What a wonderful year 2012 has been! Full of theatrical adventures, productions and good friends. Thank you to everyone I've had the pleasure of working with this year. I hope we can do it again soon!
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| It's been a lovely year! Thanks, everybody! |
2012!!
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| Recipients of fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 2012. |
I received a $10,000 fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on
the Arts in January 2012. Because
of this fellowship (which followed the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton
University that I received for the 2010-2011 academic year), I've been able to
write full-time again this year. The direct result of that opportunity to concentrate on my
writing has been that this was my busiest year EVER -- in terms of both
writing and productions.
Productions and Readings
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| Moving Arts' The Car Plays at Segerstrom. |
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| Warren, Daria and Peter -- very cozy in the front seat! |
January 14-21
"Bohemian. Like You." in Moving
Arts' production of The Car Plays in the Off-Center Festival at the Segerstrom
Center for the Arts. Directed by Darin Anthony. Featuring Peter James Smith, Daria Balling and Warren Davis.
Costa Mesa,
CA
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| A great weekend of table work on this new play -- a murder mystery, of sorts. Followed by the reading of an excerpt. |
February 10-12
Workshop, and
reading of an excerpt from new full-length play "If I Did This" at Passage Theater. Directed by David Hilder. Featuring Chad Hoepner, Kathryn Markey, David Crommett, Brielle Silvestri, and Nedra McClyde.
Trenton, NJ.
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| Linny, played by Michael Zlotnik. |
February 22-March 4
"Reveille" in Moving Arts'
production of The Car Plays in the Without Walls Festival at the La Jolla
Playhouse. Directed by Sam Woodhouse. Featuring Will Tulin and Michael Zlotnik.
San Diego, CA
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| Terry is caught in the middle in "Partners." |
February 24-26
"Partners" in the Briefs Festival,
produced by That Uppity Theater Company and Vital Voice Media. Directed by Bonnie Taylor. Featuring Wendy Renee Greenwood, Robert Lee Davis III, and Elizabeth Graveman.
St. Louis, MO
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| Riffing on Asimov and Occupy for Flux Theater Ensemble's "ForePlay: Human 2.0. |
April 2
"I, Human" in Flux Theater
Ensemble's ForePlay: Human 2.0
New York, NY
April 18
"If I Did This" reading at NewShoe
New York, NY
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| "Apple Season" in the Six Women Playwriting Festival. |
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| So glad to be in the festival with my pals Babs Lindsay and Maureen Brady Johnson! |
April 20-22
"Apple Season" in Six Women
Playwriting Festival. Directed by Birgitta de Pree. Featuring Joye Levy and Anthony Archer.
Colorado
Springs, CO
May 16
Reading of
"Heads" at Theatre Seven
of Chicago
Chicago, IL
July 27
Staged reading of
"If I Did This" at Judson Memorial Church, produced by Flux
Theater Ensemble
New York, NY.
July 28-August 4
"The Incident Report" in Jersey
Voices at Chatham Community Players
Chatham, NJ
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| World Premiere of "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday" at HotCity Theater in St. Louis, MO. |
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| Kelly and Lynn. |
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| Ray and Lynne. |
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| The family. |
September 7-22
The World
Premiere of "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday"
at HotCity Theater. Directed by Bill Whitaker. Featuring Nicole Angeli, Charlie Barron, Peggy Billo, Joe Hanrahan, Rusty Gunther, and Eric White.
St. Louis, MO
"Four words: Go see this play! 'Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday' is the best play I have seen in a long time..." -Laura Hamlett, Playback: STL
"...a funny and touching slice of life... Director Bill Whitaker does nice work here, bringing this new play to life and gently guiding this exceptional cast. The laughs and the tears are honest... HotCity Theatre's production of 'Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday' is entertaining and moving theater..." -Chris Gibson, Broadway World
"...the look and tenor of a domestic comedy layered on top of the emotional mysteries and unspoken threats of a Harold Pinter drama..." -Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"...an examination of one woman's desperation filtered through the prism of her life as it is, the way it was, and the hope of finding what's missing... a comedy, and a good one... remarkable cast..." -Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX
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| "Apple Season." |
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| Director Jeff Meek with the cast of "Apple Season" -- Rebecca Staab and John Walcutt. |
September 29
"Apple Season" at the PlayFest
Santa Barbara FunRaiser. Directed by Jeffrey Meek. Featuring Rebecca Staab and John Walcutt.
Santa
Barbara, CA
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| Always a pleasure to work with my pal David Hilder! |
October 2
Reading of
"Heads" at West Windsor
Arts Council, produced by NOW Theater Company. Directed by David Hilder. Featuring Chris Coucill, Thia Stephan, Christian Conn, and Eric Rolland.
West Windsor, NJ
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| Jack and Michael. |
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| Harold and Caroline. |
October 3-6
"Heads," produced by Missouri
Valley College. Directed by Harold Hynick. Featuring Thomas Waller, Samantha Hill, Matthew Ford, and Joshua Tag.
Marshall, MO
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| The Last Four Things My Father Held Against Me. |
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| Six Bottles of Heineken After the Silverado. |
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| And All the Roses Falling. |
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| So many actors they don't even fit in the picture! "Infinite Black Suitcase" at Colony High School in Ontario, CA. |
October 24 - November 12
"Infinite Black Suitcase" at Colony
High School. Directed by Arik Boles. First high school production of this play!
Ontario, CA
November 2 - 10
"An Evening of One-Acts by E.M. Lewis"
at Everett and Sexton High Schools
Lansing, MI
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| Max and Ellery. "Song of Extinction" at Hostos College. |
November 8-15
"Song of Extinction" at CUNY: Hostos
College. Also Book-of-the-Semester! Directed by Angel Morales. Featuring Abe Rasheed, Arnold Kim, Carlos Molina, Anna Savant, and Cesar Acuria.
South Bronx,
NY
November 25
"Back to the
Dollhouse" (a one-act adaptation) at ISOProductions
London, England
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| Trevor Tucker is lost in time, exploring the history of Westfield, NJ! A family-friendly history play, written for Premiere Stages' new "Liberty Live" program. |
December 7-9
"Talking to Westfield" - the
inaugural Liberty Live commission - Premiere Stages. Directed by John Wooten, dramaturged by Clare Drobot.
Union, NJ
Other Activities
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| "Infinite Black Suitcase" by EM Lewis, published by Samuel French. |
January
Publication
of "Infinite Black Suitcase"
by Samuel French
New York, NY
February
Publication
of "This Isn't About Love"
in Eleven Eleven Literary Journal at California College of the Arts
San
Francisco, CA
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| What a wonderful group of young playwrights! It was a gift to have the opportunity to work with them for the two weeks of the "New Voices for the Theater" residency. |
June 23-July 8
Playwright-in-Residence at "New Voices for the
Theater" at the School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community
(SPARC). Taught
fundamentals of playwriting to eight teen playwrights, and mentored them as
they rewrote their plays in preparation for performance. This is a fantastic program, run by the indefatigable, absolutely fantastic Laine Satterfield. A big thank you to Babs Lindsay, last year's PIR, for recommending me! It was a joy.
Richmond, VA
"This was truly a priceless experience and I'm so happy I got to participate this year. I met so many people and learned about different theaters. This was one of the best things I've ever done and I will remember this experience forever." -2012 Playwright Michael Musatow
"Having been able to see my play performed, and hearing the reaction of the audience, was amazing. This program has made me want to write more, to write every day, and to succeed. This program changed my life." -2012 Playwright Annalee Marguerite Week
"The program's greatest overall strengths were the choices in playwrights, directors and actors. The original play the cast received and what we performed was entirely different, but different in a better way. Seeing how the play transformed and being able to watch it while working with great fellow actors and an awesome director, it allowed me to see how SPARC takes New Voices in an extremely serious way and that it works." -2012 Actor Sarah Lundberg
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| So glad to be back as the Host Playwright for the Ashland New Plays Festival 2012! |
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| The four winning playwrights of ANPF 2012! |
October 24-28
Host Playwright for the Ashland New Plays Festival
Welcomed the
four winnning playwrights, conducted talk-backs, and taught a playwriting
workshop. This was my third year
as ANPF host playwright.
Ashland, OR
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| With director Angel Morales and Book-of-the-Semester coordinator Robert Cohen. It was such a pleasure to get to know them and their students at Hostos College! I was able to participate in a post-show discussion, as well as in two panel discussions over the course of the semester. |
September - December
"Song of
Extinction" - Book of the
Semester at Hostos College
My play was read by more than a thousand students, faculty
and staff in all departments at Hostos College while it was book of the
semester. Activities included
panel discussions and presentations by the History, Theater, Music, Biology and
English departments. I
participated in several of these events!
South Bronx, NY
Finalist for Page 73
Playwriting Fellowship
I'm very proud to have been named a finalist for this fellowship. The Page 73 group provides wonderful support each year to playwrights, and have fostered the careers of some amazing people!
New York, NY
Participated in the Passage
Theater Play Lab
Trenton, NJ
Participated in Flux
Theater Ensemble's "Flux Sundays"
New York, NY
Became the Dramatists
Guild Representative for the state of New Jersey, and wrote reports from
our state's theater scene for each issue of "The Dramatist." It's a pleasure to serve my guild, and to get to know my fellow Garden State playwrights and theaters a little better in the process!
Writing
This year was really amazing -- full of productions
of my plays, and opportunities to travel to Colorado Springs, St. Louis,
Richmond, Ashland and New York City to participate in performance, development
and teaching opportunities. But it
was a great year for writing as well!
Some particular projects I was able to focus on include the following:
If I Did This
I was able to complete a draft of this new full-length play
this year. It is a murder mystery
of sorts, about questions of culpability and narrative voice. I workshopped it at Passage Theater in
Trenton, and had a very successful staged reading of the play by Flux Theater
Ensemble at Judson Memorial Theater in Trenton. (Thank you to directors David Hilder and Pete Boisvert!) I'm still exploring and editing the play, but have begun to send it out.
Talking to
Westfield
I was commissioned by Premiere Stages in Union, NJ to write
a family-friendly play about the history of Westfield. It was the first in what they hope to
be an annual program called "Liberty Live" -- where New Jersey
playwrights will explore the history of various cities and towns throughout the
state. Our original November
performance dates were changed because of the hurricane, but we were able to go
up in December.
Magellanica: A New and Accurate Map of the World
I made great strides on this large-scale play-in-progress this year. It is about eight scientists and engineers who winter over at the South Pole Research Station in Antarctica in 1985. Part one is finished, and part two is nearly done. I will be continuing work on this epic project in 2013 as part of the Playwrights Theater of New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights Project and also in Page 73's Interstate 73 Playwriting Workshops in New York City.
Apple Season
I don't usually find cause to expand a ten-minute play, but
Apple Season is proving to be an exception to that rule. I wrote it initially for Theatricum
Botanicum's "Seedling" program in Topanga Canyon, CA -- they prompted
a handful of writers with whom they'd worked before to write a short play for
them on the theme of "backyard fruit." I ended up writing a dark little play about a woman who
returns to her family farm in Oregon after her parents' death, and and old
friend who wants to buy the place from her. It was read at TB, and had its first production this year at
the Six Women Playwriting Festival.
It went over like gangbusters -- but everyone wanted more. So I've been working to turn it into a
full-length, two-character play. The long version is set to have its first reading in January at a festival, so stay tuned!
Back to the
Dollhouse and Playwriting
Teachers Manual
My work with the SPARC: New Voices for the Theater program
in Richmond during the summer led to two exciting projects this fall. SPARC liked the curriculum I used
during my time as their playwright-in-residence, and paid me to write a
Teachers Manual that they could distribute to Virginia high school teachers
whose students are the constituency for New Voices. I'm very proud of both the curriculum and the manual! We hope it will help generate more
plays for this wonderful, long-running program. A director/teacher friend of the program, Keri Wormald, then hired me to
write a one-act adaptation of her new full-length play that could be performed
by a group called ISO Productions in London, with whom her Richmond high school
theater class trades performance projects. My play "Back to the Dollhouse" was performed in
November, and we hope that it will have a continued life!
Bohemian Like You
- film script
This ten-minute play has had multiple productions in Moving
Arts' "The Car Plays" in Los Angeles. I am now working with a friend to turn this short play into
a short film, adapted by me and directed by him.
Short Plays
I wrote a new short play called "I, Human" for
Flux Theater Ensemble's "ForePlay" event in the spring, in which they
ask writers to create new plays that riff on the themes of their mainstage
show. My play connected the work
of Isaac Asimov with the Occupy Movement to talk about morality in robots...
and people.
I wrote "Waiting for the Skell" -- a short,
comic sequel to my short play "Partners" -- about two cops. It is going to be performed in the
Briefs Festival in St. Louis in March 2013.
Here's to more fun and more plays in 2013! Happy new year!
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