Photos: “The Ancient Texts of Love” at No Shame Theatre
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, No Shame Theatre, Photos, Uncategorized on February 19, 2013
The mystic ponders the ancient texts.
Here are some photos of Darlene Fedele and Todd Ristau doing a staged reading of my short script “The Ancient Texts of Love” at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia on Feb. 15, 2013. It’s a three-minute (or so) piece in which a woman seeks help from a mystic to cure her love life.
Unfortunately, the ancient text he consults is “snips and snails and puppy dog tails.”
No Shame is a weekly open-mic venue for original performance; the Roanoke one is just one of many around the country.
The mystic advises that he needs escargot. “In the vernacular, snails.”
The mystic’s robe began its life as a Jedi costume at Halloween for my son.
Seattle radio station produces more of my scripts as radio plays
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on February 19, 2013
Falcon Radio Theatre airs Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on kspu.org
Falcon Radio Theatre on KSPU.org — affiliated with Seattle Pacific University — has been producing, well, a bunch of my scripts as radio plays.
Here are some that the group did before I started listening in.
* On January 17, 2013, Falcon produced my one-act “The Angel of Brooklyn”.
The script deals with a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who swore never again pay attention to baseball until his team was back home. Now, in his old age, an angel shows up to release him from that vow.
This was the third performance. The production history:
* Produced by Hovey Players, Summer Arts Festival, Waltham, Mass., July 2005. The Boston Globe called the show “hilarious and sweet.”
* Staged reading at Studio Roanoke, Roanoke, Va., April 2009 (the first piece ever performed in that theatre).
* Produced as radio play by Falcon Radio Theatre, KSPU, Seattle Pacific University, January 17, 2013.
* On January 24, 2013, Falcon produced my ten-minute script “God and the Devil Meet for a Business Lunch”.
This was the third time the script has been performed; the fifth if you count a five-minute cutting.
Here’s the production history:
* Five-minute version done as staged reading at No Shame Theatre, Roanoke, Va., August 2004
* Five-minute version done as staged reading at No Shame Theatre, Roanoke, Va., October 2004 as part of The Best of No Shame.
* Ten-minute version produced as video by Homespun Productions, broadcast on Channel 18, Sacramento, California, October 2005. (You can see that video here.)
* Ten-minute version performed as classroom presentation, Averett College, Danville, Va., Dec. 3, 2007.
* Produced as radio play by Falcon Radio Theatre, KSPU, Seattle Pacific University, January 24, 2013.
I have several “God and the Devil” pieces, mostly in the 5-to-10 minute range. Here’s video of “God and the Devil Debate the Issues.”
I previously posted what Falcon Radio Theatre produced of mine on January 31 (the one-act “Occupations” and a short piece) and on February 7 (the one-act “Lucy” and some shorter pieces.)
Now we’re all caught up!
One-acts scheduled for productions in Maryland and Singapore
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on February 9, 2013
The spring high school play season is soon here, and I have at least two scripts scheduled for production:
* “Hit the Books,” by Walkersville High School, in Walkersville, Maryland, in April.
” Mac and Beth,” by inwardBOUND, in Singapore, also in April.
“Hit the Books” is published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals. This will be the 10th production. It’s about a high school girl who tries to study by hitting herself in the head with a book. More or less.
“Mac and Beth” is a riff on “Macbeth,” this time with two ne’er-do-well bank robbers. It’s published by Brooklyn Publishers; this will be the second full production; there was a previous staged reading at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va.
Seattle radio station produces four more of my scripts as radio plays
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on February 9, 2013
Falcon Radio Theatre airs Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on kspu.org
A Seattle Internet radio station — KSPU, affiliated with Seattle Pacific University — has produced four more of my scripts as radio plays.
This is the second week in a row that Falcon Radio Theatre has done some of my work, and this time I got the whole hour.
I’m big in Seattle!
The scripts that were done Feb. 7 were:
* “Lucy,” a one-act about the devil, that’s been previously produced in Virginia and Maine.
* “Somewhere Tonight, the Last Washington Senators’ Game Plays On,” a ten-minute play about baseball that was produced for the first time.
* “The Liberal Arts Pirates,” a five-minute piece about career counseling that was a favorite when it was first done at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia.
* “The Secret Lives of Goldfish: Pirates!,” a five-minute piece in my series of goldfish shorts.
Here’s what Falcon Radio Theatre did last week.
You can tune in (can you still say tune in if it’s Internet radio?) on Thursday at 7 p.m. Pacific time — 10 p.m. for us East Coasters — at kspu.org.
Video: “The Dead Horse” at the Liminal artspace
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on February 9, 2013
The Liminal artspace in Roanoke — attached to Community High School of Arts & Academics — hosts monthly readings. Most of the participants are short story writers, novelists, or poets — so my theatrical pieces there are definitely out of the ordinary.
At the most recent reading on January 24, I offered up two pieces, which were both performed by Community High School students.
Here are Joe Hart, Ashley Meador and DaQuan Saunders performing “The Dead Horse,” an absurdist piece of mine. This is the five-minute version; I’ve also developed it into a one-act, with a larger cast.
Thanks to Cara Modisett, the organizer, who helped round up the students.
And thanks to my wife, Katerina, for the unique prop. The dead horse here was first created as a Halloween costume for my son, Keith, many years ago. It’s put together so a small child (which is what Keith was then) could fit inside of it, with the body of the horse around him — a convenient way to both ride the horse, and still go trick-or-treating.
In more recent times, the horse has found new life as a theatrical prop. He first appeared in this piece at No Shame Theatre. As I told the kids when I showed it to them, “he knows his part.”
I’ll post video of the other piece, “Pandora and Schrodinger: What’s in the Box?” when it becomes available.
UPDATED: I realize the video doesn’t have a good view of the horse, since the horse is on the ground. So here’s the beast himself:
Horsie. From Halloween costume to valued stage prop as namesake of “The Dead Horse.”
I have two plays about Richard III; Shakespeare only had one
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on February 4, 2013
Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520 (approximate date from tree-rings on panel), after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828. From Wikipedia Commons.
You can file this under “shameless self-promotion.”
The big news of the day, at least for some of us, is that announcement that the skeleton exhumed from under a car park in Leicester, Great Britain really is that of the infamous King Richard III, whose death at the Battle of Bosworth ended the War of the Roses in 1485 and gave rise to Shakespeare’s great play.
Shakespeare only had one play about Richard, though.
I have two!
Richard III has always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I have a sub-genre of Shakespearean riffs. My two attempts to improve on The Bard, or at least imitate him, are:
* “The Making of the King, 1483-1485,” a political thriller with pollsters and campaign operatives (and apologies to Theodore White’s great series of “The Making of the President” books.)
* “This Sun of York” is a newspaper drama, of sorts. Instead of a war for the crown, it envisions two branches of the same family fighting for control of the family newspaper, with Richard as the lawyer for the victorious Yorks. Except now, with the paper safely in Yorkist hands, he’s bored — and plots his way to the publisher’s office. I’m rather proud of the wordplay that turned “this son of York” into “this Sun of York.” I’m also rather pleased with this: Instead of poor George drowning in a butt of malmsey (a wine cask, of sorts), an ink barrel in the pressroom does the job just as well.
Neither has been produced. However, “The Making of the King” was a finalist in 2004 in the Peterson Playwriting Contest at Catawba College in North Carolina and two scenes from it were later workshopped in a public performance by Another Chicago Theatre in November 2004 in their “Last Play Standing” competition.
And might I add: Both are available royalty-free (as are all my unpublished scripts). I like to think both of them would be suitable for schools (or community theatres) who want to do Shakespeare, but might find the original too daunting. You can find a more detailed synopsis and cast requirements for each here. (Keep in mind most Shakespearean performances include lots of doubling and tripling; you can too.)
Interested? Inquire within!
Seattle radio station produces two of my scripts as radio plays
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on February 2, 2013
Caitlin Bancroft, Dave Matsui and Walter Lutsch of Falcon Radio Theatre in Seattle. They were the cast. Photo courtesy Falcon Radio Theatre.
A Seattle Internet radio station produced two of my scripts on January 31 in a radio theatre format.
KSPU — kspu.org — is affiliated with Seattle Pacific University. Each Thursday, the station produces Falcon Radio Theatre.
The folks behind the show came across my site, contacted me, and eventually settled on “Occupations,” a dark one-act about three siblings who each are trying to hide their true jobs from one another (mercenary, prostitute, thief), and “The Secret Lives of Goldfish: The Escape,” a light, bright five-minute piece.
I listened in on my home computer and, after fumbling a bit over which software to use, had the broadcast coming in loud and clear, all the way from Puget Sound to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Based on what the producers have told me, it sounds like there’s a good chance they’ll be producing some additional scripts of mine in the future.
Photos from “Deep Into October” at New York benefit
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on January 14, 2013
Mickey Ryan in Dwayne Yancey’s DEEP INTO OCTOBER directed by Rose Bonczek. photo by Faye Ellman. — at Cherry Lane Theatre.
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In December, two of my short baseball pieces were performed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City in a benefit for Hurricane Sandy victims in The Rockaways section of Brooklyn.
Here are photos from one of those pieces, “Deep Into October.”
Mickey Ryan reprised his role from when this piece was originally performed in the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival in New York in 2011. You can find video of that performance here.
And here’s another photo of Mickey: Read the rest of this entry »
Video: Staged reading of “Klaus” by Hollins Playwright’s Lab
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 18, 2012
“Klaus” is my Christmas play about the origin of Santa Claus. There’s no standard myth on where the Jolly Old Elf came from, so I invented one. In my telling, his origin dates to Great Britain in the 1740s, at a time of political unrest. The German-born Hanoverian kings (George II, in this case) were on the throne, and many Germans were coming into the country to seek their fortune. This kindled talk of rebellion among those who still believed the ousted House of Stuart was the rightful royal family.
In “Klaus,” a debt-ridden English college imports a German professor of natural philosophy (physics, we call it now) in hopes of currying favor with the king, and perhaps getting a royal bequest or two. Professor Klaus turns out to be an eccentric sort, dabbling in strange experiments with time travel.
By the show’s end, he has turned into the Santa Claus we know today, and everything about him is explained — the red suit, the reindeer, the love of milk and cookies, his residence at the North Pole, even Mrs. Claus.
“Klaus” was supposed to be the Christmas show at Studio Roanoke, a black box theatre in Roanoke, Va., specializing in new works. Alas, it closed in mid-summer. Fortunately, the Hollins Playwright’s Lab picked up the show — not for a full production but at least for a very well-rehearsed staged reading. Director Cheryl Snodgrass came in from Chicago to oversee things and we had an all-star cast for the reading on December 16. We also had a fantastic crowd; program director Todd Ristau said it was four times larger than had shown up for any previous reading in the series.
I had some trouble with the video camera. The video of act 1 (above) cuts off the introductory remarks and the first few lines. The video of act 2 (below) didn’t start until after the first scene had concluded. And the audio is poor. But you’ll get the idea. I hope to make a few changes to the script based on this reading and then send it out to publishers and theatres.
Klaus: Brian O’Sullivan
Robert, a college student: Kevin McAlexander
Percy, a college student: Blair Peyton
James, a college student: Will Coleman
Mary the landlady: Martha Boswell
Headmaster: Ross Laguzza
Grinchley, the headmaster’s assistant: Drew Dowdy
Director: Cheryl Snodgrass
Stage manager: Melissa Kennedy
* Background on the show
* Photos from first day of rehearsal
* Photos from second day of rehearsal
* Photos from third day of rehearsal
* Photos from the staged reading of “Klaus”
Photos from staged reading of “Klaus” by Hollins Playwright’s Lab
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 18, 2012
Curtain call for “Klaus.” From left: Martha Boswell, Brian O’Sullivan, Kevin McAlexander, Blair Peyton, Will Coleman, Drew Dowdy and Ross Laguzza. Behind them, barely visible, is stage manager Melissa Kennedy who, for purposes of this reading, was on the stage to provide sound effects much like a radio play.
The Hollins Playwright’s Lab put on a staged reading of “Klaus,” my Christmas play about the origin of Santa Claus on December 16, 2012 at the June M. McBroom Theatre at Community High School.
Here are some photos. The one above is from producer Todd Ristau; the back-and-white ones below are from MFA student Chad Runyon:
dwayneyancey 