Archive for category News
Dates set for “On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas” in New Jersey
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on October 8, 2015
First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey is producing my full-length script ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS in December.
That’s old news. Here’s the new news — the production dates.
Friday, December 4 — 8:30 p.m., unless otherwise noted
Saturday, December 5
Thursday, December 10
Friday, December 11
Saturday, December 12
Sunday, December 13 — 2:30 p.m
Friday, December 18
Saturday, December 19
This will be the second production of that script; the first was at Santiam High School in Mill City, Oregon in December 2013. You can find a photo from that show here. That director called the show “a true gem.”
ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
A wild, action-packed Christmas farce. A young woman suddenly finds herself receiving the gifts from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” apparently from an unknown suitor. The play begins on the thirteenth day as she copes with the chaos outside her apartment, as neighbors demand she do something about the noisy birds and pipers and drummers. The woman hatches a plan to shoot the birds and organize the people into an impromptu Christmas parade. Chaos ensues. Cast: 13 — 7f, 3m, 3 non-gender.
Photos: “Three Trees Talking” in Kitchener, Ontario
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on September 29, 2015
Sam Liam Bentley, John Dibben and Arlene Thomas
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
My short script THREE TREES TALKING was produced in the Asphalt Jungle Shorts walking-tour festival in Kitchener, Ontario in September 2015.
It was one of two scripts I had in the festival; THE WEAKEST FINGER was the other.
THREE TREES TALKING
Three trees contemplate the question: If they were human, what kind of human would be they? Cast: Three, non-gender. Running time: One minute.
You can find more about the festival, my previous productions there, and the group’s awesome publicity photos here.
More photos below: Read the rest of this entry »
Photos: “The Weakest Finger” in Kitchener, Ontario
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on September 29, 2015
John Dibben and Deb Huggins
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
My short script THE WEAKEST FINGER was produced in this year’s Asphalt Jungle Shorts walking-tour festival in Kitchener, Ontario in September 2015.
THE WEAKEST FINGER
An adulterous couple meet, and the man points out to the woman that the weakest finger is the ring finger – all seductively, of course. Cast: Two — 1 male, 1 female. Running time: Five minutes.
You can find more about the festival, my previous productions there, and the group’s awesome publicity photos here.
More photos below: Read the rest of this entry »
Video from my two pieces in this year’s Gi60 Festival in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on September 28, 2015
In June, I had two short pieces in the annual Gone in 60 Seconds Festival of one-minute plays in New York. It’s actually an international festival; I also had two pieces in the British leg of the festival in May. I’m still waiting on the video from that show, but the video from the New York festival has now been posted.
Here is: THERE ARE NO CELLPHONES IN SHAKESPEARE and AN UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY:
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Photos: “The Fruitcake” in Orrsville, Ohio
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on September 21, 2015
A scene from THE FRUITCAKE.
My most frequently-produced script is THE FRUITCAKE, a Christmas one-one published through Brooklyn Publishers. It’s been produced 42 times so far and yet . . . I’ve never seen it. Nor have I been able to find photos from a production — until now.
The folks at Orrsville Community Theatre in Orrsville, Ohio — who were the 42nd production, in December 2014 — kindly provided these photos.
You can find the whole set here.
THE FRUITCAKE
An extended and quite dysfunctional family gathers for a Christmas season tradition — Aunt Hazel’s historically inedible fruitcake. But before she can bring it out, some of the relatives steal the thing and make a bet on whether they can destroy it. Chaos ensues. Characters include a goth-punk teen, a science nerd, a tough-talking ex-Peace Corps worker, a nearsighted aunt, and so forth. Cast: Nine — 2 male, 4 female, 3 non-gender.
If you’re curious, here’s the entire production history — so far! Read the rest of this entry »
“Death by Poinsettia” to be produced in Hollywood
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on September 18, 2015
Got word today that my short Christmas one-act DEATH BY POINSETTIA will be produced in Hollywood by Studio C Artists this November and December.
It’s one of three one-acts in the theatre’s holiday show.
Performance dates are:
Friday, November 13th
Saturday, November 14th
Friday, November 20th
Saturday, November 21st
Friday, December 4th
Saturday, December 5th
Friday, December 11th
Saturday, December 12th
I seem to recall that Studio C’s call for submissions was looking for short holiday scripts that were cool, hip and could be done by 20-somethings. Mine fits!
DEATH BY POINSETTIA
A lonely woman tries to kill herself at Christmas by eating a poinsettia, convinced the plant is poisonous. It’s not, though. A male co-worker shows up and a touching scene ensues. Cast: Two – one male, one female.
“Softball Is Life” will have staged reading in New York in October
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on September 18, 2015
My full-length script SOFTBALL IS LIFE will have a staged reading in New York on October 22 by Sundog Theatre.
The particulars:
DATE: Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015
TIME: 8 p.m.
LOCATION: Gallerie St. George, 11 Phelps Place, Staten Island
The reading had been scheduled for back in March but got delayed when Sundog had to find a new location for its readings.
Here are photos and more from the previous staged reading of the script, in January 2014 at Showtimers in Roanoke.
SOFTBALL IS LIFE
A sports play for women that isn’t really about sports. A former high school softball star sits in prison, estranged from her 14-year-old daughter, who has inherited the woman’s talent for pitching but doesn’t realize it. While the mom tries to contact her daughter, the girl spends her time trying to avoid a dangerous situation in the home where she’s living. Cast: Eight — Four females (one to play a teenage girl), three males, one non-gender.
Video: “The Black Market of Memories” in Chicago
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on September 16, 2015
Otherworld Theatre in Chicago produced my script THE BLACK MARKET OF MEMORIES as part of the Paragon festival of science fiction plays on August 22. Here’s the video.
It was one of two of my scripts in the show; the other was THE SANDSTORM.
THE BLACK MARKET OF MEMORIES
A young woman wakes up in a strange place — and discovers she’s had her memories stolen. Now that doctors have devised a way to transplant memories, there’s a lively market for memories — and a black market of stolen ones. The woman shares a recovery room with another woman, who specializes in “customizing” memories — doing things for rich donors that they’d never do themselves, but would like to remember doing. A dark, serious piece, which is carried primarily by the two women; the other characters appear only intermittently. Cast: Five — one male, two female, two non-gender. Running time: Twenty five minutes.
* Produced by End Times Productions, New York, N.Y., July 2011.
* Produced by Otherworld Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, August 2015.
Video: “The Sandstorm” in Chicago
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on September 16, 2015
Otherworld Theatre in Chicago produced my script THE SANDSTORM as part of the Paragon festival of science fiction plays on August 22. Here’s the video.
It was one of two of my scripts in the show; the other was THE BLACK MARKET OF MEMORIES.
THE SANDSTORM
A dark vision from the last days of Mars. A local official in charge of building canals instead diverts some of the money to build an underground library to store his civilization’s artifacts because he knows Mars is doomed. Cast: Two non-gender. Running time: Seven or eight minutes.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Final list of awards for “One Word Macbeth” in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews on September 9, 2015
The awesome poster.
Got this email today from the producer of my show THE ONE-WORD MACBETH, which Pop Culture Theatre in Melbourne has produced in various festivals this past few months in the Victorian Drama League:
Dear Dwayne,
I thought that I would do an email to you to just give you a final summing up of how we went with your piece One Word Macbeth.
I know that Bruce has been keeping you in the loop, but just so you can see it all at once in terms of awards:
Foster One Act Play Festival:
Best Production
Kyenton One Act Play Festival:
Runner up best production
Best youth actress (Madeline Hardie)
Best youth ensemble
Best clarity and diction (Chelsea Hyde)
Mt Players One Act Play Festival:
Victorian Drama League Most Promising Performer (Laura Marmion)
Youth Encouragement Award (ensemble)
In addition to the awards above they were also nominated for Best Production at Mt Players, and the adjudicator wanted to nominate them at Kyenton for Best Production by the youth are not allowed to be considered for senior awards. (Yes we are still trying to work out how he awarded them runner up in the youth, but wanted to put them into the seniors!!)
I know that you have mentioned a couple of times about the number of the cast, so just for your own records here is how it can work with 5 performers:
Witch one, Lady Macbeth, Messenger for MacDuff – Chelsea Hyde
Witch two, Guard one, Macduff, Murderer one – Josie Hardie
Witch three, Duncan, Murderer two, Messenger for Macbeth – Alicia Henry
Macbeth – Madeline Hardie
Banquo, Guard two – Laura Marmion
The costumes for all but Macbeth were just one simple thing to show the character – Banquo for example had a tartan sash.
Macbeth was a full costume.
There was lots and lots of running for the cast!
We are filming the showcase performance and we will get you a copy of it, so you can see for yourself how we did it.
Thank you for allowing us to perform your work, thank you for taking the chance and allowing us to do it with not only youth but five of them. We had hoped to get one more performance of this production in competition but the festival declined the entry in favour of an adult one. The organizer of the festival has a history of refusing youth entries and even though the girls have nearly won against adults, she deemed once again that youth are not of a sufficient level of skill to be considered. (Even though OWM kicked the ass of their adult plays at every festival!!)
You work inspired the girls to learn Macbeth, to ask questions about Shakespeare and to suddenly bring the words of the Bard to life to them because it wasn’t just sitting in class and reading. It was a fantastic tool to teach them the importance of words and inflection, a very important lesson that they will now carry with them through their performing lives.
Yours faithfully
John Jennings
There’s one more performance of the show — October 17 at the Knox Community Theatre in Bayswater, Victoria.
* More awards for ONE WORD MACBETH in Australia
* ONE WORD MACBETH wins another award in Australia
* Photos from THE ONE WORD MACBETH in Australia
* THE ONE-WORD MACBETH to be produced in Australia
dwayneyancey 