Dwayne Yancey
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Video: ‘Q Downsized’ produced in Israel, my 16th country
Posted in Uncategorized, Video, News, Productions on May 22, 2020
Center Stage Israel in Ra’anana, Israel produced my short play Q DOWNSIZED on May 17, 2020 as part of a virtual festival of short plays.
This marks my Israeli debut and the 16th country in which I’ve had my work performed.
Video reading of ‘A Maple Leaf on the Wind’
Posted in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 17, 2020
On May 16, I held a reading via Zoom of my play A MAPLE LEAF ON THE WIND, a romantic comedy in which half the characters are non-human and one is non-corporeal. I also did it with a cast from Canada.
Stage Directions: Arlene Thomas (Kitchener, Ontario)
Veronica: Ella Kennedy (Hamilton, Ontario)
The Wind: Emily Bolyea-Kyere (Hamilton, Ontario)
Tex: Owen Lapsley (Hamilton, Ontario)
Rex: Mason Micevski (Hamilton, Ontario)
A MAPLE LEAF ON THE WIND
A quirky international love story. The Wind tries to play matchmaker between a lonely Canadian girl on the prairie of Manitoba and a lonely American boy in Texas. There’s also a talking chicken. Cast: Four – two male, two female.
* Finalist, Best Medicine Rep, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 2018.
Review of ‘The Weird Sisters Go West’
Posted in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on May 16, 2020
Canadian playwright David Elendune has left this nice review of my one-act THE WEIRD SISTERS GO WEST on the New Play Exchange:
Clever… Funny… If Terry Pratchett wrote Blazing Saddles 2.
THE WEIRD SISTERS GO WEST
The three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth turn up in a western town and quickly bring order to the Old West, with a few complications along the way. Cast: Eight – four female, three male, one-non-gender.
Reviews of ‘The Ferryman And The Thief’
Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized on May 16, 2020
Florida playwright, director and educator Greg Burdick has left this nice review of my 10-minute play THE FERRYMAN AND THE THIEF on the New Play Exchange:
Losing a parent is devastating. But to suffer that loss as a child can be soul crushing. And if you were culpable in their death? Unimaginable. Dwayne Yancey takes us to the River Styx in this ten-minute Greek tragedy packed with hubris, catharsis, and choral wailing that will undoubtedly haunt.
Playwright Scot Walker — not sure where he’s from — left this review:
” . . . this play elicits all the memories I had as a teen, wondering about the ancient gods, learning about Caron and Cerberus (who unfortunately is not in this play). All in all, Yancey gives us a moving and poignant play with, very Aesop like, a lesson for young people at the end: Your word is your bond. Nicely done.”
THE FERRYMAN AND THE THIEF
A boy accidentally kills his father on a hunting trip. He goes to the River Styx, sneaks aboard the ferry to the far shore. Once aboard, he picks the pockets of the dead, stealing the coins they have been given by loved ones for the final passage. He uses these to try to bribe the ferryman to let him cross to find his father and return him to the land of the living. The ferryman agrees, but on one condition, which goes badly for the boy. Cast: Six: One juvenile male, two adult males, three non-gender.
Video: Reading of ‘Red Moon Rising in the East’
Posted in Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 15, 2020
Little Theatre of Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia hosted a Zoom reading of my play RED MOON RISING IN THE EAST on May 13, 2020. This is a one-man play based on the story of Sergei Korolev, the father of the Soviet space program. He was a force of nature who almost single-handedly willed the Soviets into space, battling both the odds and his own government. However, his name was a state secret in the Soviet Union so he’s still little-known in the West, even though all the big firsts — the first satellite, the first satellite to the moon, the first man in space, the first woman in space — were all his doing. Bill Armstrong performed this role in 2009 at 40th Street Stage in Norfolk, then again in 2010 at The Venue in Norfolk. Here he is again.
Here’s a link to previous productions of this show.
Bonus: At the end of this video is a Q&A with with actor and playwright.
Two short pieces performed virtually from Houston
Posted in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 12, 2020
New York actress Miranda Jonte is riding out the pandemic in Houston, where she’s performing virtually over Facebook as Back Porch Theater. Here she is on May 9 performing two of my pieces, LADY MACBETH’S LAMENT and DELICACIES.
Best of all are her descriptions of my work: “Quirky, knowing . . . dark and droll . . . dark and funny.” Those are the best blurbs of all time!
‘Curiosity Killed The Cat’ produced virtually in Michigan
Posted in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 12, 2020
The show poster
Four years ago — in 2016 — Emily Clark directed my one-act CATCH OF THE DAY at Michigan State University. Out of the blue, I got an email from her recently. She and several others had put together OnLive Theatre and were planning r a virtual theatre camp for kids. I sent her some and she wound up picking my CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT. On May 9, it was produced virtually over Zoom with a cast of nine kids, who probably ranged from 10 to 16, a little unclear on that. It was a remarkable performance. All the kids were rehearsed virtually and had to costume themselves with whatever they could find at home. It was a really creative performance that shows just how much can be done virtually.
