Results tagged “Jessica Burgess” from Inkblog!
Hello there, loyal readers. WOW. There's so much going on over at H Street Playhouse... it's hard to keep up with the panel discussions, the rewrites, the showcase readings, the conversations between playwrights and actors and directors. So here is my solution... a little alphabet lesson in the land of The Inkwell!
A is for ACTOR, who is so important to the play development process. We heard from acclaimed actors Naomi Jacobsen and John Fescault at our panel discussion — The Actor and the New Play — the dos and don’ts of working with an actor on a new play. Do trust an actor to help you fill in a character, to find the funny in a comic play, to “find the pebbles among the boulders in the river, so we can make it to the other shore” as Naomi put it. DON’T ask actors to read a monologue that they have been stumbling over for weeks, that they have tried to make work three ways to Sunday. Much shouting and stomping follows.
B is for BOLDNESS, which we are finding is a big part of the play development process. Actors are bold in asking pointed questions about character and in helping playwrights make choices about the emotional intention of a scene. Playwrights are bold in putting raw material in the hands of directors and actors… plays that may not have seen the light of day before.
C is for COMMUNITY and CONNECTION, which we found that local playwrights crave. That’s what they said when we brought them together for a moderated discussion on what they need to put forward their professional and artistic goals. They need a community of playwrights, actors, and directors to help them better understand their own writing process, to hold their hands in between drafts, and help writer overcome the fear factor of looking at a blank page.
D is for DRAMATURGES, who have been an essential resource to our playwrights thus far. A team of 13 dramaturges is working with 18 playwrights. Their first job is to listen… listen to what the playwright needs, where they are with the play, what questions that they can no longer answer by sitting hunched over a computer. Their second job is to help the playwright identify goals for a play development process… such as better understanding a girl attracted to a boy who is the son of a warrior, a boy who has a very dark side (see G is for Gray below).
E is for EXCERPT, which each of our showcase playwrights present to you, the audience. We’ve asked them to give us 20-minute excerpts from their plays high in emotional conflict, a place in the play were we as an audience are dropped right into the middle of the action. We’re finding that (1) those scenes are fun for you all
to watch and (2) these scene are illustrative in helping the playwrights find out more about the world of their plays.
F is for F WORD, or FAT. This is the subject of Melissa Blackall’s biting, funny, and heart wrenching play about our obsession with body image and fat. She’s totally rewritten the play over the past several weeks, mixing metaphor with satire with brutal confession to show the journey of seven different bodies — Toothpick, Voluptuous, Stout, Blimp, Lean, Belly, and Huge.
G is for GRAY, as in the middle name of the fabulous Jason Gray Platt, who joined us for a week to explore his play strike/seek/find. Director Chris Gallus and actors Lindsay Haynes, Nigel Reed, Valerie Leonard, and Evan Casey put their heart, soul, and heads into this dark, bloody take on The Odyssey. In this version, Odysseus is no where to be found in Athens. Telemachus is a sullen teenager, unsure of himself as he sits in the shadow of his missing father. The team helped Jason explore some key character arcs, particularly that of Calliope, the young girl who is attracted to Telemachus for his fame, his vulnerability, for all that he can promise and all that he can take away. They also dug into the motivations of Telemachus’ mother, Penelope, who is caught between her abiding loyalty and love for Odysseus and the political machinations of her many suitors. The actors put on a hell of a performance. We were all stunned by their commitment to this emotionally fraught piece. We hope that Jason went home to New York with a new enthusiasm for the piece.
H is for HIP HOP, which we explored through the world created by Q Terah Jackson in his play 20Twenty, one of four plays we showed off on Sunday, September 27th as part of a Local Writers Showcase and Convening. The Inkwell’s own Lee Liebeskind guided a talented group of actors through a reading of a 20-minute excerpt of the play. They covered a lot o territory in 20 minutes — from the rage that inspired the first hip hop songs to the troubling sexual imagery of hip hop today to the disconnect between generations that grew up with different versions of the hip hop mythos. We can’t wait to see the next draft, Terah!
And I is, of course, for INKUBATOR, the name of this smorgasbord of new play development, this festival that we are in the midst of at the playhouse. Please come on down for our next series of events, which include a master class on new play dramaturgy, a showcase of plays inspired by literature and history, two open rehearsals of The F Word, and a staged reading of Susan Soon He Stanton's Cygnus.
Above, actors Eric Humphries, Jace Parker, Theo Hadjamichael, Toby Mulford, Alia Faith Williams, Lynn Horton, and Tara Garwood perform an excerpt from Of Dice and Men by Cameron McNary as part of the Local Writers' Showcase event held last Sunday, September 27th. The photo is by the multi-talented Melissa Blackall.
A is for ACTOR, who is so important to the play development process. We heard from acclaimed actors Naomi Jacobsen and John Fescault at our panel discussion — The Actor and the New Play — the dos and don’ts of working with an actor on a new play. Do trust an actor to help you fill in a character, to find the funny in a comic play, to “find the pebbles among the boulders in the river, so we can make it to the other shore” as Naomi put it. DON’T ask actors to read a monologue that they have been stumbling over for weeks, that they have tried to make work three ways to Sunday. Much shouting and stomping follows.
B is for BOLDNESS, which we are finding is a big part of the play development process. Actors are bold in asking pointed questions about character and in helping playwrights make choices about the emotional intention of a scene. Playwrights are bold in putting raw material in the hands of directors and actors… plays that may not have seen the light of day before.
C is for COMMUNITY and CONNECTION, which we found that local playwrights crave. That’s what they said when we brought them together for a moderated discussion on what they need to put forward their professional and artistic goals. They need a community of playwrights, actors, and directors to help them better understand their own writing process, to hold their hands in between drafts, and help writer overcome the fear factor of looking at a blank page.
D is for DRAMATURGES, who have been an essential resource to our playwrights thus far. A team of 13 dramaturges is working with 18 playwrights. Their first job is to listen… listen to what the playwright needs, where they are with the play, what questions that they can no longer answer by sitting hunched over a computer. Their second job is to help the playwright identify goals for a play development process… such as better understanding a girl attracted to a boy who is the son of a warrior, a boy who has a very dark side (see G is for Gray below).
E is for EXCERPT, which each of our showcase playwrights present to you, the audience. We’ve asked them to give us 20-minute excerpts from their plays high in emotional conflict, a place in the play were we as an audience are dropped right into the middle of the action. We’re finding that (1) those scenes are fun for you all
to watch and (2) these scene are illustrative in helping the playwrights find out more about the world of their plays.
F is for F WORD, or FAT. This is the subject of Melissa Blackall’s biting, funny, and heart wrenching play about our obsession with body image and fat. She’s totally rewritten the play over the past several weeks, mixing metaphor with satire with brutal confession to show the journey of seven different bodies — Toothpick, Voluptuous, Stout, Blimp, Lean, Belly, and Huge.
G is for GRAY, as in the middle name of the fabulous Jason Gray Platt, who joined us for a week to explore his play strike/seek/find. Director Chris Gallus and actors Lindsay Haynes, Nigel Reed, Valerie Leonard, and Evan Casey put their heart, soul, and heads into this dark, bloody take on The Odyssey. In this version, Odysseus is no where to be found in Athens. Telemachus is a sullen teenager, unsure of himself as he sits in the shadow of his missing father. The team helped Jason explore some key character arcs, particularly that of Calliope, the young girl who is attracted to Telemachus for his fame, his vulnerability, for all that he can promise and all that he can take away. They also dug into the motivations of Telemachus’ mother, Penelope, who is caught between her abiding loyalty and love for Odysseus and the political machinations of her many suitors. The actors put on a hell of a performance. We were all stunned by their commitment to this emotionally fraught piece. We hope that Jason went home to New York with a new enthusiasm for the piece.
H is for HIP HOP, which we explored through the world created by Q Terah Jackson in his play 20Twenty, one of four plays we showed off on Sunday, September 27th as part of a Local Writers Showcase and Convening. The Inkwell’s own Lee Liebeskind guided a talented group of actors through a reading of a 20-minute excerpt of the play. They covered a lot o territory in 20 minutes — from the rage that inspired the first hip hop songs to the troubling sexual imagery of hip hop today to the disconnect between generations that grew up with different versions of the hip hop mythos. We can’t wait to see the next draft, Terah!
And I is, of course, for INKUBATOR, the name of this smorgasbord of new play development, this festival that we are in the midst of at the playhouse. Please come on down for our next series of events, which include a master class on new play dramaturgy, a showcase of plays inspired by literature and history, two open rehearsals of The F Word, and a staged reading of Susan Soon He Stanton's Cygnus.
Above, actors Eric Humphries, Jace Parker, Theo Hadjamichael, Toby Mulford, Alia Faith Williams, Lynn Horton, and Tara Garwood perform an excerpt from Of Dice and Men by Cameron McNary as part of the Local Writers' Showcase event held last Sunday, September 27th. The photo is by the multi-talented Melissa Blackall.
