Digital Play Festival - Polish Theater Month in Los Angeles

Yesterday I presented a short play I wrote in response to Small Narration by Wojtek Ziemilski, My play was titled Nothing to Say and Five Minutes to Say It. The play was performed by Steve Madar and directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera. The piece was presented as part of the International Digital Play Festival. Details below:

On Saturday, March 21, 1 p.m., Stage Raw premieres its International Digital Play Festival, a year-in-the-making theater-exchange between artists and audiences of Los Angeles, California and Warsaw, Poland. The event takes place at The Theatre @ Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor Avenue in Pasadena – and simultaneously at Teatr Studio in Warsaw, which will be linked via webcam to the Pasadena theater. The Pasadena audience is invited to partake in a Polish-style reception.

The afternoon will include live concert readings of five-minute playlets (broadcast directly to Warsaw) by U.S. writers John Michael Johnson, Nancy Keystone, Brian James Polak, Brian Sonia-Wallace and Alicia Tycer. These works are in response to full-length new Polish plays posted on the Digital Festival platform of Stage Raw, which were selected curated by Joanna Klass of Warsaw’s Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

(Each of these full-length plays -- by Wojtek Ziemilski, Magda Fertacz, Szczepan Orlowski and Darota Maslowska -- is receiving some form of live presentation in Los Angeles as part of Culture.pl and the Polish Consulate-Los Angeles’ city wide festival, Polish Theatre Month, Los Angeles.)

February was The Playwrights Union "New Play Month"

One of the coolest things The Playwrights Union does every year is devote February to writing a new play. What happens is, several members of the group decide to spend the shortest month of the year writing a brand new play from soup-to-nuts. When the month is over, everybody who participated gathers to read each play from beginning to end. This year there were 15 playwrights. That means we read 15 plays over the course of 2 days and 1 night. The reading was as much of a marathon as the writing. Usually when I have a new play to write I spend weeks or months with the idea swimming through my brain as I work on other projects. With the play I wrote in February, I had the idea for only a few days before I started writing. It all poured out quickly. I feel great about this first rough draft, tentatively titled "An Epidemic of Temporary Lunacy," about a brother and sister who want nothing more than to simply live a life free from the anger, fear, and abuse surrounding them. 

The next step for all of us who participated in new play month is to spend the next couple months revising in preparation for a public reading of our plays in May/June. Stay tuned.

Lark Play Development Center

On Thursday, January 22nd I was fortunate enough to have a round table reading of my play "Henry and the Hippocampus" at Lark Play Development Center.

Lark PDC is an organization singularly devoted to supporting playwrights and new plays. They truly are a gift to the world of theater.

To learn more about this organization and to see how you can support them, click here.

The Antaeus Company: The Zip Code Plays

I am one of 18 playwrights who have written short plays each about different zip codes in the Greater Los Angeles Area. My play, title "Curiosity Rover," takes on the zip code for Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles. 

These plays are presented on the Antaeus main stage over four nights, with my play being presented on Saturday, February 7th and Monday, February 9th. 

Loyola Marymount's HIDDEN HEROES

Each year the Loyola Marymount CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice honor members of the LMU community with the "Hidden Hero" award. Part of the award ceremony is a presentation of dramatized narratives for each award recipient. This year I was asked to interview and awardee and create a dramatized narrative based on his life and experiences. 

This is a fascinating experience not simply as a playwright working in a new form, but as a human learning about the contributions to society made by a person I would never have met otherwise. The awardee I was assigned to write about, Cesare P. R. Romano, has been working to free refugees who should not be incarcerated around the world. He is a remarkable person and most definitely worthy of the award he is going to receive on October 25th. 

I look forward to the public learning more about Cesare's experiences and am proud to be part of this ceremony.

Chalk Rep FLASH Festival October 9-25, 2014

Chalk Repertory Theatre is dedicated to producing classical and contemporary  plays in unconventional spaces.

THIS OCTOBER, Chalk Rep is  teaming up with a brand-new building in Downtown LA to bring back our most popular theatrical event! We've invited fifteen Los Angeles playwrights to write 10-minute plays to draw inspiration from the new high-rise at 8th & Hope, and create work to be performed site-specifically in the  building.

Audience members will be led through the building to experience new theatrical works in both public and private spaces, culminating in a rooftop party. And with a new slate of plays each weekend, you can experience it all three times.

I will be part of Week #2 October 16, 17 & 18 (see full schedule below).

All tickets $20. Advance purchase is highly recommended, as audience numbers are limited.

Buy your tickets now by clicking this link.

WEEK ONE - October 9, 10 and 11 at 8PM

New plays by: Alex Lewin, Jennifer Maisel, Lina Patel and Janine Salinas

WEEK TWO - October 16,17 and 18 at 8PM

New plays by: Zakiyyah Alexander, Carla Ching, David Myers, Brian James Polak, and Speed Weed

WEEK THREE - October 23, 24 and 25 at 8PM

New plays by: Boni Alvarez, Rachel Axler, Lisa Kenner Grissom, Regan Linton, and Madhuri Shekar

WAR PROFITS part of The Road Theatre's SPF5

The Road Theatre’s annual Summer Playwrights Festival is an 8-day fundraising event and celebration that takes place each summer in late July, and this year we will mount 38 staged readings of new plays. The festival is growing larger each year with participating playwrights from around the country and around the world. The readings are followed by talk-backs with the playwrights, directors and casts and receptions featuring refreshments and live music.

This year the festival expands to include our performance spaces at both the Road on Lankershim and our newer space at the Road on Magnolia, which is located inside the NoHo Senior Arts Colony, a one-of-a-kind housing community geared toward actors, writers, painters, musicians and other artists.

This year, for the first time, the festival celebrates an even mix of male and female playwrights.

WAR PROFITS will be presented Thursday, July 31st at 8pm at The Road on Lankershim
5108 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601

The reading will be directed by Taylor Nichols and features Ana Pasti, Steve Madar, Michael Antosy and Shante DeLoach.

MFA complete/Thesis presentation

On May 16th, I earned my MFA in Dramatic Writing from the USC School of Dramatic Arts. Days after graduation, I began rehearsals for the presentation of my thesis play "Henry and the Hippocampus." Actors Arye Gross, Tessa Auberjonois, and Rob Nagle were led by director, Elina de Santos in two public presentations Wednesday, May 28th and Saturday, May 31st. 

"Henry and the Hippocampus" recipient of The Jean Kennedy Smith Prize

"Henry and the Hippocampus" was recently selected as the winner of the Jean Kennedy Smith playwriting award. Supported by VSA, the International Organization on Arts and Disability, The Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, named after the founder of VSA, is offered for the outstanding student-written script that explores the human experience of living with a disability.

The playwright is invited to attend The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in April, 2014.

VSA is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith. VSA is creating a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. Nearly 5 million people with disabilities participate in VSA programs every year through a network of affiliates in 42 states and 51 countries worldwide.

"War Profits" winner of the John Cauble Award for One-Act

At the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival "War Profits" was awarded the John Cauble Award for One-Act plays. The play, along with three other finalists, was presented in a reading at the KCACTF in April with "War Profits" announced as the winner at the end of the festival.

This award is named in honor of Dr. John Cauble, Professor Emeritus of UCLA, who provided guidance and support for the establishment of the Michael Kanin Award Program. His continued participation in the recognition of student playwrights through the former “Playwriting Awards Development Committee” is a cornerstone within the Michael Kanin Awards Program.