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Behind the scenes of “Martian Beach Babes”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, No Shame Theatre, Photos, Uncategorized on October 9, 2012
Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran in “Martian Beach Babes”
No Shame Theatre, the open mic theatre venue in Roanoke where I try out a lot of new work, recently marked its 9th anniversary in the Star City. To celebrate that, we held a Best of the Best of No Shame Theatre to show off work from nearly a decade of late-night original performance.
No Shame co-founder Todd Ristau asked if I would re-stage “Martian Beach Babes,” a piece I debuted at No Shame in July 2004 and which went on to be produced at New Frontiers Charter School in San Antonio in 2006. It’s not my best piece, by far, but I’ll admit it is visually stunning — two young women in green paint. Technically, it’s a scene about climate change. Demi and Phoebe (Mars experts will recognize them as derivatives of the moons Deimos and Phobos) can’t understand why high tide on Mars isn’t as high as it used to be, and why the sun’s rays seem stronger.
I’ve got another “green” piece — “The Women of Deep Space Pay a Visit To Earth and Don’t Like What They See” (since published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals) — but it needs four women and I only had two.
Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran, two of our regulars (indeed, our outgoing hosts), agreed to green up for the occasion. Here are a few shots of the process back-stage (with even more here on my flickr site): Read the rest of this entry »
Two of my scenes to be reprised in The Best of No Shame
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, No Shame Theatre, Photos, Uncategorized on October 1, 2012
That’s me, before a recent No Shame, with Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran, our hosts, taking the order and handling the best office. As you can see, I’ve been to the frozen yogurt shop. Photo by Todd Ristau.
It’s time for the twice-a-year Best of No Shame Theatre, in which our local open mic theatre venue in Roanoke, Va. showcases some of its best work from the past six months.
This fall’s edition will be Friday, October 5. My entry is “Time for an Upgrade,” a monologue about how a teenage girl blackmails her mother into getting her a new cellphone. It will be performed by Hannah Whitt, who debuted the piece back in July.
This year, we also have a special twist. On Saturday, October 6, we’re doing a Best of The Best of No Shame, featuring pieces from the past nine years in Roanoke — a run-up to next year’s 10th anniversary.
My entry is “Martian Beach Babes,” which will be performed by Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran. It’s about Mars losing its water, a topic now back in the news with Curiosity’s discovery of an ancient streambed on the red planet.
That piece was first done at No Shame back in July 2004, when we weren’t even a year old, and then was produced in 2006 at New Frontiers Charter School in San Antonio, Texas. No Shame producer Todd Ristau asked me to reprise it because it is a visually stunning piece when done with the proper customing. Ideally, I’ll have photos from the performance to show off as proof.
That’s Darelene Fedele, a puppeteer and one of our regulars.
The poster for our 9th anniversary show.
Backstage graffiti from my show at Studio Roanoke
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on August 6, 2012
A close-up of the graffiti in the dressing room at Studio Roanoke.
At Studio Roanoke, the black box theatre in Roanoke, Va. which recently closed, the tradition was for actors and actresses to sign the wall in the dressing room — along with a key quote from the show.
Here’s the part of the wall dedicated to my show “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” which turned out to be the next-to-play show there. (The show was about the Moscow theatre siege of 2002.)
Kind of reminds me of the cover for The Rolling Stones’ originally wanted for their album “Beggars Banquet.”
MORE ON “57 HOURS IN THE HOUSE OF CULTURE”:
* Photos from the show
* Audience reaction to the show
* Review: “It ain’t ‘Oklahoma!'”
* Congressman Goodlatte attends the show
* Review: “Most interactive show I’ve seen”
* Media interviews about the show
* The set takes shape
* Rehearsal photos
* Rehearsal begins
* The poster for the show
Video and photos: “The Mermaid’s Tattoo” at The Garfield Center for the Arts in Maryland
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on July 19, 2012
The Garfield Center for the Arts in Chestertown, Maryland produced my 10-minute script “The Mermaid’s Tattoo” as part of the theatre’s Short Attention Span festival of 10-minute plays.
The festival ran June 22-July 1.
The script is related to “My Summer as a Mermaid,” which has been produced in Massachusetts (see those photos here) and Chicago, along with a staged reading in Roanoke, Virginia.
Here’s a promotional video that has part of the show, plus some still photos.
A scene from “The Mermaid’s Tattoo”
Sarah Walker as Samantha, Anna Black as Kitty the Waitress and Pete Fortenbaugh as Waiter
Video: “The Keys to the Universe Next Door”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on July 9, 2012
Part 2 of my account of Overnight Sensations 2012, the annual 24-hour play project at Hollins University. (You can find part 1 here, along with background here.)
When I drew “science fiction,” my first thought was to do a baseball play. I figured it’s not what people would expect. However, I did baseball last year, when I drew horror (see “Strong As a Bull,” about baseball and steroids.). Still, I started quizzing the cast on whether they were right-handed or left-handed, just in case.
At that point, I hadn’t had a chance to study the bios of the seven cast members to see what special talents they had. Most of them I knew already. Then director Drew Dowdy whispered into my ear that Becky Marshall was an opera singer. Not just an opera singer, but an adjunct faculty members who teaches the History of Opera at the University of Virginia.
That cinched it. How could I let such a rare and exquisite talent go unused?
So my script dealt with . . . opera.
The basic plot: Twenty years ago, a scientist discovered how to unlock the door to an alternate universe. All it takes is a sonic key, and he used his opera-singing wife to sing the notes that open the door. Problem is, that door slammed shut — with her on the other side, trapped in a horrible alternate universe. Now, he’s trying to find someone with the same, clear voice to sing those same notes so he can rescue her. Hence, “The Keys to the Universe Next Door,” which attempts to channel H.P. Lovecraft.
The script (with help from Drew Dowdy’s expert direction) makes use of Becky’s incredible voice. We see Martha Boswell (who was in my piece last year) on stage, able to see and hear this universe, but with no one able to see or hear her.
The biggest challenge I found was dealing with a 7-person cast. That’s bigger than we’ve had in the past. I had several ideas which I liked but quickly discarded because I didn’t think I could make them work with seven actors. Even in my first draft, one actor had only three lines (I fixed that in the Saturday morning revisions.)
The audio here isn’t the best, but you’ll get the idea, I hope.
Here’s the full cast, and some still photos:
* Professor Arthur Wellington: Michael Mansfield
* Theodora, his daughter: Theano Mavroidis
* Martha, his wife: Martha Boswell
* Mrs. Marshall, an opera singer: Becky Marshall
* Cassandra, her daughter, and an aspiring opera singer: Emma Sala
* Agent One, a mysterious federal agent: Jason Burton
* Agent Two, equally mysterious: Blair Peyton
Becky Marshall and Emma Sala
Michael Mansfield, center, flanked by Blair Peyton (left) and Jason Burton (right)
Photos from Overnight Sensations 2012
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on July 9, 2012
For the fourth time, I took part in Overnight Sensations, the annual 24-hour play project sponsored by the Playwrights’ Lab at Hollins University in conjunction with Mill Mountain Theatre and other arts organizations in the Roanoke Valley.
The drill is the same each year: The writers, directors and casts gather on Friday night (this year at Hollins, since Center in the Square is undergoing renovations). The writers draw randomly a director. The director draws a cast. And then we alternate drawing a genre, a setting and a theme.
Then it’s off to write. On Saturday morning, the directors and writers assemble for a production meeting at 8 a.m. About noon, the actors arrive for an afternoon of rehearsal and then at 8 p.m., the curtain goes up.
It’s always a fun show and a great chance to work with some talented people, from both around the Roanoke Valley — and the whole country.
This year my director was Drew Dowdy, whose work I’ve admired on Roanoke stages before but whom I didn’t really know. He turned out to be fantastic. Between us, we then drew “science fiction,” “nursing home” and “overcoming weakness.”
I’ll have more to say about the script I produced — “The Keys to the Universe Next Door” — in the next post.
Until then, are some photos –– courtesy of the Playwright’s Lab — from this year’s event: Read the rest of this entry »
Photos from my two scripts in “Gone in 60 Seconds” Festival in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on June 11, 2012
Michael Colby Jones and Eugene Solfanelli
I had two pieces in this year’s New York edition of the “Gone in 60 Seconds” Festival of one-minute plays, produced June 8-9 at Brooklyn College.
Both dealt with baseball.
“Sunset in North Dakota” dealt with two minor leaguers in that Midwestern state, one seeing his career setting along with the sun — the other seeing only a short right-field fence. It’s a cutting from a longer version I did at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Va. in summer 2011.
“The Uniform” is also bittersweet. A baseball coach is at the first practice after cuts, watching his team run laps, when he notices a kid that didn’t make the team running as well. When the coach calls him over, he discovers a misunderstanding. The coach had said he didn’t have a uniform for the player; the player took that literally and made his own.
The festival plans to post video later this summer.
Jay Nickerson and Sergio Ang in “The Uniform”
Congressman attends “57 Hours in the House of Culture”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Personal, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on May 19, 2012
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Dwayne Yancey, Maryellen Goodlatte outside Studio Roanoke. (That’s director Brian O’Sullivan in the background.)
We had nearly a full house for the first Friday night of “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my show about the Moscow theatre siege now playing at Studio Roanoke.
Among those attending was Roanoke’s congressman — Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County — and his wife, Maryellen.
The Goodlattes are noted theatre-goers. About a year ago, they attended the Attic Productions youth show to see my one-act, “Curiosity Killed the Cat.”
The congressman said he took notes so he could do more research on the Moscow theatre siege.
Poster for “The Christmas Goat” at Studio Roanoke
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Uncategorized on January 19, 2012
Here’s the poster that Studio Roanoke (in Roanoke, Va.) used for a collection of my short Christmas pieces, which played under the title “The Christmas Goat and Other Inappropriate Holiday Tales” on Dec. 11, 2011.
This was part of Studio Roanoke’s “underground” Guerrilla Playhouse program.
The four pieces were:
* “The Christmas Goat,” a 10-minute piece.
* “Joy to Other Worlds,” a 5-minute piece.
* “Me and Mrs. C,” a 5-minute piece.
* “Joe’s Women Trouble,” a 5-minute piece.
These were directed by Ashley Byrne of Lynchburg.
“Strong As A Bull” at Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, Va.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Uncategorized on January 19, 2012
In front: Martha Boswell (left), Shay Mullins (center) and Rebecca Osborne (right.) In back: Mike Allen, Wendy-Marie Foerster, Kevin McAlexander, Kyle Mason, Dwayne Yancey. Photo by Deborah Seagle.
For the third time in about five years, I was invited to be one of the playwrights in the 24-hour play challenge at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Va. (The “Overnight Sensations” program is coordinated through the MFA playwriting program at Hollins University, and draws from many of its students.)
On a Friday evening in July, all the participants gathered for a reception in the lobby and, after some ceremonies, the drawing begins. First, each of the writers draws a director from a hat. I drew Rebecca Osborne of Texas, one of the Hollins students. She drew a pre-selected cast. Then we drew a genre (I got “horror”), a location (I got “cemetery”) and a theme (I’m momentarily forgetting what mine was; I think it was “slow but steady wins the race” but maybe that was another year.”)
At that point, the writers withdrew to the library at Hollins to begin writing; by the next morning, we had to have a 10-minute script turned in. The cast showed up at noon, rehearsed all afternoon, and on Saturday night, six new shows were produced on the main stage at Mill Mountain Theatre.
With horror and a cemetery, everyone was expecting me to produce something about vampires or zombies or such. Instead, I surprised them with dark piece about baseball and steroids — in the 19th century.
The basic plot of “Strong As A Bull”: A mining company fields a baseball team (they really did that back then.) But when one player’s performance declines, the boss threatens to send him back to the mines. Rather than face a fate underground, the player tries a magic elixir from a travelling medicine man — which makes him strong as a bull. In fact, it starts to turn him into an actual bull.
You can find more photos from the event here.
dwayneyancey 
