Preview: WHEN JANUARY FEELS LIKE SUMMER (From Page 73 at EST)

Ensemble Studio Theatre and Page 73 Productions

New York Premiere

WHEN JANUARY FEELS LIKE SUMMER

by Cori Thomas

Directed by Daniella Topol

Previews begin May 28; Opens June 5

Cori Thomas's warm-hearted and funny play about the many flavors of desire, When January Feels Like Summer, will receive its New York premiere in a co-production of Ensemble Studio Theatre and Page 73 Productions directed by Daniella Topol.

Previews begin at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street, Wednesday, May 28, at 7:00pm for an opening Thursday, June 5, at 7:00pm (for a run currently scheduled through June 22).

When January Feels Like Summer follows five diverse Central Harlem residents as they collide during one strangely warm winter, when a feeling of change hums in the air. Through everyday encounters on the subway and in corner bodegas a pair of teenagers becomes unexpected heroes, an immigrant accountant embraces transformation, and two lonely souls begin to stumble toward each other.

The cast includes Debargo Sanyal, Dion Graham, Mahira Kakkar, Maurice Williams and J. Mallory McCree.

Cori Thomas is a playwright and actress who lives in New York City. Her plays include:

• When January Feels Like Summer (World Premiere City Theatre Co., Pittsburgh); 
• Pa’s Hat (Pillsbury House Theatre, MN); 
• My Secret Language of Wishes (Various theaters and University productions including Mixed Blood, MN); 
• The Princess, The Breast, and, The Lizard; 
• The Unusual Love Life of Bedbugs and Other Creatures; 
• Waking Up; 
• His Daddy; 
• our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

Ms. Thomas'’s plays have been developed and produced at Sundance Theatre Lab, Goodman Theatre, City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh), Page 73, Playwrights Horizons, Lark Play Development Center, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Going To The River, Pillsbury House Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Passage Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, New Federal Theatre, New Georges, The Black Rep (St. Louis), The New Black Fest, and Queens Theatre in the Park. She has been commissioned by South Coast Rep Theatre, EST/Sloan Foundation, NYSCA/Page 73, NYSCA/EST and Pillsbury House Theatre.

Sets are by Jason Simms, lights by Austin R. Smith, costumes by Sydney Maresca and sound by Shane Rettig. Eileen Lalley is production stage manager.

Box Office 
When January Feels Like Summer performs Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 7:00pm and Mondays at 7:00pm. Matinees are Saturdays at 2:00pm and Sundays at 5:00pm. The final performance is currently scheduled for June 22.

Reserved seats are $40, general admission seats are $30 ($20 student/seniors) and Saturday and Sunday matinees are $10. Advance general admission tickets bought before the first preview (May 28) are $15. To order tickets call 866.811.4111 or click

www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/134

 
When January Feels Like Summer is the third production this season on the Ensemble Studio Theatre mainstage, following the extended run of Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault for which Bobby Moreno received a Drama Desk nomination, and Fast Company by Carla Ching.

Page 73 Productions, under the leadership of Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Producing Director Michael Walkup, and Associate Director Rachel Karpf, produces and develops the work of early-career playwrights who have yet to receive a professional New York production. Page 73's writers have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize, the Drama Desk Award, the OBIE Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and many more. Page 73's world and New York premiere productions include...

• the recent New York premiere of Grounded by George Brant; Elliot, 
• A Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes (2007 Pulitzer finalist); 
• 1001 by Jason Grote; 
• Sixty Miles to Silver Lake by Dan LeFranc (2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award); 
• Creature by Heidi Schreck; 
• Jack’s Precious Moment by Samuel D. Hunter; 
• Edgewise by Eliza Clark;
•  Lidless by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig; and 
• Sleeping Rough by Kara Manning. 

Page 73's slate of development programs includes the prestigious P73 Playwriting Fellowship, offering a $10,000 grant and a yearlong artistic home to one early-career writer, as well as the Interstate 73 writers group and an annual Summer Residency. Plays developed in these programs include the recent acclaimed world premieres of Meghan Kennedy's Too Much, Too Much, Too Many at Roundabout Underground and Dorothy Fortenberry's Partners at the 2014 Humana Festival of New American Plays.

When January Feels Like Summer is Page 73's second production this season, following Grounded by George Brant for which Hannah Cabell just received a Drama Desk nomination.

ISAAC'S EYE AT EST

Ensemble Studio Theatre & The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Present the World Premiere of

ISAAC'S EYE

By Lucas Hnath

Directed by Linsay Firman

Kristen Bush as Catherine and Haskell King as Isaac Newton ISAAC'S EYE Photo by Jerry Goodstin  

The acting is excellent. The show is funny and well written. I enjoyed the show.

I enjoyed the show, but I did not like the play.  The story is fundamentally dishonest, and not in a good way.

In Isaac’s Eye, a young Isaac Newton (portrayed as a young, shallow, hyper, vain, lying blackmailer with really stupid ideas about scientific experimentation), is close friends with an older, attractive and friendly woman. Through her connections he meets the established scientist, Robert Hooke, (portrayed as a shallow, sex-obsessed, dog killing, vain blackmailer) for the purpose of obtaining membership in the Royal Society and a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, UK.  That this meeting never happened (and the play is upfront about the fact that this never happened) is not the problem. (Note…Copenhagen, about Heisenberg & Bohr, is a dramatic, invented description of encounters between two physicists and it is terrific.)

The problem is that all the true facts about Newton are trivial and incidental to the dramatic action of the play, and the rest is not just fictional, but seems to represent Newton in a fundamentally false way. It seems to be inaccurate in its details and completely wrong in its spirit.

The “Newton” of the play is a fool and a bully and a liar, all of whose early ideas were discovered earlier by others, who believes his ideas are true because they come from God, and who resorts to blackmail to try to become famous. And the one idea in physics pursued in the play is an idea which is not true and which Newton finally investigates with a preposterous (fictional) “experiment”. 

The play does not “suspend disbelief” it generates disbelief.

There is no interpretation, and apparently no understanding, in the play of how genius works when it is solving real mathematical and scientific problems. The play presents a libelous fiction… as if that contributes to understanding the nature of mathematical and scientific and intellectual research.

Note: The play more or less completely ignores all the brilliant and profound work that we identify with Newton, including the most important principle that Newton articulated: namely that a body in uniform motion remains in uniform motion unless acted on by a force.  Aristotelian physics, previously, had always insisted that a body always tends to come to its “natural” state: rest.  That forces are responsible -- and necessary -- for the changes in motion of an object is the fundamental discovery that provides the portal from ancient science to modern science. (To be fair, this discovery comes after the period depicted in the play. However, it is difficult to see any way that the character of Newton in this play could become the genius whose scientific work provided the foundation for virtually all the scientific developments that followed. And, without connecting the character in the play with the fundamental work of the real Newton, the real Newton is unrecognizable in the “Newton” of the play.)

This kind of misrepresentation of history, science, research, mathematics, genius and inspiration is not a valuable contribution to literature. Nor is there any recognition of the fundamental values of science: honesty, and a sincere, honest search for an understanding of nature.

The “Newton” of the play looks a bit like Steve Jobs and talks a bit like Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg.  (The characterization is probably intended to suggest that Newton had Asperger’s syndrome or something like that – which may be true – and to suggest Newton’s genius by evoking these familiar figures – but the real Newton was a great genius of a completely different order.) 

The play is very simply staged, aggressively modern and American in style and language, and it makes no effort to find anything of the late 1600’s British spirit in the characters, nor does it find something in the American, modern spirit to replace it.

To better understand the action of the play, we’ll use made-up names in a summary of the plot:

WARNING – THIS PLOT SUMMARY CONTAINS SPOILERS

 Isaac’s Eye is a play about two men, one of whom (“Izzy”) is a liar, and the other (“Hank”) a womanizer who seduced his niece – a treachery that would kill the girl’s father if he found out.

• The first man, Izzy (we’ll call him “Izzy” in this plot summary… and we’ll call his woman friend “Cathy”) asks the other (we’ll call him “Hank”) to get for him a prestigious scientific position.
• Hank, afraid Izzy will upstage him scientifically, (and with some real doubts about his work) refuses. 
• Discovering Hank’s sexual adventures, Izzy blackmails Hank to obtain a promise of the position.
• Then Hank, on discovering that Izzy has broken up with Cathy, flirts with her, and Hank and Cathy swing from mutual hatred to a marriage proposal in one short scene.
• Cathy tells Hank about material he can use to counter-blackmail Izzy.
• Then, Cathy discovers Izzy stuck in a chair with a needle in his eye from which he has been unable to move, eat or drink for several weeks (sic).
• Izzy, thinking he is ruined anyway, renounces science and proposes to Cathy offering to be a farmer. 
• She accepts, and agrees to burn the information she had provided Hank for counter-blackmailing Izzy.
• But when Izzy makes some remarks suggesting less than an ironclad conviction to become a farmer, she leaves him once and for all, and leaves the other guy too.

This is complete fiction, nonsense, and a ridiculous and shabby plot; ascribing it to real people just makes it worse, but calling them Newton and Hooke is an outrage.

Calling the characters “Newton” and “Hooke” does not make this a play about those scientists.  (As Lincoln is said to have said, “If you call a pig’s tail a leg, how many legs does a pig have? Answer, it has four: Calling a pig’s tail a leg does not make it one.”)

Anyone who thought this play was about two important scientists has been, I’m afraid, hoodwinked...

Giving these despicable characters heft by calling them by the names of famous scientists is a literary/dramatic version of identity theft.
 

Notes and links...

ISAACS EYE

Featuring Jeff Biehl+, Kristen Bush*+, Haskell King*+ & Michael Louis Serafin-Wells*+

*denotes EST Member
+denotes Equity Member.
All actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.

 FROM EST: "As an experiment, young Isaac Newton inserted a long needle "between my eye and the bone, as near to the backside of my eye as I could." Why take such a risk? A comic exploration of how a rural farm boy in contentious, plague-ridden England willed himself to become one of the greatest thinkers in modern science."


Tickets: $30 | Student/Senior: $20
Runs: Wednesdays - Sundays @ 7pm
Pick Your Price Matinees: Saturdays & Sundays @ 2pm  

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATER (EST) HOME PAGE
http://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org  

EST FIRST LIGHT FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS RELATED TO SCIENCE http://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/first-light-2013 

THE EST PASS
http://ensemblestudiotheatre.org/est-pass  

THE EST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE
http://www.youtube.com/ensemblestudiotheatr/  

EST ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/ensemblestudiotheatre  

 EST ON TWITTER
@ESTnyc

ISAAC NEWTON ON WIKIPEDIA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

 

THE WASSERSTEIN PRIZE AFFAIR

Wendy Wasserstein was an important woman playwright who died in 2006 at the age of 55. She was much honored (Tony, Pulitzer...). She was known for woman-centered plays including The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig, and Uncommon Women and Others.

In her honor, a prize was set up to honor young women playwrights. It is given to "a female playwright under 32 who has yet to receive national attention." It is funded by the Educational Foundation of America (AFAW) and administered by the Theater Development Fund (TDF).

In 2010, there were 19 finalist plays competing for the Wasserstein Prize. The Wasserstein Selection Panel decided that none of the plays was worthy of the prize (see the quote below).

Note: Nov 16, 2010 - According to the NYT, the "Administrator" of the Prize has decided to review the process and procedure for awarding the Prize and reconsider whether the Prize should be awarded this year:

A Do-Over for the Wasserstein Playwriting Prize
By PATRICK HEALY, NYT:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/a-do-over-for-the-wasserstein-playwriting-prize/

A Youngblood Playwright at The Ensemble Studio Theater protested -- for a variety of reasons -- that declining to award the prize was a terrible thing to do.

I'm not sure I agree. First of all, a prize should not be awarded if none of the finalists is deemed worthy: it protects the value of the prize that the "standards" are maintained.

Secondly, as some people have pointed out, the Wasserstein Prize is sexist (women only) and ageist (young women only). From my perspective, older men who have plays also have trouble getting them produced, as does every other demographic! I think prizes should be for everybody.

Thirdly, none of us actually know if the plays were any good, or if the 19 plays nominated were "better" than other plays that were eligible but not nominated, nor who the judges were, nor what their aesthetic criteria were. It's kind of presumptuous to assume the panel of judges was wrong when it's not even known what plays were considered, much less how well they were written.

(Note 1: Of course, from the point of view of the prize-giving organization, declining to award a prize not only protects the "integrity" of the prize, it generates a lot of publicity -- some good, some bad. Assuming the decision was reasonable or wise, and not just stupid, this raises the public awareness of the prize.)

(Note 2: Of course, not awarding a prize also saves money and avoids making one kind of hard decision -- while making a different hard decision. Trying to look up information about the current state of the prize, neither the TDF which administers it, nor the Educational Foundation of America (EFAW) which funds it, seems to have much to say about the Prize. Indeed, EFAW seems to be retrenching at the moment. So perhaps the failure to award a prize is more administrative retrenching than any intended insult to the 19 finalist playwrights or to any other playwrights who never made it to the finals.)

Nevertheless, the result of this controversy is -- as perhaps they expected, see Note 1 above -- increased visibility for the Prize and theater, generally. There is now a movement afoot to produce readings of the 19 dissed plays, and even stream them over the internet. With a little -- or probably more than a little -- publicity the plays could reach a bigger audience than any black-box or OOB presentation ever would. It would also increase the experience of theater people with live streaming, for application to future productions.

Two of the leaders in this project are the Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), whose Youngblood Playwright escalated the affair, and a new group, 2AMT.

EST is well-known, but what is 2AMT? Here's their own description of 2AMT:

"2am. You’re wondering why this is called 2am. What does that have to do with theatre?"

"2am is when the ideas start to flow."

"The beginning: In January 2010, over on Twitter, a group of theatre folk started talking, brainstorming, tossing out ideas and testing to see how they’d float. Or if they’d float at all. And even though it was late, the conversation kept going. As it went on, it started to pick up more and more people from more and more places. It was one of those conversations."

...

"#2amt: In order to keep the conversation’s focus, we now use #2amt when tweeting, adding the t for theatre. That’s only five characters out of your 140, which saves a lot of space. Why? Because nobody else is using that tag, and no one else would need or want to. It means you can drop in at any point in the conversation and, if you so desire, follow it back to its source. Or find new topics or ideas in the stream."

"Primarily, this site will act as a gathering place for theatre ideas."


STREAMING

Here are some thoughts on the process of streaming readings of the plays:

There are several sites that provide an easy method of streaming... USTREAM and LIVESTREAM are two. Actually, Skype may be another.

Simple streaming is easy: Point a camera, upload in real time to the streaming site. Access the streaming site.

Effective streaming is a little harder:

=1=> It is necessary to check every element of the technical chain all the way to the end user before starting.

For example:
Camera + mic =>
computer =>
streaming site =>
streams (how many?) =>
computer (MAC? PC? Linux?) =>
browser (which - IE? Safari? Firefox? etc?) =>
streaming video window.

Also: Log in process; startup, etc

=2=> It is necessary to reach out to the audience and get them to tune in. Getting a large audience requires significant promotion.

=3=> And the audience must be available for the whole broadcast. People at home are fickle. There's a reason theaters put people in seats that are not that easy to get out of, and have them turn off their phones before the show starts.

Indeed, it might be worthwhile to stream the readings not just to people's own computers, but to large, high resolution monitors in theaters. (See item =1=> Make sure the theater system works -- to avoid a really bad experience.)

The NYFF has used SKYPE for interactive press conferences with directors. The Metropolitan Opera has started streaming operas to movie theaters. Streaming to theaters avoids the problem of interruptions to audience attention in the "distractionacious" real world.

=4=> A production seen through a camera should be directed not just as a reading, but as a production seen through a camera. The camera must be pointed at the right place at the right time, the audio must be picked up clearly, and the way actors convey a sense of reality can be somewhat different from either a table reading or a staged reading.

=5=> Of course, once live streaming is over, the recorded event should be available for on-demand streaming.


CONCLUSION

So, perhaps the Wasserstein Affair will turn out to be not just a win-win, but a win-win-win...win-win (that's one "win" each, for the 19 playwrights, the Wasserstein Prize itself, EST, 2AMT, and theater in general).


HERE'S WHAT TDF SAID ABOUT NOT AWARDING THE WASSERSTEIN PRIZE:

“We regret to inform you that of the 19 nominated plays, none was deemed sufficiently realized by the selection panel to receive the Prize. As a result, the Wasserstein Prize will not be presented in 2010. While the panel thought that many of the scripts showed promise, they felt that none of the plays were truly outstanding in their current incarnation.”


HERE'S THE LINK TO MICHAEL LEW'S LETTER:

Michael Lew's letter to the Theater Development Fund, which administers the prize (following the letter there are gazillions of comments which explore several of the issues) :

http://youngbloodnyc.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-wasserstein-prize-in-2010-selection.html


HERE ARE SOME MORE LINKS TO THE SITES OF INTEREST:

2AMT ON TWITTER
twitter.com/2amt
( #2amt is the thread on Twitter.)

2AM THEATER... COMMENTS
http://www.2amtheatre.com/
http://www.2amtheatre.com/where-2am-began/

THE ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATER - EST
http://ensemblestudiotheatre.org/

EST - YOUNGBLOOD
http://ensemblestudiotheatre.org/programs/youngblood/

WENDY WASSERSTEIN on WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Wasserstein


WASSERSTEIN PRIZE 2010:
I could not find a clear link to this! Not to the nomination process, not to the judging criteria, not to the panel that makes the decision. There is more information about 2009:

WASSERSTEIN PRIZE 2009:
http://www.tdf.org/TDF_NewsDetailsPage.aspx?id=86

USTREAM
http://www.ustream.com/

LIVESTREAM
http://www.livestream.com/

SKYPE
http://www.skype.com/

THE THEATER DEVELOPMENT FUND
http://www.tdf.org/

THE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
http://www.efaw.org/

EST MARATHON 2010

The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST)'s Short Play Marathon is one of the most important dramatic events of the year. (Note: At 32, it's an upstart youngster compared to The Samuel French Short Play Festival which is a mature 35.)

The Marathon consists of two collections of short plays: Series A begins on May 21 and runs through June 29. Series B runs from June 5 through the 26th.

EST Productions usually feature excellent acting, skillful direction, and outstanding plays, performed on a set with simple stage design. The theater itself is informal, not very big (it can sell out early) and friendly.

SERIES A --

Matthew and the Pastor’s Wife
by Robert Askins
directed by John Giampietro
Matthew is a small town sinner. Dorothy is the pastor’s wife. She’s trying to save his soul. He’s trying to let her. Then he forgets his bible. Then she leans in. When they kiss the world starts to fly apart and it’s gonna take something awful to put it back together.

Safe
by Ben Rosenthal*
directed by Carolyn Cantor
Halloween night. A recently widowed rug salesman must bail his stepson out of jail after the boy assaults a girl at a party. In the aftermath the two must get to the bottom of it all before it is too late – for both of them.

Turnabout
by Daniel Reitz
directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel*
An actor in trouble summons the courage to invite his bitter ex-boyfriend for coffee, not in search of closure or rekindling but to ask a tremendous favor of his ex’s newfound wealth. What dire circumstances would push him to such an act, and if the favor is granted, what strings will be attached?

Where the Children Are
by Amy Fox*
based on an original story by Caitlin Shetterly and Amy Fox
directed by Abigail Zealey Bess*
Where the Children Are interweaves the voices of five parents who have children serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The play tracks these parents as they pack hot sauce and snuff into care packages, watch hours of CNN, and take responsibility for grandchildren, somehow managing to support their children and hold onto hope.

Wild Terrain
by Adam Kraar
directed by Richmond Hoxie*
At an outdoor sculpture garden, two scrappy seniors battle over love, art and the relativity of memory. In the uncharted territory of later life, Henry and Marion lose their way – yet persist in navigating their fiery relationship.



SERIES B --

Airborne
by Laura Jacqmin
director TBA
During Private Margaret Jensen’s airborne training, something goes horribly wrong – and she won’t let her CO forget it. A play with a parachute.

Amateurs
by David Auburn*
directed by Harris Yulin*
A young woman confronts the political operative whom she believes destroyed her father’s career.

Anniversary
by Rachel Bonds
directed by Linsay Firman
While grappling with a significant loss, Penelope attempts to function in a world that seems to speed ahead without her; as she embarks on the beginnings of a new relationship, she confronts the promises of time pushing forward and the persistent tug of memories left behind.

Interviewing Miss Davis
by Laura Maria Censabella*
directed by Kel Haney
NYC, mid-1980s. Bette Davis–Miss Davis to you–is post-stroke and recovering nicely, thank you. She’s even acting again. But all goes south when she discovers her beloved assistant Jacqueline is leaving her for good, and a new girl has the audacity to take her place. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night…

They Float Up
by Jacquelyn Reingold*
director TBA
A white woman of a certain age, buys a young, African-American man a drink, or two, then asks if he’ll pay a dollar to see her tits. Will he? A funny-sad play about topless dancing in New Orleans, getting old in the Finger Lakes, and how to move on after you’ve lost what you most love.

* denotes EST Member

Here's the schedule:

https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/134

EST OCTOBERFEST

Free and almost free theater of the highest quality is rampant in NY right now... at EST (aka The Ensemble Studio Theater), RED BULL & LAByrinth Theater (among others). Here's a report from EST:


Final Three Weekends for Octoberfest 2009!

We've passed the halfway point of this five-week festival of works in progress from EST Members, but there are still fifteen days left of readings, comedy and cabaret.

Over 65 performances left! Check the full schedule.

All tickets are free, though a $10 donation to support the work in progress is suggested. Reservations are recommended! Save your seats by calling 212-247-4982 or emailing boxoffice@ensemblestudiotheatre.org.

Want to get an insider look at the festival? Check out the EST YouTube page for interviews with the artists involved.


This Week's Schedule:

Thursday, Oct 29
7pm: Trade by Michelle Remsen* on the 2nd Floor
7pm: Doesn't Anyone Know What a Pancreas Is? by Carole Real* on the 6th Floor
8pm: A Story About a Girl by Jacquelyn Reingold* on the 2nd Floor


Friday, Oct 30
7pm: Desert Island Days by Emily Chadick Weiss on the 2nd Floor
7pm: Ghost Party: A Cabaret by Megg Farrell on the 6th Floor - VIDEO!
8pm: Murph by Bill Bozzone* on the 6th Floor
9pm: Ofest After Hours: New Plays on the 6th Floor, Drinks on EST!
Three new short plays by Elizabeth Diggs*, Maria Gabriele*
and Lloyd Suh*... plus drinks on us!


Saturday, Oct 31 - Halloween!
2pm: A Story About a Girl by Jacquelyn Reingold* on the 2nd Floor
2pm: St. Helena by Holli Harms* on the 6th Floor
4pm: Trade by Michelle Remsen* on the 2nd Floor
4pm: Doesn't Anyone Know What a Pancreas Is? by Carole Real* on the 6th Floor
7pm: Desert Island Days by Emily Chadick Weiss on the 2nd Floor
7pm: Ghost Party: A Cabaret by Megg Farrell on the 6th Floor - VIDEO!
8pm: Murph by Bill Bozzone* on the 6th Floor


Sunday, Nov 1
2pm: Time Will Tell by Kristen Lowman* on the 6th Floor
5pm: Famous: A Hollywood Musical by Yvonne Adrian* on the 2nd Floor
7pm: Time on His Hands by Kristen Lowman* on the 2nd Floor
7pm: Flight by Kent Alexander* on the 6th Floor


Monday, Nov 2
7pm: Famous: A Hollywood Musical by Yvonne Adrian* on the 2nd Floor
7pm: Flight by Kent Alexander* on the 6th Floor
8pm: The Cooperative Extension-Apple Pruning Workshop by Grace Woodard*
on the 6th Floor


Wednesday, Nov 4
7pm: Gustie Returns by Jane Wheeler* on the 2nd Floor
8pm: The Cooperative Extension-Apple Pruning Workshop by Grace
Woodard* on the 6th Floor

* denotes EST member

EST - 5 WEEKS, 3 NEW PLAYS, 1 EVENT

UNFILTERED
five weeks of brand new plays

EST

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE

NODDING OFF by Emily Chadick Weiss,
Directed by Abigail Zealey Bess*

With Chris Ceraso*, Helen Coxe, Eunice Ha, and William Oliver Watkins
Performances Thu 2/12, Mon 2/16, Fri 2/20, Sat 2/21 @ 7pm; Sat 2/14 @ 2pm

Daniel's beautiful wife is pregnant, but he falls asleep every time she mentions the babe. Can his alluring psychiatrist help him figure out why he's sleeping through life?


PRINCES OF WACO by Robert Askins,
Directed by Dylan McCullough

With Kristin Griffith*, Evan Enderle, Scott Sowers* and Megan Tusing
Performances Thu 2/19, Mon 2/23, Fri 2/27 & Sat 2/28 @ 7pm; Sat 2/21 @ 2pm

Jim can't win. Fritz just stole back what he lost. And Esme knows that win or lose, somebody's got to go down.


LAKE WATER by Delaney Britt Brewer,
Directed by Jordan Young

With Ann Talman* and Audrey Lynn Weston
Performances Thu 2/26, Mon 3/2, Fri 3/6 & Sat 3/7 @ 7pm; Sat 2/28 @ 2pm

The story of a homecoming, a mysterious lake, and a family drowning in the things they cannot say.


Plus A Special Concert Event:
MARIETTA CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR by Lucy Alibar
Directed by RJ Tolan*

Thu 3/5 7pm, Sat 3/7 2pm and 10pm

Deep in the swamps of Georgia, little Christmas Flint battles trash and wild animals in her epic musical journey to become a Woman of Substance.


*denotes EST member

To review dates and times and purchase tickets,

click here to visit OvationTix.

Ensemble Studio Theatre

549 West 52 Street

New York, NY 10019

212 247-4982

http://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/

EST 10 MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

MARCH MADNESS!
EST 10 Minute Play Festival

Series A - March 28 @ 7pm
Series A - March 29 @ 2pm
Series B - March 29 @ 7pm
Series B - March 30 @ 2pm

on the EST Mainstage

The Ensemble Studio Theatre's Playwright's Unit presents two series of 10 minute plays featuring the talents of:

Romulus Linney, Gina Barnett, Laura Maria Censabella, David Zellnick, Jonathan Bernstein, Jeremy Kareken, Joe Gilford, Tim Pinckney, Suzanne Bradbeer, Julie McKee, Jeanne Dorsey, Annie Evans, Jacquelyn Reingold, Jennifer Camp, Susan J. Vitucci

More information to come as it gets closer to the date!

For reservations, call: 212-247-4982 x20

EST WORKSHOP READINGS

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Workshop Series presents staged readings on the EST Mainstage

For Reservations Call:212-247-4982 x20

Monday, March 17th @ 6:00pm
THREE ITALIAN WOMEN
by Laura Maria Censabella
directed by Melia Bensussen
featuring: Leslie Lyles, Carmen Roman, Ann Talman

Carla worked with the partisans during World War II. Antonia, her daughter, survived the war with her. Olivia, Antonia's daughter, tries to survive them both. A NYFA-Award winning play about heroism, betrayals, the costs of surviving a war, gnocchi and the ephemeral nature of truth.

Wednesday, March 19th @ 7:00pm
EST Mainstage
FLASHBACK
created by Penny Coleman, Elana Michelson & Patricia Lee Stotter
directed by Abigail Zealey Bess
featuring: Judith Delgado, Christine Farrell, Dion Graham, Ilene Kirstén, Elia Monte-Brown, Annie O'Sullivan, Gloria Sauve, Karen Young

Flashback is a theatrical event that gives voice to six women who survived a war that their husbands did not. In their own words, these remarkable figures reflect upon the loss of their loved ones and the multi-generational fallout of war. This multimedia performance takes a pervasive look at the repercussions of the Vietnam war, both on the battlefield and the homefront.


Thursday, March 20th @ 7:30pm
EST Mainstage
HOME FIRES BURNING
by Christopher Ceraso
directed by Jamie Richards
featuring: Dan Bittner, Rebecca Nelson, Annie O'Sullivan, Scott Sowers

A West Virginia coal miner's second chance at life and love is threatened in a fierce battle with his prodigal son, who is now infused with righteous fire for birthright in a tattered American heartland.

Friday, March 21st & 22nd @ 7:00pm
EST Mainstage
Going to the River presents: PUBERTY RITES
by Elaine Jackson
directed by Woodie King, Jr.
featuring: Akua Taylor & Melissa Picarello

Monday, March 24 @ 3:00pm
EST 6th Floor Theater
THE TILTED HOUSE
by Susan Haar
directed by Victor Slezak

Sunday, March 30 @ 3:00pm
EST Mainstage
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
by Marcia Jean Kurtz
featuring: Alexandra Napier, Bobeniu Zipporah, Ean Sheehy, Franny Silverman, Georgia Cohen, George Guidall, Jacob White, Nick De Simone

For Reservations Call:212-247-4982 x20

ON THE WAY TO TIMBUKTU

This is not a review. It's more of a rumination on making a play from Shakespeare's sonnets.

Dispensing with the review part: On the Way to Timbuktu is a fierce one-woman play about a professor of Shakespeare and her history. It's an interesting play, very, very well performed by Petronia Paley, in an intense performance that never flags. See it! Friday (12/21) was the last night in this run at EST (the Ensemble Studio Theater) , but it was described as a "work-in-progress," so keep in mind to see it when "progress" next produces a public performance.

Now the commentary:

A few years ago, I staged a two character short play ("Love Is My Sin" at TSI / PlayTime -- in their “Seven Deadly Sins from Shakespeare” series) with dialog consisting entirely of sonnets. The characters were an Older Man (OM) and a Younger Woman (YW). (I played the OM and Amy Quint played the YW.) They had a strong relationship and, when they are separated, the man has a brief, torrid affair with "The Dark Lady (DL)." When it ends, he returns to YW, but reconciliation is difficult. Originally, the Dark Lady (DL) was also a character in my adaptation, but when the (foreign born) actress who was to be DL got a part in her native country, she left abruptly just before the run, and I had to cut the sonnets which showed the explicit affair, and left that sequence as an implied event.

I'm currently starting to rehearse a full-length, three character version of this story. It's a musical -- but an unusual one: a classical music musical. It is to have dialog constructed entirely from the sonnets, plus Elizabethan instrumental music, song and dance.

The sonnets are enticing, and enigmatic. They seem to be trying to tell a story, but it is not complete, it is not in order, and it is tantalizing. The 154 sonnets, taken as a group, might best be described as if its printing resulted from the following scenario: It was to be a complete story (like Shakespeare’s other long, narrative poems), written this time in the form of sonnets, about an older man (a poet), a young man, (the lover of the poet), a rival poet, and a sexy, black haired, black eyed, possibly black, promiscuous woman (who had affairs with at least two of the other characters). Then, before it was completely finished, while still in draft form (with some elements of the story yet to be written, and variant versions of some story line sonnets still in the manuscript), the document was snatched. But, on the way to be taken to the printer, the manuscript was dropped, with pages scattered to the winds, some blown away and lost, and others gathered up in the wrong order.

The challenge has always been to understand the nature of the sonnets: are they autobiographical? If so, who is The Dark Lady? And the Young Man? Why are they in this order? Are there other sonnets? Why are so many in pairs? Etc.

Of course, if the sonnets are to be taken and performed as autobiographical, then they must all be spoken in an older male voice. If they are to be performed by various men and women of various ages, then one can – in fact must -- take advantage of the fact that some of the sonnets contain some information about the speaker and the subject of the poem, and many do not, so each sonnet can be given a context grounded on what it does or does not say, and can be coupled with other sonnets to create a new context and a new meaning (much the way, in film editing, each image – each shot, each scene -- colors those before and after it with new meaning, by defining a context.)

There is a love triangle in the sonnets, which is suggested (by the context in the original order) to be the Young Man (YM), the Older Man (OM) and DL. (There may even be a love rectangle -- with the Other Poet (OP) – though, here, the sonnets provide rather sparse material for constructing a story.)

But there is also enough information and lack of information in the sonnets to rearrange them to construct a love triangle consisting of the Older Man, DL and a Younger Woman, instead of the Young Man: the Man-Woman-Lady or MWL triangle, rather than the MML triangle. I thought this would be more fun (at least for me) when I wrote the adaptation, so this is what I did. (Rearranging the sonnets also justifies the speaking of some sonnets by people other than Shakespeare; and it reveals new meanings and shades of meanings in the sonnets.)

For example, the first group of sonnets, taken in context to be Shakespeare or the OM encouraging the Young Man to have children, yields many sonnets that can be taken in MWL context as the YW encouraging the OM to have a child (with her!) before he is too old and it is too late (ie. before he dies single). There are several other story lines implicit and explicit in the sonnets: the love triangle -- three relationships are described, with love, as well as jealousy, and breakups. Aging is an issue, as are music, and art.

I don't know the genesis of On the Way to Timbuktu (OtWtT). (It started in EST's Going to the River series, but that is not what I mean.) Selene (the central character) is a professor, teaching Shakespeare's sonnets. There are several elements in the play. There is the lecture and discussion Selene gives about the sonnets; there is, in particular, a discussion of the role of the DL as a black woman in Elizabethan times. There is Selene’s love history; there is, in particular a love triangle she is involved with – here, a black woman (a student who is first involved with Selene, then with Selene and her husband in a threesome), who leaves with Selene’s husband. There is Selene’s performance of the sonnets, some in the context of her character speaking in class, some as her character speaking in the context of this love triangle. (The sonnets used are essentially limited to those appropriate to the YM commenting on the love triangle.)

I am not sure whether to take the play as a story about this woman, who then uses the sonnets to express herself; or whether to imagine that it had its genesis in a thought process much like that for the plays I am working on: how do you provide a context for a performance of some of the sonnets? What can you say about – or how can you construct -- a story from which the sonnets emerge? From this point of view, the play, OtWtT, provides the back story of the Younger Woman, explaining her life as she comes into this love triangle in which – as a professor teaching the sonnets – she uses them to express herself. (In the play, she is now, actually, a no-longer-younger woman, looking back over her life.)

Talking more about OtWtT for a moment: This is quintessential "experimental" theater. The set is just one slightly raised area in a black box theater, with an object on it that serves ingeniously as a bed, a couch, a chair, a make-up stand, and a closet. There is but one actress. She is dressed in a white pajama-like outfit, which makes a striking contrast with the black set. She is well lit and makes the most of her physical life on the stage, providing a series of visual tableau, that bring a variety of places around the globe to life.

Somewhat less successful are semi-abstract images projected on the wall behind her -- they are interesting, but mostly not very interesting. Sometimes the text of sonnets she is performing are projected on the back wall; but they don't really help clarify what she is saying, because it is easier and more satisfying to watch and listen to her, than it is to try to read the sonnets on the wall. And, I confess, I did not understand the end, when she puts on black-face, and dons an Elizabethan gown over her white outfit.

A musical background composed and performed -- on a Chinese instrument called the pipa -- by Min Xiao-Fen is quite beautiful and special, and never fails to be interesting and appropriate, although the insturment has no special direct relevance (so far as the play reveals) either to Shakespeare (as it might be if the instrument or the music were Elizabethan) or to the character (as it might be if it were African) . (The instrument does seem to have some sort of distant resemblance to both a lute and African instruments.)

The OtWtT script is well written, and interesting. Much of the play consists of stories the character tells, the actress shifting clearly and flawlessly from one person’s voice to another. It does contain a few too many clichés for my taste – most of which seem to be there deliberately, though, as something the character would say.

The script often centers on Selene’s sexual life with language that is unflinching; as a one-woman show, the sexuality is essentially in the words and the stories, not on stage in the action.

In talking about the possibly autobiographical nature of the sonnets and the role of the DL in Shakespeare as either symbolic or as a historical black woman, I think it should probably be noted that some sonnets contain strong echoes of dialog from some of Shakespeare's plays, suggesting that the sonnets could reasonably be taken as speeches by characters, rather than by Shakespeare himself. In particular, there could be a relation between the DL sonnets and Othello, casting some light on what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote about the DL. Also, while a replica of (the fossil) Lucy’s skull (as black woman/ancestor/eve) makes an arresting prop, the most interesting ancestor -- according to current scholarship -- is probably not Lucy, (who lived about 3 million years ago, and was not a direct ancestor) but a woman (or at most a few women) who lived a few hundred thousand years ago, from whom all modern humans may be descendent.

OtWtT, then, crafts a very effective one-woman play around the notion that Shakespeare’s sonnets – those that describe an affair between a man and the DL, disrupting the relationship the speaker has had with each of them -- can be performed as being spoken by the woman who is the man’s long time friend/lover and the DL’s lover as well. And OtWtT is the story of her life.

The short play I did, and the new play I am developing, involves similar characters, but focuses exclusively on the sonnets as dialog, and the description of their lives as revealed in the sonnets. There is no back-story described, other than what is in the sonnets; and all the words are those of the sonnets themselves, telling the story of this intense triangular affair.

One thing is clear about the sonnets: they tell a fierce, sexual and powerful story, in eloquent and beautiful and poetic language; to realize the sonnets on the stage, the performance must engage each of those elements and reach the heights for all of them.

There have been other plays inspired by the sonnets, including Shaw’s “The Dark Lady of the Sonnets” and a collection of short plays done at The Public Theater a few years ago, called “Love’s Fire.” More about these later.