Archive for category Reviews
“One of the most hilarious shows we’ve done”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on March 12, 2016
I got an email this week from a community theatre in Ohio that produced my Christmas one-act THE FRUITCAKE a few years ago (it’s published through Brooklyn, by the way).
“It was one of the most hilarious shows we’ve done,” the director told me — and then proceeded to ask about other scripts I might have.
I can now add that to this list of reviews:
“I laughed so much I was sore the next day.” That’s what one patron of my latest show – in New Jersey – had to say.
“All-around brilliance . . . Dwayne Yancey wrote a genuinely witty and sharp script.” That’s what a theatre critic in Great Britain had to say about one of my shows.
“Blood-curdingly amazing.” That’s what one critic in Australia had to say of a show I had there last summer (last winter for them).
“Beautifully structured, fascinating, and vaguely dangerous.” That’s how one New York actor described my 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.” That’s what the director of a play festival in Michigan had to say.
Review: “I laughed so much I was sore the next day!!!”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on December 17, 2015
Someone going by the name NJJUDI — presumably New Jersey Judi — has posted this review on Trip Advisor about my play ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, now playing at First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands.
It appears under the headline: “I laughed so much I was sore the next day!!!” (And yes, she really did include three exclamation marks!!!)
I have been visiting the First Avenue Playhouse in the Atlantic Highlands for 5 years now. Last Saturday, I saw one of the funniest ever. Called “The 13th Day of Christmas” it is a hysterical show about gift giving gone “ballistic”, as the director Dave McGrath says in the program. Come when the door open, a little before 8 pm, have dessert and coffee, make friends with other folks at your table, and be prepared to laugh and laugh. The hysterics begin as the show open, and continues until the very ( and surprising” end. The cast is made up of such talented local actors who are giving their all to entertain you. Make sure you see it. We have already suggested it as a fun night out to friends. We don’t have children but boy would they love it.
Here’s some background on the show below:
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
More awards for “One Word Macbeth” in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on September 8, 2015
The awesome poster.
The Australian production of my script THE ONE-WORD MACBETH continues to rack up awards as it makes its way through the spring circuit (it’s spring to them) of the Victorian Drama League festivals.
Here’s what the folks with Pop Culture Theatre had to say about Kyneton’s 59th Festival of One Act Plays:
It’s always a pleasure travelling to Kyneton for their One Act Play festival, amidst the Spring weather and the plenitudes of daffodils everywhere. This year the festival returned to the beloved Bluestone Theatre, host to so many wonderful plays in the past, and 2015 was no exception. Thank you to everyone for such a lovely time!
Kyneton also saw the final festival performance of our youth performers in “One Word Macbeth”. And as a final parting shot, they earned themselves a nice batch of awards!
Clarity of Speech and Projection: Chelsea Hyde (“One Word Macbeth”)
Best Ensemble Work: “One Word Macbeth”
Best Actress: Madeline Hardie (“One Word Macbeth”)
Runner-Up Best Play: “One Word Macbeth”
There’s one more performance of the show — October 17 at the Knox Community Theatre in Bayswater, Victoria.
* 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
“The One-Word Macbeth” wins another award in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on August 11, 2015
One of the actresses with the award. The production was called “blood-curdingly amazing.”
Pop Culture Theatre of Melbourne won another award this weekend with a production of my script THE ONE-WORD MACBETH.
The production took “Most Outstanding Youth Production” in the South Gippsland One-Act Play Festival in Foster, Australia, one of a series of festivals through the Victorian Drama League that the group is entered in.
Next up: Kyneton’s Festival of One-Act Plays in Kyneton on Sept. 4-6 and a date TBA in October in Melbourne.
You can find photos from a previous production in Macedon here and more about the show in general here.
The production was called “blood-curdingly amazing.” One critic said: “Loved the play. A clever concept that’s difficult to do well, but they pulled it off.”
Fan mail from an actress in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Reviews, Uncategorized on July 30, 2015
For the first time, I’ve gotten fan mail! From an actress! In New York! I had several short pieces done in a festival there last month and today I got this note from one of them: “After seeing THE COW’S FAULT in the 2014 [festival], I HOPED to get cast in one of your plays and was THRILLED to be play Practical Mouse in AN UNEXPECTED CHEESE PARTY.”
She was referring to one of my entries in this year’s Gone in 60 Seconds Festival of one-minute plays; you can find a photo here.
My fan mail!
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.
“The Monkey At The Wedding” garners four prizes in Massachusetts competition
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews on May 4, 2015
The cast of The Monkey At the Wedding. From right to left,
Top row: Father of Bride, Groom, Best man, Minister, Granny, Monkey, Mother of bride.
Bottom row: Pluto, Mother of groom, Zoe, Maid of Honor, Fatima, and the Bride.
My one-act THE MONKEY AT THE WEDDING had its debut on May 1 at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton, Massachusetts.
This was part of a festival and I’m told the production won four prizes. The actress playing Fatima won best actress; the actor playing Bobo the Monkey won best actor, plus there were firsts for best make-up and “best slap.”
Yes, that kind of slap!
Of note: The Fatima character was one I added in a re-write when the director said she had 13 people audition for 12 parts but felt bad about leaving someone out — so that re-write clearly paid off. The actor who won best actor — his part had no lines!
Photos to come.
Here’s a previous post about the show.
So far in 2015:
* Jan. 3: Staged reading of MISS COW PIE BINGO (full-length), Showtimers, Roanoke, Virginia.
* Feb. 6: Production of MACBETH GOES HOLLYWOOD (long one-act), Gull Lake High School, Richland, Michigan
* Feb. 13: Staged reading of 39 HOURS IN THE SOVIET CITY OF ROSES (full-length), Poetic Theater Productions, New York, N.Y.
* Feb. 13: Staged reading of three short pieces: CHERRY POP TARTS, MY CRIMSON LOVE and LUST, at Garfield Center for the Arts, Chestertown, Maryland.
* Feb. 25: Staged reading of THE RING (one-act) and CAT ON TRIAL (five-minute play), The Readers Repertory Theatre of San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.
* March 25: Staged reading of THE BREAK-IN (five-minute play), The Readers Repertory Theatre of San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.
* March 25-27: Production of HAMLET GOES HOLLYWOOD (long one-act), High Meadows School, Roswell, Georgia.
* May 1: Production of THE MONKEY AT THE WEDDING (one-act), Acton-Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, Massachusetts. (Won four awards in competition, including best actor and best actress.)
* May 1: Short film KISS MY ASHES GOODBYE wins audience prize at Bike Shorts Film Festival, Roanoke, Virginia.
Upcoming:
* Summer: THE ONE-WORD MACBETH, Pop Culture Theatre, Melbourne, Australia.
“Klaus” called “a dark and dizzying journey”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on December 5, 2014
“A dark and dizzying journey.”
That’s how producer Rose Bonczek — who teaches at Brooklyn College — describes KLAUS, my full-length Christmas play that had a staged reading in New York on December 2, under the direction of Christopher Thomasson.
She further tells me via e-mail: “I wanted to let you know that last night’s reading was terrific – Christopher put together a brilliant cast, mostly Gi60 company members, but several colleagues who he knows from Santaland (perfect!). Jay Nickerson as Klaus, and Jonathan Hadley as the headmaster were particularly brilliant – though Helen Huff as Mary was a delight, and the three young men were balanced wonderfully, with sharp and distinct characters. The fellow who played Grinchley should simply be guaranteed that role for life.”
Here’s a link to the poster.
And here’s the synopsis:
KLAUS: How it all began
Where did Santa Claus come from? There is no particular origin myth, until now. This story begins in the 1740s with an eccentric German professor of what we now call physics. He invents time travel, and when he becomes the target of the wrath of a mob who wants to burn him as a witch, he uses it to escape. Involves science fiction, treason against the king, a love story, and some cooking. Cast: Seven – six male, one female.
This was the second staged reading for the script; the first was in Roanoke in December 2012. Here’s a set of links to photos and such from that reading.
Photos (and fan mail) from “The Other Side of Oz” in Montana
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on August 1, 2014
The cast of THE OTHER SIDE OF OZ.
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My show THE OTHER SIDE OF OZ plays this weekend in Billings, Montana, produced by the Backyard Theatre, which, true to its name, really is in somebody’s back yard.
This is my seventh full-length script I’ve had produced. This isn’t a single story, but rather a collection of short Oz-related scenes using characters in the public domain. All that, and my list of previous full-length productions, is detailed in this previous post.
My version is probably what you’d expect of my work: We have Dorothy on the psychiatrist’s couch, we have the sheriff complaining about dogs, we have Munchkin insurance adjusters going over the damage to the house — mostly in five-minute scenes.
I have the show poster and some rehearsal photos below but first, allow me to share this — fan mail! Yes, two young members of the cast (one of them 9, not sure about the other, but about the same) took the time to send me thank-you notes:
Dear Dwayne
Thank you. The show is very fun! I get to be Munchkin One in The Wizard Arrives in Oz and The Witch of the East in Sensible Shoes, I am also the munchkin in Horse of a Different Color. I am sending you some photos my mom took, the last photo is my Young Witch of the East hair and make up. Thank you for writing such a fun and awesome play. I hope I get to work with you again.
Thanks
hello my name is ****** I just wanted to thank you for the script for the other side of oz I played the young witch of the west and a munchkin I really enjoyed it its an awesome script you did a great job writing it!
once again thank you
sincerely,
I’ve never gotten fan mail from cast members before!
Lots of photos below:
The show poster.
Glinda and Dorothy.
A Munchkin insurance adjuster.
You know who this is! The tin man!
I do believe that’s Toto in this scene!
The huckster professor and future wizard.
William Shields, Seja Foster, Micah Hornsby and Ryland Nelson go over a map of Kansas with the professor (Trevor Bionich).
Glinda.
Oh, now we have a bad witch, too! And Dorothy.
Dorothy and crew go to the horse racing track.
The complete set of photos is here. And here’s what the Billings Gazette said.
Photos from the cast party here.
dwayneyancey 