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Rehearsal photos from “57 Hours in the House of Culture”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 3, 2012
Joel Gruver (as Ivan, the usher) rehearses a scene from “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my show about the Moscow theatre siege. At left, quite dead, is Owen Merritt (Dmitri the pit musician), and at right, equally dead, is Heather Sexton (Irina, an audience member.)
Rehearsals are well underway for “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my show about the Moscow theatre siege that runs May 16-27 at Studio Roanoke.
I really like what director Brian O’Sullivan is doing with the show.
It promises to be just as dark and spooky as I envisioned — if it not more so.
Here are some rehearsal photos. You’ll notice that many of the players are laying down on the floor. That’s because their characters are dead.
Heather Sexton (top, as Irina, an audience member) and Kelly Anglim (below, as one of the female terrorists) rehearse a scene from my show about the Moscow theatre siege.
Scripts to be produced in Maryland and Oregon
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on May 2, 2012
Two theatres have notified me recently that they’ll be producing my work in upcoming months.
The Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre in Chestertown, Maryland will be producing my 10-minute script “The Mermaid’s Tattoo” in June. That was a theatre I had submitted to. The show dates are June 22-24 and June 29-July 1.
Meanwhile, the Post5 Theatre company in Portland, Oregon contacted me out of the blue, having found me via this very site! The e-mail from Post5 sent a brrrring through my phone just moments after my son, Keith, hit his first career home run in a high school game last week.
Post5 wanted to know if they could produce two of my 5-minute scripts as part of their intruigingly-titled program “Death/Sex: Portland,” which opens May 23 and runs through June 25. Specifically, they will said “Yvonne’s Worst Nightmare” and “Another Reason Why Yvonne Doesn’t Get Asked Out Very Much” would “fit perfectly” into their line-up of short pieces about either death or sex. Conveniently, those pieces deal with both.
We’re building a bomb!
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on April 25, 2012
Director Brian O'Sullivan, technical director Joanna Jessee and artistic director Melora Kordos go over Joanna's set plans for my show based on the Moscow theatre siege.
It’s a good thing the FBI wasn’t listening in on our production meeting Tuesday for my upcoming show at Studio Roanoke — otherwise, the G-men would have heard us talking about, oh, how to build a bomb, and assemble a small arsenal of weapons. Including an actual AK-47.
All these, of course, are not for revolution, but for art — specifically, “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my show about the 2002 Moscow theatre siege that runs May 16-27.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Studio Roanoke technical director Joanna Jessee showed off her sketch for what the set will look like, based on previously conversations she’s had with director Brian O’Sullivan. The plan is to recreate — in somewhat abstract form — the actual set that was in place at the House of Culture (aka, the Dubrokva Theatre) on the night that Chechen terrorists stormed the place in October 2002.
Here’s another photo from Tuesday’s production meeting. Rehearsals got underway Sunday.
Director Brian O'Sullivan, technical director Joanna Jesse, artistic director Melora Kordos and stage manager Brandon DuMonde.
Rehearsals begin for “57 Hours in the House of Culture”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on April 23, 2012
The cast gathers around as director Brian O'Sullivan shows a photo from the actual Moscow theatre seige of 2002, on which my show is based.
Rehearsals for the world premiere of “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my full-length script about the Moscow theatre siege, began Sunday evening, April 22.
The show runs May 16-27 at Studio Roanoke.
The cast gathered with director Brian O’Sullivan and stage manager Brandon DuMonde for the first read-through. For some of the cast members, this was doing double duty — most of them had already been in a show earlier that day. Owen Merritt, Kelly Anglim and Gary Reid had just finished “Monkey Wrench” at Studio Roanoke. Tim Kennard and Joel Gruver had likewise had their final performance of “Lion in Winter” at Showtimers.
We’ve had one last-minute cast change. Peter Colbert had to drop out due to some unforeseen scheduling conflicts, but Joel Gruver has signed on to play Ivan the usher. I’ve been a fan of Joel’s work for some time and am delighted to be able to say he’s in my show. In fact, I saw him just Friday night in action as the French king at Showtimers.
We’ve also added on Blake Lipscomb for a small role as a Russian soldier; we’re still scouting for another Russian soldier.
So, the line-up stands:
* Andrei, a retired civil engineer who is in the audience that fateful night: Gary Reid
* Svetlana, his wife and a retired teacher: Diane Heard
* Irina, a young mother in the audience that night: Heather Sexton
* Ivan the usher, who serves as a kind of narrator: Joel Gruver
* Dmitri the pit musician: Owen Merritt
* Mosvar Barayev, the terrorist leader: Tim Kennard
* Fatima the Black Widow, one of the female terrorists: Kelly Anglim
* Olga Romanova, a brave but naive perfume sales clerk who came in off the street to try to solve the situation: Cadie Burks
* Russian soldier: Blake Lipscomb.
Gary and Diane, it should be noted, are the main characters — two audience members caught up in a horrific event beyond their control. They also showed up with almost all their lines already memorized — this even though Gary was just in a show!
The cast gathered on the set of "Monkey Wrench" for the first read-through.
Cast for “57 Hours in the House of Culture” announced
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on April 6, 2012
Director Brian O’Sullivan has put together a very strong cast for my show “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” which premieres at Studio Roanoke May 16-27.
Here it is:
* Andrei, a retired engineer in the audience: Gary Reid
* Svetlana, his wife, a retired teacher: Diane Heard
* Irina, a mother in the audience: Heather Sexton
* Ivan, the usher: Peter Colbert
* Dmitri, the pit musician: Owen Merritt
* Barayev, the terrorist: Tim Kennard
* The Black Widow, a female terrorist: Kelly Anglim
* Olga, the perfume sales clerk who comes in off the street: Cadie Burks
Cadie is a newcomer; all the others are well-known from previous roles at theatres in the Roanoke Valley. Owen most recently appeared at Studio Roanoke in “The Emancipation of Alabaster McGill” by Jeff Goode; I believe he, Gary and Kelly are all in “Monkey Wrench,” which opens this month. Gary I know, all the others I’m looking forward to getting to know — and seeing in action (again).
We’re still looking for two young men to play small parts as Russian soldiers; they have a few speaking lines. If interested, please contact the director (or me, and I can relay a message.)
We’re also looking for a violinist willing to record four short segments of a particular piece of Russian classical music (we have the sheet music available.)
The show is a dream-like account of the 2002 Moscow theatre seige, where Chechen terrorists seized a theatre during a musical and held hundreds hostage until Russian authorities pumped the place full of poison gas.
Video: “Deanna Dupes the Devil” plays to full house at Studio Roanoke
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on March 26, 2012
Studio Roanoke in Roanoke, Va. hosted one of its quarterly “Big Idea” variety shows on Saturday, March 24, with Chris Shephard as the impresario.
Chris had asked me to put on a staged reading of a short play as part of the evening; I offered up “Deanna Dupes the Devil,” a light comedy about a young woman who tricks the Old Trickster himself.
The piece stars Lianne Jackson McCray (soon to head off to Yale Divinity School!) as Deanna, Kevin McAlexander as the devil’s minion and Mike Allen as the devil.
Katerina Yancey directed the piece.
The evening opened with readings by Ben R. Williams and concluded with a film by Chris Shepard, “Kitty Man.” The other highlight of the evening included an appearance by the Angels of Assisi, and some of the adorable kittens they have for adoption.
Best yet, we had a full house!
New director, new poster for “57 Hours in the House of Culture”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on March 14, 2012
More news about my upcoming show at Studio Roanoke: We have a new director and a new poster for “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” my dark full-length script about the Moscow theatre siege.
* The new poster isn’t all that new; it simply corrects a typo from the original.
* The new director is Brian O’Sullivan. Sadly, Charlie Boswell had to withdraw due to some unforeseen circumstances. I’m sorry to see Charlie go — I always look forward to working with him in any capacity. But I’m equally excited to have the chance to work with Brian, who I have admired from afar (or not so far) in many productions at Studio Roanoke.
Auditions remain on March 24 and 25; details on those in this previous post.
Video: “Cat and Dog” in competition in Arkansas
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Uncategorized, Video on March 14, 2012
High school student MacKenzie Bentley performed my scene “Cat and Dog” as a solo piece in a recent “Hi/Di” competition in Arkansas — and took first place.
I have a small series of these “Cat and Dog” pieces.
Video: “The Tin Woman” at the Fincastle UMC talent show
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Uncategorized, Video on March 9, 2012
A few years ago, Kevin Jones of the Kevin Jones Performing Arts Studio asked me to create a series of scenes for him based on “The Wizard of Oz.” He wanted some new material for his summer camp students to work with.
Conveniently, Oz is now out of copyright, so I was able to oblige — with about two dozen scenes collectively titled “The Other Side of Oz.”
Kevin used many of those in his summer camp. Some have since gone on to be performed elsewhere.
Here’s a video of Katerina Yancey performing “The Tin Woman” at the Fincastle United Methodist Church talent show on Feb. 8, 2012 in Fincastle, Va.
Boswell to direct “57 Hours,” auditions set for March 24-25
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on February 29, 2012
Much news to report on the upcoming premiere of my full-length script “57 Hours in the House of Culture,” based on the true story of the Moscow theatre seige of 2002 where Chechen terrorists held an audience hostage.
* Charlie Boswell has agreed to direct the show. He’s directed several other things at Studio Roanoke. He helmed the very first thing done in that space, a staged reading of my one-act “The Angel of Brooklyn.” He’s since directed some of their full-length productions, including “Nobody Gets Paid,” which opens there March 7.
* Auditions for the show are set for March 24 and March 25; below I’ll copy the email that has gone out.
* Finally, there’s a poster, shown above. Sharp-eyed observers (such as myself) will notice one small error. My last name is misspelled. That’s being corrected. When there’s a new one, I’ll post it as well. That aside, it’s a marvelous poster. The artist researched the event (as did I, of course). The image is that of the actual theatre — the House of Culture of State Ball-bearing Plant No. 1. Billowing out of it are smoke and poison gas.
As you can see from the poster, the show is at Studio Roanoke May 16-27. It’s a dark, grim, spooky show, quite unlike any of my other work.
The audition release from Studio Roanoke: Read the rest of this entry »
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