We continue to look back fondly, dear readers, on our Inkubator Festival. It was fun to play with plays. And it was fun to party with playmakers and playgoers... which is what we did a few weeks ago as we ended the festival. A trio of lovely ladies (LeAnna M.G. Cumber, Jessica Saint John, and Trish Calamari) threw one helluva party for us at H Street Playhouse, and we couldn't be more grateful to them... and to the generous sponsors.
Here's a summary of the event from LeAnna. Thanks again to all that attended the party and the festival!
We're also happy to support fellow artists of all stripes. So you'll see a plug for a very talented photographer, Dan Glucksman, who donated one of his beautiful prints for our silent auction.
-----------------------------
What a great party! For those of you who attended The Inkwell's fundraiser Saturday, October 17th, you know how fun it was! I was one of the event planners and I wanted to let everyone know about it. The party was both an opportunity to show support for The Inkwell, but also to celebrate four weeks devoted to nothing but new plays. We were so delighted to have so many stay around after the performance of The F Word to eat, drink, and be merry with homemade cupcakes, wine provided by DuPont Fine Wine and Liquor, Pumpkin Ale and Star Island Single from Smuttynose Brewery, and other goodies provided by Harris Teeter.
And I took the lead in organizing The Inkwell’s first-ever silent auction! We auctioned off items ranging from style consultations to yoga sessions to a live band... and raised more than $1,000 for the company. We look forward to an even more diverse silent auction next year.
One auction item was a beautiful black-and-white print by local photographer Dan Glucksman. We want to thank him for his fabulous donation by letting you all know more about his work. You have another chance to look over and purchase a Glucksman original at The Capitol Hill Art & Frame, 623 Pennsylvania Ave, SE through December 5th. There will be five artists on display during that time. And if you like a good party to go with your art (who doesn't?) you can come on down for the closing party on December 5th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Hope you all can swing by and enjoy the work of Roy Utley, Stu Searles, Fierce Sonia, Gayle Krughoff... and the very talented Dan Glucksman.
Here's a summary of the event from LeAnna. Thanks again to all that attended the party and the festival!
We're also happy to support fellow artists of all stripes. So you'll see a plug for a very talented photographer, Dan Glucksman, who donated one of his beautiful prints for our silent auction.
-----------------------------
What a great party! For those of you who attended The Inkwell's fundraiser Saturday, October 17th, you know how fun it was! I was one of the event planners and I wanted to let everyone know about it. The party was both an opportunity to show support for The Inkwell, but also to celebrate four weeks devoted to nothing but new plays. We were so delighted to have so many stay around after the performance of The F Word to eat, drink, and be merry with homemade cupcakes, wine provided by DuPont Fine Wine and Liquor, Pumpkin Ale and Star Island Single from Smuttynose Brewery, and other goodies provided by Harris Teeter.And I took the lead in organizing The Inkwell’s first-ever silent auction! We auctioned off items ranging from style consultations to yoga sessions to a live band... and raised more than $1,000 for the company. We look forward to an even more diverse silent auction next year.
One auction item was a beautiful black-and-white print by local photographer Dan Glucksman. We want to thank him for his fabulous donation by letting you all know more about his work. You have another chance to look over and purchase a Glucksman original at The Capitol Hill Art & Frame, 623 Pennsylvania Ave, SE through December 5th. There will be five artists on display during that time. And if you like a good party to go with your art (who doesn't?) you can come on down for the closing party on December 5th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Hope you all can swing by and enjoy the work of Roy Utley, Stu Searles, Fierce Sonia, Gayle Krughoff... and the very talented Dan Glucksman.
We continue to look backward for a bit, dear readers, as we enjoy the many exciting moments of the 2009 Inkubator Festival. We had a fully packed last weekend, with five playwrights in town, four of whom came in to watch 20-minute excerpts of their work at our last showcase reading.
It was a showcase of dazzling word play, an afternoon of plays that play with language in one way or another. Here are the dramaturgical notes from the showcase. Meghan Long joined me in presenting these pieces.
It was particularly fun to hang out with the playwrights afterward. We discussed the ways in which these very different plays connected. There was great generosity among these playwrights as they talked with one another about language, character, revision, acting, and all other things playmaking.
---------------------
This particular suite of plays is inspired by words… whether a pretty turn of phrase, a single sentence that can change the course of the world, poetry of excavation, of things lost and found, of a particular place or time. These are also plays that explore the larger dominion of language as it shapes and moves worlds.
Please note that these are some of the more complex plays that we have presented over the course of the festival, so some of the introductions are extensive. Overall, we hope you look for ways in which the music and exploration of language intrigue you.
Balls
by Jonathan Yukich
(presented by Meghan Long)
Balls is a hilarious depiction of a family living in the 1970s South.
In a community where football rules, news that famed college football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, is planning a visit to Balls, Alabama shocks the Moon family and sends them into a frenzy of preparation so Keegan can impress the famous coach. Keegan is a high school kicker wants nothing more than to play for the Crimson Tide and make his late father proud. Posey, Keegan’s twin brother couldn’t care less about football and doesn’t understand why the rest of the town is so worked up about Bear Bryant’s impending visit. Posey buries himself in his journals and knows there is something bigger outside of Balls. Mary Merle, the boys’ mother, is never too far from her bottle of Old Crow and believes that through it all, there is no place on earth better than Balls.
The family dynamics shift when Mary Merle takes out an ad in search of a renter for the spare room and the call is answered by a stranger, Mr. Granger. Ruthie-T, Keegan’s girlfriend rounds out this eccentric cast of characters. Events play out over a few rainy nights in Balls leading to a dramatic conclusion. Is Balls big enough for the Moon family? There is certainly never a boring day in Balls.
We loved the language and comedy of this play; the play is very funny, but takes a dark turn towards the end. We also loved the role that the South plays in this script; this play shines a light on a way of life in the South that isn’t necessarily explored in plays and this language of the South is quite musical. I was instantly drawn to the characters – they kept me hooked throughout the play and were very memorable because they are all so eccentric and funny.
For this showcase, we present the first 20 pages of the play. The top of the play starts with the news that Bear Bryant is visiting Balls. In first pages we meet Posey, Mary Merle, and Keegan. We encourage you to listen for the puns of Balls and take in the language of this play.
Spake
By David Williams
We now present another apocalyptic epic, one that none of our readers could put down. I myself read the play from midnight to 1:30 in the morning, long after I should have been asleep.
The play in part inspired by the Voynich Manuscript, a book housed at Yale University Library, a text — now untranslatable — that is believed to be a spell book. David the playwright was drawn to this most intriguing mystery, but also wanted to explore the death of languages. As he told us in this original submission form, UNESCO has released an atlas showing 2,500 world languages are at risk of disappearing. He also wanted to explore the ways in which we try and often fail to communicate, be it through languages, emotions, or secret codes.
This excerpt takes us from the very beginning of the play, when the roof of a church collapses through to the third act when a Cornell University linguistic student Jessica makes a run for it across the country with her boyfriend, Cal, a divinity student who has recently left his studies, faltering in his faith because of his love for Jessica. In between, we see the ghost of a murderer and linguist, Ruloff, who visits Jessica with a warning. We also see how a spell — or curse — manifests.
Monument
By Doug Dolcino
(presented by Anne McCaw)
This is an incredibly challenging, layered, and delightfully absurd play. It is inspired by the language and form of Greek Tragedy, of Bertolt Brecht’s spare poetry and presentational style, and by the dreamlike imagery and language of the French Symbolists.
What happens when you mix all these influences? Doug has created something epic, something surreal that explores time and space, identity and family dynamics, death and birth of civilization, and that explores the ever-present themes in Greek tragedy of fate, hubris, and impermanence.
A bit daunting… sure. But perhaps the best description is from one of our readers:
The play revolves around the Leibert family — stuck and restless — the head of which, Herman, is a renowned civil engineer of the made-up country of Arbythnia. Arbythnia, and the family, are plagued… by gnats, by frogs, and by a prolonged, painful bout of insomnia. An exasperated chorus of mailmen are desperate to relay a message to the Leibert family: Read your mail…recognize your stagnation or the plagues will continue.
Yet Herman is steadfast in ignoring the mailmen, as well the strife within his family. Rather, he is focused on plans to create the ultimate monument for the population of Tarzania… a land far different than Arbythnia.
His family — his wife and two children — are so desperate for change that they decide to take on different identities. His wife declares herself a widow and resumes a courtship with Herman’s brother, Uncle Mangel. Herman’s daughter and son assume the identities of a chambermaid and an aspiring entrepreneur… and begin a romance.
This excerpt joins the family as they finally begin their long desired journey to Tarzania… and mayhem ensues.
The Hairy Dutchman
By Andy Bragen
(presented by Anne McCaw)
The Hairy Dutchman is a rhapsody to New York City, to tennis, to the layered history of a one beloved neighborhood.
The play is set somewhere in Queens, where a number of aging tennis courts stand. These courts — their age indeterminate, built on centuries of history that have shaped New York — are under threat — from a city that wants to bulldoze them and from rising seas.
The characters you are going to meet are drawn to the courts for any number of reasons. Some actually live day to day at the courts… some court on the courts… and two people rekindle an old grudge and a childhood love … but for all, the courts are a sanctuary.
We became enthralled with the play because of two fascinating conflicts played out in language and rhythm. There is the classic, timeless conflict of opponents in sports inspired such pop cultures classics as Rocky and The Natural. At the same time, there is the conflict between Michael, the court historian and the city inspector, a conflict of reverence for history versus progress to a new future.
This play creates a language for the game. Listen for a beat and rhythm that captures the back-and-forth of the game, as well as the high stakes for each character.
Beautiful Province (Belle Provence)
by Clarence Coo
Beautiful Province is a play that explores the connection of language and identity. How can language enable us to explore a different part of ourselves?
In early conversations with Clarence, we talked about the power of language and the belief that different languages allow us to explore a part of ourselves that we may not know existed in our native tongue.
In Beautiful Province, we meet Mr. Green, a high school French teacher and Jake, his 15-year old student, as they embark on a journey to French Canada. They cross over borders in search of the beautiful province.
The journey of these two characters’ lives in three worlds; the world of reality, Jake’s fantasy world, and Mr. Green’s fantasy world. Jake’s fantasy is a world where he is the Last of the Mohicans, while Mr. Green lives in a fantasy world where he is stuck at the security gate at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris awaiting passport approval to enter the country. What happens when these three worlds collide? How far can one language take Mr. Green and Jake?
This play has a transformative language that takes us on a journey, just as the characters journey in the play. The complex relationship created between Mr. Green and Jake keeps the play going. They travel across geographical borders and boundaries within themselves and each other, each in search of his own beautiful province.
The excerpt presented today at the showcase joins Mr. Green and Jake on the road as they have just crossed over the border and have spent the previous night in a hotel room with a view of Niagara Falls. We visit all three worlds in this excerpt, and we see what happens when these worlds meet. We encourage you to listen to how the characters explore themselves and connect with others through language.
It was a showcase of dazzling word play, an afternoon of plays that play with language in one way or another. Here are the dramaturgical notes from the showcase. Meghan Long joined me in presenting these pieces.
It was particularly fun to hang out with the playwrights afterward. We discussed the ways in which these very different plays connected. There was great generosity among these playwrights as they talked with one another about language, character, revision, acting, and all other things playmaking.
---------------------
This particular suite of plays is inspired by words… whether a pretty turn of phrase, a single sentence that can change the course of the world, poetry of excavation, of things lost and found, of a particular place or time. These are also plays that explore the larger dominion of language as it shapes and moves worlds.
Please note that these are some of the more complex plays that we have presented over the course of the festival, so some of the introductions are extensive. Overall, we hope you look for ways in which the music and exploration of language intrigue you.
Balls
by Jonathan Yukich
(presented by Meghan Long)
Balls is a hilarious depiction of a family living in the 1970s South.
In a community where football rules, news that famed college football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, is planning a visit to Balls, Alabama shocks the Moon family and sends them into a frenzy of preparation so Keegan can impress the famous coach. Keegan is a high school kicker wants nothing more than to play for the Crimson Tide and make his late father proud. Posey, Keegan’s twin brother couldn’t care less about football and doesn’t understand why the rest of the town is so worked up about Bear Bryant’s impending visit. Posey buries himself in his journals and knows there is something bigger outside of Balls. Mary Merle, the boys’ mother, is never too far from her bottle of Old Crow and believes that through it all, there is no place on earth better than Balls.
The family dynamics shift when Mary Merle takes out an ad in search of a renter for the spare room and the call is answered by a stranger, Mr. Granger. Ruthie-T, Keegan’s girlfriend rounds out this eccentric cast of characters. Events play out over a few rainy nights in Balls leading to a dramatic conclusion. Is Balls big enough for the Moon family? There is certainly never a boring day in Balls.
We loved the language and comedy of this play; the play is very funny, but takes a dark turn towards the end. We also loved the role that the South plays in this script; this play shines a light on a way of life in the South that isn’t necessarily explored in plays and this language of the South is quite musical. I was instantly drawn to the characters – they kept me hooked throughout the play and were very memorable because they are all so eccentric and funny.
For this showcase, we present the first 20 pages of the play. The top of the play starts with the news that Bear Bryant is visiting Balls. In first pages we meet Posey, Mary Merle, and Keegan. We encourage you to listen for the puns of Balls and take in the language of this play.
Spake
By David Williams
We now present another apocalyptic epic, one that none of our readers could put down. I myself read the play from midnight to 1:30 in the morning, long after I should have been asleep.
The play in part inspired by the Voynich Manuscript, a book housed at Yale University Library, a text — now untranslatable — that is believed to be a spell book. David the playwright was drawn to this most intriguing mystery, but also wanted to explore the death of languages. As he told us in this original submission form, UNESCO has released an atlas showing 2,500 world languages are at risk of disappearing. He also wanted to explore the ways in which we try and often fail to communicate, be it through languages, emotions, or secret codes.
This excerpt takes us from the very beginning of the play, when the roof of a church collapses through to the third act when a Cornell University linguistic student Jessica makes a run for it across the country with her boyfriend, Cal, a divinity student who has recently left his studies, faltering in his faith because of his love for Jessica. In between, we see the ghost of a murderer and linguist, Ruloff, who visits Jessica with a warning. We also see how a spell — or curse — manifests.
Monument
By Doug Dolcino
(presented by Anne McCaw)
This is an incredibly challenging, layered, and delightfully absurd play. It is inspired by the language and form of Greek Tragedy, of Bertolt Brecht’s spare poetry and presentational style, and by the dreamlike imagery and language of the French Symbolists.
What happens when you mix all these influences? Doug has created something epic, something surreal that explores time and space, identity and family dynamics, death and birth of civilization, and that explores the ever-present themes in Greek tragedy of fate, hubris, and impermanence.
A bit daunting… sure. But perhaps the best description is from one of our readers:
“Sheer and utter madness! The playwright is creating something unlike anything I have ever seen or heard.”Let me give you a brief synopsis, touching on the plays many twists and turns.
The play revolves around the Leibert family — stuck and restless — the head of which, Herman, is a renowned civil engineer of the made-up country of Arbythnia. Arbythnia, and the family, are plagued… by gnats, by frogs, and by a prolonged, painful bout of insomnia. An exasperated chorus of mailmen are desperate to relay a message to the Leibert family: Read your mail…recognize your stagnation or the plagues will continue.
Yet Herman is steadfast in ignoring the mailmen, as well the strife within his family. Rather, he is focused on plans to create the ultimate monument for the population of Tarzania… a land far different than Arbythnia.
His family — his wife and two children — are so desperate for change that they decide to take on different identities. His wife declares herself a widow and resumes a courtship with Herman’s brother, Uncle Mangel. Herman’s daughter and son assume the identities of a chambermaid and an aspiring entrepreneur… and begin a romance.
This excerpt joins the family as they finally begin their long desired journey to Tarzania… and mayhem ensues.
The Hairy Dutchman
By Andy Bragen
(presented by Anne McCaw)
The Hairy Dutchman is a rhapsody to New York City, to tennis, to the layered history of a one beloved neighborhood.
The play is set somewhere in Queens, where a number of aging tennis courts stand. These courts — their age indeterminate, built on centuries of history that have shaped New York — are under threat — from a city that wants to bulldoze them and from rising seas.
The characters you are going to meet are drawn to the courts for any number of reasons. Some actually live day to day at the courts… some court on the courts… and two people rekindle an old grudge and a childhood love … but for all, the courts are a sanctuary.
We became enthralled with the play because of two fascinating conflicts played out in language and rhythm. There is the classic, timeless conflict of opponents in sports inspired such pop cultures classics as Rocky and The Natural. At the same time, there is the conflict between Michael, the court historian and the city inspector, a conflict of reverence for history versus progress to a new future.
This play creates a language for the game. Listen for a beat and rhythm that captures the back-and-forth of the game, as well as the high stakes for each character.
Beautiful Province (Belle Provence)
by Clarence Coo
Beautiful Province is a play that explores the connection of language and identity. How can language enable us to explore a different part of ourselves?
In early conversations with Clarence, we talked about the power of language and the belief that different languages allow us to explore a part of ourselves that we may not know existed in our native tongue.
In Beautiful Province, we meet Mr. Green, a high school French teacher and Jake, his 15-year old student, as they embark on a journey to French Canada. They cross over borders in search of the beautiful province.
The journey of these two characters’ lives in three worlds; the world of reality, Jake’s fantasy world, and Mr. Green’s fantasy world. Jake’s fantasy is a world where he is the Last of the Mohicans, while Mr. Green lives in a fantasy world where he is stuck at the security gate at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris awaiting passport approval to enter the country. What happens when these three worlds collide? How far can one language take Mr. Green and Jake?
This play has a transformative language that takes us on a journey, just as the characters journey in the play. The complex relationship created between Mr. Green and Jake keeps the play going. They travel across geographical borders and boundaries within themselves and each other, each in search of his own beautiful province.
The excerpt presented today at the showcase joins Mr. Green and Jake on the road as they have just crossed over the border and have spent the previous night in a hotel room with a view of Niagara Falls. We visit all three worlds in this excerpt, and we see what happens when these worlds meet. We encourage you to listen to how the characters explore themselves and connect with others through language.
You know what's cool, besides new plays, playmaking, and playwrights? Banyan trees are really, really, really cool.
And one of the playwrights we have been working with, Adam Krarr, has written a play with an ancient talking Banyan Tree. Oh yeah... The Inkwell totally, totally digs that. The play is called Empire of the Trees, and we staged a 20-minute excerpt of the play as part of our festival. (Of course, you can read more about the play in Inkblog!)
And here are few words from Adam about his experience with The Inkwell. Adam, we are so excited to learn more about this mysterious banyan tree in the next draft of your play.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The invitation to participate in The Inkwell's showcase reading at The Kennedy Center came at an ideal time for me and my play, Empire of the Trees. The play was scheduled for three readings here in New York City (at MultiStages and Ensemble Studio Theatre), but was also seeking a workshop. So it was heady and exciting to get an email from The Inkwell's Jessica Burgess.
I was quickly struck by the energy, ambition and generosity of the Jessica, Chris Niebling (who directed my excerpt), and The Inkwell crew. It seemed to me they were taking on a lot - but always with the goal of advancing new plays and playwrights (which is not always the case with companies promoting new work).
The worst moment? When I realized couldn't be there for the readings on September 7th. Jessica had written me that the aim of this project was to get to know me and my work - so I was truly regretting that I'd miss this opportunity to learn more about this unusual company up close. But Chris Niebling and I had a terrific talk about the play and the reading of the excerpt, so I was kept in the loop.
Then, several weeks after the Inkubator Festival reading, Anne McCaw contacted me to see if I wanted to talk with her and Meghan Long about Empire of the Trees. I was just about to start rehearsals for the readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Anne and Meghan's encouraging words, excellent questions, thoughtful suggestions, and ideas for possible next steps for the project were all incredibly useful to me as I listened to my play during rehearsals and at the reading. Some changes to the script were made, and I'm excitedly exploring next steps. The experience left me eager to work further - and, hopefully, closer! - with The Inkwell. I'm very grateful for the opportunity.
And one of the playwrights we have been working with, Adam Krarr, has written a play with an ancient talking Banyan Tree. Oh yeah... The Inkwell totally, totally digs that. The play is called Empire of the Trees, and we staged a 20-minute excerpt of the play as part of our festival. (Of course, you can read more about the play in Inkblog!)
And here are few words from Adam about his experience with The Inkwell. Adam, we are so excited to learn more about this mysterious banyan tree in the next draft of your play.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The invitation to participate in The Inkwell's showcase reading at The Kennedy Center came at an ideal time for me and my play, Empire of the Trees. The play was scheduled for three readings here in New York City (at MultiStages and Ensemble Studio Theatre), but was also seeking a workshop. So it was heady and exciting to get an email from The Inkwell's Jessica Burgess. I was quickly struck by the energy, ambition and generosity of the Jessica, Chris Niebling (who directed my excerpt), and The Inkwell crew. It seemed to me they were taking on a lot - but always with the goal of advancing new plays and playwrights (which is not always the case with companies promoting new work).
The worst moment? When I realized couldn't be there for the readings on September 7th. Jessica had written me that the aim of this project was to get to know me and my work - so I was truly regretting that I'd miss this opportunity to learn more about this unusual company up close. But Chris Niebling and I had a terrific talk about the play and the reading of the excerpt, so I was kept in the loop.
Then, several weeks after the Inkubator Festival reading, Anne McCaw contacted me to see if I wanted to talk with her and Meghan Long about Empire of the Trees. I was just about to start rehearsals for the readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Anne and Meghan's encouraging words, excellent questions, thoughtful suggestions, and ideas for possible next steps for the project were all incredibly useful to me as I listened to my play during rehearsals and at the reading. Some changes to the script were made, and I'm excitedly exploring next steps. The experience left me eager to work further - and, hopefully, closer! - with The Inkwell. I'm very grateful for the opportunity.
It never, ever ceases to amaze any of us at The Inkwell... the twists and turns and flights of fancy of the playwrights mind. Man, do we love sharing what they are thinking with you, whether through their plays or as they write back to us about their experiences with The Inkwell. As I've mentioned before, we asked that the playwrights we worked with during the 2009 Inkubator Festival blog for us, if they can.
So here's a delightful little interlude from one playwright that we love... Anna Moench.
The Inkwell staged a 20-minute excerpt of Anna's play The Pillow Book as part of our By the Book showcase (there's more to share about this wonderful evening of plays, so check out the blog post of a couple of weeks ago).
Anna gave us one of the most interesting explorations of a marriage I have read or seen... a play based on the form the pillow book, a collection of observations and musings invented by a Japanese lady of court in the 10th Century.
And so it's a delight for her to share her own take on blog dialogue here, which includes a portrait of me. Please know that I am really not that scary (at least I don't think so).
-----------------------------------
Anne McCaw, Queen of the Dramaturgs, chills in her Dramaturgy Throne.
Anna Moench, Playwright Supplicant to Dramaturgy's Insights, enters.
Moench: Oh Great Anne McCaw! I come to extend my gratitude for including my work in The Inkubator Festival!
McCaw: I don't need gratitude, woman, I need blog posts!
Moench: But Great Anne McCaw, I am frightened of the Internet and the lurking masses who shall read my words!
McCaw: Aren't you supposed to be a writer? Isn't that the whole point?
Moench: Touche.
Anne asked us writers to describe a particular moment in the Inkubator Festival process that stood out as particularly awesome, but for me, there were several. And all of them were moments I shared with The Inkwell's intrepid staff. So here they are. In a list. Because I like lists.
Great Moments With People I Met At The Inkwell
by Anna Moench
1. Discussing my piece with my dramaturg, Deb Sivigny. Deb's questions and observations were insightful, and she gave me the thing that every writer really needs while revising a new piece: an intelligent, critical outsider's perspective. Thanks, Deb!
2. Watching the series of excerpt readings. The group of actors who played characters in each piece were so talented, so committed, so up for anything, and, perhaps most importantly, so supportive of each other and the plays they were showcasing. Plus, the actors who were in my excerpt did a fantastic job. Thanks, guys!
3. Observing a young, dynamic theater company do something ambitious and important. It is incredibly difficult to read through hundreds of script submissions, to organize and run a festival that involves dozens of writers, actors, directors, dramaturgs, technicians, staff, and the like, and to do it all with panache. But The Inkwell did it. And they've only been around for a few years. Booyah. I was so impressed with everyone I met and worked with, and I can't thank you all enough for doing what you do.
So here's a delightful little interlude from one playwright that we love... Anna Moench.
The Inkwell staged a 20-minute excerpt of Anna's play The Pillow Book as part of our By the Book showcase (there's more to share about this wonderful evening of plays, so check out the blog post of a couple of weeks ago).
Anna gave us one of the most interesting explorations of a marriage I have read or seen... a play based on the form the pillow book, a collection of observations and musings invented by a Japanese lady of court in the 10th Century.
And so it's a delight for her to share her own take on blog dialogue here, which includes a portrait of me. Please know that I am really not that scary (at least I don't think so).
-----------------------------------
Anne McCaw, Queen of the Dramaturgs, chills in her Dramaturgy Throne.
Anna Moench, Playwright Supplicant to Dramaturgy's Insights, enters.
Moench: Oh Great Anne McCaw! I come to extend my gratitude for including my work in The Inkubator Festival!
McCaw: I don't need gratitude, woman, I need blog posts!
Moench: But Great Anne McCaw, I am frightened of the Internet and the lurking masses who shall read my words!
McCaw: Aren't you supposed to be a writer? Isn't that the whole point?
Moench: Touche.
Anne asked us writers to describe a particular moment in the Inkubator Festival process that stood out as particularly awesome, but for me, there were several. And all of them were moments I shared with The Inkwell's intrepid staff. So here they are. In a list. Because I like lists.
Great Moments With People I Met At The Inkwell
by Anna Moench
1. Discussing my piece with my dramaturg, Deb Sivigny. Deb's questions and observations were insightful, and she gave me the thing that every writer really needs while revising a new piece: an intelligent, critical outsider's perspective. Thanks, Deb!
2. Watching the series of excerpt readings. The group of actors who played characters in each piece were so talented, so committed, so up for anything, and, perhaps most importantly, so supportive of each other and the plays they were showcasing. Plus, the actors who were in my excerpt did a fantastic job. Thanks, guys!
3. Observing a young, dynamic theater company do something ambitious and important. It is incredibly difficult to read through hundreds of script submissions, to organize and run a festival that involves dozens of writers, actors, directors, dramaturgs, technicians, staff, and the like, and to do it all with panache. But The Inkwell did it. And they've only been around for a few years. Booyah. I was so impressed with everyone I met and worked with, and I can't thank you all enough for doing what you do.
You know what, readers? I for one am at a loss on how to describe the role of a dramaturg in making new plays. Heck, I'm not really sure how you spell it! (Spell check programs will direct you to use dramaturge, but most folks I know leave off the silent e.)
All I can really tell you is... they are SO important. They are the advocate for the playwright, the one who gets inside the brain of the playwright to help them explore a play, like it was a mine... looking for the vein of gold.
See? That's not a good analogy. But let me offer you this incredibly articulate description of the role of the dramaturg provided by one of our most talented and thoughtful dramaturgs, Jenn Book.
Take it away, Jenn!
-----------------------------------------------
My Grandma Lois always told me I should be a diplomat. “You have a way of making people understand each other,” she said. So, I grew up to be a diplomat. A kind of diplomat, anyway. I’m a dramaturg.
My friends and acquaintances have come up with a lot of different words that help them understand what I do. One of my students called me “our play’s hard drive.” A colleague of my husband’s offered “theatre consultant.” The dramaturg’s specific job depends on the show s/he’s working on, and the needs of the writer, director, and/or company. I’ve done background research for a show, compiled packets of information to help actors and directors with the world of the play, written study guides for audiences, created lobby displays to bring the audience into the world of the play, been the “third eye” in rehearsal, and provided commentary to writers and directors while their pieces of art were evolving.
Whew! But through it all, I maintain my role as “diplomat.” When working in a collaborative environment—as theatre so often is—I find that it’s rarely useful to just give my opinions, even if they are requested. I prefer to ask questions. So instead of “I don’t like when your character says…” I’ll ask why a character makes a specific choice.
Since I shy away from giving negative opinions as a matter of course, this has led some of my friends to call me a “Pollyanna,” or ask “Geez, Jenn, do you like everything?” Well, of course I don’t like everything! But consider the responses one might get from a playwright who asks “What did you think of my script?” and gets the answer, “I didn’t like Act 2.” “Well, what didn’t you like about it?” “I don’t know…I just didn’t like it.”
Now consider the following: “What did you think of my script?” “I loved the characters, but I’m wondering why you decided to put scene three where it is. Would we understand Character 1’s motivation better if we see what happens in scene four first?” This spawns conversation, rather than confusion and potential resentment.
I was thrilled when this approach to dramaturgical conversation was discussed and promoted in our workshop with Michael Bigelow Dixon. I actually teared up when we came to the conclusion that positive questioning and conversation was the appropriate route to dramaturgy.
I had the fortune to put this into practice for the InkReading series this fall. Early last month, I received a script in my email Inbox. It was Jason Gray Platt’s Strive/Seek/Find. The initial read intrigued me; the second read got me invested. Every few pages, my impression of the play and its characters changed.
“Oh, it’s about the family Odysseus left behind…”
“Oh, it’s told in a contemporary way. How cool! Telemachus is on his school’s swim team, and is dating a girl from his class…”
“Oh, it’s about power! And Telemachus is watching men come in and out of Penelope’s bedroom…”
And [beware of spoilers!] “Oh, Telemachus has raped a girl and killed a man. Is he finally in a position to claim his birthright?...”
I was hooked.
Our first rehearsal involved Jason, Supervising Dramaturge Anne McCaw and Artistic Director Jessi Burgess, Chris Gallu — the reading’s director — a couple of the actors, and me. We talked about what Jason wanted to get out of the process before jumping into reading. Since the script has been through a couple of readings and revisions, Jason was in a position of refining characters and situations. He did not foresee any major changes. He mostly wanted to look at the female characters (a great choice), and at a couple of scenes, including one he wanted to cut. It wasn’t working, and he knew why, but he wasn’t quite sure how he wanted to fix it.
My script from the four days of rehearsal is covered in scribbles from the thoughts I had while hearing the actors read. While I’m reading a script the first time, I keep a notebook with my questions in it. For me, the margins of a script are for impressions during rehearsal. My margins are covered with cryptic scribblings like:
I saw some great development in the female characters during our four days of rehearsal, and Jason found it helpful to hear changes out loud. It was also very interesting to see relationships formed through watching the actors interact on stage, both during rehearsals and in the reading itself. We also benefitted from the audience talk-back after the reading.
One of the most interesting moments to me was when Jason came to rehearsal with a monologue that replaced an entire scene. The actor playing Telemachus read the monologue through a couple of times, and at the end of rehearsal, Chris, Jason and I caucused. We agreed that the monologue was cool, but didn’t really fit in this play. Jason came away from the conversation with several ideas of what to do for his next draft, understanding that with the time constraints of a four-day rehearsal process, he wouldn’t be able to bring something new to this particular setting.
The InkReading process was exciting: I got to work with a team I hadn’t worked with before, and help develop a play that is truly meaty. It’s always intriguing to see how different people work together, and what works best for one playwright may not necessarily work for another. I would definitely do it again!
An interesting (to me) post-script: some of our most fruitful dramaturgical conversations came on the Red Line after rehearsals! Jason and I got to know each other through conversations about our lives, as well as conversations about the play, and personal conversations inevitably turned into conversations about the script. A comment about media coverage of things going on in DC became a discussion about the media presence in Strive/Seek/Find; a question about marriage easily segued into a conversation about Penelope’s relationship with Odysseus before he went off to war…
That's the lovely and thoughtful Jenn Book above, front and center and in green, at The Inkwell's master class on the Art of New Play Dramaturgy, taught by Michael Bigelow Dixon, who stands in the background.
All I can really tell you is... they are SO important. They are the advocate for the playwright, the one who gets inside the brain of the playwright to help them explore a play, like it was a mine... looking for the vein of gold.
See? That's not a good analogy. But let me offer you this incredibly articulate description of the role of the dramaturg provided by one of our most talented and thoughtful dramaturgs, Jenn Book.
Take it away, Jenn!
-----------------------------------------------
My Grandma Lois always told me I should be a diplomat. “You have a way of making people understand each other,” she said. So, I grew up to be a diplomat. A kind of diplomat, anyway. I’m a dramaturg.
My friends and acquaintances have come up with a lot of different words that help them understand what I do. One of my students called me “our play’s hard drive.” A colleague of my husband’s offered “theatre consultant.” The dramaturg’s specific job depends on the show s/he’s working on, and the needs of the writer, director, and/or company. I’ve done background research for a show, compiled packets of information to help actors and directors with the world of the play, written study guides for audiences, created lobby displays to bring the audience into the world of the play, been the “third eye” in rehearsal, and provided commentary to writers and directors while their pieces of art were evolving.
Whew! But through it all, I maintain my role as “diplomat.” When working in a collaborative environment—as theatre so often is—I find that it’s rarely useful to just give my opinions, even if they are requested. I prefer to ask questions. So instead of “I don’t like when your character says…” I’ll ask why a character makes a specific choice.
Since I shy away from giving negative opinions as a matter of course, this has led some of my friends to call me a “Pollyanna,” or ask “Geez, Jenn, do you like everything?” Well, of course I don’t like everything! But consider the responses one might get from a playwright who asks “What did you think of my script?” and gets the answer, “I didn’t like Act 2.” “Well, what didn’t you like about it?” “I don’t know…I just didn’t like it.”
Now consider the following: “What did you think of my script?” “I loved the characters, but I’m wondering why you decided to put scene three where it is. Would we understand Character 1’s motivation better if we see what happens in scene four first?” This spawns conversation, rather than confusion and potential resentment.
I was thrilled when this approach to dramaturgical conversation was discussed and promoted in our workshop with Michael Bigelow Dixon. I actually teared up when we came to the conclusion that positive questioning and conversation was the appropriate route to dramaturgy.
I had the fortune to put this into practice for the InkReading series this fall. Early last month, I received a script in my email Inbox. It was Jason Gray Platt’s Strive/Seek/Find. The initial read intrigued me; the second read got me invested. Every few pages, my impression of the play and its characters changed.
“Oh, it’s about the family Odysseus left behind…”
“Oh, it’s told in a contemporary way. How cool! Telemachus is on his school’s swim team, and is dating a girl from his class…”
“Oh, it’s about power! And Telemachus is watching men come in and out of Penelope’s bedroom…”
And [beware of spoilers!] “Oh, Telemachus has raped a girl and killed a man. Is he finally in a position to claim his birthright?...”
I was hooked.
Our first rehearsal involved Jason, Supervising Dramaturge Anne McCaw and Artistic Director Jessi Burgess, Chris Gallu — the reading’s director — a couple of the actors, and me. We talked about what Jason wanted to get out of the process before jumping into reading. Since the script has been through a couple of readings and revisions, Jason was in a position of refining characters and situations. He did not foresee any major changes. He mostly wanted to look at the female characters (a great choice), and at a couple of scenes, including one he wanted to cut. It wasn’t working, and he knew why, but he wasn’t quite sure how he wanted to fix it.
My script from the four days of rehearsal is covered in scribbles from the thoughts I had while hearing the actors read. While I’m reading a script the first time, I keep a notebook with my questions in it. For me, the margins of a script are for impressions during rehearsal. My margins are covered with cryptic scribblings like:
“Does T know S since S knew O?” (read: Does Telemachus already know the Suitor to whom he’s speaking, since the Suitor knew Odysseus?),These are thoughts that come to me when I hear the scenes read aloud—ideas pop up when you can hear the dialogue rather than imagining it. For example, in my head, I can picture different voices for Penelope’s Suitors. When faced with the reality of one actor playing all of the Suitors, a very different reality presents itself—it is, of course, the actor’s and director’s choice how to differentiate the characters vocally and physically. But the writer can certainly help things a good deal by providing the characters with different word choices, syntax, and so on. It also becomes more apparent when characters change from scene to scene when one actor reads those roles.
“TRANSITION!!” (read: The transition time between scenes might be too quick for the actors to change costumes in a fully staged production), and
“C knows T knows parallel” (read: Calliope knows her mom is dead, even though others say different; Telemachus knows his dad is alive even though others say different).
After the actors read their scenes, they worked through character and action with Chris. I did most of my talking during breaks or right after rehearsal, but there were certainly times I jumped into the conversation if I was particularly excited about a topic. This mostly happened when we were discussing the female characters, Penelope and Calliope. I loved those two characters, and it’s so interesting to work on female characters that were written by men. We discussed Calliope a lot; her relationship with the royal family was very interesting, and we wanted to explore those relationships. Our major question was “Why did Calliope come into the picture in the first place, and why did she stay?”
I saw some great development in the female characters during our four days of rehearsal, and Jason found it helpful to hear changes out loud. It was also very interesting to see relationships formed through watching the actors interact on stage, both during rehearsals and in the reading itself. We also benefitted from the audience talk-back after the reading.
One of the most interesting moments to me was when Jason came to rehearsal with a monologue that replaced an entire scene. The actor playing Telemachus read the monologue through a couple of times, and at the end of rehearsal, Chris, Jason and I caucused. We agreed that the monologue was cool, but didn’t really fit in this play. Jason came away from the conversation with several ideas of what to do for his next draft, understanding that with the time constraints of a four-day rehearsal process, he wouldn’t be able to bring something new to this particular setting.
The InkReading process was exciting: I got to work with a team I hadn’t worked with before, and help develop a play that is truly meaty. It’s always intriguing to see how different people work together, and what works best for one playwright may not necessarily work for another. I would definitely do it again!
An interesting (to me) post-script: some of our most fruitful dramaturgical conversations came on the Red Line after rehearsals! Jason and I got to know each other through conversations about our lives, as well as conversations about the play, and personal conversations inevitably turned into conversations about the script. A comment about media coverage of things going on in DC became a discussion about the media presence in Strive/Seek/Find; a question about marriage easily segued into a conversation about Penelope’s relationship with Odysseus before he went off to war…
That's the lovely and thoughtful Jenn Book above, front and center and in green, at The Inkwell's master class on the Art of New Play Dramaturgy, taught by Michael Bigelow Dixon, who stands in the background.
Well, folks, we've taken down the lights and flats down at H Street Playhouse... and we've left the premises. Yes, the 2009 Inkubator Festival came to an end yesterday after one final performance of The F Word.
I gotta admit... I'm tired. It was a hectic weekend of rehearsals, our final showcase reading of plays that play with language, and then The F Word. I myself was up until 2:30 a.m. on Friday doing laundry for The F Word (hey, we all share responsibilities for the festival, and I've got a washer/dryer in my apartment)... and then we headed out of H Street Playhouse after our closing party at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday.
I'm tired, but I'm proud. Perhaps that pride is best expressed by some statistics. Here's a synopsis of our festival by the numbers:
I gotta admit... I'm tired. It was a hectic weekend of rehearsals, our final showcase reading of plays that play with language, and then The F Word. I myself was up until 2:30 a.m. on Friday doing laundry for The F Word (hey, we all share responsibilities for the festival, and I've got a washer/dryer in my apartment)... and then we headed out of H Street Playhouse after our closing party at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday.
I'm tired, but I'm proud. Perhaps that pride is best expressed by some statistics. Here's a synopsis of our festival by the numbers:
- We hosted 18 public events – three open rehearsals, four showcase readings, three developmental workshops, one panel discussion, and one master class, and six public performances of the bare bones production of The F Word.
- Through our national call for submissions, we made connections with 428 playwrights who screwed their courage to the sticking place and sent us their plays.
- To review plays from these writers, we enlisted 28 people to serve as readers and evaluators. We created an orientation program for readers, as well as an online forum to share comments about plays. Several of our readers joined the Inkubator Festival team as dramaturges and actors.
- We assembled a team of 22 playwrights, 46 actors, 4 directors, 13 dramaturges, 7 panelists, 3 choreographers, and 13 designers/technicians – more than 100 playmakers – to explore the process of making plays.
- Another goal of the festival has been to create a network of local playwrights. So we invited four DC-based
writers to present excerpts of their work at our second showcase reading. We then asked 125 local playwrights to
a local writers convening. More than 30 writers and Inkwell company members participated in the convening on September 27th, identifying a range of exciting ways in which The
Inkwell can help local playwrights reach their professional and artistic goals. Stay tuned for details as we figure out how to follow through.
- We more than doubled attendance from our first festival, with more than 450 coming to events over the past several weeks.
- Through our continuing outreach to playwrights, playmakers, and playgoers, we have built a contact list of more than 1,400 people who are engaged in play development. We keep these supporters informed through regular email updates, Inkblog!, and a newly revised website.
- With the help of the DC Commission of the Arts and many generous donors, we raised
Readers, you just can't get enough of The Inkwell today, can you... especially on a rainy day. It's the perfect kind of day to head into a nice, cozy theater to catch a new play!
So head on down to H Street Playhouse as we close out the Inkubator Production of The F Word...running through Sunday afternoon. To whet your appetite (you're right, Melissa, there are just so many puns associated with this piece), here are some photos from the show, taken by the multi-talented playwright.
And, catch a short interview with Melissa in the Backstage column of The Washington Post! (You'll need to scroll down past the piece about Tuna does Vegas)
So head on down to H Street Playhouse as we close out the Inkubator Production of The F Word...running through Sunday afternoon. To whet your appetite (you're right, Melissa, there are just so many puns associated with this piece), here are some photos from the show, taken by the multi-talented playwright.
And, catch a short interview with Melissa in the Backstage column of The Washington Post! (You'll need to scroll down past the piece about Tuna does Vegas)
Jessica Lynn Rodriguez sings about food — GLORIOUS food.
Karl Bittner (center) rhapsodizes about numbers with Jason McIntosh (right) and Mark Ludwick (left).
And here is Karl Bittner again (he's awfully photogenic) maniaclly hawking diets.
And here is Karl Bittner again (he's awfully photogenic) maniaclly hawking diets.
Readers - I have more to tell you about the fabulous playwrights involved in the 2009 Inkubator Festival!
Well, one specifically... Matthew Paul Olmos. He's the author of i put the fear of mexico in 'em, a riveting drama set in the alleyways of Tijuana. The play is getting quite a bit of attention across the country.
The Inkwell gave you a 20-minute taste of the play, dear readers, and now you can see the whole thing read at Gala Hispanic next Tuesday.
Here's a little more information from the press release sent out by Gala Hispanic. The Inkwell team will be there to cheer Matthew on!
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Hispanic Theatre launches its Staged Reading Series with i put the fear of méxico in ‘em, a new play by one of the most exciting Latino voices in the country, Matthew Paul Olmos from East Los Angeles. Directed by Abel López, the reading features Tim Andres Pabón,Mariana Osorio, Eric Lucas, Karen Novak, Mattias Kraemer, and Belén Oyola-Rebaza. A discussion with the playwright and artists will follow the reading.
In i put the fear of méxico in ‘em, an American couple visiting Tijuana, Mexico stumble off the beaten path, and are accosted by a Mexican couple in an alley. What ensues is a complex encounter that challenges notions of boundary, safety, identity and what you would do for your family.
i put the fear of mexico in ‘em was developed by INTAR Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, and in part with a Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship.
i put the fear of méxico in ‘em will be presented on Tuesday, October 20 at 7 pm at the GALA Theatre, 3333 14th Street, NW. A donation of $5 is recommended.
Well, one specifically... Matthew Paul Olmos. He's the author of i put the fear of mexico in 'em, a riveting drama set in the alleyways of Tijuana. The play is getting quite a bit of attention across the country.
The Inkwell gave you a 20-minute taste of the play, dear readers, and now you can see the whole thing read at Gala Hispanic next Tuesday.
Here's a little more information from the press release sent out by Gala Hispanic. The Inkwell team will be there to cheer Matthew on!
-------------------------------------
Hispanic Theatre launches its Staged Reading Series with i put the fear of méxico in ‘em, a new play by one of the most exciting Latino voices in the country, Matthew Paul Olmos from East Los Angeles. Directed by Abel López, the reading features Tim Andres Pabón,Mariana Osorio, Eric Lucas, Karen Novak, Mattias Kraemer, and Belén Oyola-Rebaza. A discussion with the playwright and artists will follow the reading.
In i put the fear of méxico in ‘em, an American couple visiting Tijuana, Mexico stumble off the beaten path, and are accosted by a Mexican couple in an alley. What ensues is a complex encounter that challenges notions of boundary, safety, identity and what you would do for your family.
i put the fear of mexico in ‘em was developed by INTAR Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, and in part with a Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship.
i put the fear of méxico in ‘em will be presented on Tuesday, October 20 at 7 pm at the GALA Theatre, 3333 14th Street, NW. A donation of $5 is recommended.
Dedicated, diligent, delectable readers — I hope you like hearing from playwrights. We've enjoyed our conversations with 22 playwrights, whose work we chose to explore as part of the 2009 Inkubator Festival. We knew they were imaginative... they've taken nearly every subject under the sun... global warming, fat, the meaning of time, conflict between ideals and politics, the reformation, The Odyssey, immaculate conception, tetherball... and monkeys... and woven rich, surprising, funny, frightening plays out of them. In talking with them over the past several weeks, we've found them to funny, open, warm, thoughtful. (Wow... I'm all about the adjectives today). Just awesome people all around.
Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing with you insights from a number of our playwrights. We're so glad to hear that they enjoyed their time working with us.
So here are some impressions from one of our wonderful playwrights: Henry Murray. He has written a crazy great play called Monkey Adored that imagines a world of animals on the edge. We presented a 20-minute excerpt of the play at The Kennedy Center. (You can learn a little more about it from a previous blog entry.)
Thanks, Henry, for your kind words. And we can't wait to read the next draft of Monkey Adored.
--------------------------------------
My name is Henry Murray and I was invited to DC over Labor Day Weekend for a reading of an excerpt from my play Monkey Adored. I had never been to Washington (I grew up saying Warshington as a kid in Tennessee) so I flew from LA a day early to see the sights. What a beautiful city!
The Kennedy Center is amazing. In LA we have have the Ahmanson, The Mark Taper Forum and The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion all on one downtown city block, but The Kennedy Center has all that in one building plus a few more performance spaces thrown in. Impressive!
I had spoken to Anne McCaw by phone about what I wanted to work on with the play, and she encouraged me to change the 20-minute excerpt I had chosen to present. I wasn't completely sure about the switch, but I decided trust her and the adventure and ultimately I was glad I did. I had never worked with a dramaturge before, and I was intrigued and now believe it can be a powerful relationship. I had additional excellent dramaturgical help from Meghan Long in rehearsal.
Speaking of rehearsal, my director Chris Niebling turned out to be an energetic and well-prepared dynamo of ideas and support. The actors were talented and well cast, also well-prepared and energetic, and we had a great rehearsal. Which, of course, led to a terrific reading. The audience laughed way more than I expected and several people came up to me afterword and told me they were touched as well. Gee, have I oversold this experience? It was pretty ideal. I was highly energized by the experience and now have a complete new draft of Monkey Adored.
My only regret is that the Inkwell is a whole continent away from LA.
Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing with you insights from a number of our playwrights. We're so glad to hear that they enjoyed their time working with us.
So here are some impressions from one of our wonderful playwrights: Henry Murray. He has written a crazy great play called Monkey Adored that imagines a world of animals on the edge. We presented a 20-minute excerpt of the play at The Kennedy Center. (You can learn a little more about it from a previous blog entry.)
Thanks, Henry, for your kind words. And we can't wait to read the next draft of Monkey Adored.
--------------------------------------
My name is Henry Murray and I was invited to DC over Labor Day Weekend for a reading of an excerpt from my play Monkey Adored. I had never been to Washington (I grew up saying Warshington as a kid in Tennessee) so I flew from LA a day early to see the sights. What a beautiful city!
The Kennedy Center is amazing. In LA we have have the Ahmanson, The Mark Taper Forum and The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion all on one downtown city block, but The Kennedy Center has all that in one building plus a few more performance spaces thrown in. Impressive!
I had spoken to Anne McCaw by phone about what I wanted to work on with the play, and she encouraged me to change the 20-minute excerpt I had chosen to present. I wasn't completely sure about the switch, but I decided trust her and the adventure and ultimately I was glad I did. I had never worked with a dramaturge before, and I was intrigued and now believe it can be a powerful relationship. I had additional excellent dramaturgical help from Meghan Long in rehearsal.
Speaking of rehearsal, my director Chris Niebling turned out to be an energetic and well-prepared dynamo of ideas and support. The actors were talented and well cast, also well-prepared and energetic, and we had a great rehearsal. Which, of course, led to a terrific reading. The audience laughed way more than I expected and several people came up to me afterword and told me they were touched as well. Gee, have I oversold this experience? It was pretty ideal. I was highly energized by the experience and now have a complete new draft of Monkey Adored.
My only regret is that the Inkwell is a whole continent away from LA.
Hey there, intrepid readers and playgoers -
What words are popping into your head at this very moment? We here at The Inkwell are spending a lot of time thinking about the F WORD... dirty isn't it? But not the way you think. We've been thinking about FAT. Yes, it's a dirty, dirty word, and we've put a full exploration of it onstage at H Street Playhouse.
The Inkubator production of Melissa Blackall's The F Word opened last night. It's an ambitious, provocative, and moving play about how we all struggle to find the perfect shape... from waist size to soul. The play has traveled so far over the past 18 months that we have been working with Melissa. As Melissa said last night, there's maybe 10 percent of her original draft in the piece. It's an entire transformation of the play... and it's unlikely to be the same again as Melissa continues to work on it.
We had a nice crowd who waited patiently while we set up for the show... thanks again for your patience. Opening nights are always surprising. And now we're up and running until Sunday, October 18th. Come join in on the f...un!
And now... for all those who saw or are going to see the show... tell us want you think! Melissa is very eager to get reactions from the audience.
So perhaps we can get you to ponder the following questions... and send us a response!
When you think about The F Word...
What do you think is the emotional journey of the play?
What scenes were the most surprising, moving, provocative for you? What scenes or moments are lingering in your mind now after seeing the show?
What perspective of The F Word would you like to see more fully explored?
This is an important part of the playmaking process... audience feedback... so please help us continue the conversation about The F Word.
What words are popping into your head at this very moment? We here at The Inkwell are spending a lot of time thinking about the F WORD... dirty isn't it? But not the way you think. We've been thinking about FAT. Yes, it's a dirty, dirty word, and we've put a full exploration of it onstage at H Street Playhouse.
The Inkubator production of Melissa Blackall's The F Word opened last night. It's an ambitious, provocative, and moving play about how we all struggle to find the perfect shape... from waist size to soul. The play has traveled so far over the past 18 months that we have been working with Melissa. As Melissa said last night, there's maybe 10 percent of her original draft in the piece. It's an entire transformation of the play... and it's unlikely to be the same again as Melissa continues to work on it.
We had a nice crowd who waited patiently while we set up for the show... thanks again for your patience. Opening nights are always surprising. And now we're up and running until Sunday, October 18th. Come join in on the f...un!
And now... for all those who saw or are going to see the show... tell us want you think! Melissa is very eager to get reactions from the audience.
So perhaps we can get you to ponder the following questions... and send us a response!
When you think about The F Word...
What do you think is the emotional journey of the play?
What scenes were the most surprising, moving, provocative for you? What scenes or moments are lingering in your mind now after seeing the show?
What perspective of The F Word would you like to see more fully explored?
This is an important part of the playmaking process... audience feedback... so please help us continue the conversation about The F Word.
Readers (and hopefully playgoers as well) - We are well into the 2009 Inkubator Festival now, and here's the tally:
We've explored and showcased 15 new plays so far. We've assembled a team of actors, directors, dramaturges, designers and actors that numbers around 100. The F Word is completely rewritten and staged... and now we jump on the ladders to hang lights, get on our knees to paint the floor, and continue to collect a lot of plastic food (I hope that intrigues you.)
Michael Bigelow Dixon gave us a thorough tutorial on the art of dramaturgy, allowing class participates a own chance to write, rewrite, and engage in a lively discussion of how a dramaturg can help a playwright. (More on that in a later blog entry.)
And we staged a marvelous play by Susan Hoon Se Stanton...Cygnus... a play about the possibility of immaculate conception, the weight of sin, the bind that family can put us in, and the stories we need to make ourselves meaningful.
Susan was a delight to work with, and we love the revisions she made to the play.
Yep...we at The Inkwell have been busy. And we're looking forward to our final week at H Street Playhouse. We'll be sharing with you a fascinating play about sisterhood and race called Tether, opening the Inkubator Production of The F Word, and sharing with you excerpts from five more plays that experiment with language.
But let me stop and share some thoughts about one of particular Inkwell event.
On October 3rd, we showcased excerpts from five crazy (dare I say crack-tastic) new plays. I was not there for the final performance because of a nasty cold, but as supervising dramaturge, I prepared notes to introduce each of the pieces. Here are my notes... and some photographs to give a sense of what this terrific evening of theater was all about.
--------------------------------------------
This particular suite of plays are inspired by literature and history. One way to look at them is that they are continuing a conversation in one way or another, about marriage, family, home, lust and greed, the start and resolution of age old conflicts that affected generations.
The Owl Girl
by Monica Raymond
This is a story about conflict and resolution, perhaps the oldest, most fundamental story found in history. Let me quote the playwright in explaining the origins of this play:
Joze, a young man “in love with peace,” travels back to his old house, key in hand. When he unlocks the door, he unlocks the conflict that brews underneath the lives of these two families. Yet both families find themselves living side by side in this house, along with a dormant grapevine. Just as the vine begins to thrives, so Anja begins to grow and to reclaim a power given to her by her grandmother… the ability to turn into an owl.
Our readers loved this story that that reexamines war, peace, home, and family through humor, through complex and surprising interactions between deeply fascinating characters, through a dark, unsettling magic, and through a sparse aching poetry.
This excerpt is from the very end of the play, when both families have “settled” into the house.
Genesis
By Alexis Roblan
We are showcasing a play inspired by what may consider the original story, the original history. This is the story of Cain and his struggle to understand his own existence.
We all know the story, right? Maybe. Here Cain is deeply conflicted, wanting to please, wanting to find love and companionship, wanting to succeed, wanting knowledge and understanding. As you all know, his journey is one of murder, shame, and exile. This story continues past the death of Abel, as Cain finds Lilith, the original woman.
Here’s what one of our readers had to say about the play:
"One of the epicenters of this play is the question: are we children of biology (of genetics, of evolution, of our parents, of our experience) or are we more fundamentally children of the spirit - children of God? To even flirt with that question today is courageous; to place it at or near the center of your play is heroic."
This play is dark and perversely sexy and courageous. As any good telling of a myth, it brings us face to face with taboos and mysteries.
This excerpts presents several scenes from the play, from the beginning when Cain questions his mother Eve, to after the death of Abel, to the banishment of Cain and the moment he finds Lilith.
The Pillow Book
By Anna Moench
The original Pillow Book was written by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to Empress Sadako in early 11th century of Japan. Sei Shonagon was the daughter of a renowned poet. The book is a compilation of lists, events at court, poetry, and opinions of contemporaries. It is considered one of the most important pieces of Japanese literature alongside the Tale of Genji.
Here’s a small excerpt from the book.
Words That Look Commonplace but that become impressive when written in Chinese Characters:
Strawberries
A dew-plant
A prickly water-lily
A walnut
A Doctor of Literature
A Provisional Senior Steward in the Office of the Emperor's Household
Red myrtle
Alexis uses the Pillow Book idea to dramatize a marriage and the struggle to come to terms with a pivotal decision… whether or not to have a child. She is wildly imaginative in exploring this relationship of John and Deb, taking them from their bedroom to the Serengeti. Fragments of poetry, scenes, and musings lead us into the depths of this marriage, exploring intimacy in a fascinating way, finding the moments when you know and think you know your partner.
Here’s a fragment in the play that takes us from John and Deb’s headspace to the airport to a moment in their marriage years ago to another marriage entirely.
The Missing Pieces
By Nick Zagone
We end this showcase in a modern history of family, inspired by memory and by Hugh Hefner. The play takes place right after the eruption of Mount Saint Helen in 1980. Ash is falling all over the planet, but no where is the ash so thick as in Portland Oregon. From the playwright: The Country is in a Recession. In the Northwest, a Depression. It’s Wet. It’s Dark. And it’s Quiet.
Timmy is 12 year-old boy from a broken home. His father is off philandering, his mother is at home steaming. He comes up with an inventive solution… journey to the Play Boy Mansion to find Hugh Hefner with the help of Lillian, a Playboy Playmate from 1963.
The Missing Pieces is a coming-of-age story with a unique spin in many ways. The language of each character has unique rhythm, especially the characters of Lillian and Timmy. And these are an unusual mix of characters... an overly Irish Mom, a Playmate, a guru, an Optimist...it's fun, stuff to see how these characters interact, and Nick does not disappoint in surprising us in their reactions and responses to one another. Lillian is worth the price of admission alone.
The landscape of a place covered in ash gives the play an interesting sense of apocalyptic proportion. At this point in the play, Timmy has brought Lillian home to meet mom. An argument ensues.
Clementine and the Cyber Ducks
By Krista Knight
This play is a thoroughly original mix of folk tale and history, taking us back and forth in time in California, from the Gold Rush Ear to the Dot-Com Boom.
We all know who Clementine is… she is
the heroine of the American folk song, Oh My Darlin’, Oh My Darlin’…
Clementine is caught between these two eras, in love with an enterprising young man in search
of capital to launch his Internet Search Engine, and living with her father, a Miner 49ner in search of gold, who imagines the death of his daughter over and over again. Clementine is egged on to commit fraud for love and money by three Cyber Ducks obsessed with making it rich.
The playwright calls this a vaudevillian Greek tragedy.
What can I say? Cyber Ducks? We loved the theatricality of this piece, the inventiveness of language (somewhere between then and today), the movement in time and space, the struggle between loyalty and greed, and the magic of ducks that can conjure an electrical charge.
The excerpt is from near the end of the play, when Clementine has embarked on a scheme to bilk money from lonely bachelors. Clementine’s sister has come to California, sensing that something is wrong. They both interact with the Cyberducks at the river, where Clementine is panning for gold… and any other kind of investment that might float along.
In the first photograph above, we see the back of Michael Bigelow Dixon's head as he speaks before an animated class on the art of new play dramaturgy.
In the second photograph, Adam Segaller performs for an excerpt from Genesis by Alexis Roblan.
In the third photograph, playwright Anna Moench, dramaturge Deb Sevigny, and director Randy Baker listen to comments from the audience after the showcase reading.
And finally, Regina Aquino performs for an excerpt from Krista Knight's Clementine and the Cyber Ducks.
We've explored and showcased 15 new plays so far. We've assembled a team of actors, directors, dramaturges, designers and actors that numbers around 100. The F Word is completely rewritten and staged... and now we jump on the ladders to hang lights, get on our knees to paint the floor, and continue to collect a lot of plastic food (I hope that intrigues you.)
Michael Bigelow Dixon gave us a thorough tutorial on the art of dramaturgy, allowing class participates a own chance to write, rewrite, and engage in a lively discussion of how a dramaturg can help a playwright. (More on that in a later blog entry.) And we staged a marvelous play by Susan Hoon Se Stanton...Cygnus... a play about the possibility of immaculate conception, the weight of sin, the bind that family can put us in, and the stories we need to make ourselves meaningful.
Susan was a delight to work with, and we love the revisions she made to the play.
Yep...we at The Inkwell have been busy. And we're looking forward to our final week at H Street Playhouse. We'll be sharing with you a fascinating play about sisterhood and race called Tether, opening the Inkubator Production of The F Word, and sharing with you excerpts from five more plays that experiment with language.
But let me stop and share some thoughts about one of particular Inkwell event.
On October 3rd, we showcased excerpts from five crazy (dare I say crack-tastic) new plays. I was not there for the final performance because of a nasty cold, but as supervising dramaturge, I prepared notes to introduce each of the pieces. Here are my notes... and some photographs to give a sense of what this terrific evening of theater was all about.
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This particular suite of plays are inspired by literature and history. One way to look at them is that they are continuing a conversation in one way or another, about marriage, family, home, lust and greed, the start and resolution of age old conflicts that affected generations.
The Owl Girl
by Monica Raymond
This is a story about conflict and resolution, perhaps the oldest, most fundamental story found in history. Let me quote the playwright in explaining the origins of this play:
“My original impetus for the play was a conversation with an Israeli man named Dovid Dolev who had come to the United States and was running Muslim-Jewish dialogue groups in Cambridge, Massachusettts. In the conversation, Dovid mentioned that there were Palestinians living in the West Bank who still had the keys to the houses their families had formerly occupied in Jerusalem. I was struck very strongly with that image of one house with two different keyholders.”For the most part, The Owl Girl takes place in a two-story, blue house in an unspecified place. One family — Rav and Ora and their two children, Stel and Capi — have recently moved into the house that was once owned by another family — Zol and Leedya, and their two children, Joze and Anja — displaced to a refugee camp. Both families carry with them the scars of conflict. Anja in particular has a peculiar affliction… she hasn’t grown for seven years.
Joze, a young man “in love with peace,” travels back to his old house, key in hand. When he unlocks the door, he unlocks the conflict that brews underneath the lives of these two families. Yet both families find themselves living side by side in this house, along with a dormant grapevine. Just as the vine begins to thrives, so Anja begins to grow and to reclaim a power given to her by her grandmother… the ability to turn into an owl.
Our readers loved this story that that reexamines war, peace, home, and family through humor, through complex and surprising interactions between deeply fascinating characters, through a dark, unsettling magic, and through a sparse aching poetry.
This excerpt is from the very end of the play, when both families have “settled” into the house.
Genesis
By Alexis Roblan
We are showcasing a play inspired by what may consider the original story, the original history. This is the story of Cain and his struggle to understand his own existence.
We all know the story, right? Maybe. Here Cain is deeply conflicted, wanting to please, wanting to find love and companionship, wanting to succeed, wanting knowledge and understanding. As you all know, his journey is one of murder, shame, and exile. This story continues past the death of Abel, as Cain finds Lilith, the original woman.
Here’s what one of our readers had to say about the play:
"One of the epicenters of this play is the question: are we children of biology (of genetics, of evolution, of our parents, of our experience) or are we more fundamentally children of the spirit - children of God? To even flirt with that question today is courageous; to place it at or near the center of your play is heroic."
This play is dark and perversely sexy and courageous. As any good telling of a myth, it brings us face to face with taboos and mysteries.
This excerpts presents several scenes from the play, from the beginning when Cain questions his mother Eve, to after the death of Abel, to the banishment of Cain and the moment he finds Lilith.
The Pillow Book
By Anna Moench
The original Pillow Book was written by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to Empress Sadako in early 11th century of Japan. Sei Shonagon was the daughter of a renowned poet. The book is a compilation of lists, events at court, poetry, and opinions of contemporaries. It is considered one of the most important pieces of Japanese literature alongside the Tale of Genji.
Here’s a small excerpt from the book.
Words That Look Commonplace but that become impressive when written in Chinese Characters:Strawberries
A dew-plant
A prickly water-lily
A walnut
A Doctor of Literature
A Provisional Senior Steward in the Office of the Emperor's Household
Red myrtle
Alexis uses the Pillow Book idea to dramatize a marriage and the struggle to come to terms with a pivotal decision… whether or not to have a child. She is wildly imaginative in exploring this relationship of John and Deb, taking them from their bedroom to the Serengeti. Fragments of poetry, scenes, and musings lead us into the depths of this marriage, exploring intimacy in a fascinating way, finding the moments when you know and think you know your partner.
Here’s a fragment in the play that takes us from John and Deb’s headspace to the airport to a moment in their marriage years ago to another marriage entirely.
The Missing Pieces
By Nick Zagone
We end this showcase in a modern history of family, inspired by memory and by Hugh Hefner. The play takes place right after the eruption of Mount Saint Helen in 1980. Ash is falling all over the planet, but no where is the ash so thick as in Portland Oregon. From the playwright: The Country is in a Recession. In the Northwest, a Depression. It’s Wet. It’s Dark. And it’s Quiet.
Timmy is 12 year-old boy from a broken home. His father is off philandering, his mother is at home steaming. He comes up with an inventive solution… journey to the Play Boy Mansion to find Hugh Hefner with the help of Lillian, a Playboy Playmate from 1963.
The Missing Pieces is a coming-of-age story with a unique spin in many ways. The language of each character has unique rhythm, especially the characters of Lillian and Timmy. And these are an unusual mix of characters... an overly Irish Mom, a Playmate, a guru, an Optimist...it's fun, stuff to see how these characters interact, and Nick does not disappoint in surprising us in their reactions and responses to one another. Lillian is worth the price of admission alone.
The landscape of a place covered in ash gives the play an interesting sense of apocalyptic proportion. At this point in the play, Timmy has brought Lillian home to meet mom. An argument ensues.
Clementine and the Cyber Ducks
By Krista Knight
This play is a thoroughly original mix of folk tale and history, taking us back and forth in time in California, from the Gold Rush Ear to the Dot-Com Boom.
We all know who Clementine is… she is
the heroine of the American folk song, Oh My Darlin’, Oh My Darlin’…
Clementine is caught between these two eras, in love with an enterprising young man in search
of capital to launch his Internet Search Engine, and living with her father, a Miner 49ner in search of gold, who imagines the death of his daughter over and over again. Clementine is egged on to commit fraud for love and money by three Cyber Ducks obsessed with making it rich.
The playwright calls this a vaudevillian Greek tragedy.
What can I say? Cyber Ducks? We loved the theatricality of this piece, the inventiveness of language (somewhere between then and today), the movement in time and space, the struggle between loyalty and greed, and the magic of ducks that can conjure an electrical charge.
The excerpt is from near the end of the play, when Clementine has embarked on a scheme to bilk money from lonely bachelors. Clementine’s sister has come to California, sensing that something is wrong. They both interact with the Cyberducks at the river, where Clementine is panning for gold… and any other kind of investment that might float along.
In the first photograph above, we see the back of Michael Bigelow Dixon's head as he speaks before an animated class on the art of new play dramaturgy.
In the second photograph, Adam Segaller performs for an excerpt from Genesis by Alexis Roblan.
In the third photograph, playwright Anna Moench, dramaturge Deb Sevigny, and director Randy Baker listen to comments from the audience after the showcase reading.
And finally, Regina Aquino performs for an excerpt from Krista Knight's Clementine and the Cyber Ducks.
Intrepid readers, I’d like to bring you back to the letter F in this particular blog entry and The F Word that we at The Inkwell are exploring at our Inkubator Festival this year.
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve been following the evolution of the play The F Word by Melissa Blackall. It’s gone on quite a journey, and here we are... near the point in the road where we let this play walk on its own two feet. The point at which we give it over to actors and the director to make it into a production. Before we cross the last mile with the play, here’s what Melissa has to share with us.
----------------------------------------------------------
It’s a huge (we’ve all realized puns are literally unavoidable with this play) subject to tackle... FAT. I wanted to explore how American’s obsession and fear of fat, effects individuals. Specifically examining the questions: where does the obsession come from? Can it be stopped? Is it the individual's place to stop it or ignore it? How do individuals develop a positive body image in this culture? Is fat really that bad? Etc....
Here’s where I started. I had just finished two years with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and was touring the country with a play that I wrote promoting National Service. As my time in AmeriCorps was waning, I looked in my writing journal and saw the list of plays I hope to someday write and one stood out to me… “A play about fat.” I thought to my myself. “Hmmm. I might be ready for that one….” That was five years ago.
I started with research – lots and lots of research. One book in particular was instrumental in the creation of this play – The Obesity Myth: Why America's obsession with weight is hazardous to your health by Paul Campos. The book is very thought provoking and one quote was so striking, I’ve included it in the written script:
“And nothing less than a revolution is needed to overthrow America’s eating-disordered culture, with it’s loathing of the most minimal body diversity, its neurotic oscillation between guilt-ridden bingeing and anorexic self-starvation and its pathologic fear of food, pleasure, and life itself.
After the first reading of The F Word at The Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival in 2007, I realized I had a great set of blueprints, but I didn’t have a play quite yet. The draft lacked an emotional anchor – it was full of concepts. Audiences don’t relate to concepts, they relate to characters. Major rewrites followed and have continued over the past two years.
Working with Director Patrick Torres during Inkwell’s Inaugural Festival in 2008 proved to be invaluable. We tackled a section of the script we have called the Symptoms Scenes. In these scenes, the seven bodies experience a metaphorically infection that is caused by the cultural obsession with Fat. Patrick and the actors helped me understand why some of the Symptoms Scenes worked and some didn’t. The scenes that took place in a concrete place (The Grand Canyon, a New Jersey bus terminal) worked much better than those that were in a void space. That staged reading gave life to the next chapter of the play and the symptom scenes and the characters were far more developed.
The Symptoms Scenes continue to be a main focus of rewrites. Jessi Burgess (an incredible dramaturge) felt it was necessary that all the characters have a symptom scene (we started this process with only five) and that they could serve as the emotional anchor that the script has been missing. She was right! So now, ALL seven characters experience a symptom in a concrete location in the United States and infect another body (like a cultural virus). The domino infection helps navigate us through this vignette play. The Symptoms Scenes have become my favorite probably because they have evolved the most over the Inkubator process, and I love that they take us all over the United States and examine universal feelings in a totally different way.
The play still needs some tweaking, but I’m much closer to the play I want to write. I’m most interested in finding threads to connect the vignette style of the piece. While some of these threads will emerge from rewriting and structure most of them will be created with the help of our wonderful and insightful Director Jessica Lefkow and the extremely talented cast. This cast has been so helpful in sharing their thoughts and bringing their craft to this process. With additional ideas from the sound designer Matt Nielson, set designer Matt Soule, lighting designer Adam Magazine, costume designer Maggie Clifton, and prop designer Suzen Mason. I have no doubt that by the end of this process all of these amazing artists will help this vignette play find a smooth rhythm and a clear dramatic arch.
The Inkwell’s Lee Liebeskind, Lindsay Haynes, Anne McCaw, Amy Kellett, and of course the fabulous Ms. Jessi Burgess have been incredibly supportive throughout my exploration and writing of this play. Without the Inkwell, I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my head or arms around this FAT play!
Above, The Inkwell team of actors, dramaturges, and producers participate in an open rehearsal of The F Word at The Inkwell's inaugural Inkubator Festival. The photo is by the playwright, Melissa Blackall.
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve been following the evolution of the play The F Word by Melissa Blackall. It’s gone on quite a journey, and here we are... near the point in the road where we let this play walk on its own two feet. The point at which we give it over to actors and the director to make it into a production. Before we cross the last mile with the play, here’s what Melissa has to share with us.
----------------------------------------------------------
It’s a huge (we’ve all realized puns are literally unavoidable with this play) subject to tackle... FAT. I wanted to explore how American’s obsession and fear of fat, effects individuals. Specifically examining the questions: where does the obsession come from? Can it be stopped? Is it the individual's place to stop it or ignore it? How do individuals develop a positive body image in this culture? Is fat really that bad? Etc....
Here’s where I started. I had just finished two years with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and was touring the country with a play that I wrote promoting National Service. As my time in AmeriCorps was waning, I looked in my writing journal and saw the list of plays I hope to someday write and one stood out to me… “A play about fat.” I thought to my myself. “Hmmm. I might be ready for that one….” That was five years ago.
I started with research – lots and lots of research. One book in particular was instrumental in the creation of this play – The Obesity Myth: Why America's obsession with weight is hazardous to your health by Paul Campos. The book is very thought provoking and one quote was so striking, I’ve included it in the written script:
“And nothing less than a revolution is needed to overthrow America’s eating-disordered culture, with it’s loathing of the most minimal body diversity, its neurotic oscillation between guilt-ridden bingeing and anorexic self-starvation and its pathologic fear of food, pleasure, and life itself.
I read lots of other books, interviewed lots of people and paid attention to how the media, medical field, my peers, family, and I responded or interacted with the subject. I instantly realized that while we’re bombarded by images and judgments around fat, nobody really wants to talk about. I also realized asking someone’s weight is worse than asking their age! I read horrifying statistics, including that a majority of American woman would rather get cancer than be considered fat. And that’s how I got the title. Fat has become the new F word!
After the first reading of The F Word at The Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival in 2007, I realized I had a great set of blueprints, but I didn’t have a play quite yet. The draft lacked an emotional anchor – it was full of concepts. Audiences don’t relate to concepts, they relate to characters. Major rewrites followed and have continued over the past two years.
Working with Director Patrick Torres during Inkwell’s Inaugural Festival in 2008 proved to be invaluable. We tackled a section of the script we have called the Symptoms Scenes. In these scenes, the seven bodies experience a metaphorically infection that is caused by the cultural obsession with Fat. Patrick and the actors helped me understand why some of the Symptoms Scenes worked and some didn’t. The scenes that took place in a concrete place (The Grand Canyon, a New Jersey bus terminal) worked much better than those that were in a void space. That staged reading gave life to the next chapter of the play and the symptom scenes and the characters were far more developed.
The Symptoms Scenes continue to be a main focus of rewrites. Jessi Burgess (an incredible dramaturge) felt it was necessary that all the characters have a symptom scene (we started this process with only five) and that they could serve as the emotional anchor that the script has been missing. She was right! So now, ALL seven characters experience a symptom in a concrete location in the United States and infect another body (like a cultural virus). The domino infection helps navigate us through this vignette play. The Symptoms Scenes have become my favorite probably because they have evolved the most over the Inkubator process, and I love that they take us all over the United States and examine universal feelings in a totally different way.
The play still needs some tweaking, but I’m much closer to the play I want to write. I’m most interested in finding threads to connect the vignette style of the piece. While some of these threads will emerge from rewriting and structure most of them will be created with the help of our wonderful and insightful Director Jessica Lefkow and the extremely talented cast. This cast has been so helpful in sharing their thoughts and bringing their craft to this process. With additional ideas from the sound designer Matt Nielson, set designer Matt Soule, lighting designer Adam Magazine, costume designer Maggie Clifton, and prop designer Suzen Mason. I have no doubt that by the end of this process all of these amazing artists will help this vignette play find a smooth rhythm and a clear dramatic arch.
The Inkwell’s Lee Liebeskind, Lindsay Haynes, Anne McCaw, Amy Kellett, and of course the fabulous Ms. Jessi Burgess have been incredibly supportive throughout my exploration and writing of this play. Without the Inkwell, I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my head or arms around this FAT play!
Above, The Inkwell team of actors, dramaturges, and producers participate in an open rehearsal of The F Word at The Inkwell's inaugural Inkubator Festival. The photo is by the playwright, Melissa Blackall.
Hello there, loyal readers. WOW. There's so much going on over at H Street Playhouse... it's hard to keep up with the panel discussions, the rewrites, the showcase readings, the conversations between playwrights and actors and directors. So here is my solution... a little alphabet lesson in the land of The Inkwell!
A is for ACTOR, who is so important to the play development process. We heard from acclaimed actors Naomi Jacobsen and John Fescault at our panel discussion — The Actor and the New Play — the dos and don’ts of working with an actor on a new play. Do trust an actor to help you fill in a character, to find the funny in a comic play, to “find the pebbles among the boulders in the river, so we can make it to the other shore” as Naomi put it. DON’T ask actors to read a monologue that they have been stumbling over for weeks, that they have tried to make work three ways to Sunday. Much shouting and stomping follows.
B is for BOLDNESS, which we are finding is a big part of the play development process. Actors are bold in asking pointed questions about character and in helping playwrights make choices about the emotional intention of a scene. Playwrights are bold in putting raw material in the hands of directors and actors… plays that may not have seen the light of day before.
C is for COMMUNITY and CONNECTION, which we found that local playwrights crave. That’s what they said when we brought them together for a moderated discussion on what they need to put forward their professional and artistic goals. They need a community of playwrights, actors, and directors to help them better understand their own writing process, to hold their hands in between drafts, and help writer overcome the fear factor of looking at a blank page.
D is for DRAMATURGES, who have been an essential resource to our playwrights thus far. A team of 13 dramaturges is working with 18 playwrights. Their first job is to listen… listen to what the playwright needs, where they are with the play, what questions that they can no longer answer by sitting hunched over a computer. Their second job is to help the playwright identify goals for a play development process… such as better understanding a girl attracted to a boy who is the son of a warrior, a boy who has a very dark side (see G is for Gray below).
E is for EXCERPT, which each of our showcase playwrights present to you, the audience. We’ve asked them to give us 20-minute excerpts from their plays high in emotional conflict, a place in the play were we as an audience are dropped right into the middle of the action. We’re finding that (1) those scenes are fun for you all
to watch and (2) these scene are illustrative in helping the playwrights find out more about the world of their plays.
F is for F WORD, or FAT. This is the subject of Melissa Blackall’s biting, funny, and heart wrenching play about our obsession with body image and fat. She’s totally rewritten the play over the past several weeks, mixing metaphor with satire with brutal confession to show the journey of seven different bodies — Toothpick, Voluptuous, Stout, Blimp, Lean, Belly, and Huge.
G is for GRAY, as in the middle name of the fabulous Jason Gray Platt, who joined us for a week to explore his play strike/seek/find. Director Chris Gallus and actors Lindsay Haynes, Nigel Reed, Valerie Leonard, and Evan Casey put their heart, soul, and heads into this dark, bloody take on The Odyssey. In this version, Odysseus is no where to be found in Athens. Telemachus is a sullen teenager, unsure of himself as he sits in the shadow of his missing father. The team helped Jason explore some key character arcs, particularly that of Calliope, the young girl who is attracted to Telemachus for his fame, his vulnerability, for all that he can promise and all that he can take away. They also dug into the motivations of Telemachus’ mother, Penelope, who is caught between her abiding loyalty and love for Odysseus and the political machinations of her many suitors. The actors put on a hell of a performance. We were all stunned by their commitment to this emotionally fraught piece. We hope that Jason went home to New York with a new enthusiasm for the piece.
H is for HIP HOP, which we explored through the world created by Q Terah Jackson in his play 20Twenty, one of four plays we showed off on Sunday, September 27th as part of a Local Writers Showcase and Convening. The Inkwell’s own Lee Liebeskind guided a talented group of actors through a reading of a 20-minute excerpt of the play. They covered a lot o territory in 20 minutes — from the rage that inspired the first hip hop songs to the troubling sexual imagery of hip hop today to the disconnect between generations that grew up with different versions of the hip hop mythos. We can’t wait to see the next draft, Terah!
And I is, of course, for INKUBATOR, the name of this smorgasbord of new play development, this festival that we are in the midst of at the playhouse. Please come on down for our next series of events, which include a master class on new play dramaturgy, a showcase of plays inspired by literature and history, two open rehearsals of The F Word, and a staged reading of Susan Soon He Stanton's Cygnus.
Above, actors Eric Humphries, Jace Parker, Theo Hadjamichael, Toby Mulford, Alia Faith Williams, Lynn Horton, and Tara Garwood perform an excerpt from Of Dice and Men by Cameron McNary as part of the Local Writers' Showcase event held last Sunday, September 27th. The photo is by the multi-talented Melissa Blackall.
A is for ACTOR, who is so important to the play development process. We heard from acclaimed actors Naomi Jacobsen and John Fescault at our panel discussion — The Actor and the New Play — the dos and don’ts of working with an actor on a new play. Do trust an actor to help you fill in a character, to find the funny in a comic play, to “find the pebbles among the boulders in the river, so we can make it to the other shore” as Naomi put it. DON’T ask actors to read a monologue that they have been stumbling over for weeks, that they have tried to make work three ways to Sunday. Much shouting and stomping follows.
B is for BOLDNESS, which we are finding is a big part of the play development process. Actors are bold in asking pointed questions about character and in helping playwrights make choices about the emotional intention of a scene. Playwrights are bold in putting raw material in the hands of directors and actors… plays that may not have seen the light of day before.
C is for COMMUNITY and CONNECTION, which we found that local playwrights crave. That’s what they said when we brought them together for a moderated discussion on what they need to put forward their professional and artistic goals. They need a community of playwrights, actors, and directors to help them better understand their own writing process, to hold their hands in between drafts, and help writer overcome the fear factor of looking at a blank page.
D is for DRAMATURGES, who have been an essential resource to our playwrights thus far. A team of 13 dramaturges is working with 18 playwrights. Their first job is to listen… listen to what the playwright needs, where they are with the play, what questions that they can no longer answer by sitting hunched over a computer. Their second job is to help the playwright identify goals for a play development process… such as better understanding a girl attracted to a boy who is the son of a warrior, a boy who has a very dark side (see G is for Gray below).
E is for EXCERPT, which each of our showcase playwrights present to you, the audience. We’ve asked them to give us 20-minute excerpts from their plays high in emotional conflict, a place in the play were we as an audience are dropped right into the middle of the action. We’re finding that (1) those scenes are fun for you all
to watch and (2) these scene are illustrative in helping the playwrights find out more about the world of their plays.
F is for F WORD, or FAT. This is the subject of Melissa Blackall’s biting, funny, and heart wrenching play about our obsession with body image and fat. She’s totally rewritten the play over the past several weeks, mixing metaphor with satire with brutal confession to show the journey of seven different bodies — Toothpick, Voluptuous, Stout, Blimp, Lean, Belly, and Huge.
G is for GRAY, as in the middle name of the fabulous Jason Gray Platt, who joined us for a week to explore his play strike/seek/find. Director Chris Gallus and actors Lindsay Haynes, Nigel Reed, Valerie Leonard, and Evan Casey put their heart, soul, and heads into this dark, bloody take on The Odyssey. In this version, Odysseus is no where to be found in Athens. Telemachus is a sullen teenager, unsure of himself as he sits in the shadow of his missing father. The team helped Jason explore some key character arcs, particularly that of Calliope, the young girl who is attracted to Telemachus for his fame, his vulnerability, for all that he can promise and all that he can take away. They also dug into the motivations of Telemachus’ mother, Penelope, who is caught between her abiding loyalty and love for Odysseus and the political machinations of her many suitors. The actors put on a hell of a performance. We were all stunned by their commitment to this emotionally fraught piece. We hope that Jason went home to New York with a new enthusiasm for the piece.
H is for HIP HOP, which we explored through the world created by Q Terah Jackson in his play 20Twenty, one of four plays we showed off on Sunday, September 27th as part of a Local Writers Showcase and Convening. The Inkwell’s own Lee Liebeskind guided a talented group of actors through a reading of a 20-minute excerpt of the play. They covered a lot o territory in 20 minutes — from the rage that inspired the first hip hop songs to the troubling sexual imagery of hip hop today to the disconnect between generations that grew up with different versions of the hip hop mythos. We can’t wait to see the next draft, Terah!
And I is, of course, for INKUBATOR, the name of this smorgasbord of new play development, this festival that we are in the midst of at the playhouse. Please come on down for our next series of events, which include a master class on new play dramaturgy, a showcase of plays inspired by literature and history, two open rehearsals of The F Word, and a staged reading of Susan Soon He Stanton's Cygnus.
Above, actors Eric Humphries, Jace Parker, Theo Hadjamichael, Toby Mulford, Alia Faith Williams, Lynn Horton, and Tara Garwood perform an excerpt from Of Dice and Men by Cameron McNary as part of the Local Writers' Showcase event held last Sunday, September 27th. The photo is by the multi-talented Melissa Blackall.
We've launched, loyal readers! We're off! We're out of the starting gate... you pick your metaphor.
In plainer speak, we started our second Inkubator Festival at Page to Stage last week... and it was such a treat to hang out in The Kennedy Center's North Atrium with directors, actors, dramaturges, and playwrights to catch up, talk shop, and get a taste of five new plays!
There's so much to share about our Page to Stage activities, but here's a great summary from DC Theatre Scene... the inteprid Rosalind Lacy joined us for the entire day of events.
I thought I'd also share with you my notes from our showcase event, where we presented 20-minute excerpts from four new plays, each with a political bent. As the supervising dramaturge, I am serving as a sommelier of sorts, helping playgoers taste all the rich, surprising flavors of the plays we have chosen to explore. Let me know if that metaphor works for you.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the plays we showcased last week:
Island of Outcasts by Fengar Gael
What you are about to see is the first 20 minutes of a wildly imaginative take on the next phase of human existence. The play is set on the imaginary island of Dolphina, amidst the raging storms brought on by climate change. On Dolphina, two idealist marine biologists hatch their own solution to perpetuate a species on the verge of extinction... that species is, of course, human beings.
Our readers were fascinated by the magical way that Fengar approaches pressing issues of the day... of climate change, of how we steward the planet and ourselves, and of the ethics of scientific experimentation.
"Nearly everything about the play is memorable. It suggests visual, musical, and dramatic possibilities that are stunning to consider -- from raging storms on a tropical island to shimmering swimmers and ethereal songs of fish people."
Empire of the Trees by Adam Kraar
We now go back in time to 1963, the moment before Kennedy is assassinated, as our picture of perfect America dies. An expatriot, a Jewish American, is living in New Delhi, coming to terms with the loss of her child, her loneliness, and a crisis of identity that often comes when a person is uprooted and taken from everything they know.
Again, we are seeing the very beginning of the play, as well as a journey of the imagination that the heroine, Deborah, finds herself in.
This is also a story explored through magic, through the mythology of India, and through a dangerous, compelling relationship between our heroine and a poor Indian bookseller.
Our readers loves the mixture of political events, of mythology and literature, and the journey of troubled people in a landscape that they don't really understand.
i put the fear of mexico in 'em by Matthew Paul Olmos
This is a tense thriller of a play, and it kept us all on the edge as we read it.
It's also a dissection of difference, of connection, of the borders and barriers we use to distance ourselves, and those dangerous moments when we cross over those borders and barriers.
This is the very beginning of the play when two hapless tourists, Adrey and Jonah, have wandered down an alley in Tijuana to find Efren and Juana. While it first appears that we are the edge of a nasty confrontation, we soon learn that they have more in common that it seems, more in common that either couple is comfortable with.
Matthew is getting a lot of attention with this play. He recently received a workshop at the Sundance Institute, and the play will receive a reading in October at Gala Hispanic here in DC. We're delighted to showcase it and these characters, all of whom are dangerous and terribly delicate, brutal and passionate and terrified of the future.
Monkey Adored by Henry Murray
We end this showcase in another strange and surprising place, in the world of animals. Literally.
This is a play from the perspective of animals, those that fight and love and lose as we do, yet always fighting the pernicious ways of man, who are in search of the next lab experiment.
This excerpt drops us into the middle of the play, when Sonny Bonobo, a monkey, is about to engage in an act of terrorism. His partner of the moment, Brown Spot the dog, is dead set against Sonny's activism, struggling to come to terms with his deep sense of loyalty in a world of people and animals who are not very loyal to him. We also catch a glimpse of Sonny's compatriot, James the Rat, and Sonny's former lover, Madeleine the Cat.
I was the one who first this play, and it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. But there's something else beyond a set-up of animals wrestling with a human condition. The language is stunning, moving, surprising. The philosophical discussion is engaging. The characters are complex, rich, hilarious. And you'll see here in this excerpt a theatricality that is truly surprising, funny, and thought provoking.
We'll be creating a library of these excerpts and of the suite of plays we are exploring through our Inkubator Festival, which picks up speed again on September 24th, where we host an open rehearsal for Strike Seek Find, a dark, brutal, and truly modern take on The Odyssey from the perspective of Telemachus, Odysseus's son.
Stay tuned!
In plainer speak, we started our second Inkubator Festival at Page to Stage last week... and it was such a treat to hang out in The Kennedy Center's North Atrium with directors, actors, dramaturges, and playwrights to catch up, talk shop, and get a taste of five new plays!
There's so much to share about our Page to Stage activities, but here's a great summary from DC Theatre Scene... the inteprid Rosalind Lacy joined us for the entire day of events.
I thought I'd also share with you my notes from our showcase event, where we presented 20-minute excerpts from four new plays, each with a political bent. As the supervising dramaturge, I am serving as a sommelier of sorts, helping playgoers taste all the rich, surprising flavors of the plays we have chosen to explore. Let me know if that metaphor works for you.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the plays we showcased last week:
Island of Outcasts by Fengar Gael
What you are about to see is the first 20 minutes of a wildly imaginative take on the next phase of human existence. The play is set on the imaginary island of Dolphina, amidst the raging storms brought on by climate change. On Dolphina, two idealist marine biologists hatch their own solution to perpetuate a species on the verge of extinction... that species is, of course, human beings.
Our readers were fascinated by the magical way that Fengar approaches pressing issues of the day... of climate change, of how we steward the planet and ourselves, and of the ethics of scientific experimentation.
"Nearly everything about the play is memorable. It suggests visual, musical, and dramatic possibilities that are stunning to consider -- from raging storms on a tropical island to shimmering swimmers and ethereal songs of fish people."
Empire of the Trees by Adam Kraar
We now go back in time to 1963, the moment before Kennedy is assassinated, as our picture of perfect America dies. An expatriot, a Jewish American, is living in New Delhi, coming to terms with the loss of her child, her loneliness, and a crisis of identity that often comes when a person is uprooted and taken from everything they know.
Again, we are seeing the very beginning of the play, as well as a journey of the imagination that the heroine, Deborah, finds herself in.
This is also a story explored through magic, through the mythology of India, and through a dangerous, compelling relationship between our heroine and a poor Indian bookseller.
Our readers loves the mixture of political events, of mythology and literature, and the journey of troubled people in a landscape that they don't really understand.
i put the fear of mexico in 'em by Matthew Paul Olmos
This is a tense thriller of a play, and it kept us all on the edge as we read it.
It's also a dissection of difference, of connection, of the borders and barriers we use to distance ourselves, and those dangerous moments when we cross over those borders and barriers.
This is the very beginning of the play when two hapless tourists, Adrey and Jonah, have wandered down an alley in Tijuana to find Efren and Juana. While it first appears that we are the edge of a nasty confrontation, we soon learn that they have more in common that it seems, more in common that either couple is comfortable with.
Matthew is getting a lot of attention with this play. He recently received a workshop at the Sundance Institute, and the play will receive a reading in October at Gala Hispanic here in DC. We're delighted to showcase it and these characters, all of whom are dangerous and terribly delicate, brutal and passionate and terrified of the future.
Monkey Adored by Henry Murray
We end this showcase in another strange and surprising place, in the world of animals. Literally.
This is a play from the perspective of animals, those that fight and love and lose as we do, yet always fighting the pernicious ways of man, who are in search of the next lab experiment.
This excerpt drops us into the middle of the play, when Sonny Bonobo, a monkey, is about to engage in an act of terrorism. His partner of the moment, Brown Spot the dog, is dead set against Sonny's activism, struggling to come to terms with his deep sense of loyalty in a world of people and animals who are not very loyal to him. We also catch a glimpse of Sonny's compatriot, James the Rat, and Sonny's former lover, Madeleine the Cat.
I was the one who first this play, and it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. But there's something else beyond a set-up of animals wrestling with a human condition. The language is stunning, moving, surprising. The philosophical discussion is engaging. The characters are complex, rich, hilarious. And you'll see here in this excerpt a theatricality that is truly surprising, funny, and thought provoking.
We'll be creating a library of these excerpts and of the suite of plays we are exploring through our Inkubator Festival, which picks up speed again on September 24th, where we host an open rehearsal for Strike Seek Find, a dark, brutal, and truly modern take on The Odyssey from the perspective of Telemachus, Odysseus's son.
Stay tuned!
Fearless reader! I can’t wait to finally
reveal to you the details of The Inkwell’s next big adventure…
THE
SECOND INKUBATOR FESTIVAL!
So let me catch you up a bit. The Inkwell team
has been reading and reading and reading and reading… scripts that is. We
sent out a call for submissions in March and received 428 PLAYS! Over the past several months, we read every single
one of them and chose 24 wild and wonderful plays to explore as part of our Inkubator Festival, which launches this coming Monday (Labor Day)
and ends October 17th.
As a writer myself, I want to take a moment to
acknowledge the imagination and courage of all the writers that submitted
plays. Please keep writing and keep in touch with us!
So now, we are about to launch the latest and
greatest Inkubator Festival, which will feature 24 plays and playwrights, a
forum to discuss the needs for local writers, two fascinating panels exploring
the role of the actor in new play development and the challenges that women
writers face in the DC area. We’ll also host a class on the mysterious
art of dramaturgy… and end the festival with an Inkubator production of The F Word by Melissa Blackall.
Gosh, there’s so much to tell you about. But
let’s start with our kick-off event.
Leave that Labor Day barbecue early and join us at
The Kennedy Center for a day of new plays and talk of new plays.
We are taking over that venerable institution’s North Atrium as part of the
annual Page to Stage Festival. Here are all the details you should
need...
THE
INKWELL'S KICK OFF
of
the SECOND INKUBATOR FESTIVAL
Monday,
September 7th
at
The Kennedy Center's North Atrium
Come join us for any and all of the following
events:
A
SHOWCASE OF PLAYS WITH A POLITICAL BENT at 2:00 p.m.
The Inkwell presents excerpts from a suite of thought-provoking plays that explore topics of the day... from global warming to terrorism, from the ethics of scientific experimentation to the explosive confrontations between people of different classes and culture.
Here’s what you’ll be seeing and hearing:
Island of Outcasts by Fangar Gael
Directed by Jessica Burgess
featuring Danielle Drakes, Fatima Quander, Felipe Cabezas, Gregory Burgess, Lindsay Haynes, and Michael Grew
On the mythical island of Dolphina in the middle of the Caribbean — amidst the storms brought on by a warming planet — two marine biologists hatch a plan to save humanity.
Empire of the Trees by Adam Kraar
Directed by Chris Neibling
featuring Cindy Martin, Frank Mancino, Jamie Jager, and Valerie Fenton
In 1963 — the last year of America's Camelot — a young wife reaches out to a poor bookseller and thief in search of her own perfect kingdom among the ancient trees of New Dehli.
i put the fear of mexico in 'em by Matthew Paul Olmos
directed by Jessica Burgess
featuring Adam Segallar, Ashley DeMain, Betsy Rosen, Jon Reynolds, and Rachel Beauregard
A chance encounter in the back alleys of Tijuana bring three couples together across borders of wealth, opportunity, and love... while setting in motion a confrontation that will tear their worlds apart.
Monkey Adored by Henry Murray
directed by Chris Niebling
featuring Cindy Martin, Valerie Fenton, Frank Mancino, Jamie Jager, and Steve Beall
It's a dangerous world for animals. That’s
what Sonny the monkey, Brown Spot the dog, Madeleine the cat, and other species find time and time again as they search for love and
purpose in the underdog fight against the pernicious, bewildering ways of man.
A PANEL DISCUSSION: THE ACTOR AND THE
NEW PLAY at 5:00 p.m.
How do you built the most fruitful partnership you
can between actors and playwrights?
The Inkwell brings together actors, playwrights, and
dramaturgs to investigate the inspirations and the impediments that actors
encounter while working on a new play — and that playwrights encounter working
with actors — in hopes of defining some best practices for the actor/playwright
collaboration.
Our impressive panel of experts include:
awarding-winning actors Naomi Jacobsen and John Lescault, dramaturg and
Artistic Director of Maryland's Active Cultures Mary Resing, playwright and dramaturg
Jacqueline E. Lawton, and Jason Loewith, the Executive Director of the National
New Play Network.
A
STAGED READING OF MELISSA BLACKALL'S THE
F WORD at 7:30 p.m.
Directed by Jessica Lefkow
featuring Alice Gibson, Jason B. McIntosh, Jessica Lynn Rodriguez, Prairie Griffith, Thierry Barston, and Patrick Magill
We’re so proud to present the latest iteration of
Melissa’s biting play about America's obsession with the dirtiest word in the
English language… FAT. She’s been working with us for 18 months now, and
we think you’ll be excited to join the journey of her characters Belly,
Toothpick, Stout, Voluptuous, Lean, Huge, and Blimp as they search for their
perfect size and shape — physically, psychically, and spiritually. (You can learn more about the development process for this play in previous Inkblog entries, like this one.)
AND
MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE INKUBATOR PRODUCTION OF THE F WORD, OCTOBER 13th THROUGH OCTOBER 17th, at H Street Playhouse.
More to come about the festival, readers… and soon!
