#i mean the woman is a respected playwright‚ theatre producer and director

[mariocki]

cutest iasip interview ever

[rndyounghowze]

An Evening of Online Plays Right in our Living Room Directed by Missouri S&T Theatre

By: Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

St. Louis, Missouri

It was a cool and rainy evening when Dana and I followed the Zoom link and joined viewers across the country to see "An evening of Online Plays"

Produced by Missouri S&T Theatre. One of our dear friends Erin Lane had one of her pieces in the bill of four 10 minute plays to be presented that night and invited us to come watch. This night of online theater, produced by Taylor Gruenloh and presented by Missouri S&T theatre students was our first time reviewing a Zoom Production and definitely will not be our last.

This was directed by two students of Missouri S&T's directing program. When classes were cancelled for Victoria Hagni and Madeline Lechner their professor Taylor Gruenloh knew that unless they actually produced a finished project it wouldn't feel as if the two students weren't getting the most out of their independent study. So they quickly changed gears and commissioned ten minute plays from four playwrights from my graduate program Hollins University that would work perfectly in a Zoom format. This livestream is that final result.

It's worth mentioning what Dana and I are looking for when we review a production produced on an online platform streamed out of people's homes. We of course are looking at the level of acting and the production value of the plays but we are also looking at how this new medium of performance is taken advantage of and how the artists worked within those constraints. We are definitely as much beginners at reviewing this as the artists are performing in it. We also know that these students were ramping up and learning for something completely different than pioneering a new artform so we empathize. So now that we know we're both adjusting to a learning curve let's get down to the nitty gritty.

We've decided to talk about the plays grouped by the director not in the order that they were presented and since these were brand new plays written just for the production we're reviewing the plays too.

First we're looking at the plays directed by Madeline Lechner.

De-Equalized by Amy Lytle is a play about two students Katie (played by Natalie Arnold) and Jordan (played by Adam Bateman) who are working on a group project while they are separated on spring break.

I'll admit putting this play up as the first play we see was a very eerie experience. Not just because it was about two students talking about a group project over Zoom but also because this was Dana and my first primer into what a Zoom production is. Seeing the screen jump back and forth between the two actors like it was cutting back and forth like in a movie was bizarre but I was immediately intrigued by the possibilities.

I was very impressed with the actors trying their hardest to emote to somebody that is not physically in the room with them. I felt like Arnold did a better job at this than her acting partner. I can only imagine having to not only keep myself cheated open for the audience but also knowing that my acting partner is a small post card sized picture on a screen. Also knowing that your performance depends on the connectivity of your device and the tilt of your camera is probably as big of a rush as tightrope walking. But because of this feeling of risk some of their emotions seemed to go stagnant. I needed to feel like this energy could travel eight hundred miles.

This could have been an acting problem but I definitely feel like some of this sits on Lechner's shoulders as a director. If the energy isn't shaking the rafters you definitely need to find ways to ramp your actors up. But we also feel like the playscript didn't give them higher stakes to begin with. Not everyone reveals family secrets doing homework. Also Dana never believed she was going to walk out on him which really did kill the stakes.

As for the play Dana noticed there was a lot of exposition about scholarship and financial aid that anyone watching a college show would know. We would hope that in a further draft the playwright would trust her audience more. I loved the idea of students finding out something about a friend that they didn't know before but also wish that the action had started way earlier. The play spent so much time on exposition I feel like the play didn't start until the eight minute mark and then they only had two minutes left. In a future draft I really hope this is addressed.

Also directed by Lechner was Breathe by Erin Lane a play about Dory (played by Raelyn Twohy) and Michael (played by Michael Ellis) two parents having to coparent while being separated and trying to calm each other down while also trying to appear strong for the other.

I love that this play made use of ANY kind of action and it was a great refresher from Lechner's previous piece. I still would have asked for much more. Also Dana got the sense that this play was supposed to have a lot of chaos in it but in her words it was "the calmest chaos she's ever seen". I agree. Especially if this is a play about getting the results of a test be it Covid-19, AIDS, pregnancy, or even strep I think you would feel a TAD more tense than that. This harkens back to what I said before about Lechner and getting energy out of her performers. As a director I will tell her you have to do whatever it takes to get that energy out of your cast because if we as an audience don't feel it we're gone. This was a great first outing and if I'm sounding tough it's because I feel she does have potential to do well in the future. Just get that energy in!

As for the acting it seemed that while Dana and I believed the Dad instantly we felt something was "held back" from us. We don't know if that was an acting problem or a writing problem. I am leaning heavily towards acting because of the several "I forgot my line" pauses and constant repeats of cue lines we normally see in high school productions. I personally think it must have been hard to show so much emotion just using your eyes and not having a full stage to work with but if these pauses normally just slow down a stage show on Zoom they felt like an eternity.

This play utilized my very favorite kind of exposition where everything we needed to know about the action was fed to us through something that we already knew. We all know that kind of back and forth between a Mom and Dad as they suss out parenting. But then you have this through the lens of long distance. Someone can't be home and now they have to trust someone else to get it done. This is the coolest kind of love story for me. However due to dropped lines and pauses I totally lost the part where Dory is a nurse and that she's taking a Covid-19 test. Dana had to tell me based on her scrubs. I hope that a future production of this play has the faster pace and the higher stakes it deserved.

Also a quick note: I know that no one is really pioneering Zoom set design just yet but I feel that I have to mention the black curtain behind Ellis's back. Dana and I have a running joke where we wonder if there is a "different play behind the curtain" that's more interesting than the one we're seeing. This presented a literal version of that for us where we spent more time wondering what was behind that curtain than listening to what he was saying. Out of love for these actors and with mad respect for what they're doing even if the curtain is hiding dead bodies we kinda hope it isn't there in the future. You guys rock and deserve better than that.

Next we'll be talking about the plays directed by Victoria Hagni.

In Scaramouch and Pinochle by Mike Moran we meet Lizzie (played by Megan Baris) and Bella (played by Haley Jenkins) two sisters who were separated when they were little and adopted by families across the country. Now they're reconnecting.

I loved that this play involved some action that fills up the camera frame and that Hagni gave the actresses some business to do such as painting nails and looking for things. If you think of the screen as your proscenium arch then you start to realize that you can utilize all of that space to tell your story.

Dana loves the use of props and the chemistry between the two actresses even though there were some moments that seemed like they were talking more at the screens than to each other. As you guys know I'm a sucker for puppets so even a sock puppet wormed it's way into my heart.

As for the script I feel like the realization about the Mom’s death and other family drama wasn’t "earned". There was no build up to it so I don't know whether it really happened or if our character was just lying. Where the chemistry between the actresses seemed natural the tense moments in the play didn’t seem natural. Overall it was a very cute play and with a couple more revisions it would be perfect.

In Folies a Deux/Pas de deux by Kevin D. Ferguson we meet Amanda Toye as Woman and Luke Goekner as Man. They are a couple with an interesting history and reconnecting after a long time.

I absolutely ADORED the use of the whole kitchen and room as a playing space. Having her start "upstage" at the counter and then moving the camera around as she moved dropped us into the world of the play. This was the first time that I forgot I was watching a Zoom play and just started watching the show. If I have to give one criticism to Hagni at all it is that I would have loved to see this kind of blocking in her previous piece.

I really commend the actors for really knowing their lines, really getting this blocking down, and committing to it. I mean somebody made cupcakes for this show! That's commitment.

Dana feels like this one was the most theatrical because it would definitely work on a stage AND online. This was the play that she absolutely believed with all her heart. I was totally pulled in. This is one of those plays that just make you want to sit in front of a computer and write a play.

The hardest part I'm going to notice about directing and writing for this medium is that you're simultaneously directing a theatre production and producing a movie. The actors aren't just actors they become directors of photography. The only difference between these plays and a movie is that a movie would be recorded for later and edited by someone else. I'm predicting that the most successful Zoom productions will be the ones that blur these lines. Is this naturalistic theatre or an indie found footage film. Who knows and who cares? Actors are not just emoting as if they're in the smallest of black box theaters but also thinking in terms of setups and dynamic camera angles. This is going to be a hard skill to master and in thirty or so years we'll be reading textbooks about the people who started this trend thinking about how we were all just figuring it out.

Also I'm looking forward to the day when we literally don't have the big pink elephant of COVID-19 in the room with us. Right now anytime you see a play livestreamed we all kind of know why it's not being presented onstage. So effectively even if the play doesn't explicitly say so it inherently is about this pandemic I know it's going to be at least a few years before this isn't the case but I will welcome it with open arms.

You have one more opportunity to see this production tonight May 9th at 7 PM Central Time. For those of you teaching theatre right now it might be an excellent tool or opportunity to talk about this evolving theatre climate. Follow this link right here and enjoy the show!

[charlottehopesource]

In just a few short years, Charlotte Hope's career has gone from strength to strength. Now starring in Almedia's production of 'Albion', she talks to London calling about the venue, a love of the theatre and cake.

London Calling: Thanks for speaking to us! Could you tell us a bit about Albion and the role that you play?

Charlotte Hope: It’s a play about family and what it means to be British. It’s about a woman, Audrey played by Victoria Hamilton, who buys an old English home and wants to restore it. I play her daughter Zara. They have a relationship I think a lot of people will understand, fractious but bound by bloodline. It’s a character study about a family and their relationships and how that disintegrates. I’m really excited for the audience to get to see it ’cause it’s magic.

LC: Have you performed at the Almedia before?

CH: No! I’ve been seeing plays here forever and I’ve always thought it was the pinnacle of theatre, so to be here on my third theatre job is… I’m pinching myself really. My boyfriend’s father gave me, when I was auditioning, his Almedia membership card as a kind of lucky charm: I’ve still got it! I’m just really excited to be a part of this place which is so well respected and produces such brilliant work.

LC: How is it working with director Rupert Goold?

CH: He’s amazing. I think he’s a brilliant director; he’s so intelligent. Everything he says is really spot on. He brings such clarity and specificity to every point, and that's exactly the way I like to work. I feel like I’ve learned more in a few weeks with him than I have in years. It’s no surprise the work he produces is so brilliant.

LC: You've performed on stage before, in a 2016 production of Buried Child, written by Sam Shepard. Did you notice a big change in the writing style from that play, written by a classic American writer and English playwright Mike Bartlett's writing in Albion?

CH: As an actress I always try to find the truth in whatever I’m saying. I think both of those playwrights are just so talented and such brilliant writers that for an actor it’s a total gift. In that sense they haven’t seemed hugely dissimilar to me so I’ve approached it in the same way.

LC: Is theatre something you’d like to do more of going forward then compared to film?

CH: I love it all! I’ve done a year now of lots of theatre and its been a total joy. This rehearsal process just means I get to practice acting every day, and I feel like I’m getting better which is really exciting for me as an actress. I’d love to go back and do more film and TV as well. But, at the moment, I feel totally at home here, which is a really magic thing for an actor, because so often we feel so adrift.

LC: Do you go to the theatre a lot and what are some of your highlights?

CH: Yes. I just thought [The 2017 production of Federico García Lorca play] Yerma was so brilliant. Billie Piper is kind of an idol of mine, I think she’s electric and amazing; I could see that show over and over again. She’s a great role model for me.

Are you a Londoner? What are some of your favourite places to go eat or go hang out?

CH: I go to the same places the whole time. No imagination! The Camberwell Arms, in Camberwell, has some of the best food I’ve eaten in London. Every weekend, when we say, ‘where shall we eat this weekend?’ I inevitably always end up there. They had this amazing caramelized pecan and brown sugar ice cream last week that I’ve been dreaming about ever since. I’m also obsessed with this cake shop Konditor and Cook which has something called a curly wurly cake which is a staple of my diet. When I was at uni, I would buy a whole cake and take it back to Oxford and eat it through the week ’cause I thought it was the best thing ever. I’ve got a sweet tooth!

LC: Are there any books, or albums or exhibitions, something you’ve seen recently that you’ve really enjoyed.

CH: I’m really obsessed with The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast; I’m seeing them play next week and I’m super excited about that. And I thought Lorde’s album was totally amazing, so I’m seeing that next week too. I really love live music. I’m always going to as many gigs as I can.

Charlotte Hope stars in Albion at the Almedia, Almedia Street N1 1TA from the 10th of October to 24th November 2017.  Tickets from £10

[dramatistsguild]

DG National Report: Atlanta 
by Pamela Turner

@dramatistsguild

Jo Howarth (Noonan) was a beloved and highly-respected Atlanta-based actor who was also an important role model for other, particularly women, theatre professionals. As her close friend, actor-writer Topher Payne put it, “she was the comeback kid” – a woman who left a blossoming acting career to raise children and then returned as an “over-forty” to face the “double headwinds of age and gender.” But she made it work, with accolades and awards including recognition in 2015 as one of Atlanta’s ten best local actresses. Despite that, Howarth would lament to her husband Patrick Noonan about the insecurities of finding roles for “older women” and the sense that her career might soon be over. His response that people would continue wanting to work with her because she was “a professional who respected what it means to be an actor” was borne out by the mixture of momentous grief and high praise that poured out when she passed away unexpectedly in June 2015, at the age of 58.

Out of this devastating loss, Patrick Noonan was determined to find a way to remember and honor his wife of 30 years. The result is The Jo Howarth Noonan Foundation for the Performing Arts and the first of what is intended to be an annual Mojo Fest of commissioned new work “with substantial roles for older women.” The non-profit foundation is also more broadly “dedicated to promoting and celebrating women theater artists over the age of 40.” In talking about this foundation, Noonan mentioned that “what Jo brought to a project or conversation was life experience(s).” So it made sense to start something that provided both “the work –not just roles but good roles” and “the richness of stories about older women.” The intended future of the foundation and Mojo Fest is ambitious: they hope the yearly commissions will develop a pool of good work that will be in demand across the country and become a treasured source “for a great selection of plays.” Noonan intends to nudge this along with outreach to actors and artistic directors.

With all of the excitement generated by the first Mojo Fest event last March, it was especially gratifying to see a strong presence by Guild members. Jill Patrick is a member (and former Managing Artistic Director of Working Title Playwrights) and served as producer for the Fest. Sherry Camp Paulsen, Penny Mickelbury, and I wrote three of the five commissioned ten-minute plays presented as staged readings and the evening reading was a pre-existing full-length script by Margaret Baldwin. The other two commissioned playwrights were Suehyla El-Attar and Payne. Patrick reported that Out-of-Box Theatre AD Carolyn Choe has decided to produce all of the ten-minute pieces later in the year.

The commissioned pieces were required to have the primary character be a woman over 40. The result was five plays with all-female casts of diverse ages. The directors were all women as well and nearly as diverse in age as the casts. As Paulsen remarked, “Working exclusively with women on a project about women was exhilarating. A spirited shorthand developed between us as we rehearsed and revised the script.” She also mentioned that the reading and feedback session made her realize what her play (set in a Nordstrom’s Lingerie Department) was really about and immediately changed the title from Catch and Release to TMI. That seemed especially appropriate with a play about a straying husband and “the technological age gap between baby boomer and millennial women.”

Guiding the feedback was DG member Daphne Mintz, who made her own discovery. “In prep for moderating the talkbacks…I focused on finding both shared and unique themes pertinent to what I could only describe as the predicament of being a woman. When this phrase entered my head, I bristled… But as I focused on how these plays fit into the [foundation] mission…the term took hold. If being a woman is something to celebrate, to honor…there must be challenges resulting in both victories and failures associated with that condition.”

More info: https://www.johowarthnoonan.org/

pturner@dramatistsguild.com

Actors and playwrights in Mojo Fest. Photo credit Patrick Noonan

Sherry Camp Paulsen. Photo credit Larry Paulsen

Jo Howarth Noonan in The Flying Carpet Theatre Company’s 2010 production of The Medicine Showdown

[londontheatre]

Shakespeare could be said to be the most abused playwright. His plays have been performed a million different ways. In two years I’ve seen six performances of Romeo and Juliet and four of Midsummer Night’s Dream and each one has been completely different to the other. However, when you look at the prose of a Shakespeare play, there is always the possibility to use them and move them around to produce a completely different outcome. Not sure exactly what I mean? Then nip down to the Hope Theatre where Golum is staging I Know You of Old.

Based on Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ the play is set in a chapel where a lace draped coffin is sat waiting for the funeral tomorrow. The occupant of the coffin is Hero who collapsed and died when, at the altar, her fiance Claudio (Conor O’Kane) denounced her as a wanton woman. Now although he feels so much sorrow and guilt that he may have wronged the woman he loved. This guilt is made worse by the accusing figure of Hero’s sister Beatrice. It seems the only person that Claudio can turn to for support is his companion, follower, and BFF the well-known playboy Benedick (David Fairs). Benedick tries to cheer up his friend but nothing works until Claudio sees the interaction between Benedick and Beatrice. Even though the two of them fight and spit at each other, like two cats warring over a piece of fish, Claudio decides that to atone for his actions, he will bring these two people together so that love can flourish for at least one of the sisters.

Writer David Fairs has taken Shakespeare’s original text and twisted it to produce this new story of the lives of Hero, Claudio, Benedick and Beatrice. And, as an idea, it works surprisingly well. The play itself is very modern in its setting. Claudio calls Margaret on his phone, there is an iPad with a half finished letter etc. Again, this works well and I have to give a massive bit of praise to Director Anna Marsland for using real candles rather than those battery operated ones that no matter how hard you try look fake. In fact the degree of realism was extremely good, so when Benedick is looking at a video on his phone, it was genuinely there for him – and audience members in the right seat – to see. The audience were ranged either side of the stage area and from where I was sitting, this meant occasionally missing an entrance or reaction when two people were at opposite ends of the room. A minor thing but slightly irritating

The three actors were good in their roles and Connor O’Kane has the most wonderful set of expressions. His grief over Hero’s death is etched in every line of his visage and then, in the comedy moments, he changes again. His face, when Benedick breaks into a Cher song was an absolute picture. There was a nice relationship between all three actors but I think most praise has to go to Sarah Lambie for her portrayal of the haughty, but sometimes awkwardly flirty, Beatrice. Finally, David Fairs definitely has the makings of a great physical comedian especially when he tries to hide.

I Know You of Old is a fascinating example of what can be done by taking timeless text and moving it to change not only the context but also the story itself. Writing it must have been such fun and it would be interesting to know how the creative process worked. Overall, I think it worked pretty well. I did think it was a tad too long and the ending took me a bit by surprise with its intensity in what had been, up to then, a light-hearted romp in many ways. A Shakespearean purist would probably be choking on his mead at what I Know You of Old but they would be mistaken. This is a respectful treatment of the Bard’s words proving the timelessness and fluidity of the text are its greatest achievements.

Review by Terry Eastham

GOLEM! presents I Know You Of Old, an even more radical return to their adaptation approach after 2016’s Macbeths, also at The Hope Theatre, looking for justice for missing or sidelined characters in Shakespeare’s plays.

Hero is dead. The night before the funeral, the strange circumstances of her death hang in the air – are the rumours about Hero to be trusted? At her coffin, the eye of the storm, her fiancé Claudio is wracked with grief and guilt. When Hero’s sharp-tongued cousin Beatrice arrives, closely followed by notorious playboy Benedick, Claudio sees a way to atone for former wrongs and do one last thing for Hero – he will bring this prickly pair together.

Using only Shakespeare’s original text, David Fairs re-orchestrates Much Ado About Nothing into a new, alternative dark comedy, directed by Anna Marsland, Resident Director of the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Cast: Claudio Conor O’Kane Benedick David Fairs Beatrice Sarah Lambie

Creatives: Producer GOLEM! Director Anna Marsland Writer David Fairs

GOLEM! presents I KNOW YOU OF OLD from MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Author: DAVID FAIRS and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Director: ANNA MARSLAND At The Hope Theatre, Islington, N1 1RL

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