Supporting Young Playwrights!

The last couple months have allowed me two opportunities to support young playwrights in the making, one on each coast.

The first person who supported my writing (that I can remember) was Mrs. Berrum, my fourth grade teacher, who taped my first poem to the bulletin board on her wall, and left it up there all semester.  But there have been a lot of people since then...  mentors Ben Masselink and Lee Wochner, and a host of other folks who have supported me, produced my plays and encouraged my crazy compulsion to become a writer.  (I should include my patient and wonderful family in this category!)

So!  Given the opportunity to give back is a wonderful thing.

THE STATE STREET PROJECT AT PASSAGE THEATER -- TRENTON, NJ
Last month, I spent a day with the wonderful folks at Passage Theater from Trenton, NJ and a great group of kids from Emily Fisher Charter School.  Passage's "The State Street Project" employs the "playmaking" model created by the 52nd Street Project in New York.  One on one mentoring results in a ten-minute play written by each and every kid.  This batch of plays are going up at Passage Theater on June 4-5, 2011.  Check 'em out!

THE YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL AT THE BLANK THEATER -- HOLLYWOOD, CA
This is the third year I've participated in the Young Playwrights Festival, produced by the Blank Theater in Hollywood, CA -- but it's the nineteenth year that they've done it!  I love the Blank -- they've done readings of a bunch of my plays in their Living Room Series, and produced the world premiere of my play Heads.  Each of the twelve winning playwrights are assigned a mentor, who helps them through one rewrite/touch-up of their plays before they go up in full, star-studded productions that run throughout the month of June.  The plays are great fun -- and you get a chance to encourage some really talented young writers.  Go see it!

A Little Article about Agents in "The Dramatist"

The March/April 2011 issue of "The Dramatist" -- the Journal of the Dramatist Guild of America -- is all about agents.  "The Agents Issue" is an appropriate moniker, as the question of whether or not you need an agent to be a successful playwright in today's world is one that comes up regularly.

From "Agent Free" in the Mar/Apr 2011 issue of The Dramatist.

Writing from the "Agent Free" perspective, dramatists who are "surviving, even thriving without an agent."

• Margaret Baldwin
• Evan Guilford-Blake
• EM Lewis
• Matthew Bennett
• Jeanne Drennan
• Topher Payne
• Valetta Anderson

"Starting Out" offers "personal tales from established dramatists about how they first signed with an agent... or came close to."

• Michael Korie
• Doug Wright
• Micki Grant
• Susan Birkenhead
• Tina Howe
• Craig Carnelia

Get your copy today!

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" moves from Chicago to DC...

A nice interview here with director Pam McKinnon and actor (and playwright) Tracy Letts about the production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" that has moved from its Chicago home at Steppenwolf to DC's Arena Stage.

Arena is doing a big celebration of Mr. Albee's work right now, with multiple productions and readings of his work.  I'm thinking I might buy myself a ticket down there for my birthday -- because what a tremendous gift of a play his "Who's" is...

"Song of Extinction" Opens at the Guthrie!!!

I've just returned from an amazing two days in Minneapolis, where I was celebrating opening weekend of "Song of Extinction" at the Guthrie with the fabulous folks at Theater Latte Da.  (All these beautiful photos are by Michal Daniel!)

Max Forrestal plays his "Song of Extinction."

Peter Rothstein did a wonderful job directing!  The production features beautiful performances from a stellar cast -- which includes poet-scholar-actor David Mura as Khim Phan and real-life high school student and cellist Dan Piering as Max Forrestal, Carla Noack and John Middleton as Lily and Ellery Forrestal, Garry Geiken as Gill Morris, and Matt Rein as Dr. Joshua Dorsey.

The music, the set, the sound design and the art design were all fantastic.  And the reviews have been pretty darn fantastic, too...

Khim Phan remembers.

All the right notes:  Theater Latte Da’s ‘Song of Extinction’ a touching triumph

“…filled with compassion for its characters and a delicate touch that makes [Song of Extinction] a very moving drama… To the credit of author Lewis and director Peter Rothstein, no point is belabored, no audience member bludgeoned with a message. For a work with so many layers, it’s nevertheless almost minimalist in structure, its dialogue convincingly realistic, its tone admirably restrained.”  — Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press

Song of Extinction at the Dowling Studio: Examining the death of a family

“Making his professional debut, Piering gives a natural, nuanced performance as Max. His anger and pain are always near the surface and explode at the smallest provocation, but Piering never moves into melodrama. His focus fuels several of the show’s best moments, especially the final minutes, when the cello comes out of the case and Max finally is able to get beyond his anger and into his sorrow. The piece, composed by longtime Latte Da music director Denise Prosek, reflects that perfectly, while Piering plays it as Max would—full of anger and passion.”  — Ed Huyck, City Pages

‘Song’s’ refrain: Simple story, complex emotions

“…90 minutes of poignant worthiness … Rothstein’s second small jewel of the year… [He] shows us his articulate understanding of drama that gets inside the human psyche.”  — Graydon Royce, Star Tribune

Song of Extinction by Theater Latté Da performing on the Guthrie’s Dowling Stage

“This piece is intense, rich, affecting… [David] Mura lends the play understated resonance… Also first rate are John Middleton and Carla Noack as the Forrestals… Anyone raising a teen-ager knows how illogically volatile they can be and Dan Piering, as Max, captures this gorgeously.”  — John Olive, How Was The Show?

Ellery Forrestal looks in at his wife, Lily.

More information on this Theater Latte Da Production at the Guthrie Website.

Television interview with actors David Mura and Dan Piering on the KARE - Channel 11 website.

More about Theater Latte Da.

Khim and Lily.

Check out my monologue "Big" in Port Townsend, WA: March 7-8

I have a piece in "Here, There & Everywhere" -- a festival of monologues by women playwrights that celebrates International Women's Day -- happening at Key City Public Theater in Port Townsend, Washington on March 7-8, 2011.

For more details, look here!


Area playwrights (“Here”) include Denise Fleener of Sequim (“Chinese For Dummies”), Rebecca Redshaw of Port Angeles (“Nellie's Memory”), Barbara Lindsay of Shoreline (“Belt Loop Man”), and Rebecca Goldberg of Seattle (“Me Vs. My Subconscious”).

Monologues by other American writers (“There”) are “Big” by EM Lewis, New Jersey, “The Hunter” by Gloria Calderon Kellett, Los Angeles, “The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman” by Carolyn Gage, Maine, and “The People” by Vicki Caroline Cheatwood, Texas.

Representing “Everywhere” is the twenty-three-year-old writer Hina Siddique of Pune, India, whose untitled monologue presents two very different women with one terrible secret.

From the Writer's Desk...

Where do I work?  At a moderately messy desk in Princeton, New Jersey... but if you'd like a few more details about where I do what I do, check out this interview with the splendid Sara Israel, who is blogging for the Theater @ Boston Court in Pasadena, California about playwrights and their workspaces.

Joe supervises.  And occasionally attacks the printer.

2010: The Year in Review -- Stuff I Did

This has been a very different year.  Big things have happened.  (Publications.  Productions.  A fellowship.  A big move!)  Risks have been taken.  Fun has been had.  All in all, I feel like I can confidently say that the day has been seized!

I always feel like I need to be doing more.  But I'd like to take a moment, now, to celebrate what I did accomplish in 2010 -- and to thank everyone who helped to make this such a wonderful year.  

Me and everything I own, in the back of a U-Haul Truck.

Changes in 2010

Quit day job at USC in the spring, where I had worked for nine years as a "Documentation Specialist" -- doing user support, teaching training classes and writing documentation for their Student Information System.  I miss all my friends there!

Gave myself a summer vacation, and spent that time back on the farm, in Oregon.  Nice to spend some time with my family!  And in close proximity to Dad's vegetable garden...

Moved across the country, into the cutest little cottage in Princeton, New Jersey in the fall -- accepting a year-long writing fellowship at Princeton University.

The cottage.

Accomplishments in 2010

Song of Extinction, by EM Lewis - published by Dramatics Magazine.

Winter

Began the year with a two-week long writing residency at Soapstone in Nehalem, Oregon.  What a beautiful place!  Set deep in the woods, overlooking a river.  A writing aerie, where I could work on my new play, "Magellanica: A New and Accurate Map of the World." 

Completed one last round of Lee Wochner's "Words That Speak" playwriting workshop, where I began a new full-length play called "Magellanica."  (Lee has been a wonderful mentor, teacher and friend to me.  Thank you, Lee!)  This was my workhorse of a workshop for... so many years that I'm having trouble calculating.  I met a bunch of my very favorite playwrights there.  You know who you are.

Took two day-long playwriting workshops from Los Angeles playwright Aaron Henne.  Great stuff!  I got a good bit done on a rather elliptical new full-length called "The Year I Don't Remember."

Attended an early meeting of the new organization LAFPI -- the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative.  Check it out!

Publications!  A scene from "Heads" was published in Smith & Kraus' "Best Men's Monologues and Scenes 2009" anthology.  My short play "The Edge of Ross Island" was published in the literary magazine "Eleven Eleven."  And best of all, "Song of Extinction" was published in Dramatics Magazine, and then by Samuel French.   Yay!

Song of Extinction, by EM Lewis - published by Samuel French.

Spring

Had a reading of my ten-minute play "The Manuscript" in "Shorts & Briefs" -- a festival of short plays produced by the Los Angeles Women's Theater Project.

Directed a reading of Part I of my play Magellanica in the Dramatists Guild's "Friday Night Footlights," and then again at [Inside] the Ford, as part of the Words That Speak workshop readings.  Had an outstanding cast!  It is so amazing to hear something out loud for the first time.

Got my first passport.  Just in case I get the chance to go someplace wonderful and far away.

Had a reading of "Song of Extinction" at TimeLine Theater in Chicago.

Had a production of "Song of Extinction" at Ion Theater in San Diego, California.

Song of Extinction at Ion Theater in San Diego, CA.

Matthew Alexander and Robin Christ in Song of Extinction. 

Celebrated my fellowship (and said goodbye) with parties at my work (USC) and my theater company (Moving Arts).  I appreciate all the love and support so much!

Was talked about in a lovely article by my mentor, teacher and friend Lee Wochner.  Thank you, Lee!  You are the best.

Summer

Spent the summer back in Oregon, on the farm.

The farm.

Hiking in Oregon.  On top of the world, on Table Rock.

Had a production of "Song of Extinction" in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, produced by Rio Hondo College.

Wrote (and was paid for) an hour-long screenplay for a publishing company, creating a new story based on the work of one of their non-fiction writers.  It was an interesting challenge!

Was interviewed by Theresa May, University of Oregon theater professor and director of the Earth Matters on Stage Conference and Theater Festival.  ("Song of Extinction" was the winning play in the festival in 2008.)

Was interviewed by Theresa Dudeck, University of Oregon doctoral student and director of the workshop production of "Song of Extinction" in the Earth Matters on Stage Conference in 2008.

Me and Stephanie kayaking in Friday Harbor!

Took a trip up to Washington state and visited playwright pals Babs Lindsay (Seattle) and Stephanie Walker (San Juan Islands).  So much fun!

Actors Michael Shutt, Peter James Smith and Stephanie Erb, director Darin Anthony, and me -- having lots of fun with "The Incident Report" at the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival

Produced "The Incident Report" in the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival.  We made the finals!  I was very proud of our intrepid Los Angeles crew:  director Darin Anthony, and actors Peter James Smith, Michael Shutt and Stephanie Erb.

Fall

My new mascot -- the Princeton Tiger!

Began 2010-2011 Hodder Fellowship in Playwriting at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.

Did a reading with the other two Hodder Fellows -- Cynthia Cruz and ZZ Packer -- at Princeton University.  Actor Mark Nelson was kind enough to read with me, and we did two monologues (one from "Song of Extinction" and one from "Magellanica") and a scene from "Heads."

Had a reading of a scene from "Heads" in a fundraiser for friend Monica Bauer's upcoming production of "Balls:  The Testosterone Plays."

Sat in on a History of Science Seminar at Princeton University.

ANPF board president Fred Wright and me.

Acted as Host Playwright for the 2010 Ashland New Plays Festival in Ashland, Oregon -- welcoming the four winning playwrights, introducing the plays, conducting talk-backs and teaching a playwriting workshop.  It was a fabulous week!

Joined the Ashland New Plays Festival Advisory Board.

Had a reading of a new 10-minute play called "Apple Season" at Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, California.  The theater asked a number of playwrights who had been lucky enough to have plays developed in their "Botanicum Seedlings" development program to write new short plays on the theme of "backyard fruit" that they could read on their lovely outdoor stage.

Participated in "Drunken Careening Writers" by reading short play "Seven Bottles of Heineken After the Silverado" with Aaron Simms.  Thanks for asking me to come out and play, Kathleen Warnock!

Joined a new playwriting workshop!

Had a reading of "Song of Extinction" at Briccolage Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, followed by my first "Skyped" talk-back.  Technology, for the win!

Was asked to write an adaptation for Halcyon Theater's annual festival of plays by women playwrights in 2011, and began work on the project.  Keep an eye out for "Strong Voice" in Chicago this summer!

_________________________________

I'm very thankful for all the opportunities that have come my way this year -- and am looking forward to lots of work, fun and theater-going in 2011!