Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
To celebrate the vitality of classical themes in new work, PAC invites
playwrights to submit for consideration for our third annual New Ventures Play
Festival. The theme for the plays is The Evolution of Human Rights
5 plays of no more than 10 minutes each will be selected for a staged reading
during our festival taking place in June at the Proscenium Theatre at the
Drake.
***
Over the next two years InterAct will commission three plays to be written
about and with Philadelphia communities that are under-represented on local
(and national) stages.
The first of the three Philly Cycle commissions will focus on the city’s
community of African American Muslims, which numbers around 200,000. We are
seeking U.S.-based playwrights who would be interested in spending time in
conversation with this community and telling a singular story that centers this
community.
***
Currently Seeking 10-Minute Plays & Monologues for Smith & Kraus
Publications
• Monologues must be from plays. They cannot be stand-alone pieces.
• They must be from plays produced between April 2022 and July 2023.
• Staged Readings performed live or virtually will be accepted only if the
readings occurred in the above-mentioned window will be accepted.
• Monologues should be from 1-3 minutes long.
• Monologues should be active pieces that work well for auditions.
• Please include a descriptive blurb containing a brief summary of the play;
the name/age of the character; to whom the character is speaking, and the
dramatic context of the scene.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site
at https://www.nycplaywrights.org
***
*** TRANSLATING PLAYS ***
How does one translate “Hamilton” into another language? That was the challenge
facing Sera Finale, a rapper-turned-songwriter, and Kevin Schroeder, a seasoned
musical theater translator, when they were asked to collaborate on a German
version of the show — the first in a language other than English.
The project turned out to be just as complicated as they had feared: complex
rhyme schemes, elaborate wordplay and so many songs. There were drafts and
demos and revisions; a member of the “Hamilton” music team, Kurt Crowley,
learned German to help coordinate the process, and ultimately Lin-Manuel
Miranda, the show’s creator, had to approve or reject each line.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/theater/hamilton-translation-german.html
***
I began translating plays in 2002. I was a jobbing actor, euphemistically
“resting,” and looking for a way to stay creative and to make use of my
languages degree. So I went to the London Instituto Cervantes (the Spanish
cultural center), found their library, headed for its tiny theater section, and
plucked a title out from the shelf. It was Primavera (Springtime) by Julio
Escalada, a Spanish actor, playwright and, today, professor of playwriting at
the RESAD, Spain’s royal academy of dramatic art. I liked the feel of the
play—a restless farce of interwoven love triangles—and I translated it. Then,
since I had a translation, I figured I may as well do something with it, so I
contacted Julio and sought his permission to produce the play at the Finborough
Theater, an off-West-End above-a-pub venue famed then and now for its
commitment to new work.
More...
https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2016-12/december-2016-translating-theater-feature-william-gregory/
***
American audiences don’t get access to many contemporary plays originally
written in another language despite the burgeoning number of talented
playwrights in the US and around the world who are creating work for the stage
in languages other than English.
Traditionally, classic European plays such as those written by Moliere, Henrik
Ibsen and Anton Chekhov are the only works regularly presented. There’s an
ongoing fear that Americans won’t be able to relate to or understand
transcultural and international work. There’s also the question of how much all
this costs.
One of the ways to help change hearts and minds is the indispensable effort of
translators who work in the theater. Their work is often unsung and
misunderstood.
More...
https://witonline.org/2022/08/08/finding-meaning-in-translating-words-and-culture/
***
In the globally interconnected community in which we exist, translation has
become a part of our daily life. We listen to songs whose lyrics we have to
look up in order to sing, we watch movies that have been subtitled, and we read
books written in languages we cannot even begin to understand. That is all to
say, translation surrounds us, and we must navigate a world that depends on it.
However, I always thought about translation as a solely linguistic endeavor
that transformed one language into another and failed to see it as a process
that also bridges chronological divides. These divides are apparent when
thinking of ancient texts. Still, these did not quite count in my head since,
well, no one speaks Latin or ancient Greek beyond an academic setting, and the
translation of these texts is not only helpful but necessary for people to
access them. The chronological divides that I would encounter through the
process of translating “Los novios aburridos”, a short play written and
published in Spanish in 1817, were much subtler, though.
More...
https://blogs.library.jhu.edu/2022/08/meet-our-freshman-fellows-elena-echavarria-on-translating-an-untranslated-spanish-play-2/
***
What’s the difference between translating non-fiction and translating plays?
When you translate non-fiction, you have to put yourself in the shoes of French
readers. It is the context of the reader you need to consider, the context of a
reader who does not know Martinelli. For Aristophane dans les banlieues.
Pratiques de la non-école, I sometimes eliminated passages that contained
references that would have been meaningless to French-speaking readers, but I,
of course, always discuss this first with the author, with whom I can luckily
work very closely. I also added a chapter on Martinelli’s experiences in Kenya
with the non-school, basing it on an interview I had done with him. At the end
of the book, I translated and published Noboalphabet, a text that is essential
if you want to understand the Teatro delle Albe – it is a sort of guidebook in
which Marco speaks poetically about his idea of theatre and the principles (but
also “non principles”) that guide his search.
More...
https://www.newitalianbooks.it/translating-theatre-interview-with-laurence-van-goethem/
***
Yale University Press is pleased to join with all those who celebrate
International Translation Day on September 30, 2022 to recognize and appreciate
the vital role that translators play in cross-cultural understanding and the
peaceful exchange of ideas.
We particularly wish to salute translators of literature, who enable great
works of literary art to reach readers who might not otherwise have access to
them.
A mission-driven commitment to literature in translation
In 2007, Yale University Press established the Margellos World Republic of
Letters series, named for Cecile and Theodore Margellos, the generous donors who
inspired and empowered it. In the decade and a half since then, this
passionately mission-driven publishing endeavor has brought to the
English-speaking world the work of dozens of leading literary artists and
thinkers from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Margellos titles celebrate the spirit of International Translation Day all year
round, as they stimulate international discourse and creative exchange.
More...
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2022/09/30/celebrating-international-translation-day-2022/
***
HAMLET in French
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_voCqu250&t=324s
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"NYCPlaywrights" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to nycplaywrights_group+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nycplaywrights_group/23c678f2-271a-4c4f-a1a8-789a01819679n%40googlegroups.com.
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
***
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Suits and Sage Magazine open for submissions
Looking for plays and monologues 15 page or less: no excerpts
To be published in the November issue of the bimonthly virtual publication
***
The Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) is seeking theatrical works (plays,
musicals, and solo performances) for its 21st season to be held in Spring 2023
in New York City.
DUAF supports diverse, new, and emerging voices from America’s burgeoning
multicultural landscape. Over 200 playwrights have participated in DUAF and
some have gone on to greater success on Broadway and have claimed top prizes
such as Pulitizer, Tony, and Obie awards and nominations.
Submission Categories:
Short-length play (under 45 minutes)
Full-length play (not exceeding 70 minutes)
***
Women Playwrights Series (WPS)
Plays presented in the developmental WPS program are finalists in the Susan
Glaspell Award Competition, and are under consideration for full production in
a subsequent season at the Centenary Stage Company, the professional theatre in
residence on the campus of Centenary University. Due to COVID-19, this
opportunity may be delayed.
Playwrights selected for the workshop process will receive a $200 honorarium.
Additional funds for travel and housing is available for one playwright each
season.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site
at https://www.nycplaywrights.org
***
*** THE LIFE & TIMES OF THEATER CRITICS ***
Modern tradition mandates that theater critics attend a specific performance
set aside for press invitations. On and off Broadway, the nights for review are
usually a few of the final preview performances, before opening night. As I
often explain, opening night is virtually never the production’s first
performance; some shows on Broadway run in previews for a month or more before
inviting critics. In Washington, owing to the relative brevity of most
engagements, the convention varies from company to company, but the “press
night” and opening night — a designated evening after only a few previews —
often coincide.
Most of the time, the powers that be leave a critic to his or her own devices.
But on some rare, misguided occasions, I’m aware of overeager attendees who
have somehow managed to secure seats all around me. Guffaws at every punchline
and standing ovations that start before the chorus comes on for its curtain
call are their tells.
More...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/i-watch-plays-for-a-living-the-most-dramatic-moments-arent-always-onstage/2019/04/17/bce54ed0-5f94-11e9-bfad-36a7eb36cb60_story.html
***
I went to see a play for the second time recently and changed my mind about it.
If that sounds like an innocent statement in itself, it is surely a mea culpa
for a critic who delivered a damning star-rated judgment the first time around.
Or is it? The production was Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys Who Have
Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, which is currently at the Royal
Court. I reviewed it in October 2021, when it was first mounted at the New
Diorama theatre, and I was unequivocally disappointed. All the more so because
I was sure I was going to like it, having been blown away by Cameron’s previous
drama, Typical, streamed during lockdown. That play drew on the last day in the
life of Christopher Alder, and I was so moved by its story, so exhilarated by
its language, that it took me several cups of tea to calm down afterwards.
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/03/theatre-criticism-views-change-and-so-do-plays
***
Making people happy... being a positive influence... that’s the mentality that
I brought to the table when I began writing entertainment reviews for Chicago’s
Northwest Herald in 2017. I set out to be a champion of the arts. I set out to
celebrate the people involved in putting on a show while providing an
informational service to the people reading the reviews to see if they want to
buy tickets.
Honesty is important. So, I vowed that I would never lie and say a bad
production was good or a terrible performer was great. However, that doesn’t
mean I need to concentrate so much on flaws.
Sure, there may be some questionable casting or a less than magnificent set. If
it needs to be pointed out, I will – but politely.
Actors, directors, set designers, costumers – all the people involved in
putting on a play – are just that: people. They have feelings. It is not my job
to hurt their feelings. Even criticism can be done in a way that doesn’t
emotionally injure anyone.
More...
https://lifeandtimesofrikkileetravolta.wordpress.com/2022/04/25/anatomy-of-a-theatrical-review-does-a-theatre-critic-have-to-criticize/
***
When does criticism become a form of verbal abuse?
MARCO: When the feedback is directed to the person and not about his/her work,
then it becomes a form of verbal abuse. The use of offensive language also
qualifies as abuse. It is important for directors, theater teachers, and artist
managers to give informed comments to help improve the work or challenge the
artists to grow, based on their expected output and not because of personal
prejudices. Equally important is the actors/artists’ maturity to listen and
accept feedback, dissect the motivation behind it, and see it as an opportunity
to improve.
TEETIN: When you can clearly see that the intention of the remark is not to
help someone improve on something, rather to intentionally inflict pain. More
often than not, it tends to be too personal or even below the belt. When you’re
a recipient of criticism, you are somehow pointed toward what is expected of you,
you get an idea of what you can work on. When you’re a victim of verbal abuse,
you don’t really get anything out of it other than trauma. You’re
directionless.
More...
https://mb.com.ph/2022/03/01/in-theater-when-does-criticism-become-too-much-to-a-point-that-it-is-verbal-abuse/
***
GREEN
Comedy is more personal than tragedy. I laughed and laughed — no doubt in part
because of the performances but also for the very reason you were disappointed:
It didn’t try to explain itself. Also, it gave us characters, most of them Black
and Latino, without a white filter, which for me was a pleasure and a relief.
Also a pleasure and a relief: The characters (spoiler alert) escaped their
purgatory. Which is not to say I don’t understand your criticisms; I find them
useful because one person can only absorb one idea of a play at a time. I
wonder if you feel the same way, or whether it’s just annoying when we
disagree?
PHILLIPS
What you say about comedy being more personal is exactly right. I had issues
with the allegory to begin with, and because it’s so prevalent, I was looking
for other dimensions or nuances to latch onto but was just left with the
element of the play — the main element — that I found unappealing.
But I never find our disagreements annoying! At first I found them unsettling.
I’m not sure if you still get the anxiety I do — that you’ve missed something
that your fellow critics haven’t, and that must be the root of the
disagreement, that you’re just wrong. Now I find our disagreements informative.
Like with your review of “Clyde’s,” you pointed out the same problems I had
with it, but while those issues couldn’t redeem the show for me, for you there
was more to it. What’s most important to me there was that we saw the same
things and just had different responses.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/theater/live-theater-critics-debate.html
***
It’s a warm Saturday evening sometime in the early 1990s.
I’m standing at the foot of that marble staircase in the lobby of Herberger
Theater Center, surrounded by other drama critics: Betty Webb from The
Scottsdale Progress, Chris Curcio of The Arizona Republic, the Mesa Tribune’s
Max McQueen, Phoenix Gazette columnist Christopher McPherson. It’s
intermission, and we’re talking about anything but the first act of the play
we’ve just seen – maybe something by August Wilson, or an umpteenth production
of Cabaret, or some kicky new musical from Actors Theatre. There’s an unspoken
rule among us: We don’t share notes at intermission. We chat instead about the
weather, groan about deadlines. We admire one another’s shoes.
Looking back, I wonder: Did we really work as full-time critics? Did people
actually care what we had to say?
More...
https://www.phoenixmag.com/2022/07/07/gone-critic-gone/
***
New York Magazine/Vulture Job Posting for a Theater Critic
WHAT YOU'LL DO
• Review approximately 120 to 150 shows a year
• See many more than that, to keep up
• Provide short recommendations of promising productions throughout the year,
especially for seasonal previews and the To Do pages of our biweekly print
magazine
• Offer suggestions for the Approval Matrix
• Join in planning for any theater-related coverage, both for Vulture and the
print magazine
WHO YOU ARE
Although we (obviously) are looking for someone who is passionate about
theater, and we expect (also obviously) that many applicants will have written
a lot about theater, we don't require that you have been a drama critic! If you
are a movies or TV or economics or food writer who is also an enthusiastic
theatergoer, let's hear from you. Ditto if you are a playwright or director who
cannot keep your opinions to yourself. The only unbreakable requirement is that
you live close enough and have enough schedule flexibility (not to mention
sitzfleisch) to be in a theater seat 200-plus nights per year.
More...
https://www.showbizjobs.com/jobs/new-york-magazine--theater-critic-new-york-magazine-and-vulture-in-new-york/jid-rze003
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"NYCPlaywrights" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to nycplaywrights_group+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nycplaywrights_group/cc1d53a3-57c8-4d69-80b0-1e010ae296a9n%40googlegroups.com.
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Pegasus PlayLab is a new play festival at the University of Central Florida dedicated to developing new works by MFA Playwriting candidates or emerging playwrights. We are seeking four full-length plays, including devised works and Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) pieces, which we will rehearse for two weeks in collaboration with the playwright and subsequently present as workshop productions. There is a possibility that one play will be fully mounted into a production.
***
This year we are asking playwrights to submit a new 10-minute play inspired by the characters in Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It.
PROMPT: After the Curtain: Where are they now?
At the end of As You Like It four couples marry (Rosiland & Orlando, Celia & Oliver, Phoebe & Silvius, Audrey & Touchstone), Jacques is off to pursue a religious life of contemplation, and Duke Senior, his crown newly restored to him, plans to return from exile and create a new court.
***
The Sauk, located in Jonesville, Michigan, is seeking scripts to consider for production as part of SAUK SHORTS 2023.
Scripts may be original works or published works that you would like us to consider. Scripts should have a performance time no longer than 15 minutes.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** CLYDE'S ***
Theaters around America appear to be staging fewer shows than they were before the pandemic, but a lot of the work they are doing is by Lynn Nottage.
An annual survey by American Theater magazine, conducted this year for the first time since the start of the pandemic, found that Nottage’s sandwich shop comedy, “Clyde’s,” will be the most-produced play in the country this season, with at least 11 productions. The survey also found that there were 24 productions of Nottage plays planned this season, which ties her with the perennial regional theater favorite Lauren Gunderson for the title of most-produced playwright in America.
“Clyde’s,” which had a well-reviewed Broadway production starring Uzo Aduba that opened late last year, is peopled by characters who previously served time in prison, and its mix of laughter and social commentary, plus Nottage’s stature as a two-time Pulitzer winner, apparently appealed to those who program theater seasons. Among those staging the play are the Arden Theater Company in Philadelphia, the Arkansas Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Center Theater Group in Los Angeles and TheaterWorks Hartford.
“‘Clyde’s’ just hit the sweet spot — it has a multiracial cast, it addresses issues of incarceration and racial tension, it’s a comedy, and it’s really smart, and it’s by a Pulitzer winner,” said Rob Weinert-Kendt, the editor in chief of American Theater and an occasional contributor to The New York Times. “It’s a comedy, but it’s not turning away from the world.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/theater/most-popular-plays-playwrights.html
***
Clyde's: Turning Art Into Justicd
Second Stage Theater
A conversation between playwright Lynn Nottage, director Kate Whoriskey, and Ford Foundation president Darren Walker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRYT6djNjv4
***
Nottage describes Clyde's as magical realism, and says it's set both in the kitchen of a sandwich shop and a liminal space. All the play's characters are formerly incarcerated, including the shop's owner, who's kind of the boss from hell.
Uzo Aduba, best known for her Emmy Award-winning role of Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren in Orange Is the New Black, plays the devilish Clyde. She admires Nottage's choice of topics: "She has done the very hard thing of giving space to faces, voices and stories that are often forgotten."
When Nottage went to Reading, Penn., to research Sweat, her play about struggling blue collar workers, she also spoke with many people who were trying to resurrect their lives after leaving prison. So, while the characters in Clyde's work a dreary, repetitive job, they dream of a better future... and a better sandwich.
More...
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1072902297/two-time-pulitzer-winner-lynn-nottage-turns-a-triple-play-in-new-york-city
***
What melts away as you get to know the characters are the monumental stigmas attached to jail time. Donovan’s Jason is inked to the max with prison tats, some of them racist symbols, but the story behind them reveals something unexpected. Letitia, here called Tish, in Young’s smashingly vibrant turn, is all adolescent energy and adult anxiety, the latter brought on as a single mother caring for a sick child. Salazar’s hyper Rafael needs an emotional home for his nurturing instincts, as an alternative to his weakness for drugs.
Aduba, in one of the best roles of her career, swans in and out of the kitchen, her Clyde never letting the employees forget her power over them. She’s their new matron, and they have traded one kind of prison for another. Like the sandwiches they fuss over, though, Nottage wants us to know that their fates remain in their own hands. The fun of “Clyde’s” is waiting to see which way that realization cuts.
More...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/clydes-nottage-broadway-play/2021/11/23/608fe630-4c69-11ec-b73b-a00d6e559a6e_story.html
***
Often, the sessions lead to bouts of confession—all the employees give up the goods on why they did time, even, eventually, Jason. This is supposed to deepen the bonds among them, and, perhaps, to offer a well of complexity not often granted to working-class people chewed up by the system and given a harsh set of choices: eat shit, starve, or go back in. But the life stories come between slapstick riffs on sandwich-making and kitchen etiquette—a bunch of well-performed gags—and as a result the play has trouble finding its tone. It’s hard to figure out how seriously to take the putatively tough moments in “Clyde’s,” or what to do with the biographies we’re offered. (Clyde’s own answer to anybody else’s suffering is to dismiss it. “I don’t do pity,” she says.) The lighting, by Christopher Akerlind, tries to indicate emotion—when Montrellous is rhapsodizing, he gets a fuchsia glow—but nothing that any character says steers the play in a new direction. Sad tales are divots for us to navigate between laughs.
Much of the problem lies with Clyde herself. In an early private moment, Clyde and Montrellous—who have a history that remains shrouded throughout the play—are arguing about the future of the shop. Montrellous lets slip that Clyde has fallen into “gambling debt,” and that the shop is somehow mixed up in the trouble. That’s the only thing we ever really learn—or, at least, think we learn—about Clyde. She rings a bell when new orders come in, appearing at the window to the kitchen all of a sudden, like a poltergeist at the climax of a horror flick. She rages through the kitchen, spewing just enough bile to get the objects of her tyranny complaining again, but she’s never subjected to the kind of scrutiny that makes watching a character worthwhile.
More...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-search-for-justification-in-clydes-and-trouble-in-mind
***
Food is more than a plot point in Clyde’s–it’s the show’s foundation. “I was thinking about the tension of opposites in food, like savory and sweet,” Nottage tells me, recounting the writing process. “Things that are dissonant and harmonious, and how they shouldn’t work, but somehow when combined, they do.” By juxtaposing slice-of-life workplace comedy with precise social commentary, Nottage showcases her ability to mine the painful nuances of everyday life for much needed nuggets of humor. “After what we’ve been through this last year, people want to laugh,” Nottage says candidly. “People want to be reminded that, at the end of the tunnel, there is hope and joy.”
“Baby eggplant parmigiana with puttanesca on an olive and rosemary ciabatta,” Rafael pitches to the group in one scene. “Bacon, lettuce and grilled squash on cornbread with molasses butter,” Letitia responds. “Curried quail egg salad with mint on oven-fresh cranberry pecan multigrain bread,” Montrellous declares, getting the final word in before Clyde yells for American cheese on white, snapping everyone back to work.
More...
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/clydes-lynn-nottage
***
Nottage, the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice — the first in 2009 for “Ruined,” and the second in 2017 for “Sweat” — has often been accused of being insufficiently commercial for Broadway; here it feels like she’s deliberately satirizing that judgement with an allegorical cattle prod that likely will still be fun for audiences who are blissfully oblivious to all of the insider stuff that has riven Broadway in recent months.
It’s a very clever play, buoyed by lively performances and a director willing to take risks. I suspect “Clyde’s” will be talked about for a good while among Broadway insiders.
The allegory has its limits. The restaurant ends up a big hit, thanks to Montrellous’ work, and it’s never logical why Clyde is so opposed to the great but still simple sandwiches that apparently are making her so profitable. I think Nottage is trying to say that producers (and maybe capitalist Broadway itself) constantly underestimates the public and that if only the artists were in charge, success and good art would come out of the oven.
More...
https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/broadway/ny-clydes-second-stage-broadway-review-20211124-a7ukn4crg5egvp52uioa2jpjpq-story.html
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NYCPlaywrights" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nycplaywrights_group+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nycplaywrights_group/a1f0e3ec-5ee6-4d7f-924f-bf7e4b166b2fn%40googlegroups.com.
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
PSA, the Journal of the Pirandello Society of America seeks submissions of
short dramatic pieces (5 to 30 minutes of expected performance time) inspired
by Luigi Pirandello’s short stories, for publication in the next or future
issues. An essential requirement is that proposed dramaturgies draw inspiration
from Pirandello’s short stories.
***
Last Frontier Theater Conference ~ up to 200 submissions will be accepted from
new applicants; at that point, full-length submissions will only be open for
Alaskans, past participants. New folks will still be able to submit plays 30
minutes and under.
***
Heartland Theatre Company is seeking eight 10-minute original plays to be
considered for production in June of 2023 as part of our 20th annual 10-minute
play festival. This year, the theme is THE WAITING ROOM.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site
at https://www.nycplaywrights.org
***
*** CROSS-DRESSING MUSICALS ***
These periodic speeches of “we-get-it-we-really-do” rather undermine Tootsie’s
central conceit: a male actor dresses as a woman to get work, leading to a
woman falling for him as a woman, and a man falling for him as a woman. The
experience teaches Michael—well, what exactly? How hard it is to be a woman,
and phew, he’s ultimately very happy to be a man, albeit one who’s learned
something about sexism.
While there is no overt homophobia or misogyny in either movie or stage show,
note that the central “joke” in both of Tootsie’s intimate scenarios is that
Michael’s cross-dressing could lead to, with both male and female suitors—oh
no—two variants of a same-sex kiss or attraction, and Michael is a straight guy
in a dress! Stop the clocks!
More...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tootsie-on-broadway-a-cross-dressing-classic-gets-a-large-spoonful-of-woke
***
“As the producers of Mrs. Doubtfire made clear in their statement on December
2, 'they have taken feedback and notes from people representing different
constituencies who have seen rehearsals as part of the process of making the
show.' One GLAAD employee attended a rehearsal, but not in an official
consulting capacity. No formal feedback from GLAAD has been given to producers.
Conversations between the show’s producers and GLAAD continue.
“Some media stories have implied that Mrs. Doubtfire has worked with GLAAD,
while Tootsie did not. On the contrary, GLAAD has been working closely with the
producers and creative team of Tootsie during its rehearsal process and
Broadway run, to make sure any concerns from members of the transgender
community are addressed. It has been a collaborative and productive
relationship. GLAAD’s insights and suggestions have been met with understanding
and have been implemented into the production where needed.
More...
https://playbill.com/article/exclusive-glaad-responds-to-mrs-doubtfire-and-tootsie-reports
***
After much self-ballyhooing, this much anticipated revival of the musical 1776
has arrived, and the trend-makers (and Hamilton whisperers) at the American
Repertory Theater and Roundabout Repertory Theatre Company also draw on the
signing of the Declaration of Independence as a way to reenvision history. In
this version, the roles of the members of the first Continental Congress —
white men all — are performed by a multiracial, multigenerational cast that
includes only female, nonbinary, and transgender performers.
Like so many 20th-century plays and musicals, 1776, which opened on Broadway in
1969, desperately calls for an update. In the over half a century since the
show won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, many of the air-brushed
myths about our founding fathers have been undermined. Among the complicating
facts: of the 47 original signers of our first guiding document, 34 were
slaveholders. Perhaps no one in that First Congress has been the subject of a
more radical change of heart than the author of the Declaration himself, Thomas
Jefferson. Jefferson (played with grit and underlying anger by Elizabeth A.
Davis) is one of the show’s three leading characters. His sexual involvement
with his slave Sally Hemings after his wife’s death resulted in six children.
The other two leads are John Adams (Crystal Lucas-Perry, who is solid in the
role, but not nearly obnoxious or disliked enough) and Benjamin Franklin (the
wonderful, but too understated, Patrena Murray). The action of the narrative
spans two months during a blistering hot Philadelphia summer in May and June of
1776, culminating with the signing of the Declaration on July 4.
More...
https://artsfuse.org/257661/theater-review-1776-still-an-egg-in-the-theatrical-incubator/
***
One can fit a number of genres and genders under a dress-wearing umbrella —
there are men and male-presenting performers playing women, playing men playing
women, wearing dresses for drama, wearing dresses for laughs, wearing dresses
as a means of self-expression. And many artists see drag, performed by people
of all genders, as its own distinct category of stylized performance.
Each new production prompts a new round of reflection, conversation, and
occasionally controversy over whether these characterizations are sexist,
transphobic, dated or delightful. The musical adaptation of “Some Like It Hot,”
a 1959 movie starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, promises
that the film’s plot and characters “have been updated for a modern audience,”
and one of its lead actors is nonbinary.
One long-running production is now rethinking its practice. Since 1996,
“Chicago” has featured a character, Mary Sunshine, played by a male soprano
dressed as a woman, whose wig is dramatically removed to reinforce the line,
“things are not always as they appear to be.” But the show has just posted a
notice inviting performers of “any gender identity” to audition for the role;
asked about the change, Barry Weissler, a lead producer, said: “Our collective
understanding of gender and the art of drag has evolved over the past two
decades. We updated our casting breakdown to reflect this.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/theater/comedy-gender-some-like-it-hot.html
***
At first glance, the Kinky Boots represent the fruits of two New Yorkers who
have made countless contributions to American literature, theater, music, and
film. The glittery, thigh-high, men’s boots worn in a theatrical production by
a cross-dressing character who vividly speak up for an often-misunderstood
community. They also represent one of New York City’s most vibrant industries.
Within the context of the musical, the boots symbolize a timely message of
tolerance and an appreciation for cultural and human differences. For
centuries, works of art have been analyzed for the light they can shed on the
cultures that produced them. As works of art and objects of material culture,
the boots offer an opportunity to reflect on contemporary debates about gender,
discrimination, and intolerance.
More...
https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/heels-history-sparkly-red-kinky-boots-tell-us-american-culture
***
The arrival in the West End in March of a stage musical version of the hit
Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert will continue
that dialogue as three drag queens reinvent themselves as a family unit aboard
a tour bus.
Cross-dressing has lately been used to explore these matters, but the theatre
has always been about dressing up – not least for the very practical reason
that women were banned acting on the Greek and Shakespearean stage, forcing men
to play the women's roles.
Nowadays, of course, those prohibitions are long gone and women are laying
claim to men's roles. As Michael Billington has previously argued: "There
should be much more gender switching in the classics: not least because women
are otherwise excluded from great roles."
If such gender switches are to be welcomed, is it important for the actor to
share the sexuality of the role he or she is playing? Fierstein, for his part,
has fought to have gay men play Albin in La Cage. He says in a programme note
to the current production: "If you stand up and sing 'I Am What I Am'
without feeling your sexuality and your persecution right down to your painted
toenails, it's never going to be quite the same thing."
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/nov/05/drag-hairspray-priscilla-wig-out
***
Booking is now open for La Cage Aux Folles, and the FM Theatre
Productions and Teatru Manoel co-production will continue the legacy in Malta
of this internationally acclaimed musical, which has won multiple Tony Awards
including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Musical Revival, as well
as a Laurence Olivier Award.
“We can’t wait to present La Cage Aux Folles at the Manoel
this October,” says FM Theatre Productions founder and managing director Edward
Mercieca. “This crowd-pleasing, rollicking and heart-warming musical about
family, commitment, show biz and drag is one of musical theatre’s all-time
biggest hits and is sure to become one of Malta’s as well.”
Based on the 1973 French play by Jean Poiret, La Cage Aux Folles tells
a funny and moving story that also served as inspiration for the much-loved
movie The Birdcage, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
After 20 years of partnered bliss, gay couple Georges and Albin run a drag
nightclub in Saint-Tropez, where Albin is the star performer known as Zaza.
When Georges’ son announces his impending marriage to the daughter of a
bigoted, ultra-conservative politician, M Dindon, Georges reluctantly agrees to
masquerade as ‘normal’ to meet the family of the bride-to-be – but Albin has
other plans, with hilarious results!
Featuring a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman,
the FM Theatre/Teatru Manoel production of La Cage Aux Folles boasts
an all-star cast including Mikhail Basmadjian as Georges, Ray Calleja as Albin
and Edward Mercieca as M Dindon. An equally impressive supporting cast features
Raphael Pace, Jasmine Farrugia, Francesco Nicodeme, Maria Eleonora Zammit,
Krista Zammit Marmara and Sean Borg, among many others. Meanwhile, FM’s
extraordinary creative team behind the production includes director Christopher
Gatt, musical director Kris Spiteri and choreographer Francesco Nicodeme, with
vocal coach Tina Frendo.
More...
https://www.indulge.com.mt/rollicking-musical-la-cage-aux-folles-to-dazzle-audiences-at-the-manoel/
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"NYCPlaywrights" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to nycplaywrights_group+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nycplaywrights_group/7bbbac8c-b413-47a2-986c-7a2612b7c373n%40googlegroups.com.
