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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!)
Video: “Coyote” at the Liminal gallery in Roanoke, Va.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 12, 2012
The Liminal gallery (housed in the same building as Community High School) in Roanoke, Va., hosts monthly readings. They’re built around a particular theme — usually something on display in the gallery, or something students are studying.
Writers from both the school and community are invited. Most of these are short story writers, but I’ve been going — and reading organizer Cara Modisett has been kind enough to recruit students to perform my work.
For the Nov. 29, 2012 reading, the theme was based on “Children in the Shadow of Conflict: Selected Novels and Cultural Perspectives,” a course being taught at the school.
Hannah Garry performed my piece “Coyote,” about how an illegal immigrant had to pay off a “coyote” — one of the border crossing guides — to get her family across. It was inspired by a newspaper story I read some years ago about how dangerous such crossings can be because many “coyotes” are quite unscrupulous.
Immigration is a theme of another one of my works — the yet unpublished and unproduced full-length script “The Ballad of Alejandro Lopez,” which is currently under consideration at a theatre in New York.
Video: “57 Hours in the House of Culture” in Roanoke, Va.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 6, 2012
Here’s the archival video from the premiere of “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my full-length play about the Moscow theatre seige.
The play was produced at Studio Roanoke in Roanoke, Va., in May, and played to good reviews and good houses. We even had a visit from our local congressman, Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County.
The video is so long it’s broken into several parts, although the show ran without an intermission.
And here’s part three:
And here’s part four:
MORE ON “57 HOURS IN THE HOUSE OF CULTURE”:
* Backstage graffiti from the show
* 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: “The Cherry Tree Near Loos” at Liminal gallery
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 1, 2012
Here’s another video I’m a little late in posting. The Liminal gallery in Roanoke, Va. hosts periodic readings, often in conjunction with an exhibit or classwork at Community High School, the private school with which it is associated.
On March 27, 2012, the theme was “place.” Community High School student Sahar Babi read my monologue “The Cherry Tree Near Loos.”
It’s a true story that I came across in reading once about World War I. A British soldier was killed in a tree in no man’s land, and the only way the British could retrieve his body was to bombard the tree.
I’m indebted to Cara Modisett, who organizes the readings, for finding someone to read the piece.
Video: “The Rules Are The Rules Are The Rules” in England
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 1, 2012
The Castle Players in Poole, England produced my one-act comedy “The Rules Are The Rules Are The Rules” in February 2011.
Previously, I just had still photos from the show available.
Now, there’s video!
(More accurately, I just figured out how to post a video of this length, although I see it came in two parts.)
Video: “The Secret Lives of Goldfish” at Liminal gallery
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Productions, Uncategorized, Video on October 30, 2012
I have a series of short pieces called “The Secret Lives of Goldfish” in which I take a humorous look at two goldfish, one of whom has delusions of grandeur, the other of whom is very much aware of its piscene limitations.
One of those pieces — “The Secret Lives of Goldfish, volume 4: Hot for the Deep Sea Driver” — was performed as a staged reading Oct. 25 at one of the regular readings hosted by the Liminal alternative artspace gallery in Roanoke.
Two students from Community High School — Celine Anderson and Frank Finch — were the goldfish in question.
(There’s a male version of this particular piece. That’s volume 3: “Hot for the Mermaid.” Same piece, just genders reversed.)
“The Kissing Consultant” wins praise in South Africa
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on October 13, 2012
As previously noted, my one-act “The Kissing Consultant” was produced last year by a school in South Africa — a fact I only recently became aware of. (Sometimes, play publishers take a while in reporting these things.)
I’ve since searched the ‘net and found this brief mention of the show (along with a photo) in The North Eastern Tribune, a South African newspaper.
My script, it seems, was Athlone Girls High School entry in the local one-act competition. The school doesn’t appear to have won, but s0me of the actors were commended individually. Additionally, the paper reported: “The judges commended the play for its character work.”
The script is published by Brooklyn Publishers.
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 »
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