Archive for category Productions
Video: “Sunset in North Dakota” at Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Productions, Uncategorized, Video on September 11, 2012
I had two pieces about baseball featured in this year’s New York edition of “Gone in 60 Seconds,” a one-minute play festival that took place at Brooklyn College in June 2012.
Here’s “Sunset in North Dakota,” a condensed version of a longer script first performed at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Va.
You can find still photos from both “Sunset in North Dakota” and “The Uniform” in this previous post.
“Macbeth Goes Hollywood” to be produced on Halloween in Chicago ‘burbs
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on September 8, 2012
A school in Steger, Illinois (southern Chicago suburbs) will produce my one-hour one-act “Macbeth Goes Hollywood” on Halloween (October 31, 2012). It will be the 24th production of that script, which is published by Eldridge Plays & Musicals.
I’m not quite sure which school; the info from the publisher simply says “School District 194” so I’ll have to investigate.
“Yvonne” gets their attention in Portland, Oregon
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on August 6, 2012
Post 5 Theatre in Portland, Oregon recently produced two of my short pieces as part of their show called “Death/Sex: Portland,” in which every pieces was about one or the other.
One of my entries dealt with both: “Yvonne’s Worst Fears,” in which a woman is tied up during kinky sex — only to have her partner suffer a heart attack. The other piece was called “Another Reason Why Yvonne Doesn’t Get Asked Out Very Much,” which dealt with a similar theme, just from a different point of view.
The theatre didn’t have any photos to share, but did pass on this account of the show:
“Know that YVONNE’S WORST FEARS opened the show (our lovely Yvonne was tied to a headboard below a podium as the audience filed in, smiling and trying to wave as I did the curtain speech) and kicked off the production beautifully. ANOTHER REASON appeared early in the second act, with the girls drinking cocktails and poor Dave (myself, I couldn’t help it) yelling the same “safe word” from backstage. As soon as the audience saw Yvonne on stage again, I could tell (even from backstage, with my hand in my mouth) that the audience perked up. Thank you for helping to make my first advance into producing such a success.”
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”
Photos from “57 Hours in the House of Culture”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Productions, Uncategorized on June 5, 2012
From left: Dmitri the musician, Olga the cosmetic clerk who entered the theatre (whose legs are visible), Ivan the usher, Irina an audience member, Barayev the terrorist and Fatima the Black Widow. Not visible are audience members Andrei and Svetlana).
Here are the official production photos (courtesy of David Gross) from my show about the Moscow theatre siege, “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” that was produced at Studio Roanoke in May 2012.
Audience reaction to “57 Hours in the House of Culture”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on June 2, 2012
The “wreckage” of the theatre. The audience entered to find chairs overturned and the space littered with programs (in Russian), water bottles and candy wrappers.
The goal of the recent Studio Roanoke production of my script about the Moscow theatre siege — indeed, the goal of the script itself — was to make people feel like they were really there.
So the audience entered the lobby to find . . . a video of the actual production of “Nord-Ost” playing on a television screen . . . still photos of the Moscow production were posted . . . audience members were handed a program that was in Russian . . .and two soldiers in Russian military garb blocked the doors until showtime — when they quickly donned gas masks, threw open the doors and ran into the theatre space.
As audience members followed, they found cast members “dead” around the theatre . . . chairs overturned, and the floor littered with debris — water bottles, candy wrappers. I am indebted to Kenley Smith, Studio Roanoke’s founding patron and playwright in residence, for helping me visualize all of this, and to director Brian O’Sullivan for pulling it off.
I attended almost every night of the show (my son’s baseball schedule kept me away on two nights.) Most of the audience members I heard from “got” the concept; a few did not. One night, one woman sniffed “they didn’t do a very good job cleaning up the theatre after the last show” and appeared to be completely serious. Another night, one audience member, on his way out, started picking up the trash!
Other reactions: I’m told one audience member wiped away tears on opening night when Olga was shot. And I was there another night when a woman suffered a panic attack as soon as she entered the space and declined to see the show.
Here’s a summary of some other feedback that people have posted on Facebook: Read the rest of this entry »
