Posts Tagged softball is life
“Softball Is Life” has third staged reading
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on July 13, 2016
Me, with the cast.
My script SOFTBALL IS LIFE had its third staged reading on July 11, 2016 — this time by Endstation Theatre in Lynchburg, Virginia. It went fantastically.
SOFTBALL IS LIFE
A sports play for women that isn’t really about sports. A former high school softball star sits in prison, estranged from her 14-year-old daughter, who has inherited the woman’s talent for pitching but doesn’t realize it. While the mom tries to contact her daughter, the girl spends her time trying to avoid a dangerous situation in the home where she’s living. Cast: Eight — Four females (one to play a teenage girl), three males, one non-gender.
* Staged reading at Showtimers, Roanoke, Virginia, Jan. 4, 2014.
* Staged reading at Sundog Theatre, New York, NY, October 2015.
* Staged reading at Endstation Theatre, Lynchburg, Virginia, July 11, 2016.
Here are some photos:
“Softball Is Life” will have staged reading in New York in October
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on September 18, 2015
My full-length script SOFTBALL IS LIFE will have a staged reading in New York on October 22 by Sundog Theatre.
The particulars:
DATE: Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015
TIME: 8 p.m.
LOCATION: Gallerie St. George, 11 Phelps Place, Staten Island
The reading had been scheduled for back in March but got delayed when Sundog had to find a new location for its readings.
Here are photos and more from the previous staged reading of the script, in January 2014 at Showtimers in Roanoke.
SOFTBALL IS LIFE
A sports play for women that isn’t really about sports. A former high school softball star sits in prison, estranged from her 14-year-old daughter, who has inherited the woman’s talent for pitching but doesn’t realize it. While the mom tries to contact her daughter, the girl spends her time trying to avoid a dangerous situation in the home where she’s living. Cast: Eight — Four females (one to play a teenage girl), three males, one non-gender.
New York staged reading of “Softball Is Life” postponed
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on March 11, 2015
Alas, the staged reading of my full-length script SOFTBALL IS LIFE, scheduled for March 19 in New York, has been postponed indefinitely.
The producing theatre has lost access to the venue it had planned to use. It’s looking for a new home and vows to stage the reading then.
Until then, here’s a link to photos and such from the previous staged reading in Virginia in 2014.
Two staged readings coming up in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions on January 10, 2015
I’m thrilled to announce that I have not one, but two staged readings of my full-length scripts coming up in New York.
Poetic Theater will do 39 HOURS IN THE SOVIET CITY OF ROSES, about Chernobyl, sometime in February, more or less. UPDATE: This will be Friday, February 13 at the Wild Project, located at 195 East 3rd Street in New York City’s East Village.
Sundog Theatre will do SOFTBALL IS LIFE sometime in March, more or less. UPDATE: This will be Thursday, March 19, at St. George’s Theatre, 35 Hyatt Street, Staten Island.
These will mark the third and fourth staged readings of full-length work I’ve had in New York. In June 2013, Barefoot Theatre did THE BALLAD OF ALEJANDRO LOPEZ and in December, Gi60 Extended Play Series did KLAUS.
Stay tuned for dates and details! Here’s a synopsis of each show:
39 HOURS IN THE SOVIET CITY OF ROSES
A dark look at what happened in the city next to the Chernobyl plant after the accident in 1986. It took 39 hours to evacuate the city. Most of the weekend, people went about their business, unaware they were being showered with radioactivity. Cast: At least 10 — 3 females, 3 children or teens of either gender, at least 4 males; number of males can be expanded up to 20 depending on how you feel about doubling.
SOFTBALL IS LIFE
A sports play for women that isn’t really about sports. A former high school softball star sits in prison, estranged from her 14-year-old daughter, who has inherited the woman’s talent for pitching but doesn’t realize it. While the mom tries to contact her daughter, the girl spends her time trying to avoid a dangerous situation in the home where she’s living. Cast: Eight — Four females (one to play a teenage girl), three males, one non-gender.
SOFTBALL IS LIFE had a previous staged reading in January 2014 at Showtimers in Roanoke, Virginia, and has been subsequently revised.
New York actor praises my work as “complex, beautifully structured”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on June 19, 2014
From Facebook!
While taking my morning walk last Saturday, I came upon a startling sight: A hornet’s nest lying in the road, brought down by a storm the previous.
Thankfully, this was an old nest, unoccupied for some time. (I’d been keeping an eye on it as I walked under it each morning, just to be sure.)
Naturally, I did what everyone does these days. I took a picture of it with my phone, and zapped it out to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. On the latter, it produced much chatter, including this high praise from a New York actor I know: “Hornet nests seem an apt metaphor for your plays: complex, beautifully structured, fascinating and vaguely dangerous. Although I’ve never found hornet nests to be as funny as I find your writing. Hornets need to work on that.”
As I note in the screen capture, hornet’s nest figure in both THE BALLAD OF ALEJANDRO LOPEZ and SOFTBALL IS LIFE. In the former, a young boy’s pitching prowess is discovered when he hurls a rock through a hornet’s nest. In the latter, a high school principal tries to solve two problems at once — the softball coach refuses to recognize a girl’s throwing skills, and the neighboring landlord refuses to remove a hornet’s nest near the school grounds. You can probably guess how that goes.
Here’s the nest, if you’re curious:
A hornet’s nest, fallen from the sky! Or, at least a tree.
Photos from staged reading of “Softball Is Life”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on January 7, 2014
Larsen (played by Emma Sala) gets ready to throw a softball through a hornet’s nest, under the glaring eye of Mr. Barnett (Patrick Kennerly), the hard-hearted science teacher and softball coach and the hopeful eye of Kristin Turner (Kelly Anglim), the soft-hearted principal who hopes the feat will show the coach the troublesome student has a gift.
My latest full-length script, “Softball Is Life,” had a very successful staged reading on January 4, 2014 at Showtimers community theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. Strong performances, strong turn-out, plus I came away with a list of small tweaks to make to the script.
My goal with “Softball Is Life” was to write a sports play for women. This isn’t really a sports play, though. Except for the opening scene, the entire play takes place outside softball season. It’s really about family relationships. A former high school softball star sits in prison, estranged from her 14-year-old daughter who shares her mother’s talent for pitching but doesn’t realize it. Instead, the girl lives in fear of the creepy boyfriend of the cousin she’s living with. The script is set mostly in 1994-95, with a few flashbacks to 1979.
Melora Kordos, former artistic director of Studio Roanoke who is now active in Lynchburg theatre, came to town to direct the reading.
* Stage directions: Vickie Haynie
* Kristin Turner, the school principal: Kelly Anglim
* Mr. Wellington, the school principal in 1979: Gary Reid
* Mr. Barnett, the science teacher/softball coach: Patrick Kennerly
* Linda Alderson, the former high school softball star now in prison: Heather Sexton
* Larsen Alderson, her 14-year-old daughter: Emma Sala
* Prison guard: Stevie Holcomb
* Squirrel, the creepy boyfriend of the cousin that Larsen is living with: James Honaker
I have video of the reading here with a complete photo gallery here.
Here are some key shots below: Read the rest of this entry »
Video: Staged reading of “Softball Is Life”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on January 7, 2014
A staged reading of my script “Softball Is Life” was held January 4, 2014 at Showtimers in Roanoke, Virginia. Here’s the video (reading was quite good, my video, not so much.)
Act 1 is above, Act 2 is below. Alas, the video cuts off in the final scene, so you miss the final minute or so.
From left to right:
* Vickie Haynie (stage directions), Heather Sexton (Linda, the former school softball star who is now in prison), Stevie Holcomb (prison guard), Patrick Kennerly (Mr. Barnett, the science teacher/softball coach), Kelly Anglim (high school principal), Emma Sala (Larsen, Linda’s daughter and an undiscovered phenom), Jeff Price (custodian), Gary Reid (Mr. Wellington, the former principal), and James Honaker (Squirrel, the creepy boyfriend of the cousin that Larsen is living with.)
Directed by Melora Kordos.
dwayneyancey 