Prop Thtr's "Church of the New Play" March 31, 2019

Dance and Crawl and Sing and Fall to be presented at Prop Thtr’s “Church of the New Play” on March 31st, 2019.

Previously titled Tales from Tent City, Dance and Crawl and Sing and Fall has been previously workshopped at The University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount University, and Rogers State University. This new version, with several new songs composed by Boston musician Joey Del Ponte, will be presented for the first time as part of Prop Thtr’s new works initiative that gives creators' the space to present their work as it's meant to be experienced: live and out loud.

Prop Thtr is located at 3502 N. Elston in Chicago.

Church of the New Play takes place every Sunday from 11am-2pm.

PROTECT & SERVE invited to Dam Short Film Festival

[UPDATE 5/10/2020 to include link to full film below]

“Nevada’s Largest Film Festival”

Each February, filmmakers and film fans travel from all over the world and descend upon Boulder City, Nevada and celebrate the art of short film. Nevada’s favorite cultural event, the 15th Annual Dam Short Film Festival will present over 100 short films in all styles and genres.

Protect & Serve will screen February 8th at 3:45pm in the “Crime” category. Click here for tickets and information.

PROTECT & SERVE selected for Alexander Valley Film Festival

[UPDATE 5/10/2020 to include link to full film below]

Protect & Serve was invited to the Alexander Valley Film Festival in Sonoma County, CA. 

The festival takes place Oct 18th- 21st. Protect & Serve will play at 10:15am on Saturday Oct 20th and 3:15 pm on Sunday Oct 21st. Here is the complete schedule 

If you are in the area (or have friends/family in Sonoma who might be interested) get tickets here.

Play PROTECT & SERVE Adapted into Film

[UPDATE 5/10/2020 to include link to full film below]

Back in the fall of 2016 I wrote a play for Chalk Repertory Theatre as part of their semi-annual FLASH Festival. This small play seems so basic, with only two characters having a conversation in real time, in a single location. But in some ways it was the most challenging piece I've written because of the event that inspired it (the shooting death of Tamir Rice) and and the context of my own life at the time. I was barely able to get this piece written at all.

The play was directed by Kate Jopson and featured Jaquita Shashu Aziza Ta'le and Ray Ford. When I saw their work I was stunned. It was so delicate and beautiful. These three theatre artists were heart-and-soul in this piece. Sadly, the festival only ran for a short period of time, only a limited number of people were able to see it.

But.... these amazing people decided to adapt the play into a short film, which has recently been completed and is being submitted to film festivals as we speak. You can see the trailer here, but we can't share the film until some time in the future after the film festival circuit has come and gone.

Kate did an amazing job adapting the play and directing the film. Stream the film below:

National Ubu Bake-Off: February 19th, Victory Gardens Theatre

Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of How I Learned to Drive and Indecent, has called for a national Ubu Bake-Off to be held on Presidents Day. 

What is a Bake-Off?
A bake-off is a quickly written exercise on an assigned theme with assigned elements or ingredients that folks do within a 48 hour period of time.

What is Ubu Roi?
Ubu Roi is “an inglorious slop-pail of a play” [see the review here: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/09/08/an-inglorious-slop-pail-of-a-play/]
by Alfred Jarry, which opened (and closed) on December 10, 1896. Read a copy of the play here: http://paulavogelplaywright.com/ubu-supplemental-materials

So then.... what is the Ubu Bake-Off?
Paula has started a national grassroots movement to respond to our global crisis with a bake-off inspired by this play on Presidents Day 2018 (February 19). People will be writing plays and coming together to share them all over the country.

On Monday, February 19th (President's Day) Victory Gardens Theatre is the Chicago host of the Ubu Bake-Off.

Participating playwrights include:

Marsha Estell
Ben Fisher
Tanuja Jagernauth
Samie Jo Johnson
Jasmine Henri Jordan
Nora Anne Leahy
Nancy Garcia Loza
Brian James Polak
Isaac Gomez

Tickets are FREE but an RSVP will make sure you get a seat: https://goo.gl/forms/Dxsi0UDQ2DMBvsPx2