Joyce * Tammy Rose * Herb Gardner * Ken Ludwig, based on work by Robert Louis Stevenson * Carol S.Lashof * Quiara Alegría Hudes * Nathan Surkes * Sarah Roth * Annabel Renshaw * Ashley Hernandez * Ian Dimapasok * Briana Deahl * Josine Torres * Alex Jovel * Mattie Motz *
ONE ON ONE: PLAYING
WITH A PURPOSE, MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS 7-15
TIME: Thursday, June 13, 2013
6:00-8:00 PM
PLACE:
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The DRAMA BOOK SHOP, Inc. 250 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018 Voice: 212 944-0595 Toll Free US & Canada: 800 322-0595 Fax: 212-730-8739
GETTING THE PART–DRAMATIC PIECES FOR THE
Celebrating the young actor, One on One, Playing with a Purpose introduces over 85 monologues, for ages 7-15. The anthology is drawn from classic repertory, Broadway shows, the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, plays from veteran and up-and-coming dramatists—and even kids themselves! The parts are courageous, funny, heartbreaking, and universal; the characters, contemporary, modern, maybe outrageous, even timeless, and always deeply human. Ideal for students of theatre, youth groups, acting classes, playwrights, and auditioning thespians, the collection includes roles as time-honored as Peter Pan and Juliet, as powerful as Anne Frank and Antigone, and as mischievous as Puck and Huckleberry Finn. Highlighted are Oz extras, fairy tale favorites, pirates, zombies, anime holdouts, and Edith Ann, as well as a Cyclops, a robot, a Jabberwocky, Man-in-the-Moon marigolds, barking sharks, and Hollywood arms. Bob Shuman, MFA, is the owner of the Marit Literary Agency and the Stephen Fife, MFA, founded and ran The Young Actors Workshop, directing kids 7–15 in original musicals he wrote for them, including Charming and Young Forever. The first literary manager for Primary Stages, he has also written plays such as Blue Kiss, Sizzle Sizzle, and Savage World, as well as feature articles on theatre for the New York Times, New Republic, Village Voice, New York Newsday, and others. His Marit Shuman is a lover of musical theatre and is a member of The Horace Mann Theatre Company, The Horace Mann Glee Club, and the Girls' Ensemble. Eloise Rollins-Fife started work on this project when she was a 13-year-old eighth grader at The Archer School for Girls. Her favorite things to do are sing, act, read, write, listen to music, and hang out with her friends. Her dream job would be as a writer/director. |
THE CONTRIBUTING
PLAYWRIGHTS FOR THE ONE ON ONE MONOLOGUE SERIES:
ONE ON ONE: The Best Men’s Monologues for the 21st
Century:
James Comtois*Stephen A. Schrum*Heather McDonald*Gary Winter*David
Pumo*Tom Donaghy*Nilo Cruz*A. R. Gurney*Charles Mee*Mac Wellman*David Rabe*Ato
Essandoh*Josh McIlvain*Kelly McAllister*Staci
Swedeen* John Guare *Brian Dykstra*Kerri Kochanski* Brendon Bates*Brad
Schreiber*Adrían Rodríguez*Terrence McNally* John Patrick Shanley*Carrie Louise
Nutt*Bob Shuman*Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen*Lisa Loomer*Lynn Nottage*Neil
LaBute*Jean-Claude van Itallie*Charles Mee*Robin Reese*Adam Kraar*Carol
Lashof*August Wilson*Steven Cosson and The Civilians*Andy Bragen*Rebecca Basham*Albert Innaurato*Meron Langsner*John Fleck*Larry Loebell*Edmund De Santis*Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project*Philip Zwerling*Maria Irene Fornes*Peter Papadopoulos* Susan Yankowitz*Tom O’Brien*Mark Scharf*David Grimm*Frank Gagliano*Chad Beckim*Robin Goldfin*David Rimmer*Thaddeus Rutkowski*Austin Pendleton*Clifford Mason*Jon Robin Baitz*Craig Wright*Jeffrey Hatcher* Stephen Temperley*Martin McDonagh*Michael Kochmer*Karen Malpede*Tim Miller*David Lindsay-Abaire*Lisa Soland*Marc Spitz*Joan Lipkin*Randy Wyatt*Thomas McCormack* Darrell Dennis*Boo Killebrew*Peter S. Petralia*Richard Greenberg*Alexander Lyras and Robert McCaskill*Dan O’Brien*David Auburn*Brian Sloan*David Simpatico* Spalding Gray
ONE ON ONE: THE BEST WOMEN’S MONOLOGUES FOR THE 21st
CENTURY:
David Auburn * Naomi Iizuka * Theresa Rebeck * Tom Donaghy * Christine Emmert *
Peter Petralia * Brian Dykstra * Kerri Kochanski * Lenning Davis * Sheila
Callaghan * Laura Henry * Stephen Schrum * Gaylord Brewer * Staci Swedeen *
Margie Stokley * Murray Schisgal * Maria Irene Fornes * Lynn Nottage * Neil
LaBute * Claudia Barnett * Andrea Moon * Randy Wyatt * William Gibson * Ken
Urban * John Meyer * Julia Jarcho * Anna Deavere Smith * Kim Yaged * Rolin
Jones * Stephen Adly Guirgis * Lydia Lunch * Paul Knox * Jason Grote * Jordan
Harrison * Edmund DeSantis * Crystal Field * Stephen Fife * Dori Appel *
Rebecca Basham * Susan Yankowitz * Len Jenkin * Katie Bull * Christopher Durang
* Winter Miller * David Rimmer * Nilo Cruz * Craig Wright * Rinne Groff * Donna
de Matteo * Thomas McCormack * Karen Malpede * Anne Elliott * Lisa Soland *
Kathleen Warnock * Kirsten Greenidge * Leigh Kennicott * Neil Utterbach * David
Simpatico * June Rifkin * Laura Hines * Young Jean Lee * Stephen Temperley * Jessie
McCormack * Jacquelyn Reingold * Jo J. Adamson * Adam Rapp * Hillary Rollins *
Holly Hughes * Heather McDonald * Joseph Goodrich * Quiara Alegria Hudes *
Michael Lew * August Wilson
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BOOK: APPLAUSE TO RELEASE ‘PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE: MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS AGES 7-15’, JUNE 2013 · May 11th
(From Broadway World, 4/30.)
Kids today face a different world-and a different set of challenges-than did the children of even 15 years ago. Young actors need a highly diversified selection of monologues to choose from when studying, practicing, or auditioning for theatre.
Playing with a Purpose: Monologues for Kids Ages 7-15 (June 2013, $16.99), from Applause Books' well-known One on One monologue series, fills a pressing need for a new volume of monologues that convey a worldview that kids can more easily relate to. In the introduction, the editors state:
"Ingenious directors, teachers, and parents have put youth theatre together in their communities, passing strong speeches along and compiling notebooks, but core work is scattered everywhere.Monologues, those delicate objects of passion, anger, heartbreak, or whimsy, are like the theatre itself; they exist in the present moment and can become unobtainable because of rights issues or mere neglect. Beautiful pieces from the past can be lost as new work, new plays, new artists take their places. Reclaiming this material was part of our task, much like locating a forgotten folk- or fairytale or finding a melody heard long ago."
Playing with a Purpose includes monologues from the ancient Greeks and Shakespeare; other classics like Lewis Carroll, James Joyce, and Mark Twain; contemporary dramatists including realist Carson McCullers and magical realist José Rivera; plays based on literature like Treasure Island and Roald Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World; and even monologues written by middle school students who worked with theatre artists from the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.
Playing with a Purpose will be released on June 18, 2013.
9781557838414
Paperback
$16.99
256 pages
5.25" x 7.75"
Applause Books,
an imprint of Hal Leonard
Stephen Fife (Santa Monica, CA) has written extensively about actor training for the New York Times, Village Voice, American Theatre, and many other publications; he has also worked with kids as an acting teacher/coach, writing teacher, and stage director over a period of 37 years, in a variety of different formats and programs in the New York City and Los Angeles areas. For the last five years, he has worked directly with kids in his company, the Young Actors Workshop.
Bob Shuman (New York City) is the owner of the Marit Literary Agency and the theater website Stage Voices, as well as a publisher, a playwright, and currently a professor at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. He is a recipient of Hunter College's Irv Zarkower Award for excellence in playwriting and is a fellow of the Obie-winning Lark Theater Company. He is the co-author of Simply Elegant Flowers with Michael George and co-editor of Duo!: The Best Scenes for Two for the 21st Century, One on One: The Best Women's Monologues for the 21stCentury, and One on One: The Best Men's Monologues for the 21st Century.
View book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Playing-Purpose-Monologues-Applause/dp/1557838410
WAGNER CONTROVERSY: OPERA CANCELS HOLOCAUST STAGING OF ‘TANNHÄUSER’ · May 11th
(from Der Spiegel, 5/9.)
A staging of Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" — set during the Holocaust and including a gas chamber and a shooting scene — shocked audience members so badly that some had to be given medical attention. The theater has now cancelled the production out of fear it will damage its artistic reputation.
Düsseldorf's Deutsche Oper am Rhein opera house announced late Wednesday it was cancelling a highly controversial staging of Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" after outraging audiences at its premier on Saturday.
Director Burkhard Kosminski set the production in the time of the Nazi regime in an effort to address the controversial but popular composer's anti-Semitism and the later influence he would have on Nazi ideology. The staging depicted the character Tannhäuser as a Nazi war criminal and it even included a gas chamber on stage.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein said its managers had been conscious ahead of the premier that the production would be controversial. "We are reacting with the utmost concern to the fact that a few scenes, particularly one involving a very realistic depiction of a shooting scene, appears to have created such a strong stress for numerous visitors, both psychological and physical, that they had to receive medical attention afterwards."
FOREMAN: ‘OLD-FASHIONED PROSTITUTES (A TRUE ROMANCE)’/NADLER: ‘I’M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF’ (REVIEW PICKS, NY) · May 8th
(Michael Feingold’s article appeared in the Village Voice, 5/8.)
Samuel (Rocco Sisto), the central figure of Richard Foreman's new work, Old-Fashioned Prostitutes (A True Romance) (Public Theater), has a problem. Not a major problem—those were dealt with in Foreman's 1993 creation, Samuel's Major Problems. But as usual with Foreman heroes, Samuel's problems, major or minor, come from over-introspection. Like those very early Foreman protagonists
who had trouble just getting through the door, he's often too hung up to move at all. Hence the new piece's many long, loaded silences. Its opening, in fact, is very nearly also its closing: An initial announcement is followed by a moment of dead air, broken by one of Foreman's crash-box effects, and an offstage voice that thunders, "End of play!"
NEIL BARTLETT: ‘THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME’ (REVIEW PICK, NY) · May 7th
(Charles Isherwood’s article appeared in the New York Time, 5/5/13.)
Strange as it may seem in these days of increasingly blurred gender norms, watching a woman dressed as a man singing songs of love for women may actually be a more exotic entertainment today than it was a century ago. In “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” a lovely show that opened on Sunday night at the 59E59 Theaters, the gorgeously gifted singer Jessica Walker and the writer Neil Bartlett conjure a vanished novelty of the theater, the cross-dressing female performers who once fascinated large audiences in England and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
HELEN MIRREN EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU · May 6th
(James Beal’s article appeared in The Sun, 5/6.)
ACTRESS Helen Mirren stormed out of a theatre and swore at noisy street drummers — dressed as the QUEEN.
Astonished onlookers saw the 67-year-old star try to grab the conductor’s arm and heard her yell at the band to “shut the f*** up”.
Then the actress, who plays the monarch in hit play The Audience, went into a tirade on behalf of the theatre-going paying public — who later gave her a standing ovation.
Promoter Joe O’Leary, 32, who was at the drumming parade, said: “She said people had paid ‘a lot of f***ing money’ to watch her show and that we were ‘f***ing ruining it’.
DION BOUCICAULT: ‘THE OCTOROON’ (ON BBC RADIO 3, THROUGH 5/12—LINK BELOW) · May 5th
The Octoroon
By Dion Boucicault
Adapted by Mark Ravenhill
As part of a season of plays curated by playwright Mark Ravenhill, BBC Radio 3 presents new production of Dion Boucicault's 1859 melodrama The Octoroon -… 6 Show more
Drama on 3, Curated by Mark Ravenhill Episode 2 of 3
Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 05 May 2013
Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s351n
As part of a season of plays curated by playwright Mark Ravenhill, BBC Radio 3 presents new production of Dion Boucicault's 1859 melodrama The Octoroon – a play that sparked debates about the abolition of slavery and the role of theatre in politics. The drama was recorded in front of an audience at Theatre Royal Stratford East, the venue that saw an earlier production of the same play in 1885.
The story centres around the inhabitants of the Louisiana plantation of Terrebonne. Zoe, the "octoroon" of the title, is the daughter of its owner Judge Peyton by one of his slaves, but she has been raised as part of the family. When the Judge dies, the plantation falls into financial ruin and the Judge's handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent. George and Zoe soon find themselves in love, but their future happiness is thrown into jeopardy by the plantation's evil overseer Jacob McLosky who has dastardly designs on both the property and Zoe. McLosky will stop at nothing – not even murder.
Dion Boucicault's play contains all the elements of great melodrama – doomed love, murder, corruption, and live musical accompaniment throughout. When it first opened, two years before the start of the American Civil War, The Octoroon sparked debates about the abolition of slavery and the role of theatre in politics.
Cast (in alphabetical order):
Mrs Peyton …. Barbara Barnes
Sunnyside …. Geoffrey Burton
Jacob M'Closky …. Steven Hartley
Salem Scudder …. Toby Jones
Wahnotee …. Earl Kim
Dora Sunnyside …. Claire Lams
Paul …. John MacMillan
Zoe …. Amaka Okafor
Ratts …. Paul Stonehouse
Pete …. David Webber
George Peyton …. Trevor White
Music composed and performed by Colin Sell
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
Production Co-ordinator: Lesley Allan
Studio Managers: Colin Guthrie, Alison Craig, Steve Oak
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer. 5 Show less
HARPER LEE, AUTHOR OF ‘TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD’, SUES LITERARY AGENT · May 5th
(Paul Harris’s article appeared in the Observer, 5/4.)
Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill A Mockingbird, has sued a literary agent, claiming that he tricked the ageing writer into assigning him copyright on the classic book.
The move marks a rare step into the spotlight for Lee, who is known for keeping a low profile for such a household name, living quietly in a tiny town in the deep south of America and eschewing almost all media requests.
However, in a shock move, 87-year-old Lee has now filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan court alleging that Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's long-time agent, Eugene Winick, tricked Lee into signing over the copyright on the book.
The case claims that Pinkus "engaged in a scheme to dupe" Lee into assigning the copyright without any payment. The ploy is alleged to have taken place in 2007, five years after Winick became ill and Pinkus started diverting some of his clients into his own company. Lee's lawsuit says Pinkus engineered the transfer of Lee's rights to secure himself "irrevocable" interest in the income derived from To Kill A Mockingbird. It adds that he also avoided paying legal obligations that he owed to his father-in-law's company for royalties that Pinkus had allegedly misappropriated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/04/harper-lee-sues-agent-copyright
QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES: ‘THE HAPPIEST SONG PLAYS LAST’ (REVIEW PICK, CHI) · May 3rd
(Chris Jones’s article appeared in The Chicago Tribune, 4/22.)
"Write about your own life" says many a writing teacher to many a young scribe. Confronted with
that authoritative solipsism, the young writer tends to worry about two things. First, that my life is not interesting enough to write about, especially not two or three times over. Second, my life is too disconnected, too esoteric, too darn individual to push any kind of universal button and actually mean anything to anyone else.
Well, the compelling argument presented at the Goodman Theatre by "The Happiest Song Plays Last,"
the delightful premiering play by Quiara Alegria Hudes, who won the Pulitzer Prize in drama just last year, would suggest that those writing teachers are exactly right.
Directed in Chicago by Edward Torres, this intensely engaging new drama is very much based on Hudes' own life, composed of a eclectic and unusual set of personal experiences and circumstances that really should not work as a unified play — this thing bounces between Philadelphia and the country of Jordan — but in fact works darn well, precisely because it is an eclectic and unusual set of experiences and circumstances that you could not imagine anyone inventing out of whole cloth. Life really can be better than fiction. And it's good for a liberal writer to have a military guy in the family.