Video: ‘Shakespeare’s Lost Christmas Play’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on December 13, 2020
On December 12, 2020, I held a video reading of my new Christmas play SHAKESPEARE’S LOST CHRISTMAS PLAY. Here ’tis!
The back story: A teacher in Utah, who has previously produced some of my work, contacted me in September and asked if I would write a Christmas play for her class. It needed to fit her cast size, gender mix and time limits. Plus, it had to be done in a socially distanced fashion, plus she wanted it about trying to produce a show during the pandemic. I changed that to the plague in Shakespeare’s day.
The cast:
* Erasmus a peasant who has perpetually bad luck on stage: Mason Micesvki, Hamilton, Ontario
* Ann, a peasant who doesn’t much like Erasmus and wants to be a snowflake in the pageant: Ella Kennedy, Hamilton, Ontario
* Thomasina, another peasant who wants to be a snowflake in the pageant: Kaiya Hoagland, Bonsack, Virginia.
* Bartholomew, a peasant who isn’t very bright: Scott Cooper, Waterloo, Ontario
* Susan, a peasant who is always hungry: Emily Bolyea-Kyere, Hamilton, Ontario
* Emma, a peasant who is depressed, until she’s not: Giselle Magie, Hamilton, Ontario
* Toby, a peasant who is naïve: William Thomas, Hamilton, Ontario
* Olivia, a peasant given to conspiracy theories: Irene Kenney, Memphis, Tennessee
* Roger, a peasant just returned from London, practical: Stephen Baltz, Christiansburg, Virginia.
* Joan the stage manager, the practical type : Arlene Thomas, Kitchener, Ontario
* Hortense the director: Cheryl Carter, Lynchburg, Virginia.
* The royal herald, who delivers a message Heather Sexton, Salem, Virginia
* The Plague Doctor, who appears in the costume of a medieval plague Doctor , Aisha Mitchell, Radford, Virginia
* Stage directions: B.A. Ciccolella, Norfolk, Virginia
Video: ‘The One-Word Christmas Carol’ in Virginia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 12, 2020
Attic Productions of Fincastle, Virginia has produced my one-act THE ONE-WORD CHRISTMAS CAROL as a video productions. If you like this, Attic asks that you make a donation through their website. Directed by Sally Miller. I have several scripts in this format — where each line is a single word.
THE ONE-WORD CHRISTMAS CAROL
The traditional Christmas Carol story, more or less, told with each actor speaking a line of just a single word. Cast: Can be done with as few as six, or expanded larger, if you desire.
Audio: ‘Aunt Millie’s Cat’ by Audio Amphitheater
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on November 30, 2020
The Tennessee-based Audio Amphitheater has produced my one-act play AUNT MILLIE’S CAT as a podcast. It’s on both Apple and Spotify. Here it is on Spotify. Produced and directed by Bret Carson, starring Jenna Foster as Angie and Jose Garcia as the cat.
Video: ‘As Asian As Apple Pie’ in New York festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on November 30, 2020
My very short monologue AS ASIAN AS APPLE PIE was included in The Faces of America monologue festival by The Playground Experiment in New York on Nov. 21. Here’s the whole show:
Review of ‘A Dickens of a Christmas’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on November 18, 2020
The New Zealand playwright Rex McGregor has left this lovely review on the New Play Exchange for my Christmas full-length A DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS:
“A delightful script with likable characters, witty dialogue and a twist I didn’t see coming.”
A DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS
Two orphan girls in Victorian London desperately want a proper Christmas dinner. At first, they conspire to sneak into a private club and pass themselves off as men. Their plans are frustrated by a retired military man, and two fellow orphans. That’s when they devise another plan that involves the mean old rich woman at the end of the street. Cast: Six – three male, three female.
Here’s a video of a virtual reading of the script in September 2020.
Photos from ‘Red Moon Rising in the East’ in Norfolk
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on November 11, 2020
Sergei talks about the first time he saw an airplane.
Little Theatre of Norfolk has produced my one-man play about the father of the Soviet space program as a virtual show. The theatre staged the show without an audience, filmed it, and has posted it online through the platform ShowTix4U. Here’s Brian Cebrian as Sergei Korolev. This marks the fifth production of the show — at the moment, it’s my most-produced full-length show.
Showing off the design for the N1 moon rocket.
Watching the launch of the first Sputnik.
Video: Reading of ‘Freeda’s Fascination With Fire’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on October 18, 2020
My newest full-length play is the comedy FREEDA’S FASCINATION WITH FIRE. On Oct. 17, I held a Zoom reading with an international cast (and a small audience that included former U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a big fan of live theatre).
FREEDA’S FASCINATION WITH FIRE
A teenage pyromaniac in Texas is sentenced to an unusual community service punishment: To serve as fire baton twirler for a high school that doesn’t have a football team but needs a halftime show. Comedy ensues. Cast: Eight – five female, three male.
The cast:
Stage directions: Charlie Boswell (Roanoke, Va.)
Freeda: Emily Solomon (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Miss Battleaxe: Alyson Bates (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Ramona: Martha Boswell (Roanoke, Va.)
Judge Hardhammer: Brian Otto (Waterloo, Ontario)
Cee Cee: Sally Miller (Roanoke, Virginia)
Dee Dee: Emily Bolyea-Kyere (Hamilton, Ontario)
Fast Eddie: Stephen Baltz (Christiansburg, Virginia)
Slowhand Sam: Mason Micevski (Hamilton, Ontario)
‘The Weird Sisters Go Rogue’ in Georgia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on October 17, 2020
In August, I wrote the short play THE WEIRD SISTERS GO ROGUE as play of a 22-hour play festival through the Honestly Speaking theatre group in Washington (although it didn’t get produced until September). Now it’s gone on to a second life in a virtual production by the Pumphouse Players in Carterville, Georgia. Here are some screenshots of the three actresses playing the witches from Macbeth.
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Video: ‘Bolivia!’ in London
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on October 16, 2020
My short monologue BOLIVIA! is getting a lot of traction in virtual festivals in this year of the pandemic. So far, it’s been performed in festivals in New York, Missouri and now this festival out of London by a group called The Queens of Cups. Here’s the video — BOLIVIA! is the third one in the order. It was performed by Georgia Goodman who was featured in a Super Bowl ad in 2017.
Video reading of ‘A Dickens of a Christmas’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on September 27, 2020
Here’s a video reading of my new Christmas play, A DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS, performed by an international cast with an international audience.
Rose: Kira Simmons (Chantilly, Virginia)
Lily: Irene Kenney (Memphis, Tennessee, but logging in from Nashville)
Colonel Brampton: Charlie Boswell (Roanoke, Virginia)
Toby: Stephen Baltz (Christiansburg, Virginia)
Percy: Mason Micevski (Hamilton, Ontario)
Lady Crumblebum: Martha Boswell (Roanoke, Virginia)
Stage directions: Emily Bolyea-Kyere (Hamilton, Ontario)
Our audience included former Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke (and his wife, Maryellen, both fans of live theatre) and from Auckland, New Zealand, playwright Rex McGregor. Theatre is a small world: Rex and I both had pieces in a monologue festival out of New York earlier this summer. Irene was one of the actresses we saw in that festival — and since then we’ve both recruited her for projects.
A DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS
Two orphan girls in Victorian London desperately want a proper Christmas dinner. At first, they conspire to sneak into a private club and pass themselves off as men. Their plans are frustrated by a retired military man, and two fellow orphans. That’s when they devise another plan that involves the mean old rich woman at the end of the street. Cast: Six – three male, three female.
