Archive for July, 2023
‘The Sandstorm’ in Roanoke
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions on July 23, 2023
When my friend Randy Walker asked me if I’d like to contribute a performance to an evening of entertainment that he was putting on to raise money for his church’s pollinator garden, I knew immediately which one: THE SANDSTORM. It’s one of my most-produced 10-minute plays and one of the easiest to produce, even if the two characters are Martians. Amber Carderelli and Sidney Grutz agreed to come over to Roanoke to perform the show. Amber most recently directed REVENGE OF THE FAIRY QUEEN at Renaissance Theatre with Sidney as the fairy queen.
Overnight Sensations by night: 17,000 Heads
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Uncategorized on July 9, 2023
For the 10th time, I took part as a writer in Overnight Sensations, the 24-hour play festival sponsored by Hollins University and Mill Mountain Theatre. I’ve also taken part in five other timed writing events at other theatres, so this was my 15th overall. Previous posts showed went what down on Friday night and Saturday by day. Now it’s time to talk about the show.
My first thought when I drew science fiction was something with aliens. And my first thought when I drew a setting in a cocktail lounge was something in Las Vegas or otherwise near Area 51 in Nevada. That also seemed too obvious to me, so I started thinking about other science fiction concepts that didn’t involve aliens. One was time travel. I was also intrigued about setting the show in a different time period and some unexpected place. When I met with the cast, I found that some could speak French. That led me to this: The owner of a cocktail lounge in Montreal is a devoted French royalist and has hired a mad scientist to bring back through time Dr. Guillotine, who inspired the device that now bears his name, in a bid to prevent the French Revolution. That mad scientist will use a piano, tuned to a frequency we can’t hear, to open a sonic door through time. The experiment works better than anyone thought: Not only does Dr. Guillotine appear, but so does Marie Antoinette, who proceeds to tell him how long a human head survives after it’s been severed from the body. I don’t normally write dark, but this is dark — another unexpected twist for my fans.
At 5 p.m., the groups returned to the main stage for a cue-to-cue walk-through — and I returned from my nap. I don’t have phots from the actual performance but I do have these:
Bryan Hancock as the bartender, Mary Jean Levin as the cocktail lounge owner, Sophia Menconi as the piano player, Mack Burns as the mad scientist.
Overnight Sensations 2023: Saturday by day
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions on July 9, 2023
For the 10th time, I took part as a writer in Overnight Sensations, the 24-hour play festival sponsored by Hollins University and Mill Mountain Theatre. I’ve also taken part in five other timed writing events at other theatres, so this was my 15th overall. A previous post showed went what down on Friday night.
What you don’t see are pictures of me writing Friday night and into early Saturday morning. In terms of a firm idea, I had what might have been my latest start ever but my earliest finish (12:30 a.m.) Once I get an idea, I can write pretty fast. I’ll explain more about what I wrote in another post.
Here’s how things went down Saturday morning and early afternoon.
We writers gathered at 8 a.m. for a meeting with our director, followed by a production meeting led by technical director Shelby Love (in the chair on stage). This went over the order of the shows (which sometimes is dictated by production needs), how transitions will work, and any production details — light cues, sound cues, etc.
Overnight Sensations 2023: Friday night
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions on July 9, 2023
For the 10th time, I took part as a writer in Overnight Sensations, the 24-hour play festival sponsored by Hollins University and Mill Mountain Theatre. I’ve also taken part in five other timed writing events at other theatres, so this was my 15th overall.
Here’s how Overnight Sensations works: On Friday night, the six writers, six directors, and assorted cast members (and others) gathered at Hollins. The writers drew our directors from a hat (I drew Richie Cannaday), then the writers and directors took turns drawing a cast, a genre (I drew science fiction), a setting (a cocktail lounge) and a theme (I drew “before we lie to others we must first lie to ourselves.”) Then the writers have overnight to write a 10-minute play, with rehearsals on Saturday and a show Saturday night. Here’s how this year’s went down.
Photos from ‘Revenge of the Fairy Queen’ in Lynchburg, Va.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Uncategorized on July 9, 2023
Renaissance Theatre in Lynchburg, Virginia produced “Revenge of the Fairy Queen” for three weekends in June 2023. Directed by Amber Carderelli, with Sarah Mandel as assistant director/stage manager and Tony Quaranta as production manager.
An awesome poster
dwayneyancey 