"Song of Extinction" Honored alongside the Ten Best Plays of the Year

As the winner of the Steinberg Award (for the best play premiering outside of New York City, as selected by the American Theater Critics Association), "Song of Extinction" will be honored alongside the ten best plays of the year in Limelight Editions' "Best Plays of 2008-2009" -- a collection of essays, statistics and information about the theater world -- in early 2010. For more information about the collection, visit their website!

www.bestplays.org

ANPF Redux - October 26, 2009

I'm heading back to beautiful Ashland, Oregon at the end of October for another reading of "Song of Extinction," courtesy of the fabulous folks of the Ashland New Plays Festival. I'm so looking forward to returning there! I went last year with fellow 2008 ANPF winners Babs Lindsay, Tony Pasqualini and Steve Lyons, and loved this small town with a big theater festival (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) at it's heart.

The reading will feature a bunch of wonderful actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Returning actors from last year's reading include Cristofer Jean (as biology teacher Khim Phan), Liisa Ivary, Jeff King and Brad Whitmore. They'll be joined by Blaine Johnston (as young Max Forrestal) and Anil Margsahayam.

Craig Wright and CS Lewis

I went to see Craig Wright's new play "The Unseen" at the Road on Friday. After writing my Iraq hostage play "Heads," I've been particularly curious to see how other playwrights delve into that particular kind of theatrical crucible. Hostage plays I've seen include:

• "Two Rooms" by Lee Blessing (two different productions)
  
• "The Hostage" by Brendan Behan (Friday before last, at Theater Banshee)
  
• "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" by Frank McGuiness (which I particularly like)
  
• "The Unseen" by Craig Wright
• "Heads" by EM Lewis (a multitude of readings, and two productions, soon to be three)
  

(Am I missing any? Do let me know, so I can search them out.)

I've also been "collecting" Craig Wright plays (by seeing them), in part because some of my favorite local theater companies keep producing them, and producing them exceptionally well. So far, Craig Wright plays I've seen include:

• "Grace" at Furious Theater Company
• "Orange Flower Water" at the Victory
• "The Unseen" at the Road
• "Recent Tragic Events" at... somewhere...
• "Lady" at the Road

I've liked all these plays to some degree, and respected all of them period. Craig Wright is exploring (in almost all of these, to some degree) the topic of faith. What do we believe? How do we believe it? What does what we believe mean in our real and sometimes terrible lives? How can you believe something you can't see or prove? How do we prove that something exists?

It's not my question, as a playwright. (I seem to be tending toward the existential in my quixotic playwrighterly quests.) But it's a good question.

Watching "The Unseen" reminded me strongly of reading CS Lewis (no relation) as a kid. I remember reading "The Screwtape Letters" over the course of one entire summer, when I was getting up at an ungodly hour to babysit while my mom worked on a neighbor's berry picker. Before that, I'd read "The Chronicles of Narnia" over and over again -- I think I read "The Last Battle" about fourteen times. (Really. I liked to read.)

I appreciate the struggle to make sense of faith that both these writers engage in. It's a difficult world to be a believer in.

It's a difficult world.

What do I believe in?

I garden.

A little interview by playwright Adam Szymkowicz

Playwright Adam Szymkowicz (who wrote "Nerve," "Food for Fish," "Incendiary" and the sublimely named "Deflowering Waldo" -- just to name the plays I've read or seen) interviewed me here as part of a series of playwright interviews he's doing on his blog. Check it out!

Pictures from Heads in Chicago

Heads in the Alcyone Festival 2009, produced by Halcyon Theater, in Chicago, IL.

In "Heads," a British embassy worker, an American engineer, a newscaster and a photojournalist are taken hostage in Iraq. What they find out about each other and about themselves is the focus of the play, which was first produced in Los Angeles, CA at the Blank Theater (Best of 2007 -- LA Times), in Chicago, IL and this fall in Denver, CO.

Harold Wolfe takes off the tape. Caroline Conway figures out she's in the shit.

Photojournalist Jack Velazquez meets journalist Michael Apres,
from the Hartford evening news, who does not yet have dust
on his combat boots..

He likes Bob Dylan songs, she is a little bit in love with Elton John.

"What did they ask you? You have to tell me!"

"Are you cold?"

That didn't go so well.

"I want you to hold me tonight."

"I'm going to do something, Michael."

Endings.

HELP is gone.

Begin again?

**Photos by Adam Dodds.

Chicago!

I was in Chicago over the 4th of July weekend to see Halcyon Theater's production of "Heads" in the Alcyone Festival 2009. It was a lovely visit. I'd never been to Chicago before, so it was great to check out the city -- from ferris wheel rides and Garrett's "Chicago mix" popcorn on Navy Pier to crazy (crazy!) illegal fireworks in the park to the Art Institute of Chicago. I needed more days to explore!

Attending the festival was great fun. I met Artistic Director Tony Adams and his wife, my director, Jess Hutchinson, and my actors. The festival was held over six weeks, in a theater in the basement of a church. Not only did I get to see my play, but also "Fucking Parasites," by Swedish playwright Ninna Tersman. I loved it! A wonderful two-hander about two teenagers in limbo in an immigrant detention center. Great to meet all the passionate folks involved with making this festival happen -- productions of six plays on the subject of terrorism, all written by women. Thanks so much for including my little play in the mix, Tony!

"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.