Play Out the Play!

2nd Annual WSF New Playwright Competition

A modest little competition, but last year it yielded some decent results.  You don't have to be a resident of the San Joaquin Valley to enter or win, but hey. . . it sure couldn't hurt if you were!
********

Woodward Shakespeare Festival

New Playwright Competition

*Finding, encouraging and developing new playwrights in the Central Valley.*

 

The Woodward Shakespeare Festival is committed to fresh and forward productions of William Shakespeare’s genius. Anywhere, at any time, however, there could be another Shakespeare sprung upon us. In that vein, the WSF announces its 2^nd Annual New Playwright Competition. The objective of this competition is not necessarily to find the next great play, but to encourage the next great playwrights.

 

Prize: $150, mounting of production for Rogue Performance Festival 2009 in Fresno.

Submission Deadline:

August 30^th, 2008

Submission Guidelines:

• Festival-length plays only
• 2-3 characters. 45-60 min run time. Approximately 30-50 pages in proper manuscript format
• No musicals
• No collaborations
  • Single authorship only.
• No adaptations
  • (EXCEPTIONS: Adaptations based on or inspired by Shakespearean plays or other classical/literary texts. Adaptations of work published after 1900 will not be accepted to avoid copyright violations).
• Scripts must be in a Standard Play Manuscript Format.
  • See http://www.kcactf5.org/NPP/WritingFormat.htm for sample.

• Electronic submissions must be sent in either Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. PDF documents also allowed.
•  Hard Copy submissions must be three hold punch and soft bound in a flexible cover. Hard copy submissions will not be returned to the author.
• Original, unpublished, never before produced work only
• Please include your completed application and bio with your manuscript submission.

 

Submissions must include the following to be considered complete:

• Properly formatted manuscript
• Completed Application Form

 Manuscripts can be sent to:

WSF New Playwright Competition

                                                                491Lincoln Avenue

Dinuba, Ca 93618

wsf_literarydesk@inbox.com

Download the full guidelines and application:

Download WSFNewPlaywrightComp.doc

Download WSFNewPlaywrightComp.pdf

Twelfth Night: Dance Rehearsal

I wanted to make sure I got a blog entry up about Sunday's dance rehearsal. 

I've got to say, I don't think I've ever done a dance rehearsal for a show-- especially with non-dancer actors-- where it was such a pleasure and a joy.  All of these actors had a long and arduous day prior to the rehearsal helping to build the new, semi-permanent stage in the Woodward Park Glen.  They were tired and had a rehearsal call on a Sunday afternoon, which no one really likes.

But during the rehearsal, even with the heat, half built set, sore muscles, and late arrivals, everyone was on board for whatever I asked them to do.  I heard no grousing about being written out of a dance, as a few gentlemen had to be.  There were no complaints about having to get up off of their asses.  There was no resistance to my direction and suggestions during the dumb show (an old-school theatrical conceit that a lot of actors look down on as being quaint and antiquated).  In fact, everyone rolled with the time they had to sit out a dance and those that danced every dance stayed focused and worked each set the best they knew how.
Because of this tremendous positivity and professionalism among this cast, they managed to learn two new 1 and a half to two minute dances in just about two hours.  And for non-dancers, that's really some good work. 

Because these actors didn't feel that any part of this process was beneath them or their performance in this show, I think the bookending of the dances and dumbshow will be a strong and well-executed image for teh production-- instead of an afterthought as I've seen in other local productions in recent years.  For me, a girl who loves the vintage dances of the 16th-19th centuries, to have actors so wholly unacquainted with the artform embrace it so well and not feel like coming to this rehearsal was beneath them was a real blessing.

And so, I've uploaded three videos of the rehearsals of the dances and dumb show to my YouTube account.  (When viewing, please bear in mind that these are still early dance rehearsals-- our second one total-- and the first time they've learned two of these pieces.  We have some work to do, but right now, these actors are doing great!)

PS: I have a few new costume snaps on my flickr album. I'll keep a running total on the photostream.

A costuming update

So, wanna see what my life looks like right now?  I've been sewing, organizing, pulling, begging, borrowing, stealing. .  well, not stealing, but you get the pic. I have made some changes to my design plan. . . getting rid of a lot of sleeves, reserving them only for the most formal of characters (Malvolio and The Officers).  I found that on Toby's coat, adding sleeves made it too obviously a Matrix coat (despite the added paso doble panels in the sides and back).   And the folkloric vests tend to be sleeveless and they're on an ISLAND so I wanted a more breezy, less stuffy feel to the costumes.  Besides, what use is a puffy shirt if you can't see the puffy sleeves? 

Here's my work station in the den (right next to the puter).  You can see the stacks of reference materials, toile envelopes, patterns and sketches. .  and the ubiquitous Tudor Tailor book. 

My costume room looks like thus:

Men's Rack:

Women's Rack:

Orsino's doublet:

Toby Belch's Coat:

Andrew Aguecheek's kit:

So, I'm off to rehearsal tonight.  I'll take some more snaps there-- not of costumes but of rehearsal randomness.  I know my three readers who are WSF fans will want to know.  Right?

 

Pre-production-- Twelfth Night

Well, we're in our last week of pre-production meetings for WSF's Twelfth Night.  Actually, we're overlapping pre-production and auditions this week! 

But I sit down for a second sketches meeting with Lars Thorson, the director, on Thursday.  Right before he conducts callbacks for casting.  I'll be hanging out in the back scoping the actors.  I've changed a few sketches of a few characters. . Toby Belch and Malvolio being the principles.  I also have a sketch of Antonio to show up-- straight up Pirate-tastic like he requested.  (I'll probably omit the eyepatch, though!  LOL!).  Toby's costume is straight up Commedia Pantalone-tastic. 

It's been tough combining Italian renaissance, baltic folklore, pirates and commedia as his original precis had in mind, but I think I've done a good job of marrying the Renaissance silhouette with some folkloric touches-- primarily heavy on the embroidered trims and embellishments and a few specific pieces for flavor. But overall, I hope they look like they all exist in the same world. The show is supposed to have a romantic, sea-floral, breeze-strewn feel to it.

Below are my sketches as they stand right now:

 

Rehearsal Progress

Well, we've only got two weeks of rehearsal left for "All's Red".  They really are going well and the cast is working very hard to make every moment count.  I think that it will be a good solid 45 minutes in seats, but I am at the point where I may be too close to really know. 

As I've reviewed my notes, though, I see that there are a number of things we've actually worked on and improved during the course of rehearsals.  We still have some things to work on, but it is encouraging to look back and see from where we've come. 

Here are some items that aren't specific notes from the show, but are rather notes to myself on creating style in theatre.  It's a hard, ephemeral thing to cultivate and is as much a product of the collaboration of actor, script, and director.  Here are some thoughts I've written down in the course of the last two months of working on the show:

If the gesture is separated from the truth of the character's circumstance and inner life, it produces artificial posturing. 

Style is content; a physical gesture is an emotion.  The actor must understand it and illustrate it in the truest fashion possible. 

Style is the distinctive way a production communicates.  It is "knowing the play you are in". 

All great acting, no matter the style, begins with a truthful inner life, an incandescence and brightness.  Any style or expression must maintain a connection to inner truthfulness-- even in its most mannered forms. 

And, scrawled across an entire page in my notebook:

How is your art in your life?  And how is your life in your art?

A question for us all, I guess. 

All's Red 1st Reading

The cast of All's Red that's Riding Hood announces its first reading on Tuesday, December 18th at the Rancho Fiesta Clubhouse (5505 W Tulare Ave) in Visalia.  The reading will begin at 7:30 p.m. with q&a and discussion following.  The reading is open to the public. 

Basic PR for All's Red

This is what has been submitted to the Rogue Festival for the Rogue Map and essential PR.

All’s Red that’s Riding Hood

Woodward Shakespeare Festival

Cal Arts Academy-- Severance

50 min

$7.00

www.woodwardshakespeare.org www.madwomansattic.net

 

Winner of the 2007 WSF New Playwright Competition, All’s Red that’s Riding Hood is a fractured fairy tale with a dark twist. Red Riding Hood heads for grandma’s house along her customary path. This day, however, she finds an unexpected companion in the exiled DeWolf. A series of misunderstandings ensue leading to a tragic end. Spoken all in blank verse, the story unfolds amid a gothic backdrop of good intentions gone wrong. Local playwright Terrence MacArthur both delights and startles audiences with his whimsical, thoughtful piece.

 

The cast, entirely from the South Valley, includes veterans from the Fourth Wall Theatre, Ice House Theatre, The Enchanted Playhouse, and the Sequoia Theatre Conservatory. Director Heather Parish, known in Visalia for her stylish and intelligent productions, incorporates a flair for the unexpected into this piece.

Rated PG-13; Some violent content.

*****************

I'm also updating the photos of the cast in my previous post. 

All's Red that's Riding Hood

Well, the WSF board approved my proposed budget, so it looks like the green light is really green.  We're setting up a meeting with my producer ladies, the fabulous Debora Bolen and the vivacious Laura Vogt.  I'm super excited to get to work with them both.

Oh, if you missed the memo, this is for Woodward Shakespeare's entry to the Rogue Festival in February.  It's an original piece by local playwright Terrence McArthur, a fractured fairy-tale with a tragic twist, and spoken all in blank verse.  Really charming, whimsical, yet dark stuff.  Right up my alley. 

 

The cast is also set-- I'm mailing out scripts this weekend.  The cast as it stands:

DEWOLF:  James Sherrill (Richard Lionhart, Lion in Winter)

RED RIDING HOOD:  Alicia Buss (Princess Alais, Lion in Winter)

LORD WOODMAN HOOD:  Tom Nance (The Man, Turn of the Screw; Frederick Arnott, Enchanted April)

GRANDMOTHER HOOD:  Randi Saul-Olson (Costanza, Enchanted April)

I'm hoping to have the first meeting in early November.  Huzzah!

Woodward Shakes Measure for Measure

In a strange and winding road, I've wound up being offered the directorship of a staged reading of Measure for Measure for the Woodward Shakespeare Festival next month.  I'm actually very excited about it, but a little trepedatious, at the same time. 

On the one hand, it'll give me an awesome opportunity to explore the text with actual actors a full six weeks before I have to stage it.  Do you realize what a gift that is to a director?  Especially since most of the actors I'll be working with on the staged version of M4M aren't as familiar or comfortable with Shakespeare as one might like them to be.  I'll be doing a lot of teaching during that production and having gone through a staged reading might help get a lot of ideas solidified in my head before tackling them with a performing cast. 

On the other hand, it is gearing up for something in the next month that I wasn't prepared for.  Hopefully, I'll hit something of a roll with the Murder in the Cathedral reading and I'll feel like my joints are oiled up and in good working order for the M4M reading. 

But I am excited.  Honestly .. .I'm really quite pleased!  (*wink* to B-). 

Nod in Macbeth Review

How often does it happen that lighting design actually gets a nod in a theatre review?  Not terribly often around here.  Mine was good!

"When a furioius Macbeth charges off to confront the Three Witches, the ensuing scene-- shrouded in fog and bathed with Heather Parish's menacing red lighting design-- is a vivid moment."

BOOYAH!!

(The review is "Woodward's futuristic twist on Macbeth mostly works" by Donald Munro of the Fresno Bee.  Sept. 1, 2006).