The Car Plays Ride Again at the Without Walls Festival in San Diego

My short play "Drop Off Day" -- about a mom dropping her daughter off at college -- is part of Moving Arts' THE CAR PLAYS, which is now running in San Diego as part of the Without Walls Festival of site-specific work at La Jolla Playhouse.

The festival was featured in the New York Times today -- a nice (and surprising) bit of good press!

Drop-Off Day

Written by EM Lewis
Directed by Dana Harrel
Featuring Wendy Waddell as Barbara and Dana Lau as Soo Min

Time Magazine mentions The Car Plays!

Time Magazine did a lovely feature on immersive theater, and mentioned Moving Arts' The Car Plays, created by Paul Stein and written, directed, acted and produced for the last six or seven years by our company in Los Angeles, at the Radar Festival, at festival in San Diego and Costa Mesa.  Such a delightful project!  Nice to get a mention in the national magazine.

Article can be found here.

Drop-Off Day in The Car Plays at the Off-Center Festival

DJ Harner and Mia Danelle in "Drop-Off Day" by EM Lewis, directed by Michael Shutt.  The Car Plays, produced by Moving Arts for the Off-Center Festival at Segerstrom Center.

Once again, I had a play in Moving Arts' The Car Plays -- this time, it was "Drop-Off Day" in the Off-Center Festival at Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa. I love The Car Plays, which have become Moving Arts' signature event and an annual tradition. Car plays are so much fun to write!

"Drop-Off Day" is about a mom who has just moved her daughter into her dorm room for the daughter's first year of college -- but saying goodbye isn't easy for either of them, when all they have is each other. The Orange County Register called the play "poignant;"-- "its depiction of a mother and daughter struggling with a fundamental change in their relationship was quietly touching and completely believable." That was very much thanks to stellar performances by DJ Harner and Mia Danelle, and direction by Michael Shutt.

For more information about the Car Plays in the 2013 Off-Center Festival, click here.

2012 In Review

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!

It's been a lovely year!  Thanks, everybody!

2012!!

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

Moving Arts' The Car Plays at Segerstrom.

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

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.  

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

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

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

"Apple Season" in the Six Women Playwriting Festival.

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.  Directed by Pete Boisvert.  Featuring Matt Archambault, John Greenleaf, Marianne Miller, Stephen Conrad Moore, and Jane Lincoln Taylor.

July 28-August 4

"The Incident Report" in Jersey Voices at Chatham Community Players

Chatham, NJ

World Premiere of "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday" at HotCity Theater in St. Louis, MO.

Kelly and Lynn.

Ray and Lynne.

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

"Apple Season."

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

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

Jack and Michael.

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

The Last Four Things My Father Held Against Me. 

Six Bottles of Heineken After the Silverado.

And All the Roses Falling.

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

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

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

"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

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

So glad to be back as the Host Playwright for the Ashland New Plays Festival 2012!

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

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. 

I wrote two one-minute plays for the upcoming New Jersey One Minute Play Festival, which will be held at Passage Theater in Trenton in January.  "War Story" and "Higher" will both be performed, along with scads of other really, really short plays by some of my NJ playwriting colleagues.  Should be tons of fun.

Here's to more fun and more plays in 2013!  Happy new year!

Reveille Revisited!

Here are some pictures from Moving Arts production of The Car Plays, now running (extended!) in San Diego, at La Jolla Playhouse.  I'm proud to have my short play "Reveille" included.  "Reveille" is about a young man who has signed up for the military on the morning he is supposed to leave for Basic Training, and his father, who despite being a vet himself, doesn't want his son to go.

Reveille by EM Lewis
Directed by Sam Woodhouse
Featuring Will Tulin and Michael Zlotnik

Will Tulin as Leonard, and Michael Zlotnik as Linny.

Will Tulin and Michael Zlotnik.

Mike Zlotnik as Linny.

The Car Plays are Revving Up in San Diego!

Still trying to figure out what these "Car Plays" are that I keep mentioning, as they move from the Radar Festival in LA to the Off-Center Festival in Costa Mesa, and now to La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego?

Click here to see a lovely little television news feature about Moving Arts' wonderful site-specific theater production, featuring creator and producer Paul Stein, Michael Shutt, and a bunch of our fabulous Los Angeles and San Diego actors, working together to make this latest production happen!

Click here to see another television feature, this one from the local PBS station.  We're getting lots of love in San Diego!

Or click here to see a review in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Or click here to see a review in the North County Times.

Or click here to buy tickets to the La Jolla Playhouse production of Moving Arts' "The Car Plays!"

I'm proud that my play "Reveille" is part of the mix.

Reveille by EM Lewis
Directed by Sam Woodhouse
Featuring Will Tulin and Michael Zlotnik

Leonard's only son has signed up for the military. He leaves for boot camp this morning.

The Car Plays race into Costa Mesa and San Diego!

I love starting the new year with a couple of new productions!

In January and February, Moving Arts -- my home theater company in Los Angeles -- is reprising what has become its signature event, The Car Plays.  After successful participation in last year's Radar Festival, we've been invited to participate in two more Southern California festivals -- the Off-Center Festival at the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, and the Without Walls Festival at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.  I'm proud to have a play in each production.

The Car Plays roll into Segerstrom Center for the 2012 Off-Center Festival.

The Car Plays are a unique event.  When you buy a ticket, you have just purchased one row of five cars -- and there is a ten-minute story in each car.  There are usually three rows all together -- fifteen short plays.  Ushers escort you from one car to the next when each play is done.  Paul Stein brought the concept to Moving Arts, and continues to be the artistic director and producer of the event, along with producers Steve Lozier, Kim Glann and Cece Tio.  You need great producers -- a really great team of everybody, really -- to make this event work.  It requires precision, clock-work timing, and a lot of heart and hard work from all the writers, directors, actors and ushers to bring you the most intimate theater experience you'll ever find.

"Car Plays is a brilliant and inventive concept, a kaleidoscope of situations that draw snapshot portraits from life, with soulful acting and cinematic details that's so close to home and physically intimate that it blurs the distinctions between theater and life."

-L.A. Weekly

Now playing in the Off-Center Festival at the Segerstrom Center

Bohemian.  Like You.
Written by EM Lewis
Directed by Darin Anthony
Featuring Peter James Smith, Daria Balling and Warren Davis

Richie has known Melody and Don forever.  But he didn't know they did this...

The cast of "Bohemian. Like You."  Warren Davis, Daria Balling and Peter James Smith heat up the front seat!

This car is our stage.  "Bohemian. Like You."  Written by EM Lewis and directed by Darin Anthony.

More Information:  Segerstrom Center "The Car Plays" site

Press:  LA Stage Times (article by Don Shirley)

Coming soon to the Without Walls (WoW!) Festival at the La Jolla Playhouse

Reveille

Written by EM Lewis

Directed by Sam Woodhouse

Featuring (TBA)

Leonard's only son has signed up for the military.  He leaves for boot camp this morning.

More Information:  La Jolla Playhouse "The Car Plays" site

Press:  U~T San Diego