Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Play - an essay for HowlRound

In December 2020, the folks at HowlRound Theater Commons published an essay I wrote called "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Play."  Inspired, of course, by the wonderful poem by Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,"  I endeavored to look both poetically and craftily at the various angles a playwright might use to engage with a work in progress.  

Read it here:    https://howlround.com/thirteen-ways-looking-play

A Busy Fall!

Hey, friends!  Hope you'll check out some of my fall events.

THE GUN SHOW - directed by Melissa Hillman​, now playing at Impact Theatre​ in Berkeley, CA.  Tickets here: www.impacttheatre.com

HEADS - directed by Laura Savia​, now playing at the Beckett Theatre​ on 42nd Street in New York City.  (Use discount code "TRCREATIVE" for $15 tickets here:  https://www.telechargeoffers.com/Off-Broadway/Heads/Overview )

NOW COMES THE NIGHT - directed by Alex Levy​, opening this weekend at 1st Stage​ in Tysons, VA as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival​.  Tickets here:  www.1ststagetysons.org

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE FALLEN GIANT - American Lyric Theater​ Living Libretto event featuring this new opera in progress that I'm working on with composer Evan Meier will be at the National Opera Center on September 28th in New York City.  http://altnyc.org/new-operas-for-new-audiences/sherlock-holmes-and-the-case-of-the-fallen-giant/

TRUE STORY - directed by Kevin Christopher Fox​, at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, coming up in October.

ASHLAND NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL - I'll be acting as host playwright for the sixth year in a row at my beloved ANPF in Ashland, Oregon in October.  http://www.ashlandnewplays.org

Go see a play!  (Or an opera!)

April 18 -- Reading of "If I Did This" in NYC!

Coming up next:  A reading of my new play "If I Did This" in New York City on Wednesday, April 18th, at 7pm.  I hope friends and colleagues in the area will come out and see!  The play is about a grieving mystery writer who is hired to ghostwrite the "story of the century" -- but finds himself becoming part of the story instead.  
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New Shoe Theatre presents a reading of

IF I DID THIS

By EM Lewis
Directed by Elysa Marden

with
Joel de la Fuente
Melanie Nicholls-King
Brian Fuqua
Juliet Brett
Pamela Nyberg

April 18, 2012 ~ 7pm
Dramatists Guild, 1501 Broadway, 7th floor
Free/No Reservations Required
www.newshoetheatre.org
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What's past is prologue.

Finished a draft of a new full-length play!

I had a wonderful weekend at Passage Theater in Trenton, workshopping the new play that I have JUST finished -- a five-character murder mystery called "If I Did This."  A big thank you to Passage for organizing this wonderful event, in which eight members of our playwriting workshop were able to work with directors and actors from New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia -- more than sixty theater artists in all!  Thank you, also, to my friend David Hilder for his dramaturgy and directing, and to my wonderful cast:

• Chad Hoepner, as mystery novelist Hal Walker
• Kathryn Markey, as senior editor Brett Martin
• David Crommett, as real estate agent (and acquitted murderer) Donnie Lawrence
• Brielle Silvestri, as Donnie's teenage daughter, Miriam Lawrence
• Nedra McClyde, as detective Hayden Quinn

Now...  delving into the rewrites!

Passage Theater Playwrights Lab Retreat! 

David Hilder, directing our merry little band of actors.

Characters, from left to right:  Brett, Hayden, Hal, Donnie, Miriam.

Characters at the music stands:  Brett, Hal, Donnie.

If I Did This
90 minutes
Five Characters:  2 Men / 1 Woman / 2 characters that can be played by either men or women (all any race)

Grieving mystery novelist Hal Walker has been sent by his editor, Brett Martin, to the home of Donnie Lawrence -- infamously acquitted in the murder of his wife.  But Hal didn't anticipate the presence of Donnie's teenage daughter, Miriam, nor the emotional undertow that his own wife's death creates as he attempts to ghostwrite Donnie's book "My Story."

Enjoying the edges of Williamstown

A talented director friend of mine, Laura Savia, is working at Williamstown this summer.  While the big slots were filled by bigger playwrights than me, Laura gave me a call when she was looking for material for the apprentices to work with.

Maybe some day one of my full-lengths will be on the mainstage at Williamstown (I can only hope!).  But for the moment, I am delighted to have student actors working with my words at that fabulous place, where old plays are revived, new plays are revered, and audiences receive the best of summer theater experiences.

A short play by EM Lewis in rehearsal by apprentices at the Williamstown Theater Festival.

Young actors in rehearsal.

Hot off the press: "The War Museum" goes to NYC!

Since I moved to Princeton, I've been trying to get to know the theatermakers in New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia.  One group I've connected with is the fantastic Passage Theater in Trenton, NJ.  Another is Flux Theater in New York City.  

A few days ago, the folks at Flux asked if I'd like to write a new short play for their "ForePlay" Reading Series -- plays written by ensemble members and friends to riff upon and support the mainstage show that is now in production.  Even though I'm in Chicago at the moment for the opening of "Strong Voice," I said yes.  Of course I said yes!  I'm so pleased to have the chance to play!  

If you're in New York City on Sunday, June 12 -- I hope you'll pop over and see the readings.  They should be lots of fun.  I rather like my little contribution!

THE WAR MUSEUM, by EM Lewis:  2,000 years from now.  This is the moment when everything changes.  Vennah's looking for Meller.  Meller's looking for answers.  In the War Museum.

FLUX THEATER ENSEMBLE'S FOREPLAY READING SERIES: NEW WORLD ILIADS

Sunday, June 12 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Flamboyan Theatre at CSV Cultural & Educational Center

107 Suffolk Street

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Join us on June 12 for ForePlay #2, New World Iliads: Afghanistan

Featuring four short plays by Aja Houston, EM Lewis, Mac Rogers, and Isaiah Tanenbaum

Directed by Jordana Williams

Featuring: Carissa Cordes, Ken Glickfeld, Lynn Kenny, Rob Maitner, Debargo Sanyal, and Kathleen Wise

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FREE! 

Join us for the second evening of ForePlay, our exploratory play reading series where playwrights riff on the themes of our mainstage production,

New World Iliads will take place on three nights with each night treating a contemporary war from a mythic perspective. In the same way that Ajax in Iraq re-imagines a war from thousands of years ago, New World Iliads will imagine what our contemporary wars may look like from the same distance: the gods, the heroes and villains; what details will be erased by time and what will remain? How will the art inspired by today's conflicts inform the myths of tomorrow?

That art is provided by Carrier Pigeon: Illustrated Fiction and Fine Art.

How it works: Carrier Pigeon has provided us with artwork for twelve collaborating playwrights use as source material.

We are excited that this second ForePlay will be inspired by art from Kristy Caldwell, the illustrator of our Season 4 postcards!

Alcyone 2011 Blog Post, Part I

Halcyon Theater Company:  When It Comes to Supporting Women Playwrights, Their Actions Speak Loud

There has been a lot of talk lately about the number of productions women playwrights receive, versus our male counterparts.  The numbers fall out at about 20% plays by women to 80% plays by men.  It's a complex problem.  Perhaps you've read something about it from the 50/50 in 2020 folks, or from the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, or by reading Todd London and Ben Pesner's book "Outrageous Fortune."

What I'd like to talk with you about today is a theater company in Chicago that is taking action, producing five world premieres of brand new plays by women playwrights in June and July, 2011.  Halcyon Theater's Alcyone Festival is one of the boldest correctives to the dearth of productions of women's work I've heard about, and I am absolutely delighted to be one of the lucky participating playwrights.

Halcyon is run by Artistic Director Tony Adams and his wife, Associate Artistic Director Jenn Adams.  This is their fifth season of production. 

I met Tony and Jenn two years ago, when they produced my play "Heads" in Alcyone 2009.  I remember being shocked to see their call for plays; the theme that year was Women Writing about Terrorism.  And I was!  I had.  I flew out to Chicago to see the festival, and was tremendously impressed with the scope of Halcyon's vision.  They produced six plays in that year's festival, by playwrights from around the world.  Beautiful, bold plays.  By women playwrights.  It was exciting and it was exhilerating and it was PRODUCTIONS. 

(May I take a moment, here, to explain that having a reading is to having a production like riding a tricycle is to driving a Mustang convertible on the Los Angeles freeways.  I'll let you decide which experience taught me more about driving, required more of me as a driver, and took me farther, in all the best ways.)

I've kept in touch with my Halcyon friends since then, but was surprised and delighted when they contacted me, and asked if I wanted to take part in this year's Alcyone Festival.  They were doing something different -- asking five of us, with whom they had worked in previous years, to rework, adapt, sample or remix the work of a woman playwright from 1850 or before.  They couldn't afford to make it a commission -- but they would commit to producing what we wrote.

I said YES.  ABSOLUTELY!  YES!!  And so did J. Nicole Brooks, Jennifer Fawcett, Coya Paz and Caridad Svich.  Wrestling with the work of Hrosvitha, Pauline Hopkins, Charlotte Mary Sanford Barnes, Anna Cora Mowatt and Maria de Zaya y Sotomayor, respectively.  If you haven't heard of any of them... well, that's part of the point.  We are retrieving the female playwriting canon.  We are speaking with our sisters across time and space.  We are standing together to tell strong new stories for the stage.  It's a festival of our own.

I can't wait to get to Chicago and see what my fellow playwrights have come up with, and see my own play come to life on Halcyon's stage.  This has already been such a rich and rewarding challenge, just in the writing!

I'm hoping that you'll join me.  I'd like to invite you to take part in this year's Alcyone Festival.  How?

• If you're in Chicago, please come and see the festival!  Tickets are available here.
• If you produce plays, and are curious about our adventures in adaptation, ask us for a copy of our work.  I'm sure all of us playwrights would be glad to talk with you about future productions of these plays that started at the Alcyone Festival.  E-mail Tony for our contact information, or feel free to contact us directly.
• If you want to help Halcyon Theater to produce work by women playwrights, click here to make a donation.  Every cent will go to making this festival happen -- and letting women's voices be heard.  You have the power to tip the scale.  YOU can make a difference.

Thank you for reading!  And I hope to see you in Chicago!

**Next up, in Ellen's Alcyone 2011 Blog Post, Part II:  Wrestling with our Forebears -- The Art of Adaptation! followed by Part III:  STRONG VOICE -- Faith, Heroes and Boldness

Find me in print HERE!

Several of my plays, and scenes from my plays, recently became available in print.  You can find my work in the following places.  Buy a copy today!

 A scene from "Heads" -- my Iraq hostage drama -- is available in the new Smith & Kraus anthology, "The Best Men's Stage Monologues and Scenes 2009."

The scene is between journalist Michael Apres and photojournalist Jack Velazquez.  After a violently failed attempt to escape and a surprising revelation, things get very real between them.

My short play "The Edge of Ross Island" -- winner of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's IN10 competition -- is now available in Eleven Eleven, an online journal of literature and art, produced out of the California College of the Arts.  The play follows a Portland, Oregon cop as she tries to talk a jumper down from the Ross Island Bridge.  Sometimes you find something out about yourself when you try to help someone else...

In January, my full-length play "Song of Extinction" -- winner of the Steinberg Award from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, University of Oregon's EcoDrama Festival, the Ashland New Plays Festival, and Production of the Year from the LA Weekly Awards -- was published in Dramatics Magazine.  They did a beautiful job, commissioning original artwork for the magazine cover to go with my play. 

Last, but not least...  "Song of Extinction" is now in print in a beautiful acting edition from Samuel French.  The cover artwork has been adapted from our original Moving Arts production art by designer Josh Worth.

I'm proud to see my work in print.  It's a lovely feeling to hold your own book in your hand, after all the love and work and sweat and tears that goes into the writing of it.  I'm about to have another birthday -- and I couldn't think of a present better than this.

[Inside] the Ford's New Play Series is Coming!

On the list of things I'm looking forward to this year: the New Play Series at [Inside] the Ford. Moving Arts was lucky enough to be part of this last year, for the world premiere of SONG OF EXTINCTION, along with Circle X (who produced BATTLE HYMN) and Ghost Road (who produced HOME SIEGE HOME).

This season includes:

• TREE -- written by Julie Hebert and directed by Jessica Kubzansky, produced by Ensemble Studio Theater. "Three generations divided by race, culture and time connect when a white Southern woman discovers old love letters leading her to an African-American half-brother."
• bobrauschenbergamerica -- written by Charles L. Mee, and produced by TheSpyAnts. "A fantastical voyage through the heart of small town America as seen through the eyes of visionary artist Robert Rauschenberg."
• LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING -- written by Sheila Callahan, and produced by Circle X. "It's 1980 and Reagan has just been elected. On a secluded Greek island, an American ex-pat pursues his passions: wine making and his breathtaking young bride. On the eve of his first tasting, an old lover reappears, and with her, a wild and violent past."

Exciting new plays! I hope to see you at the theater.