Archive for category News
“Follow The Money: A Modern Fairy Tale” to be produced in California
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on July 29, 2015
My short one-act FOLLOW THE MONEY: A MODERN FAIRY TALE is being produced August 7 in Davis, California at a theatre camp that I believe is connected with the University of California-Davis (at least the director is, I know that much).
This will be the second production of that script, which won an audience award the first time out:
FOLLOW THE MONEY: A MODERN FAIRY TALE
A precocious youth attempts to find the secret to the tooth fairy — by kidnapping her. Where do all those teeth come from? And the money? Cast: Six — two female, four male. Running time: Fifteen minutes.
* Produced at New Voices Play Festival, Old Opera House Theatre, Charles Town, W.Va., June 2013; voted best in show by audience vote.
You can find photos from that show here and more here.
Also: There’ll be an encore production of THE SKY IS FALLING in Mankato, Minnesota on August 25.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Artistic director: ‘You are quite a talent!’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on July 21, 2015
I recently received a very flattering rejection letter from an artistic director in a major U.S. city (major enough to have the quadfecta of sports teams in the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL). Technically, it wasn’t a rejection letter. I’d received that earlier in the day from someone else at the theatre. But then, quite unexpectedly, I got this from the artistic director:
“You recently submitted a number of plays to our festival and I had the pleasure of reading some of them. I really enjoy your work. To be honest, each time I’d open up a play and see your name attached to it, I’d get excited. You are quite a talent! Although I won’t be directing anything for this year’s festival, I wanted you to know that if I had, I would’ve chosen your play Olga. It’s a great piece.”
The director went on to ask if she could share the script with a friend. Naturally, I said yes!
OLGA is a 10-minute play based on Olga Romanova, a civilian who came in off the street during the 2002 Moscow theatre siege — and wound up becoming the first victim. It had a staged reading in December in New York. That script is a spin-off from my full-length script about the Moscow theatre siege, 57 HOURS IN THE HOUSE OF CULTURE. More on that show here.
“On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas” to be produced in New Jersey
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on July 21, 2015
I have three full-length Christmas plays (and a fourth in progress). One of those — ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS — will get produced in December at First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.
Still waiting on the specific dates.
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.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Three more one-minute shows in a New York festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 13, 2015
I’ve got three one-minute pieces being produced in #NextGen, the youth version of the annual Gone in 60 Seconds festival of one-minute plays in New York.
Those pieces are: AN UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY (which is also being done in the adult version), THE FOUNTAIN OF TOO MUCH YOUTH, and THE LITTLE RED HEN THINKS BIG.
They’re being done June 12 at Brooklyn College.
AN UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY
Some mice found one of their fellows dead in a mousetrap. What to do, oh what to do? What else? Eat the cheese! Cast: Four, non-gender. Running time: One minute.
THE FOUNTAIN OF TOO MUCH YOUTH
An older couple drinks from the fountain of youth — but they drink too much, and of differing amounts, and so now she’s 16 and he’s 10. Cast: One teen-age girl, one pre-teen boy.
THE LITTLE RED HEN THINKS BIG
The Little Red Hen as a commodities broker. Cast: Three (one female, one male, one non-gender) or four (one female, two male, one non-gender.)
I have two pieces in the adult version — AN UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY and THERE ARE NO CELLPHONES IN SHAKESPEARE. So that makes five pieces in all in the New York leg of the festival. Plus I had two more done on the British side of the same festival: SLAM POETRY and THE ONLINE AFFAIR. So that makes seven!
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
“Black Market of Memories” and “The Sandstorm” to be produced in Chicago
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 10, 2015
I’m going to have a one-act and a ten-minute play produced in Chicago. (UPDATE: This will be August 22.)
Otherworld Theatre is holding its PARAGON Science Fiction and Fantasy Play Festival later this year. Today I get this word: “We are pleased to inform you that your plays Sandstorm and Black Market of Memories have been selected to be two of 40 plays performed in our upcoming PARAGON Science Fiction and Fantasy Play Festival. We were flooded with over 200 wonderfully creative play submissions and yours stood out among the very best.”
This will be the second production of THE BLACK MARKET OF MEMORIES:
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.
This will be the first production of THE SANDSTORM:
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, that means in the span of just three days, I’ve scored productions in New York, Chicago and Minnesota.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
“The Sky Is Falling” to be produced in Minnesota
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 10, 2015
My ten-minute play THE SKY IS FALLING will be produced July 16 in Mankato, Minnesota.
This will be part of the Picnic in the Park Local Talent Variety Show, an annual event which this year includes: “New to Picnic is a “Youth Training Workshop” where youth, ages 11-18, can explore all aspects of produucing a short, 10-minute play.Experienced adult mentors from Merely Players Community Theatre (Seth Rausch, Breanna Boyce) and Mankato Mosaic Theatre Company (Jen Potocnik) will work with these youth.”
This production came completely out of the blue. Usually I go submitting scripts to theaters. Here, one came to me. Program director Elaine Hardwick asked some local theaters for appropriate scripts; one of them was a place where I had submitted . . . and so she contacted me.
This will be the second production for this script:
THE SKY IS FALLING
Two squirrels conduct an experiment, dropping things off a powerline. The result: Chicken Little gets hit on the head and thinks the sky is falling. Comedy — and a rap song — ensue. Cast: Five – 1 male, 1 female, 3 non-gender. Running time: Ten minutes.
* Produced by Piano Fight Productions, Marin County, California, September 2014.
I never got any photos from the previous production but do have this publicity photo.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Two more one-minute plays to be produced in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 10, 2015
Two more of my one-minute plays will be produced in New York.
Synergy Ensemble Theater will be producing two baseball-themed shorts — DEEP INTO OCTOBER and FIREBALLER — on July 18 at Geiger Park in Deer Park on Long Island.
As I understand it, the theater has found a new home and, to show its gratitude to its new host, is staging an evening of short works to show of its performers. It’s always good to be produced, but especially so when this helps give a theatre new life.
DEEP INTO OCTOBER has been produced twice before, both times in New York — there’s video of this production in the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival in 2011 and photos from this benefit for hurricane victims in 2012.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Short film “Kiss My Ashes Goodbye” wins another first place
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on June 1, 2015
The short film that Hank Ebert and I made — “Kiss My Ashes Goodbye” — won another prize in the Bike Shorts Film Festival. (Also should point out that Chris Shepard did the music soundtrack, which was surely key to its victory, as well).
In early May, we won the audience vote at the initial Roanoke showing. On Saturday, May 30, we also won the audience vote at the Blacksburg showing. That was something of a surprise, since neither of us were in attendance and we’d done nothing, literally, nothing, to drum up support there.
Another film won the audience prize at the Lynchburg showing, so that means we took two out of three!
The film stars Blair Peyton as the bike messenger, Chris Shepard as the bike messenger company chieftain, Marianne Ebert as the funeral home attendant, Stephen Glassbrenner as thief one, Hannah Whitt as the woman with car trouble, Lincoln Humphry as thief two, Martha Weeks Boswell as the woman who requested the delivery, and Maggie Bryant and Alden Bryant as the two children.
I also have these photos from the making of KISS MY ASHES GOODBYE.
And here’s a list of the other films that Hank and I have done: Read the rest of this entry »
Two one-minute plays to be produced in New York festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 15, 2015
Two of my one-minute plays will be produced in June at the U.S. version of the annual Gone in 60 Seconds Festival of one-minute plays. They will be June 11-13 at Brooklyn College in New York.
I also had two different pieces produced in the British edition of the same festival in early May. (See photos and video here.)
The two pieces in New York will be THERE ARE NO CELLPHONES IN SHAKESPEARE and THE UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY.
THERE ARE NO CELLPHONES IN SHAKESPEARE
A director does to an audience member with a cellphone what a lot of directors would surely like to do. Cast: Four, non-gender.
AN UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY
Some mice found one of their fellows dead in a mousetrap. What to do, oh what to do? What else? Eat the cheese! Cast: Four, non-gender. Running time: One minute.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Video: Two of my one-minute plays in festival in Britain
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 15, 2015
A scene from THE ONLINE AFFAIR at its dress rehearsal.
Two of my short plays were performed at the British version of the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival of one-minute plays on May 5 in Leeds.
They were SLAM POETRY and THE ONLINE AFFAIR.
SLAM POETRY
Two guys misunderstood, and think a poetry slam is where you slam poets into the ground as in a wrestling match. Physical comedy ensues. Cast: Three — two males, one non-gender. Running time: One minute.
THE ONLINE AFFAIR
A man and a woman – either husband and wife, or boyfriend and girlfriend – are sitting near each other, each texting on their phones. Except each thinks they’re texting to a secret online lover, when, in fact, they’re unknowingly texting each other. Cast: Two – one male, one female – or four – two male, two female.
Here’s the whole show. SLAM POETRY comes on at 7:26 and THE ONLINE AFFAIR is at 49:54.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
