"The Incident Report" in Jersey Voices

This summer is turning into the busiest time ever!  Up next is the five-character version of "The Incident Report" in Jersey Voices at Chatham Community Players.  I've been actively pursuing opportunities here in my new state of New Jersey, and am delighted to have had this short play picked up at an annual event that showcases Garden State playwrights.

Why the five-character version?  Well... an accident of the submitting process, actually!  "The Incident Report" is about an aviation safety investigator who is trying to determine what went wrong on a flight where things went very, very wrong -- and who's responsible.  It has gone through a variety of iterations, some that moved through time in various ways, some that had three characters and some that had five.  Ultimately, the version that was produced in an evening of my short plays at Moving Arts in Los Angeles, and subsequently made the finals of the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival in New York City, was the linear three character version.  When I submitted the play to Jersey Voices, though, through the magic of e-mail submission, I accidentally attached a different draft.

I gave the theater the other version when I realized my mistake, but they really liked the five character version, which brings the action that happened on the plane right up on stage in three bloody dimensions.  And I have to say, I"m excited!  How often do we have the chance to see different versions of the same play fully produced, to see what works best in each?  I'm looking forward to attending.  If you're in New Jersey, I hope you'll check it out!  More information and ticketing are available through the Chatham Community Players website.

"The Incident Report" is directed by Chris Messineo of New Providence, and features Brian Carroll, Jeff Maschi, Chip Prestera, Jim Clancy, and Jessica Phelan.

Teaching and Mentoring Young Playwrights in Richmond

The last few weeks have been really, really amazing.  I've been teaching and mentoring young playwrights in the SPARC: New Voices for the Theater program in Richmond, Virginia.

Being playwright-in-residence at New Voices meant spending a week teaching the fundamentals of playwriting, and then moving to a more dramaturgical role in week two, as the eight winning playwrights were paired with directors and actors, and began rehearsals of their winning plays.  It all culminated with beautifully staged readings of the plays with friends, family and members of the community in attendance.

The eight winning playwrights of SPARC: New Voices for the Theater 2012!

Having six hours a day, for five days in a row, to talk about how plays work was a great gift.  We had so much fun!  All eight of the student playwrights were smart, creative and game.  I tried to mix things up with group exercises, paired work, physical activities, writing prompts, and sharing work.  I used improv as a writing tool more than I ever have before to teach playwriting.  The kids really took to it, and I felt like it gave us a chance to try out some of the things we were talking about in class -- goals and objectives, obstacles and tactics, action and dialogue, negotiation over props, theater magic...  All the fun stuff!  It also reinforced something I believe strongly -- that plays are about action, not just two dimensional words on a page, but three dimensional human beings crashing into each other in beautiful and complicated ways in the living, breathing world of the stage.  We studied by day, and by night, they worked on rewriting their own one-act plays.

The Richmond theater community gave their hearts and their talent to this program, with some of the best directors and actors in town working tirelessly with these young writers -- letting them be the playwright in the rehearsal room for the very first time.  (What joy, seeing them see their plays come to life in hands of talented actors!)  The plays ranged from romantic comedies to tragedies, and from the deeply psychological to the absurd to the delightfully funny.

I truly hope that I have more opportunities to teach in the year ahead.  Teaching playwriting -- being able to share what I love so much with others -- was a great gift.  But it will be hard to beat the experience I had with New Voices.  It's an extraordinary program -- well organized and inspirationally led by Laine Satterfield.  And we had an extraordinary bunch of kids.

Writing my closing speech -- and saying goodbye to the kids -- made me cry.  What a lovely couple of weeks, New Voices!  Thank you so much!

New Voices for the Theater in Richmond!

This has been such a great year for theater travel!  A few days ago, I took the train down to Richmond, Virginia, where I'm going to be spending the next two weeks as playwright-in-residence for the SPARC New Voices for the Stage program.  I'll be working with eight young dramatists whose plays were chosen from submissions throughout the state.  The first week will be lots of classroom work, and working on their plays.  During the second week, they begin working with their directors and actors.  The program culminates in staged readings of all the plays, and a big celebration of these new works with family and friends.

Our team is headed up by program director Laine Satterfield (who is an absolute delight), and supported by two wonderful resident assistants, and what seems like the whole city of Richmond.  There are dinners and outings planned with many board members and other program supporters while we're here, and I felt so warmly welcomed at the kick-off party down at the Firehouse Theater.

I'm delighted to be following in my friend Babs Lindsay's footsteps.  She was last year's PIR (or playwright-in-residence).  Big shoes to fill!  And I just found out that my friend and colleague Clarence Coo was a young playwright in this very program when he was in high school -- now he is winning national awards for his work.

I have so much love for writing and the theater -- it's a joy to be able to share that.  I'm looking forward to this being a wonderful couple of weeks.

"Apple Season" in Colorado Springs

"Apple Season" by EM Lewis in the 2012 6 Women Playwriting Festival.  Actress Joye Levy.

I was delighted when I received the call from the 6 Women Playwriting Festival that they wanted to include my 10-minute play "Apple Season" in this year's event.  When I found out that my pals Babs Lindsay from Seattle, WA and Maureen Brady Johnson from Oberlin, OH had plays in the festival too, I knew I had to go.

Playwrights Babs Lindsay, EM Lewis and Maureen Brady Johnson.  On our way to the Six Women Playwriting Festival in Colorado Springs!

Babs, Maureen and I coordinated our arrival at Denver Airport, rented a car together, and zipped out to Colorado Springs.  The women who produce the 6 Women Playwriting Festival could not have been warmer.  They put us up in the home of one of their board members, and had arranged a lovely reception, a beautiful brunch, a cast party, and talk-backs after two performances.  The three of us met two of the other playwrights there -- Cricket Daniel from Bend, OR and Margo Hammond from Newark, NJ.  We also had plenty of time to chat with our directors and actors.

I'd written "Apple Season" on a prompt from Jennie Webb, who coordinates the Botanicum Seedlings new play program at Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, CA.  During the summers, Theatricum Botanicum produces classical works (for the most part) on their gorgeous outdoor stage.  But the Seedlings program guarantees their engagement with new work as well.  They did a reading of my play "Reading to Vegetables" a few years ago, and I've also talked a lot with Jennie from her work with the LAFPI -- (that's the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, if you're wondering!).  Just before I left for New Jersey, Jennie asked me if I'd like to write a ten-minute play on the theme of "backyard fruit" for a reading festival they wanted to do during the summer.  I had no idea what that prompt would prompt in me, but I said absolutely.  I knew something would occur!  I ended up spending the summer between leaving Los Angeles and moving to Princeton back on my family's farm in Oregon.  Because I could!  Because I wanted to.  How often as an adult do you get to spend a few solid months during the glorious Oregon summer, when everything is growing in the gardens and orchards, back with your much-loved family?  It was certainly an inspiration as I sat down with my little laptop to write a play on the subject of backyard fruit.  For inspiration, I ate raspberries, logan berries, boysen berries, marion berries, blackberries (wild and domestic), gooseberries, blueberries, peaches, apples and plums.  (Have I mentioned how much I love our farm in the summertime?)  I ended up writing a play that is set in the world I grew up in -- on a small farm in rural Oregon.  It turned out a bit darker than I expected it to be.  The characters surprised me with where they took things.

"Apple Season" by EM Lewis, directed by Birgitta de Pree, in the 2012 Six Women Playwriting Festival in Colorado Springs, CO.  Actors Anthony Archer and Joye Levy.

At the 6 Women Playwriting Festival, "Apple Season" was directed by Birgitta de Pree, and featured actors Joye Levy and Anthony Archer.  Here's the synopsis:  Will is interested in buying the farm that Lissie inherited from her folks, but he hadn't bargained on her asking price.

If you'd like to watch the play in its entirety, you can!  The festival filmed each play, and they're available here.

Me and my cast at the cast party!

Short play festivals aren't always reviewed, but we received lovely notices in the local paper.  Read them here.  I was certainly pleased that my play was highlighted by critic TD Mobley-Martinez as:

"...the best short play I’ve ever seen on that stage: “Apple Season,” which was written by E.M. Lewis and directed by Birgitta De Pree, is worth the cost of admission all on its own. Haunting. Poetic. And genuinely unexpected.  

It’s a story as simple as this: Lissie (Joye Levy) must deal with a death. Seen it, you might say. But Lewis unreels a nuanced story in poetic little pieces. Some spell things out, sure, but others rely on your own ability to put two and two together.  

Director De Pree takes her time with Lewis’ story, allowing silences to say as much as Lewis’ heartland dialogue. Levy and Tony Archer, who plays Will, know what to do with it all. Both offer deeply memorable performances. Levy was powerfully honest and human — in what she shows and perhaps more important, in what she doesn’t."

A big thank you to the more than 6 Women (and men!) who so graciously welcomed us playwrights to their community.  It was lovely meeting you!  And you've inspired me.  Since I returned home, I've been working to turn "Apple Season" into a full-length two-hander.  We'll see where the characters want to take me now!

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.  
___________________________________

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
____________________________________


What's past is prologue.

April 2 - "I, Human" in NYC!

I have written a robot play.

"Where in the world did that come from, Ellen?" you might ask.  And it's true that I usually play in a sandbox that looks more like Lanford Wilson Land than Isaac Asimov Country.  But I like stretching myself.  I like trying new things.  Short plays are great for attempting bold maneuvers in your writing!  They're short!  Surely we can be brave in ten or twenty pages, can't we?

I read quite a lot of science fiction while I was growing up.  I think most geeky smart kids do.  Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert.  Madeleine L'Engle's Time Trilogy.  And I remember watching reruns of "Star Trek" (the real Star Trek, the original Star Trek) with my dad on television, and staying up and terrifying myself when I was babysitting with late-night viewings of "The Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits."  I remember my Speech & Debate Team pals Mark and Jeff reciting great chunks of dialogue from Douglas Adams' "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."  "War of the Worlds" and the three "Star Wars" movies and "Bladerunner" all affected how I saw the universe.  Later, I'd find my way into the worlds of Ursula K. LeGuin and Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood and George Orwell and Dan Simmons.  I liked it there.  These writers were asking big questions.

I like it when writers ask big questions.

So when Gus Schulenberg from Flux Theater Ensemble asked if I could write a short play for them that riffed upon the futuristic/sci-fi themes of their new mainstage show "Deinde," I said yes.

I've written for Flux's "ForePlay" series before.  Last year, Gus asked if I'd write something to go alongside their production of "Ajax in Iraq" by Ellen McLaughlin for their "New World Iliads."  I came up with a futuristic play called "The War Museum."  It was a great challenge, and really, really fun.  

I love the idea of this series.  Basically, in the weeks leading up to the opening of a show, they ask a bunch of writers they've worked with before or know to write new short plays that riff upon the themes of their mainstage show.  Each week, a new batch of four or five are assigned to a director, cast, and put up in an evening of readings and fun and cameraderie.  It multiplies exponentially the number of theater artists they get to work with, while speaking directly to the themes of the mainstage play and reaching out to new audiences.  Brilliant!  Lots of work for them, but really, really smart.

My play for ForePlay: Human 2.0 is called "I, Human."  As you might guess from the title, if you're familiar with the writings of Isaac Asimov, it's a bit of an homage to his influential "I, Robot" series -- which introduced the Three Laws of Robotics to the world.  It's got robots and scientists, heated discussions about ethics, and a bit of the old ultra-violence, too.  If you're in New York City on Monday night, I hope you'll come check it out.  I'd love to see you there!

Inspiration for "I, Human" by EM Lewis.

Flux Theater Ensemble's ForePlay: Human 2.0

Monday, April 2 at 8pm

The Lounge at Dixon Place

161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey)

New York, NY

For more information:  Flux's ForePlay: Human 2.0

Playwrights: David Ian Lee (TIME), EM Lewis (RESPONSIBILITY), David Stallings (BORDERS), Lauren Ferebee (MUSIC), Nat Cassidy (PARENTING)

Director: Matt Archambault

Actors: Becky Kelly, Maria Portman Kelly, Kari Swenson Riely, Chris Wight, Tatiana Gomberg, John Albano

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.