“The Ring” to be produced in new works festival in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on March 5, 2014
A few years ago, I attended the state high school basketball championships — a series of games all day long in various size classifications. I was particularly struck by one of the girls’ games, which pitted a team with a star player destined for college hoops against a team with unheralded players. Out of that came “The Ring” — a look into the future in which those two players meet again.
There’s a five-minute version (set in a nursing home) and a 20-25 minute version (in which the unheralded player breaks into the star’s home to steal the ring she felt she deserved.)
I’m thrilled to report today that the five-minute version has been accepted into the 3rd annual NFA New Works Festival at the Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, New York. I’m also excited to hear one of my works is being produced, but this is especially gratifying because in this case it was the students themselves who picked this script to be produced. Mine was one of 14 pieces picked for production out of 100 submitted.
The festival will be May 30.
Lake Players to produce one of my ten-minute plays March 28
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on February 28, 2014
The Lake Players — at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia — will include my script “God and the Devil Meet for a Business Lunch” in a night of ten-minute shows on March 28.
The director sends this word: “We had our first read thru on Monday and it got big laughs all around.”
GOD AND THE DEVIL MEET FOR A BUSINESS LUNCH
God and the devil meet in an out-of-the-way lunch spot to discuss a business proposition: The devil thinks the Almighty should reimburse him for punishing the wicked. Comes in two versions, one 5 minutes, one 10 minutes. Cast: Three — 2 males, 1 female. Running time: Five minutes or ten minutes.
Here’s the audio from when Falcon Radio Theatre in Seattle produced this as a radio play in 2013, and video from when a troupe in Sacramento produced it in 2005.
“Hamlet Goes Hollywood” to be published
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on February 25, 2014
I got word this week that my hour-long one-act “Hamlet Goes Hollywood” will be published later this year by Big Dog Plays.
That’s the same publishing house that has published some of my other scripts, including “Santa Claustrophobia,” which has been produced 17 times. (Others from Big Dog include “Spiders” and “Red, Ripe and Round”; you can find my complete list of 0ne-acts, published and unpublished here, with this explanation of why I don’t charge royalties for unpublished work.)
Here’s the synopsis of “Hamlet Goes Hollywood,” coming soon to a play catalog near you (and, I hope, some high school stages):
HAMLET GOES HOLLYWOOD
Shakespeare himself is on the set of a Hollywood production of “Hamlet” when the director decides a few modest script changes are in order. Shakespeare objects, the director decides to experiment with setting the show in different genres — police show, science fiction, western, and so forth. The costumes keep changing, as do some of the characters. Ophelia clamors for a role with a sword, Laertes wants a bigger part, and Shakespeare himself eventually tries a rap version. Cast: 20 — 8 males, 4 female, 8 non-gender. Running time: One hour.
Video: “Choose Your Companions Carefully” at the Liminal
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on February 14, 2014
A few years ago, I read a book about Antarctica, which inspired several pieces — a one-act called “Lionized,” and three short pieces called “Countdown to 2041” (when the treaty governing the continent is set to expire), “Fairweather at the Pole” and “Choose Your Companions Carefully.”
Most of those pieces (“Countdown to 2041″ is the exception”) deal with the same uncomfortable topic — explorers forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive.
On January 27, the Liminal gallery had one of its regular readings, with the theme “A Midwinter’s Night Dream.” I didn’t really have any odes to winter, but I did have “Choose Your Companions Carefully.” If Antarctic exploration isn’t winter, what is?
Mike Allen read the piece for me — putting on a full-fledged shivering act. Weeks later, I still have people who were there talking about it. As for the people who were there, you’ll notice an empty auditorium in the video. That’s because the audience was on the stage, and this video was shot from a side view.
Bon apetit.
Video: “Overheard” at the Liminal gallery
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Video on February 11, 2014
Since last summer, I’ve been collecting snatches of conversations that I overhear. On the street. At coffee shops. At the Waffle House.
Last week, I had a chance to make use of some of those. The theme at the regular reading at the Liminal alternative artspace in Roanoke was “found texts.” The idea was for readers to take things not meant as art and turn them into art. Some used old letters. I used 24 lines I had overheard in downtown Roanoke.
Borrowing a technique from the world of comedy improv, I cut them into 24 pieces of paper, put them in a box and then had two people — Ashley Meador and Katerina Yancey — pull out lines and create a dialogue with them.
Here’s the result.
Director praises “The One-Word Macbeth” as “one of the funniest things I have read”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews on February 10, 2014
I have a series of scripts in which I have taken classic works — usually by Shakespeare — and rendered them into scripts in which each character speaks a line of just one word.
The opening of “The One Word Macbeth” reads like this:
WITCH ONE: Thunder!
WITCH TWO: Lightning!
WITCH THREE: Rain!
WITCH ONE: Meeting!
WITCH TWO: Who?
WITCH THREE: Us!
WITCH TWO: Time?
WITCH ONE: Sunset!
WITCH TWO: Battle?
WITCH THREE: Finished!
WITCH TWO: Location?
WITCH ONE: Heath!
WITCH TWO: Subject?
WITCH THREE: Macbeth!
WITCH TWO: Ah!
WITCH ONE: Fair!
WITCH TWO: Foul!
WITCH THREE: Foul!
WITCH ONE: Fair!
A prospective director recently read this script (and a few others) and sent this praise:
“I’m pretty sure that One Word Macbeth is one of the funniest things I have read. So much so that I immediately handed it over to my stage manager with the instruction “You need to read this.” Then I just sat and watched her read it and laugh. (She agrees it’s hilarious!) I would LOVE to see the other ones. I just picture how it would play out on stage and it makes me happy. Also, I loved Hamlet Goes to Hollywood. So great!”
I’m hoping to get a production (or two) out of this.
Photos from “Sweets to the Sweet” in suburban Chicago
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions on February 4, 2014
Hamlette (left) and Laurita (right) in their sword fight at the climax of “Sweets to the Sweet.”
In September, Gorilla Tango Theatre in Skokie, Illinois (an offshoot of the one in Chicago proper) staged my full-length script “Sweets to the Sweet.” At last, here are some photos from the show.
“Sweets to the Sweet” is my re-write of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I’ve switched the genders — so Hamlet becomes Hamlette, Laertes becomes Laurita, Ophelia becomes Phil, Claudius becomes Claudia and so forth — and set the show in a modern-day slumber party. The language is modern, but includes all the famous Shakespeare lines. To me, it’s a way to help introduce audiences to the real thing. Plus, it creates a lot of female roles in what otherwise is a male-heavy show — and allows for some girls to try out stage combat.
Director Jessica Sawyer has shared these photos. So here goes: Read the rest of this entry »
Meet the Reverend Billy C. Wirtz
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Personal on February 4, 2014
Playwright Dwayne Yancey with The Reverend Billy C. Wirtz.
Over the weekend, I caught up with an old college buddy of mine — the Reverend Billy C. Wirtz.
The title is real, if you believe in mail-order preacherhoods. “Reverend Billy,” as he’s been called since his college days at James Madison University, is a musician. Specifically, a master of boogie-woogie piano, with a touch of comedy on the side. He’s been called the ” Bertolt Brecht of the Bible Belt.” His 1990 album “Backslider’s Tractor Pull” won an award for Comedy Album of the Year by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors.
Now based in Florida, Reverend Billy has been off the road for a few years but is back out at it again. On January 31, he opened his new tour at Roanoke College. I caught up with him the next day for lunch (well, lunch for me, breakfast for him) at Bobbi Joe’s in Salem, where a friendly waitress took this photo.
Not familiar with The Reverend? Here’s his signature tune, “Mennonite Surf Party.” Enjoy.
“Hurleyburg Twirling Society” is finalist in Michigan festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on February 4, 2014
My full-length script “The Hurleyburg Twirling Society” was one of 10 finalists out of 107 entries in a festival sponsored by the Branch County Community Theatre in Coldwater, Michigan.
Alas, it didn’t finish in the top three to qualify for production, but this marks the first official recognition of a script I’ve always thought would be fun to produce.
Here’s the formal description:
THE HURLEYBURG TWIRLING SOCIETY
A twirler from back East finds herself stranded in Texas, in trouble with the law for accidentally setting fire to a motel room with her fire baton. To make amends, the judge orders her to teach baton twirling to the girls in the town. However, there are only three — all daughters of a local survivalist, who would rather spend time in weapons training than in baton classes. Meanwhile, the state of Texas drops the town from the highway map. To get back on the map, the town busybody thinks it would be a fine idea for this new baton corps to march in the Cotton Bowl parade. Comedy ensues, involving batons, armadillos, chickens falling from the sky, and many other things Texan. Cast: Eight — five female, three male. The females consist of one senior, one late teens or early 20s who can twirl a baton, and three teens.
Congratulations to Thomas J. Misuraca, Richard Manley and Jeff Stolzer, who finished in the top three.
Video: “A Nice, Relaxing Cup of Tea” in Ontario walking tour festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on January 15, 2014
There’s a fascinating theatre festival each year in Kitchener, Ontario that I’d love to see — it’s a walking tour festival where audience members are led around downtown to various venues, and theatre occasionally breaks out.
While I haven’t been there, some of my work has been. In 2013, the Asphalt Jungle Shorts program included my piece “Requiem for a Buzzard” — you can find photos here from the June production and here from the September reprise.
Now the Asphalt Jungle Shorts folks have unearthed this video from the 2009 production of my short piece, “A Nice, Relaxing Cup of Tea.” Here, Nicholas Cumming and Emma Dines perform the piece at The Kava Bean, directed by Robin Bennett.
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