Archive for category Photos
Rehearsal photo from one of my scripts in the U.K. “Gone in 60 Seconds” Festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on May 31, 2013
Photo courtesy of Jan Ansell.
Here’s a photo from the rehearsal of my one-minute script “This Is The Captain Speaking,” one of three scripts of mine that will be produced in this year’s U.K. edition of the “Gone in 60 Seconds” Festival of one-minute plays.
You can find details on the scripts and the festival here.
Still photos from my short film, “The Secret Lives of Goldfish”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 1, 2013
Chad stars as the goldfish in “The Secret Lives of Goldfish.”
I recently collaborated with Salem filmmaker Hank Ebert to create a short film for the annual “Bike Shorts” film competition. The main rule is, it has to feature a bicycle. I adapted my short script “The Secret Lives of Goldfish” (actually this is episode 6 in the series of short stage plays) for the project.
The main thing you need to know about “The Secret Lives of Goldfish” is that it involves a goldfish riding a bicycle — our riff on the line about “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
I wrote the script; Hank Ebert was the director and videographer. Chad [last name withheld] and Kevin McAlexander are the two goldfish (although only Chad appears on camera; Kevin is there in a voiceover.) Hank’s wife, Marianne, made the goldfish suit; my wife, Trina, made the headpiece. We did the outdoor filming in March in Green Hill Park in Roanoke County, then finished up with voiceovers in the studio in April.
I’ve worked with Hank on two other short films — “My Kid Could Paint That” and a Sweded version of “Back to the Future” in a local competition. Both Chad and Kevin had key roles in that project, as well.
The films will be screened, and judged, on May 3, with the winner advancing on to national competition. I’ve held off posting still photos now, until after the entry deadline has passed, so here goes. Read the rest of this entry »
Photos: “The Ancient Texts of Love” at No Shame Theatre
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, No Shame Theatre, Photos, Uncategorized on February 19, 2013
The mystic ponders the ancient texts.
Here are some photos of Darlene Fedele and Todd Ristau doing a staged reading of my short script “The Ancient Texts of Love” at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia on Feb. 15, 2013. It’s a three-minute (or so) piece in which a woman seeks help from a mystic to cure her love life.
Unfortunately, the ancient text he consults is “snips and snails and puppy dog tails.”
No Shame is a weekly open-mic venue for original performance; the Roanoke one is just one of many around the country.
The mystic advises that he needs escargot. “In the vernacular, snails.”
The mystic’s robe began its life as a Jedi costume at Halloween for my son.
Seattle radio station produces two of my scripts as radio plays
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on February 2, 2013
Caitlin Bancroft, Dave Matsui and Walter Lutsch of Falcon Radio Theatre in Seattle. They were the cast. Photo courtesy Falcon Radio Theatre.
A Seattle Internet radio station produced two of my scripts on January 31 in a radio theatre format.
KSPU — kspu.org — is affiliated with Seattle Pacific University. Each Thursday, the station produces Falcon Radio Theatre.
The folks behind the show came across my site, contacted me, and eventually settled on “Occupations,” a dark one-act about three siblings who each are trying to hide their true jobs from one another (mercenary, prostitute, thief), and “The Secret Lives of Goldfish: The Escape,” a light, bright five-minute piece.
I listened in on my home computer and, after fumbling a bit over which software to use, had the broadcast coming in loud and clear, all the way from Puget Sound to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Based on what the producers have told me, it sounds like there’s a good chance they’ll be producing some additional scripts of mine in the future.
Photos from “Deep Into October” at New York benefit
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on January 14, 2013
Mickey Ryan in Dwayne Yancey’s DEEP INTO OCTOBER directed by Rose Bonczek. photo by Faye Ellman. — at Cherry Lane Theatre.
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In December, two of my short baseball pieces were performed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City in a benefit for Hurricane Sandy victims in The Rockaways section of Brooklyn.
Here are photos from one of those pieces, “Deep Into October.”
Mickey Ryan reprised his role from when this piece was originally performed in the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival in New York in 2011. You can find video of that performance here.
And here’s another photo of Mickey: Read the rest of this entry »
Photos from staged reading of “Klaus” by Hollins Playwright’s Lab
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 18, 2012
Curtain call for “Klaus.” From left: Martha Boswell, Brian O’Sullivan, Kevin McAlexander, Blair Peyton, Will Coleman, Drew Dowdy and Ross Laguzza. Behind them, barely visible, is stage manager Melissa Kennedy who, for purposes of this reading, was on the stage to provide sound effects much like a radio play.
The Hollins Playwright’s Lab put on a staged reading of “Klaus,” my Christmas play about the origin of Santa Claus on December 16, 2012 at the June M. McBroom Theatre at Community High School.
Here are some photos. The one above is from producer Todd Ristau; the back-and-white ones below are from MFA student Chad Runyon:
Photos from Saturday’s rehearsal for “Klaus”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 15, 2012
The staged reading of “Klaus,” my Christmas show about the origins of Santa Claus, continues to take shape. .
The reading is Sunday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. at the June M. McBroom Theatre at Community High School in Roanoke, Va.; the reading is put on by the Hollins Playwright’s’ Lab.
Earlier, I posted photos from Thursday’s rehearsal and Friday’s rehearsal. Here are some photos from Saturday’s rehearsal, which emphasis on Brian O’Sullivan, who plays the titular role of Professor Klaus, a mysterious German physics professor who shows up at a failing British college in the 1740s and sets tongues wagging with his strange ideas.
Klaus (played by Brian O’Sullivan) jokes about his girth to the class he’s teaching at a woebegone British college in the 1700s.
Klaus enjoys teaching natural philosophy (as physics was called in those days), but his students — played by Kevin McAlexander, Blair Peyton and Will Coleman — are less amused.
Klaus with his students again. I believe this is the scene where many of them (especially Percy, played by Blair, in the center) have shown up with hangovers. Either that, or it’s a scene in the ale-house where the students spend much of their time.
My short piece on school shootings
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, No Shame Theatre, Photos, Uncategorized on December 15, 2012
That’s me performing my monologue “Chalkboard Scribbled in Blood” at No Shame Theatre on Dec. 14, 2012.
Unlike some writers, I don’t write topical material. When some item in the news inspires me (and it’s quite often), I always try to write the piece in a way that it will work for future occasions.
For instance, after the horrific Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, I wrote the five-minute “Cellphones of the Dead,” which was performed that Friday night at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. It doesn’t reference Virginia Tech and could be staged again — although No Shame producer Todd Ristau said it was so powerful, it shouldn’t be performed too often. In fact, he said it was too powerful (and too much of a downer) to include in that year’s Best of No Shame Theatre.
After Friday’s equally horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, I thought about bringing that piece back for an encore performance at No Shame Theatre. One problem — kindergarten students don’t have cellphones.
So while watching a rehearsal of my Christmas show, “Klaus,” I scribbled out a new piece. And I broke with my practice of having others perform my work — and performed this one myself. I’m no actor, and have never pretended to be, but thought perhaps those who known of my self-imposed prohibition on doing my own works would find the performance even more powerful then.
James Thompson was kind enough to take this photo of me performing the short monologue “Chalkboard Scribbled in Blood.”
Regrettably, it will fit the next time there’s another one of these awful events.
Photos from second rehearsal for staged reading of “Klaus”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 15, 2012
Most staged readings only get a few hours rehearsal. For Sunday night’s reading of “Klaus,” my darkly comic show about the origin of Santa Claus, the Hollins Playwright’s Lab has arranged for four days worth of rehearsal — and brought in Chicago director Cheryl Snodgrass to helm the proceedings.
Here are some photos from Friday night’s second rehearsal, on the June M. McBroom Theatre stage at Community High School in Roanoke, Va.:
The show has a strong science fiction element to it. Here, Mary the landlady (Martha Boswell) stares up to discover all her cutlery is stuck to the ceiling. Professor Klaus (Brian O’Sullivan) is overjoyed at the success of his experiment with magnetism.
“Klaus” is heavy on special effects, which are hard to do in a staged reading. So stage manager Melissa Kennedy will be onstage handling many of the sound effects, much like the narrator in a radio play.
Professor Klaus (Brian O’Sullivan) ventures out into the audience to deliver toys to children. Well, you’ll have to imagine the toys. But he’s made them himself in his workshop.
Here’s another special effect you’ll have to imagine. Will Coleman, playing a college student in the 1700s, carries a torch in the climactic scene. That’s one of his fellow classmates, played by Kevin McAlexander, at left, and stage manager Melissa Kennedy in the background.
Director Cheryl Snodgrass.
Rehearsal starts for staged reading of “Klaus”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 14, 2012
Rehearsals started Thursday night for Sunday night’s staged reading of “Klaus,” my darkly comic Christmas play on the origin of Santa Claus that the Hollins Playwright’s Lab is putting on.
Here are some photos:
The headmaster of a failing British college (Ross Laguzza, in black) catches three students (Kevin McAlexander, Blair Peyton and Will Coleman) carousing in an ale-house. Worse, they’re holding their glasses (which you’ll have to imagine for now) over water glasses, a favorite trick of those in the 1700s who believed the true royal family was the ousted House of Stuart, not the reigning House of Hanover. Jacobites, as the Stuart supporters were called, famously toasted “the king over the water.” The show deals with the arrival of a mysterious German professor – Professor Klaus — at a college where support for the German-born Hanovers runs thin, and treason runs deep among the students. The headmaster is trying to stamp out such political sentiments in hopes of currying favor with the king — and perhaps a royal bequest to get the college out of debt. That’s also why he brought in Professor Klaus, although he knows next to nothing about him.
More carousing from our ne’er-do-well students, who harbor strong anti-German feelings — when they’re not busy drinking and skipping class and generally causing trouble. From left, Kevin McAlexander, Blair Peyton and Will Coleman. That’s Ross Laguzza, the headmaster, in the background. This may be the only Christmas show you’ve seen that set partly in an ale-house and includes a reference to a brothel.
Director Cheryl Snodgrass has come in from Chicago to oversee the reading. She specializes in working with new plays.
The show is Sunday, Dec. 16 at the June M. McBroom Theatre at Community High School in downtown Roanoke. It’s also free. More details here. And more photos to come (including, perhaps, one of the actor who plays Klaus!)
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