One-Acts by EM Lewis at high schools in Lansing, MI

Congratulations to Everett and Sexton High Schools in Lansing, Michigan, where director Jim Allen produced nine of my short plays with his student actors.

• The Incident Report
• Partners
• Drop-Off Day
• Apple Season
• $2,500 OBO
• The Edge of Ross Island
• Sing Me That Leonard Cohen Song Again
• Lend Me a Mentor
• Leonard's Voice

Hope you had fun with the plays!

FLIGHT opens Wednesday night...

On Wednesday, October 14th, FLIGHT opens -- an evening of six of my short plays, directed and acted by a bunch of my favorite directors and actors. We've been having a lot of fun putting this together, led by top-notch producer Kim Glann. I hope Los Angeles folks can come check it out!

• Leonard's Voice, directed by Darin Anthony
• This Isn't About Love, directed by Michael Shutt
• Sing Me That Leonard Cohen Song Again, directed by Emilie Beck
• Reveille, directed by Julie Briggs
• The Incident Report (a world premiere), directed by Lee Wochner
• Six Bottles of Heineken After the Silverado, directed by Melissa Thomas/Julie Briggs

Putting together an evening of short plays by a single playwright is an interesting business. One hopes that there will be enough different styles and types of story and sorts of characters to make it a fun night for the audience... It's odd to see what crops up more than once -- love and violence, guilt and responsibility, fear and desire...

Info and tickets can be found at www.movingarts.org. Three nights only!! Come on out and see what we're up to.

"Leonard's Voice" in the Car Plays at Moving Arts

My short play "Leonard's Voice" premiered at Moving Arts "The Car Plays" 2009 event this last weekend. What a great event! Twenty plays in twenty cars -- each performed fifteen times during the course of the evening, to an audience of two people at a time.

This unique site specific theater event was originally created by Paul Nicholai Stein, Moving Arts' former artistic director. It was performed this year at Woodbury University, up in Burbank -- a great location, quiet and spacious, just off I-5. I'm hoping it's going to be a yearly signature event for our company. It's just too much fun not to do it again! Plus I can't stop writing them...


Gearing up! Julie Briggs -- Moving Arts co-founder, actress and LA Stage Alliance staff person -- kindly loaned us her wonderful Oldsmobile to be featured in "Leonard's Voice." Other cars this year included a dilapidated rock band's old black van, a crash test dummy car, a clown car and a car that was "under water." The cars were carefully arranged in rows of five. Audience members bought a ticket for one row -- which was five plays, or approximately an hour's worth of theater.

My director, Darin Anthony, talks to our actors on Wednesday night's dress rehearsal. From left to right: director Darin Anthony, Michael Lorre (Leonard), Helen Slayton Hughes (Leonard's mother) and Stephanie Erb (Leonard's voice). Not pictured, but a wonderful help to this production was our sound designer, Dave Mickey. He rigged up a sound system so the audience could hear the voices in Leonard's head (played by Stephanie Erb, who was talking back and forth with him from a hidden car nearby).



Leonard's head hurts. His mother is con- cerned...








"Have to is have to, Leonard."







My wonderful actors! Michael Lorre, Stephanie Erb and Helen Slayton Hughes.

The Car Plays ZOOM into Los Angeles this weekend...

This is where I'm going to be this weekend. Hope to see you there, Los Angelenos! My play is called "Leonard's Voice." It's directed by Darin Anthony, and features Michael Lorre, Helen Slayton Hughes and Stephanie Erb.

If you don't know about The Car Plays... well, where have you been? (Just kidding!) The Car Plays are the most intimate of site specific theater -- short plays that are performed in cars, for an audience of two people at a time. You buy a ticket for one hour's worth of plays -- five all together -- and move from car to car to experience each one. There are multiple rows of cars, all with plays happening inside them. All the plays were written specifically for this event. It's pretty darn cool!

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE: The Car Plays, originally conceived by Paul Nicolai Stein, is a unique, theatrical event that puts both actors and audience INSIDE actual vehicles.

In Los Angeles, we constantly break up in cars, make up in cars, live, die and laugh in cars. Moving Arts explores these moments through a series of original ten-minute plays written by their Resident Artists and other local playwrights.

"This is the best thing that’s happened to cars since the invention of the wheel!” –Review Plays

MOVING ARTS PRESENTS THE CAR PLAYS 2009
Originally Conceived by Paul Nicolai Stein,
Event Producer Matt Scarpino
Artistic Producer Terence Anthony

THE CAR PLAYS is a unique, theatrical event where audiences see five 10-minute plays in five different cars. Choose between four different simultaneous series of plays (Ventura Blvd., Hollywood Blvd., Figueroa Ave., and Ocean Ave.) that run nightly at 7pm, 8pm, & 9pm. Tickets can be purchased for Individual Performances (One Hour, One Series) or Multiple Performance (Three Hours, Three Different Series.)

DATES: Friday, June 26th and Saturday, June 27th
TICKETS: $20
LOCATION: Woodbury University in Burbank, CA

Tickets can be purchased by phone at: 1-866-811-4111 or online: www.movingarts.org.

Thank you and see you at THE CAR PLAYS 2009!

DIRECTIONS TO WOODBURY UNIVERSITY: Coming from the North on the Golden State Freeway (5): Exit Hollywood Way north to Glenoaks and turn right. If you're coming from the South on the Golden State Freeway (5): Exit Buena Vista Street north to Glenoaks and turn left.