Dwayne Yancey
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‘On The Thirteenth Day of Christmas’ produced in Virginia
Posted in News, Photos, Productions on December 25, 2024
Attic Productions in Fincastle, Virginia produced ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS in December 2025.
More photos below:
Five of my short scripts performed in Great Britain
Posted in News, Productions on October 5, 2024
Five of my short plays were performed in Great Britain as part of the 20th anniversary of Gi60, the annual Gone in 60 Seconds festival of one-minute plays on Sept. 28, 2024.
My scripts were:
“Counting Wolves”
“On the Way Down”
“Somebody Out There As Lonely As Me”
“The Ghost Lamp”
“Three Trees Talking”
‘Why Do Frogs Look So Sad?’ produced in New York festival
Posted in News, Photos, Productions on August 9, 2024
My 10-minute play WHY DO FROGS LOOK SO SAD? was produced in the festival at The Secret Theatre in New York in late July / early August 2024.
Me with the cast of WHY DO FROGS LOOK SO SAD?
And here’s the director and cast:
Overnight Sensations festival produces ‘Cock-A-Doodle-Did’
Posted in News, Photos, Productions on July 14, 2024
For the 11th time, I was invited to be a writer in Overnight Sensations, an annual 24-hour play festival put on by Hollins University as part of its summer MFA program.
On Friday night, the six writers, six directors and many cast members gathered at Hollins. We had a ceremonial drawing of prompts, directors and casts from a hat, then we writers went off to write. I drew Natalie Tasillo as a director, sitcom as the genre, a county fair as the setting, “even a worm turns” as the theme and Team 4 for the cast. In the photo above, from left to right, that’s Lillian Savage, Natalie Tasillo, Miriam Frazier, Michael Johnson, me, and Janemarie Laucella kneeling. Out of the frame to the right is my old friend Stephen “Stevedogg” Glassbrenner. Photo courtesy of Dan Smith. I felt I lucked out because I normally write comedy, a rural setting is a natural for me and I knew all of the actors except Lillian. In fact, Miriam directed one of my shows in a previous Overnight Sensations, so I could hear all their voices in my head as I was writing “Cock-A-Doodle-Did.”
Here are some photos from the weekend:
List of 2024 productions
Posted in News, Productions on February 3, 2024
- January: SOMETIMES ELEPHANTS DIE STANDING UP (ten-minute), Peekskill High School, New York.
- March 14: THE ONE-WORD MACBETH (one-act), McBride Secondary School, McBride, British Columbia, Canada
- March/May: HIT THE BOOKS (one-act), Lake Melville School, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
- May 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19: SUNSET IN NORTH DAKOTA (one-minute), Gi60 Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, New York, New York
- June 1 -2: SOMETIMES ELEPHANTS DIE STANDING UP (ten-minute), Arlington High School, Lagrangeville, New York.
- July 6: COCK-A-DOODLE-DID (ten-minute), Overnight Sensations festival, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia.
- July 12-13: THE CONTACT LENS (ten-minute), Griffin Theatre, Bear, Delaware
- July-August, various dates: WHY DO FROGS LOOK SO SAD?, The Secret Theatre, New York, New York
- September: COUNTING WOLVES (one-minute), produced as part of Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, Leeds, UK.
- September: ON THE WAY DOWN (one-minute), produced as part of Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, Leeds, UK.
- September: SOMEBODY OUT THERE AS LONELY AS ME (one-minute), produced as part of Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, Leeds, UK.
- September: THE GHOST LAMP (one-minute), produced as part of Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, Leeds, UK.
- September: THREE TREES TALKING (one-minute), produced as part of Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, Leeds, UK.
- November: THE FRUITCAKE (one-act), Irvington High School, Irvington, New York
- December: ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS (full-length), Attic Productions, Fincastle, Virignia.
- December: ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS (full-length), Bayfield High School, Bayfield, Colorado
- December: THE FRUITCAKE (one-act), Perry County Middle School, Perryville, Missouri
- December 21: SOME THINGS YOU MUST TAKE ON FAITH (staged reading, Meetinghouse Theatre Lab, Winter Harbor, Maine
- December 21: FATHER CHRISTMAS (staged reading, Meetinghouse Theatre Lab, Winter Harbor, Maine
Delaware becomes my 48th state; plays win awards
Posted in News, Photos, Productions on September 17, 2023
Griffin Theatre in Bear, Delaware produced my 10-minute scripts THE BEAUTIFUL OGRE AND OTHER FAIRY TALES and THAT PLAY ABOUT THE GURGLING MUD PIT in August, thus checking off my 48th state. Still outstanding: Hawaii and New Hampshire.
Both productions also won some awards. The judges ranked THE BEAUTIFUL OGRE AND OTHER FAIRY TALES second, the audience voted it first.
‘The Sandstorm’ in Roanoke
Posted 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 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 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 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.
