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Video: “Q Downsized” at the Liminal gallery
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on February 29, 2012
The Liminal Alternative Artspace in Roanoke, Va. hosts a monthly reading. It is geared toward writers of all sorts, though attracts a lot of poets and short storywriters. I’d never been to one of the Liminal readings, but the organizer, Cara Modisett, invited me to participate so I did.
The theme for the December 2011 reading was “downsizing.”
This shows my limited imagination: To me, spending my day in the business world, downsizing only meant one thing. Layoffs. A reduction in force. Job losses.
Conveniently, I had a piece that fit perfectly: “Q Downsized,” in which the letter Q is “let go” from the alphabet. Cara helped me find two students at Community High School to perform — Lilly Carr and Karl Kaiser.
To my amazement, everybody else at the reading that night had a very different take on “downsizing.” To them, downsizing meant . . . moving into smaller living spaces, downsizing lives, dreams, and so forth. There were some very powerful — and very sad — pieces read.
Then, at the end, came this piece, which was quite different indeed.
Fortunately, the audience howled with laughter.
The video for this is just now going up online, so that’s why it’s out of order. I had another reading in January at Liminal, “White Goes First” to match the Martin Luther King Jr. Day theme.
Video: My team’s film entry in the Marginal Arts Festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on February 23, 2012
In 2009, videographer Hank Ebert and I collaborated on a short film that was shown at the Grandin Theatre: “My Kid Could Paint That.”
In the years since, Hank and I have talked about working together again, but our schedules have never matched up — until now.
A few weeks ago, Hank contacted me. The annual Marginal Arts Festival in Roanoke, Va. this year included a Sweded Film Festival (a “sweded” film is a short spoof of the original; name comes from the movie “Be Kind Rewind”). Hank asked if I’d sign on to his team as a writer. I said sure.
It turns out, Sweded films don’t really need writers, but that’s another story.
The festival was the film equivalent of a 24-hour play festival (and I’ve been involved in three of those.)
There were eight teams entered. We gathered at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 at The Shadowbox and were given our assignment: Do a Sweded version of “Back to the Future.” Conveniently, I had already lined up actors.
The crowning touch to our version, I think, was finding an actual DeLorean. We figured we’d be stuck using matchbox cars but Blair Peyton said he remembered seeing a DeLorean in last year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, so there must be one around. I Googled “DeLorean and Roanoke” — indeed, I found a name of a guy — then I found his number. And lo, he was home! And more than happy to bring his DeLorean out for a spin.
We were the only team that had the actual car! When the car appeared on screen for the first time at Monday night’s screening (packed house!), there were “oohs” and “aahs” and a ripple of applause around the room.
The car scenes were shot at the Greenfield Center in Botetourt County, the clock tower is from the Botetourt County Courthouse, the Libyan terrorists are circling around in The Roanoke Times parking lot, and the rest of the scenes were shot in and around actress Hannah Whitt’s house in Salem. (Roanoke is a small place; two of other entries both shot scenes at Pop’s Ice Cream shop, and at least three of the entries were shot in the Grandin Village neighborhood.)
You can see some of the other entries in this post on arts writer Mike Allen’s Arts & Extras blog.
“Deanna Dupes the Devil” set for staged reading at Studio Roanoke March 24
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on January 31, 2012
Chris Shepard — who produces the “Big Idea” show at Studio Roanoke — asked me to put on a staged reading of a one-act for the March production.
I’ve picked “Deanna Dupes the Devil,” a light comedy about a woman who outwits Satan himself.
Here’s the poster.
The show is March 24, 8 p.m.
“Hamlet on Spring Break” to be produced in New Jersey in July
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on January 24, 2012
Got word today that the Port Republic School District in Port Republic, N.J. will produce my one-act “Hamlet on Spring Break” sometime in July.
The district has booked two performances.
The script is published by Playscripts.
Unless other productions come along, this will be the 22nd production of the script.
Here are photos from a previous production at Highland Park High School in St. Paul, Minnesota and a brief video from a production at North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“White Goes First” at Martin Luther King Jr. Day reading
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Uncategorized, Video on January 19, 2012
A few years ago, I read a wire story in The Roanoke Times about “street chess” in Washington, D.C.
The style of “street chess” among African-American players in the nation’s capital is apparently nothing like the version we know from international competitions — faster and louder, for one thing.
The story noted that the chess rule that the white players always go first quite considered quite ironic. That led to this piece “White Goes First.”
It’s been performed several times. This staged reading was at an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2012 at the Liminal Gallery at Community High School in Roanoke, Virginia.
Bryan Hancock plays “black,” Chad Runyon plays “white.”
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.
The wise old beaver in Darlene Fedele’s puppet musical
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Other, Uncategorized on January 19, 2012
That's me as the wise old beaver at far left. The reading was part of the Hollins University MFA playwriting program, so I wore my "Women who are going places start at Hollins" T-shirt.
I don’t claim to be an actor, but every now and then I get drafted into service. “Casting by proximity,” Joan Ruelle calls it.
In July 2011, Darlene Fedele asked me to play the part of “the wise old beaver” in a staged reading of her puppet musical. I happily agreed. I had to do some singing; fortunately, not solo.
This was part of the Hollins University MFA playwriting program. Here we are at Mill Mountain Theatre for the reading.
“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.
My Lady Gaga tie
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Personal, Uncategorized on January 19, 2012
My daughter gave me this Lady Gaga tie for Father’s Day 2011.
Here’s proof that I really did wear it to work.
And yes, I’m a fan.
“The Chicken on the Side of the Road” at Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Uncategorized, Video on January 19, 2012
I grew up on a chicken farm and continue to find them, um, fascinating. Here’s my piece “The Chicken on the Side of The Road” at the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival one-minute plays at Brooklyn College, New York, in June 2011.
dwayneyancey 