Just Wrought

Hoodies Up! - Theatre for the Right Here / Right Now

Witness if you will the reactions of two anonymous members of the community when The Stranger’s Slog recently publicized the casting call for  Hoodies Up!: The Trayvon Martin Protest Plays:

1

I am skeptical there are any new insights on the Trayvon Martin affair left that theater can illuminate

Posted by Zebes  on April 24, 2012 at 5:49 PM

2

It seems premature to go on about making theater about a tragic event that NOBODY in the theater group knows anything about (except for media reports - which are notoriously unreliable).

Only two people know what happened that night, and one is dead. It seems like they should wait for the outcome of the trial to begin a production on the story... After all, they don't have the story yet, nobody does.

Posted by scratchmaster joe on April 24, 2012 at 5:54 PM

 

I find these reactions fascinating and telling beyond their surface trollishness.  In fact, they exemplify attitudes shared by artistic administrators at big regional theatres here in Seattle and across the country.  Boiled down, the core ideas shared by these trolls and Big House leaders are:

• No one has anything new to say in the theatre
  (i.e. anything happening in any 21st century location can be easily addressed with a play from 16th Century England, 19th Century Norway, or 20th Century New York City.
• If someone does have something new to say, we should wait to say it until it is old.
  (i.e. keep working on that adorable play you’re developing about the culpability of key Seattle executives in the U.S. Mortgage Meltdown. Maybe we’ll take a look at it when enough time has passed to guarantee not upsetting anyone.)

Thank goodness  that Tyrone Brown, Brownbox Theatre, and the artists working on Hoodies Up! have chosen to ignore this advice when it comes to greeting the Trayvon Martin tragedy with something nobler and stronger than empty-headed posturing and/or meaningless violence. 

Here’s the press release with all the information you need on this amazing event.  I hope to see you there.

Radio Reality

One time as a kid I was sick and my dad left me at home by myself with talk radio playing in the kitchen downstairs. (Hey, it was the 70’s.) I was a touch feverish and I started to imagine that the people talking were actually sitting at my kitchen table. This tickled me immensely.

Last night I had an opposite but even more delightful experience at Sandbox Radio Live’s Episode 4: The Chase! The venue, West of Lenin, was completely sold out— beautiful living butts in every seat.  So I had to stand in the back behind the risers, along with fellow writers Scot Auguston and Elizabeth Heffron.  I couldn’t see the actors or the Foley artists as they worked their magic, but the performances were so rich, the sound effects so convincing, the music so utterly compelling that I began to float freely in an alternate ocean of radio reality.  Because I couldn’t see Richard Ziman playing the Nazi interrogator, he became the Nazi interrogator.  When he popped a bottle of bubbly and poured it, it actually happened even though 25 feet away from me a Foley artist was faking it all with a table full of clever sound props.  I will admit that at one point I had to move forward to see with my own eyes Charles Leggett blowing his harmonica because I simply refused to believe the outrageous amazement my ears were trying to convince me of.

Sandbox Radio is magic.  And the world class artists that generate it are led by a genius, Leslie Law, who in four episodes has managed to accomplish the most difficult task there is in show business: producing consistent excellence, over and over, and getting better each and every time.

I don’t need you to believe me because the proof is in the Podcast coming soon!

 

 

(You can go here for podcasts of our first three episodes.)

Rain City Projects Rocks It World Class with Vol. 3 of Manifesto Series

So I know you are going to find this hard to believe, but I was recently getting into it with a fellow playwright about the failures of the New York-centric hub-and-spoke model of new play development.  His argument was the tired old saw: “If you want the best product, you have to get it from the where all the best gather to produce it.”  If I recall correctly, he gave as an example: “If you’re were looking for a new sensei for your martial arts dojo, you would to look to Okinawa.”  I really have no idea what that means.  I did, however, offer the counter that if I want the best cheese, beer, wine, meats, fish, fruit and vegetables, I don’t really need to look beyond the Pacific Northwest.  Then I posted a helpful link on his Facebook wall to my essay “Theatre Takes Place: Why Locally Grown Plays Matter.”

The link disappeared within an hour.  So much for the free exchange of ideas.  I suppose when it comes to thoughts on theatre, the proper direction of flow is one-way from New York City to everywhere else.  

But honestly, I don’t even need to argue when amazing Seattle institutions like Rain City Projects regularly put world class money where my big mouth is.  Case in point, their upcoming release of Volume 3 of their Manifesto Series, a regularly published anthology of great Northwest Plays.

Can I even express to you how honored I was to be included with the likes of Yussef El Guindi recent winner of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, or my personal heroine Elizabeth Heffron, or Stranger Genius Award winner Chris Jeffries or the fiercely incomparable Bret Fetzer and Stephen McCandless, all hand-selected by the nationally renowned playwright and playwriting teacher Naomi Iizuka?

Nope. I don’t believe I can, but— dammit!— I can try.

This coming Sunday we will be celebrating Volume 3’s release with free readings from several of the collected plays.  I’ll be there.  Yussef and Elizabeth mentioned they might be, too. So why don’t you come on down so we can sign your copy, hot, fresh, and locally sourced, right off the presses!?

 

 

Here are all the crucial details from Rain City Projects:

 

Rain City Projects is releasing the third book in its Manifesto series - anthologies of plays by Northwest playwrights. We're very excited this time to have an anthology of seven plays selected by Naomi Iizuka who started by writing a manifesto of what theater should be and then chose plays she felt exemplified her vision. Please join us for a reading of short excerpts from Ms. Iizuka's delightful manifesto and from the plays she chose including:

Language Rooms by Yussef El Guindi

Clubfoot by Bret Fetzer & Stephen McCandless

Mitzi's Abortion by Elizabeth Heffron

Vera Wilde by Chris Jeffries

An American Book of the Dead by Paul Mullin

Live! From the Last Night of My Life by Wayne Rawley

and Wizzer Pizzer by Amy Wheeler

Sunday, April 15th at 2:00pm

The reading is FREE and will be held at Elliott Bay Book Company 1521 10th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

Manifesto v. 3 will be available for purchase along with Manifesto v. 2 (edited by Steven Dietz) and Manifesto v. 1 (edited by Erik Ehn).

Two Names of Perfect Proof

I have six words for the Seattle Big House Artistic Director that stood up two years ago at the Outrageous Fortune discussion and said about local playwrights, “We are looking for excellence and just not finding it.”

Keri Healey and Yussef El Guindi

 

(Of course, I have many many more words than that, but those are all I need for my perfect proof.)

Congratulations Keri and Yussef!  You inspire us.  And congratulations Seattle, for having undeniably World Class playwrights in your midst.

 

 

Sandbox Radio Live! Seats Now Available

Advance reservations are available today for the Fourth Episode of Sandbox Radio Live! “The Chase."  Click here to assure your seat at Brown Paper Tickets.

Back in Episode 2, we had some fun with commercials for the King County Metro Line #358 Express to Aurora Village, or as I like to call it, “My Danger-tainment” bus.  Listen here to the very first one we did.  (“Read-along” script below the fold.)

 

Here’s a quick review of the info on the upcoming show.

Who:     The Sandbox Artists Collective

What:    SANDBOX RADIO LIVE! Episode 4 "THE CHASE"

Where:  West of Lenin (203 N. 36th Street, Seattle WA) www.westoflenin.com

When:  Monday, April 16th, house opens at 7:30 with live music, show at 8:00pm

How Much:   $10 suggested donation at the door, Reservations recommended! Available April 2nd: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/236740
 
Sandbox Radio is conceived, produced and directed by Leslie Law.
 
contact:  [email protected]
 
Podcast available in iTunes and here:  http://www.thesandboxac.org/podcast.html