Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
The 27th Annual Madison Young Playwrights Festival
On Monday, March 11, 2013, Robert H. Conley, Mayor of Madison, proclaimed March “Madison Young Playwrights Month”. The proclamation was held at the 2nd Floor Council Chamber at the Hartley Dodge Memorial Building at 50 Kings Road.
The following plays were selected:
Central Avenue
Best Friends Forever by Katie Dore
The Haunted Penguin by Andrew Eglevsky
The New Girls by Janae May
Kings Road
The Competition by Claire Hemmert
Friendship Problems by Zoie Aguiar
Joey and the Trumpet Disaster! by Adwik Rahematpura
Madison Junior School
Avoiding the Inevitable by Michael Bennett
Queen of the World by Allie MacDonald
St. Vincent Martyr
Bully Days by Zachary Vincent
Destination Translation by Stacey Espiritu
In a Loud World (But Yet Somewhat Quiet) by Casey McGough
Lost by Nina Bisco
Torey J. Sabatini
The Adventures of Alex Stellenbosch by Courtney McCormick
The Fairy Stone by Cecilia Smith
The Kidnappers by Abigail Mah
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
5 Questions with D.W. Gregory
Cliff Kozak, 17, and his sister Jill, 15, are brokenhearted over the disappearance of their college-aged sister into a religious cult. When they find out her possible location and that she might be eager to leave, but can’t get out, they go on a journey to “rescue” her. Salvation Road is an honest and balanced examination of how youngsters fall under the sway of cults, regardless of their intelligence and self-awareness, and how difficult it is for families to bring their children home. Winner of the 2011 American Alliance for Theatre in Education Playwrights in Our Schools Award.
D.W. Gregory writes in a variety of styles and genres, from historical drama to screwball comedy, but a recurring theme is the exploration of political issues through a personal lens. The New York Times called her “a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke” for her most produced play, RADIUM GIRLS (Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey), about dialpainters poisoned on the job in the 1920s. A resident playwright at New Jersey Rep, she received a Pulitzer nomination for the Rep’s production of THE GOOD DAUGHTER, the story of a Missouri farm family struggling to adapt to rapid social change. Other plays include THE GOOD GIRL IS GONE (Playwrights Theatre) , a black comedy about maternal indifference; OCTOBER 1962 (NJ Rep), a Cold War era psychological thriller; and MOLUMBY’S MILLION (Iron Age Theatre Co.), a comedy about the boxer Jack Dempsey, which was nominated for the 2011 Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play by the Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia. Her work has been developed through the support of the National New Play Network, the Maryland Arts Council, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and has been presented at the New Harmony Project, ShenanArts, The Playwrights’ Center, Theatre of the First Amendment, NYU’s HotInk Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Lark, Florida Stage, Geva Theatre, the Women’s Project, and the Young Vic, among others. Current projects include A GRAND DESIGN, a serio-comedy inspired by the D.C. sniper shootings of a decade ago, now in development with Theatre J of Washington, D.C.; and YELLOW STOCKINGS, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night for young audiences.
1. What inspired you to write SALVATION ROAD?
Originally a friend of mine who was active in what was then known as the Cult Awareness Network commissioned a play about the cult experience. I agreed to write the play, which I had intended as an "issue" play for theatres that tour to schools. But I didn't really like the results; it was didactic and a bit predictable. So I tossed it in a drawer and did other things. Then in 2008 the successor organization to CAN--now called the International Cultic Studies Association--was holding a conference in Philadelphia and my friend wanted to present the play there. I went into a panic because I just did not like the script, but by then I had decided to take a different attack on the subject matter--which was to write about the people who are left behind, trying to make sense of what is going on. I had some experience with that--my sister was involved briefly in the Unification Church a number of years ago--and so I drew on a few details that I remembered from that time. So for me the play is really about the brother who is confused by his sister's rejection of the family and trying to make sense of her need for an organization like the Disciples.
Originally a friend of mine who was active in what was then known as the Cult Awareness Network commissioned a play about the cult experience. I agreed to write the play, which I had intended as an "issue" play for theatres that tour to schools. But I didn't really like the results; it was didactic and a bit predictable. So I tossed it in a drawer and did other things. Then in 2008 the successor organization to CAN--now called the International Cultic Studies Association--was holding a conference in Philadelphia and my friend wanted to present the play there. I went into a panic because I just did not like the script, but by then I had decided to take a different attack on the subject matter--which was to write about the people who are left behind, trying to make sense of what is going on. I had some experience with that--my sister was involved briefly in the Unification Church a number of years ago--and so I drew on a few details that I remembered from that time. So for me the play is really about the brother who is confused by his sister's rejection of the family and trying to make sense of her need for an organization like the Disciples.
2. You write in a variety of styles and genres. Do you let the subject matter dictate this or do you wake-up and say "today I plan to write a historical drama therefore I must find a subject?"
Plays for me are about wrestling with a question or an observation. The inspiration comes from all sorts of places--something I read in a newspaper or online, a book I'm reading, a photograph or an anecdote--even a painting or sketch I see in a gallery. I come across something that triggers a question. With Radium Girls, the immediate trigger was a chapter in a book on mass media that I came across online. I read the story of the New Jersey case and thought "How could this happen? Why does it keep on happening?" And I developed an obsession with the story. I knew starting out that the play was going to deal with the uses of denial in some way. But then I set out to do my research and in the process realized that I also wanted to tell the story from two points of view---the women in the factory and the men who owned the company. It was a long struggle to come to a structure that worked, because it was an early play and I was not really confident in myself to do the story justice. But really I borrowed from Brecht, working in presentational scenes with more naturalistic scenes---and advancing the action in an almost cinematic way. So Radium Girls is really Epic Theatre.
Most of the other plays I've written are historical in nature--period pieces--though I am starting to write contemporary stories. And while in many cases the exchanges between characters are naturalistic---the structure usually isn't; there is usually some element to the construction of the play that departs from 20th Century Realism. One artistic director described me as an "impressionist." And I think that is largely true--certainly was true of The Good Daughter. There, the idea was to approach the scenes like photographs in a family album--that as you flip through the pages and through the years--a story emerges--and there are great leaps in time between the photographs, but you ultimately get a sense of an arc and a resolution.
I am drawn to period pieces because, like Shakespeare, I think audiences needs to look backward in order to look at themselves. You put some distance between the experience of contemporary audiences and the story you are telling them---and they can receive it better, especially if you are delivering a fairly harsh critique wrapped in the form of entertainment.
But I'm also interested in finding a shape or an approach that suits the material---and how this comes about is a bit of mystery. I sit with the idea or the characters for a while sometimes before the answer comes. Salvation Road is essentially a buddy movie on stage--two guys hit the road looking for a girl. And the structure is cinematic because the audience I am aiming at is used to receiving information in short bits; they are used to film and video and online entertainment and gaming--and that informs the way the play is put together. The newest piece I am working on now is a mash-up between a social satire and a murder mystery--with no solution to the mystery, which I am sure will really infuriate the audience. So it starts out as a comedy and gets darker as it goes. More and more I guess I am interested in bending forms---taking very familiar forms and working in that framework to force the audience to adopt a point of view it might not otherwise adopt. So I think the work is subtle in that respect---and I like to think it's subversive. That's what I tell myself.
Plays for me are about wrestling with a question or an observation. The inspiration comes from all sorts of places--something I read in a newspaper or online, a book I'm reading, a photograph or an anecdote--even a painting or sketch I see in a gallery. I come across something that triggers a question. With Radium Girls, the immediate trigger was a chapter in a book on mass media that I came across online. I read the story of the New Jersey case and thought "How could this happen? Why does it keep on happening?" And I developed an obsession with the story. I knew starting out that the play was going to deal with the uses of denial in some way. But then I set out to do my research and in the process realized that I also wanted to tell the story from two points of view---the women in the factory and the men who owned the company. It was a long struggle to come to a structure that worked, because it was an early play and I was not really confident in myself to do the story justice. But really I borrowed from Brecht, working in presentational scenes with more naturalistic scenes---and advancing the action in an almost cinematic way. So Radium Girls is really Epic Theatre.
Most of the other plays I've written are historical in nature--period pieces--though I am starting to write contemporary stories. And while in many cases the exchanges between characters are naturalistic---the structure usually isn't; there is usually some element to the construction of the play that departs from 20th Century Realism. One artistic director described me as an "impressionist." And I think that is largely true--certainly was true of The Good Daughter. There, the idea was to approach the scenes like photographs in a family album--that as you flip through the pages and through the years--a story emerges--and there are great leaps in time between the photographs, but you ultimately get a sense of an arc and a resolution.
I am drawn to period pieces because, like Shakespeare, I think audiences needs to look backward in order to look at themselves. You put some distance between the experience of contemporary audiences and the story you are telling them---and they can receive it better, especially if you are delivering a fairly harsh critique wrapped in the form of entertainment.
But I'm also interested in finding a shape or an approach that suits the material---and how this comes about is a bit of mystery. I sit with the idea or the characters for a while sometimes before the answer comes. Salvation Road is essentially a buddy movie on stage--two guys hit the road looking for a girl. And the structure is cinematic because the audience I am aiming at is used to receiving information in short bits; they are used to film and video and online entertainment and gaming--and that informs the way the play is put together. The newest piece I am working on now is a mash-up between a social satire and a murder mystery--with no solution to the mystery, which I am sure will really infuriate the audience. So it starts out as a comedy and gets darker as it goes. More and more I guess I am interested in bending forms---taking very familiar forms and working in that framework to force the audience to adopt a point of view it might not otherwise adopt. So I think the work is subtle in that respect---and I like to think it's subversive. That's what I tell myself.
3. Why did you decide to be a founding member of Playwrights Gymnasium, a process oriented workshop based in metro Washington, DC?
I started the workshop out of a sense of frustration with other writer's groups I have been involved in. Writing is so isolating that it is important to have community. For playwrights especially. Very often you just do not have the opportunity to hear your work---or to get a sense of how it is being received. So a group can give you that. But a lot of groups tend to be prescriptive--one in particular just drove me crazy, because the people who ran it were adamant about what your process should be. It's one thing to offer instruction to beginners--they certainly need some framework for a process. But when you have people around the table who have written ten or twelve plays, it's incredibly arrogant to insist that there is only one way to work. For me, the process changes with every play. With some plays I've worked out the whole story in advance--for others, I start with a character or a situation or a scenario--and I have no idea how it is going to end. So I wanted a workshop that honored the proposition that writing is process and that there is no one right answer for what that process should be. In the end, though, you do have to get to a structure that works. So the hazard of this kind of workshop is that some writers think the exploratory exercise itself is the play. No it isn't. It's an exploration to help you get a better understanding of what to do with your script. Now set it aside and write the play.
So regardless of the structure of the workshop, the fundamental I have come away with is that there is just no substitute for hard work; whatever your approach is--there are always blind spots and pitfalls and you just need to be willing to go back to the script again and again and keep working it until you get it to the place where it really sings. And that takes time.
4. When you attend a theatre production, what do you prefer to see (dramas, comedies, drama/comedies, musicals)?
I want to see something I have not seen before. I don't care what the genre, style, or subject matter. I have no interest in the 4579th revival of The Sound of Music, unless you decide to reinvent it as a punk rock opera, maybe then. And I want to see something that wrestles with serious questions---whether it's a farce or a tragedy--I want to come out of that theatre with a new idea in my head. I want an emotional experience and an intellectual experience at the same time---make me feel something, but confront me as well. Adopt a point of view and defend it.
I started the workshop out of a sense of frustration with other writer's groups I have been involved in. Writing is so isolating that it is important to have community. For playwrights especially. Very often you just do not have the opportunity to hear your work---or to get a sense of how it is being received. So a group can give you that. But a lot of groups tend to be prescriptive--one in particular just drove me crazy, because the people who ran it were adamant about what your process should be. It's one thing to offer instruction to beginners--they certainly need some framework for a process. But when you have people around the table who have written ten or twelve plays, it's incredibly arrogant to insist that there is only one way to work. For me, the process changes with every play. With some plays I've worked out the whole story in advance--for others, I start with a character or a situation or a scenario--and I have no idea how it is going to end. So I wanted a workshop that honored the proposition that writing is process and that there is no one right answer for what that process should be. In the end, though, you do have to get to a structure that works. So the hazard of this kind of workshop is that some writers think the exploratory exercise itself is the play. No it isn't. It's an exploration to help you get a better understanding of what to do with your script. Now set it aside and write the play.
So regardless of the structure of the workshop, the fundamental I have come away with is that there is just no substitute for hard work; whatever your approach is--there are always blind spots and pitfalls and you just need to be willing to go back to the script again and again and keep working it until you get it to the place where it really sings. And that takes time.
4. When you attend a theatre production, what do you prefer to see (dramas, comedies, drama/comedies, musicals)?
I want to see something I have not seen before. I don't care what the genre, style, or subject matter. I have no interest in the 4579th revival of The Sound of Music, unless you decide to reinvent it as a punk rock opera, maybe then. And I want to see something that wrestles with serious questions---whether it's a farce or a tragedy--I want to come out of that theatre with a new idea in my head. I want an emotional experience and an intellectual experience at the same time---make me feel something, but confront me as well. Adopt a point of view and defend it.
5. According to your website, it has been reported that you were raised in a cave by Romanian werewolves. Did they make you do all the sweeping since you have opposable thumbs?
Werewolves are horrifically sloppy creatures. They didn't own a broom.
♦ Playwrights Theatre will present these readings free of charge, with an optional donation of $10
♦ A $25 dollar donation will get you a FORUM pass that covers all of the readings.
♦ A $250 donation will get you a rehearsal pass that allows access to all reading rehearsals.
♦ Reservations can be made online at or call (973) 514-1787 X10
Click here to reserve your seat to see SALVATION ROAD.
You can also find additional information on our website about the entire FORUM reading series.
Werewolves are horrifically sloppy creatures. They didn't own a broom.
♦ Playwrights Theatre will present these readings free of charge, with an optional donation of $10
♦ A $25 dollar donation will get you a FORUM pass that covers all of the readings.
♦ A $250 donation will get you a rehearsal pass that allows access to all reading rehearsals.
♦ Reservations can be made online at or call (973) 514-1787 X10
Click here to reserve your seat to see SALVATION ROAD.
You can also find additional information on our website about the entire FORUM reading series.
5 Questions with Dominique Cieri
Carmela is a theatre arts educator working on a program at a residential group center for incarcerated young girls in a run-down town in Northeast New Jersey. The girls are tough and volatile as they are vulnerable and sensitive. Years of abuse and neglect have left them with layers of defenses, and their abuse has followed them to the group center. Unaware of what is happening in the place where she is teaching, Carmela tries to get the girls to cohere into a performing troupe, and when the truth is revealed, the resistant girls come through and show us all the true healing power of art and love.
Dominique Cieri is a playwright, teaching artist, and member of the Dramatists Guild. She is the recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Playwriting Fellowship 2003, and 2009. A graduate of Rose Bruford College in Kent, England, and the recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Medal of Excellence for Scholarship and Creative Activities, Ms. Cieri holds an MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College, Vermont. Ms. Cieri’s plays: Pitz & Joe, For Dear Life, Last Kiss, Count Down, Safe, and The Baby Killer Play, under development at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. Her plays have been produced and developed in New Jersey, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Pitz & Joe is currently under contract with Warner Brothers with Josh Brolin. Her Essays on Arts and Education have been published in the New York Times, and Teaching Artist Journal. Dominique received the New Jersey Theatre Alliance Applause Award, 2010, for her artistry and dedication. Current projects include the implementation of her work for addressing bullying through the art of playwriting; a year-long commitment to the development of new work from grant monies received by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey through the New Jersey Arts Council for the program ‘Women’s Playwrights Project.'
1. What inspired you to writer COUNT DOWN?
The play came out of a moment of teaching in a 40-day multidisciplinary arts residency with abused and neglected girls (1999-2000). On what was supposed to be my fifth and final day of working with the girls to create a text that would be choreographed I had no text. Every day was a struggle just to get the girls to cooperate with each other. Having been warned not to delve into the girls’ lives, (no personal creative writing exercises - no memories) I deviated from the “lesson plan.” In a moment of utter chaos on the fifth day I played Vision, The Music of Hildegard Von Bingen, a 10th century nun. I had no idea how the girls would react to the music (“vaulting melodies” in Latin, inspired by Bingen’s visions). The reaction was immediate. Absolute quiet. I then made the leap and asked the girls to create time lines of their lives. A peace came over the room. It was the first turning point in a very long residency. I ended up staying for the 40 days. I started writing Count Down in 2003 and struggled with the play until I had a complete draft in 2005 and then a final draft in 2006. It was as if the girls wouldn’t leave me.
2. The main character, Carmela, is a theatre arts educator. How much (if any) is based on your own experience as a theatre arts educator?
Some of the characters are composites of boys and girls I’ve taught over the years. For instance, Miriam is based on a girl who never said more than a couple of words, so I had to find a way to put words into her mouth by giving her psychological and physical problems I had experienced with other students. The play’s structure is grounded in the length of the residency and theatre games that I have used over the years to reveal character and change over time.
3. You are currently working on addressing bullying through the art of playwriting. Where did you get the idea for this project and what can you tell us about it?
I was fortunate enough to work with boys in lock up for fifteen years with Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. So, many of the games and writing exercises to foster cooperative group work came out of those fifteen years. With the explosion of extreme bullying, starting in elementary schools and peaking in middle schools, many schools wanted to address bullying creatively. When you have a fifth grade boy write-
“Sad
like somebody punched a hole in my chest. That is what is always on my mind. It
never stops. Everyone except two friends make me not want to be alive on the
bus. I sometimes want to die the next morning.”
-the most powerful way in which to confront that sort of extreme bullying is through writing, performing, and honest open discussion. The lasting impact of witnessing the pain incurred by bullying in a play, hearing the words and seeing the actions deeply impacts all involved.
4. You are a 2012 New Jersey Emerging Women Playwright. How has this process helped your writing?
Writing The Baby Killer Play was as terrifying, if not more so, than working with the girls. New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights was a life-changing experience for me in terms of my writing process. To have a year-long commitment to the birth and development of a play is a gift, but to have an artistic director as dedicated as John Pietrowski is to the development of new plays and a group of actors as committed from beginning to end transforms the writing process. So many times I wanted to bail and John quietly refused to let me back off of the play. His encouragement, insight, very close reading of every new page, and dedication along with the talented group of actors made the writing process one of the most meaningful for me. This is a program that needs to be heavily funded!
-the most powerful way in which to confront that sort of extreme bullying is through writing, performing, and honest open discussion. The lasting impact of witnessing the pain incurred by bullying in a play, hearing the words and seeing the actions deeply impacts all involved.
4. You are a 2012 New Jersey Emerging Women Playwright. How has this process helped your writing?
Writing The Baby Killer Play was as terrifying, if not more so, than working with the girls. New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights was a life-changing experience for me in terms of my writing process. To have a year-long commitment to the birth and development of a play is a gift, but to have an artistic director as dedicated as John Pietrowski is to the development of new plays and a group of actors as committed from beginning to end transforms the writing process. So many times I wanted to bail and John quietly refused to let me back off of the play. His encouragement, insight, very close reading of every new page, and dedication along with the talented group of actors made the writing process one of the most meaningful for me. This is a program that needs to be heavily funded!
5. What do you like to do when you just want to "chill?"
Digging in the earth, planting, seeing things grow and extreme walking. A cup of tea.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
5 Questions with Tammy Ryan
When 16-year old Lindsey, who is infatuated with Dylan, the captain of the Lacrosse team, finally “hooks-up” with him on a “date” one day, she soon finds out that she is pregnant. As might be expected, telling her parents and working through how she will handle her pregnancy take her to the edge of an emotional breakdown. But as she replays the fateful day in her mind, she realizes that there may have been more to the encounter than she originally understood. Ultimately, Lindsey’s Oyster is a play about how a young girl finds her footing, confidence, and self-esteem in a very complicated world.
Tammy Ryan’s plays have been produced across the country and internationally. She won the Francesca Primus Prize in 2012 for her play Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods awarded by the American Theater Critics Association. Her work has been developed, commissioned or produced at The Alliance Theater Company, Florida Stage, Premiere Stages, Playwrights Theater of New Jersey, Pittsburgh Playhouse, City Theater Company, Bricolage Production Company, the New Harmony Project and the Lark Play Development Lab among others, and has been featured at the National New Play Networks Showcase of New Plays. Other honors include the American Alliance of Theatre in Education Distinguished Play Award, Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (honorable mention), David Mark Cohen Award (second place), the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Creative Achievement Award, The Heinz Endowments Creative Heights Residency Grant, and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Sewanee Writers Conference and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She serves as the Pittsburgh regional representative for the Dramatists Guild of America. For more information go to: www.tammyryan.net
1. What inspired you to write LINDSEY'S OYSTER?
Lindsey's Oyster was a commission from a theater company based in NYC and Cornell University called International Culture Lab. The project was a commission for myself and a Turkish female playwright for each of us to write a one act play sparked by the concept of a "woman's body as battleground" and what that meant in each of our cultures. The director wanted Zeynep Kacar, the Turkish playwright, to write something about the headscarf controversy in Turkey, but Kacar said we can't speak about that in public, that it was taboo. I asked myself what was the taboo in my culture, what is the thing we can't speak about and the answer I decided, is abortion. Lindsey's Oyster is not about abortion, but about date rape, another subject that is never really talked about. I have two daughters (aged 20 and 11) and worry for them in a culture that can use the term "legitmate rape." I felt it was important to write about this subject from the point of view of the girl who doesn't realize what happened to her was rape. I wasn't interested in getting bogged down in the abortion issue (the play is not a debate about abortion) so when I discovered in writing that Lindsey wants to get a tattoo I followed that journey as the path towards self realization for Lindsey as she learns that she controls the narrative of her own life. The two one-act plays written for the commission were woven together and performed at The Kitchen in Ithaca, NY and at garajistanbul in Istanbul, Turkey under the title S/He both directed by Melanie Dreyer. I developed my original one-act, into the longer version that will be read in the festival.
2. You write for both adult audiences as well as young audiences. Is the process the same? If not, how is it different?
The process of writing a play, whether for adult or young audiences is exactly the same for me. A play is a play and I'm always trying to tell a clear story with well developed characters who want something and run into conflict regardless of the audience it might be targeted for. In fact I didn't think Lindsey's Oyster was necessarily for young audiences when I started writing it, except for the fact that the characters of Lindsey, her best friend and her boyfriend are 16 year olds and the subject, the world of the play and how the characters communicate (via texting and social media) is one young people, I think, would be interested in.
3. Some of your plays are Ten Minute Plays. What do you enjoy about writing a Ten Minute Play?
I enjoy the brevity of a ten minute play. Full length plays take a long time for me to think about, research, process, write and rewrite. The ten minute play can often be written in one sitting. They're great as exercises and to keep your writing practice going. Also some subjects are better suited to the form. I like to try something new when I'm writing a ten minute, since I find it's easier to sustain experimenting in the shorter form. I also find they are a great teaching tool.
4. Your plays have been produced across the country and internationally. Where is the farthest you have traveled to see one of your plays on stage?
Although I have had plays performed as far away as Istanbul, Turkey and also last year several of my short plays were performed in Tokyo, Japan, the farthest I've traveled to see one of my plays was San Francisco, California.
5. What movie always makes you laugh out loud?
A movie that always makes me laugh out loud is any movie with Ben Stiller in it.
♦ Playwrights Theatre will present these readings free of charge, with an optional donation of $10
♦ A $25 dollar donation will get you a FORUM pass that covers all of the readings.
♦ A $250 donation will get you a rehearsal pass that allows access to all reading rehearsals.
♦ Reservations can be made online at or call (973) 514-1787 X10
Click here to reserve your seat to see LINDSEY'S OYSTER.
You can also find additional information on our website about the entire FORUM reading series.
Monday, March 4, 2013
5 Questions with Pamela Burke
The showcase will take place at
Mile Square Theatre Company
Monroe Center
720 Monroe Street, 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ
Click here for directions
For information call 973/514-1787 X11
Recommended for high school age and above
Suggested donation $10 adults, $5 students
In Debris, two people search for their common lover in a sluice field of hurricane debris.
Debris will be read by Bonnie Black* and directed by John Pietrowski.
Pamela Burke writes on the Jersey Shore while also consulting and teaching graduate courses in leading creative collaboration, resolving conflict, and leadership development at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken and at Columbia University in New York. Her poems and articles have appeared in magazines and collections including Mischief Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies (Red Hen Press), Art Calendar Magazine, and in Inspiring Creativity, an anthology published by the Creativity Coaching Association Press. An excerpt from a novel, “Everything I’ve Ever Written is a Lie” appeared in Podium, the Literary Journal of the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. Pam received a 2009 NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Fiction and is a member of the international writing network, Backspace (http://www.bksp.org).
The NJ Literary Artists Fellowship Showcase performances are works by writers who received prestigious NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowships in poetry, prose and playwriting. The March 9th set features prose writers with ties to Hudson County. A partnership between Playwrights Theatre, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Mile Square Theatre Company.
These readings are part of The New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Stages Festival which is a statewide theatre “open-house” with free and discounted tickets to performances, workshops and events offered by New Jersey’s 31 Professional Member Theatres throughout the month of March.
*Member Actors' Equity Association
1) What
inspired you to write “Debris?”
I
spent ten days wandering the iron shore eastern rim of a leeward Caribbean
island, where the winds that flow off of Africa deposit debris from the sea. Sun-bleached shoes, appliances, broken bits of
boats and ropes and glass and metal and plastic were scattered in unlikely
combinations along the jagged rocks and tide pools. There was evidence of
violence everywhere, but all I witnessed was the haphazard aftermath. This
stuff had once had meaning to someone. I took trash bags and tried to pick
things up, to bring some order to the place. Impossible. So much. I gave up. Just
sat down and started writing. Of course, the landscape kept sparking images of
Hurricane Katrina and although I avoided that dark connection for the first few
drafts, I relented. The story itself became an accretion of debris, bits from
past and present. When I got home, none
of it made sense. I put it in a drawer. I went back the next winter with my
"beach" notebook, and got totally immersed in the horror for most of
the "vacation." My family humored my attempt to sleep outside so I
could experience the wind and loss of shelter. That lasted for six hours, eyes wide open the
whole time. Did the first water-logged sneaker inspire me to write this story?
I don't know. There were forces at work that felt more like desperation than inspiration.
2) You
teach graduate courses in leading creative collaboration, resolving conflict,
and leadership development at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken and at
Columbia University in New York. Do you find inspiration for your writing from
teaching in the classroom?
Absolutely.
By design, the subjects I teach require huge amounts of personal reflection and improvisation - by
the students and the teacher. I'm
essentially prodding people to write their own lives in real time through
creativity, collaboration, and conflict. The students at these two universities
are so beautifully diverse and expressive that I can barely wait to get onto
the train after class to capture their perspectives in my writing journal. They
inspire me to write about embracing change, no matter how bizarre or
challenging the situation. I'm inspired by people who live their lives saying,
"yes, and..." because it keeps
me open to the surprises that happen when I sit down to write.
3) How
does being a member of the international writing network, Backspace, help
you?
I
had written many stories and a couple of first-draft novels before I stumbled
onto Backspace but I can't say I
thought of myself as a writer until I had this amazing group of people to
experience the writing life beside. Because the community has people who write
fiction of all kinds from all over the world at all stages of their
professional careers I've gotten just-in-time help on everything from revising
stories to finding a literary agent. People share the most amazing insights and
encouragement online and at the gatherings Backspace
sponsors. So many of the early backspacers have gone on to become familiar
household names with major literary successes yet they remain active in the
group.
Writing
and attempting to get your stuff read can be a lonely path. Your friends mean
well but most have no idea what it feels like to have a novel out on submission
after several revisions with your agent -- and then to either get a contract --
or not -- after months of near-misses. The people at Backspace celebrate with you, or commiserate with you, but always
then ask you, "what's next?"
4) What
is the name of the first story that you wrote and what was it about?
I'm
a terrible archivist of my own writing and have no memories of my earliest
stories. I do remember writing morality tales and stuffing them folded into
tight little squares in-between the ice cube trays in my parent's freezer as a
teenager. I've never been good at face-to-face apologies, maybe that's why I
grew up to teach creative conflict resolution.
In
the weeks before my mother died this fall we talked about how writing had been
a substitute for talk between us and though she admitted she found and read the
ice-cube stories, she didn't recall their contents. In honor of Constance Burke,
I'll answer your question with the title of my mother's first story -- which I
found only after her death -- "Jealousy Goes to a Party" -- a
romance, published in the 7B2 Crunchy Wunchy Short Story Anthology, June 1944.
She dedicated the anthology to her favorite teacher, Miss Prentiss, and to
"the pleasure and excitement experienced in writing the book, compiling
it, and earning the money to pay for it."
Who knew?
5) What
is your favorite book and why?
You do ask impossible questions, don't you? I feel I have to answer since I weaseled out of the last one... The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, published in 2006, stuns me each time I read it. Who could imagine that such an intensely human book could be told through the point of view of Death? The life of the nine year old heroine, Liesel Meminger, in Germany during WWII, forever changed my assumptions about young adult literature. It's a staggering piece of storytelling by an impossibly talented writer. If you haven't read it yet, don't wait.
5 Questions with Iyanna L. Jones
The showcase will take place at
Mile Square Theatre Company
Monroe Center
720 Monroe Street, 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ
Click here for directions
For information call 973/514-1787 X11
Recommended for high school age and above
Suggested donation $10 adults, $5 students
Lush with ancient mysticism, heady romance and gripping violence, Eyes of Xhosa (pronounced Kosa) is the story of a young woman who faces the most important choice of her life: honor and fulfill the obligations placed upon her by ancestral birthright or take her destiny into her own hands and blaze a new trail across the world along a path of her own choosing.
Iyanna will be reading her story.
Iyanna L. Jones, professionally known as Nana Soul is a writer, filmmaker, media activist and singer. She has a strong background in entertainment and marketing by way of her tenure at media giants such as HBO, MTV and BET. She executive produced and wrote the narration for the provocative and controversial documentary film Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio. Congressman Bobby L. Rush (1st District, IL) invited Jones to the Congressional Black Caucus’ 39th Annual Legislative Convention to participate on a panel named after the film. She also executive produced, performed on, and wrote music for On The Move – Sounds Inspired by Mumia Abu Jamal, which includes music by Public Enemy, Living Colour, Maya Azucena and Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets.
She is the host of the television shows Black Agenda TV and The Ghetto Chronicles and author of Business Owner’s Bootcamp, a manual that helps women on public assistance make the transition to entrepreneurship. As a musician she is a two-time winner of the internationally acclaimed John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her songs God is Dead and Black Honey. In 2009 Jones received a New Jersey Council on the Arts fellowship for her science fiction short story, Eyes of Xhosa. She currently hosts her own weekly radio show entitled This is Iyanna Jones every Wednesday on the Go Pro Radio Network at 9pm Eastern Time. Iyanna is a self-proclaimed geek and lover of all things spacy, fantastic and speculative, especially fiction and movies. When she’s not busy writing stories or poems or screenplays or songs, she spends her time reading stories and poems and screenplays and singing songs.
The NJ Literary Artists Fellowship Showcase performances are works by writers who received prestigious NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowships in poetry, prose and playwriting. The March 9th set features prose writers with ties to Hudson County. A partnership between Playwrights Theatre, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Mile Square Theatre Company.
These readings are part of The New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Stages Festival which is a statewide theatre “open-house” with free and discounted tickets to performances, workshops and events offered by New Jersey’s 31 Professional Member Theatres throughout the month of March.
1) What inspired you to write Eyes
of Xhosa?
I was inspired to write Eyes
of Xhosa because a friend challenged me to write something of a speculative
nature but in a setting that I typically wouldn't. I thought of all of the
mysticism surrounding tribal elders and the keepers of community history and so
South Africa became the setting. I've also always been intrigued by the ways in
which adherence to obligation and honoring one's own desires often clash.
2) You are a writer, filmmaker,
media activist and singer. Are you passionate about the same subject for all of
these disciplines or does it vary according to the medium you are pursuing?
My passions are varied. Ultimately, I feel the need to use
my many voices to champion the causes of those without on, to tell the stories
we haven't heard yet and to showcase the perspectives we least expect. That
kind of approach keeps my work honest and helps me to grow as both an artist
and a human being.
3) You wrote the Business Owner's Bootcamp,
a manual that helps women on public assistance make the transition to
entrepreneurship. Why inspired you to work on this?
I was inspired to write Business
Owner's Bootcamp because I know what it's like not only to be poor but to
feel as if certain roads are closed to me. It took a lot of fortitude and
nurturing from others to be able to build my business to the level that I have,
and I felt it was important to provide the same inspiration and nurturing to
others and to share the intellectual and spiritual wealth. Also, women,
for the most part, are not socialized to be aggressive or competitive in
business, and is important to challenge the tendency that society has to
condition women and girls to accept roles of passivity.
4) What do you discuss on your
weekly radio show “This is Iyanna Jones?”
On my weekly radio show “This Is Iyanna Jones”, I discuss
all things creative, political and creatively political. My guests are always
people who challenge the status quo and defy containment, which is an important
principle for me.
5) You are a self-proclaimed geek
and lover of all things spacy, fantastic and speculative, especially fiction
and movies. What is your favorite book and movie and why?
My favorite book and movie is Dune by Frank Herbert. I love the idea of humankind expanding our idea of civilization beyond the stars, for better or worse. Frank Herbert managed to blend dystopia with a pervasive sense of hope, fantasy, science, wonder and political commentary in a series that is both a criticism of human failings and a celebration of the endless possibilities that have sprung from our existence.
My favorite book and movie is Dune by Frank Herbert. I love the idea of humankind expanding our idea of civilization beyond the stars, for better or worse. Frank Herbert managed to blend dystopia with a pervasive sense of hope, fantasy, science, wonder and political commentary in a series that is both a criticism of human failings and a celebration of the endless possibilities that have sprung from our existence.
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