Kennedy Center Day 1
The Kennedy Center Day 1
Today was my first full day in Washington D.C. where I am working as a Directing Fellow for the Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop. It's an exciting environment, with 8 directors, 8 playwrights and 8 dramaturgs from all over the country. And two other fellows, one of whom graduated from Columbia in 06, the other of whom is graduating from Clemson this summer.
I spent today at two rehearsals, the Many Means of Mother Mennie, by Dan LeFranc, and the Toymaker's War by Jennifer Fawcett. I think both plays are fantastic, although in completely different stages of life. One of them is 240 pages of ideas and Brecht and David Lynch and sex and gender and class and an abstract concept of war and Southern California in the mid-90s, the other is a powerful two act play about Bosnia and a young journalist's experience and effect there. I don't like that description at all, because when I hear "play about a journalist in x war zone" i immediately flinch. However, this play deals with the issues so well- we neither make the journalist the hero nor the villain, and she's not impossible to sympathize with like Maryka. We also see the real world, 13 years later, which allows us to step out of the Bosnian world, something that I think is really important (alienation, anyone?) And the doll world... I think it's the surreal/magical elements of both plays that endears me to them, far more even than their subject matter, even though that is what initially draws me to them.
The director of Mother Mennie, Chris Smith is a fascinating Bay Area director that I really hope to keep in touch with beyond this week. I will also be working with Madeleine Oldham (the literary manager at Berkeley Rep) at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in a couple weeks, as well as on Mother Mennie.
They were just read-throughs today, but the discussions were fascinating, and I'm sad that I can't be a part of the entirety of all of them, although I will see Mother Mennie through to the end, since its last day is tomorrow. And I'll be back with Toymaker's War on Wednesday.
I met Adrienne Thompson, one of the associate directors at the festival who saw Goliath and loved it- I need to make sure I keep in touch with her. Also the dramaturg on Peacock Men, Faedra Chatard Carpenter, got her Phd from Stanford only a couple years before I left. :-) And Kim Rosenstock, one of the playwrights, produced the Ars Nova Wikipedia Plays (one of which I was in/organized interns for) last summer. The world only gets smaller...
Play to look up: The Monument by Colleen Wagner.
On that note I need to crash because I have coffee at 8, but I would also like to mention that I have become the expert at getting the internet to work on macs. I can explain it in theory to people with PCs... It was definitely worth the hassle of figuring it out, besides just getting it to work, to have people appreciate my help. :-)
Goodnight!
Today was my first full day in Washington D.C. where I am working as a Directing Fellow for the Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop. It's an exciting environment, with 8 directors, 8 playwrights and 8 dramaturgs from all over the country. And two other fellows, one of whom graduated from Columbia in 06, the other of whom is graduating from Clemson this summer.
I spent today at two rehearsals, the Many Means of Mother Mennie, by Dan LeFranc, and the Toymaker's War by Jennifer Fawcett. I think both plays are fantastic, although in completely different stages of life. One of them is 240 pages of ideas and Brecht and David Lynch and sex and gender and class and an abstract concept of war and Southern California in the mid-90s, the other is a powerful two act play about Bosnia and a young journalist's experience and effect there. I don't like that description at all, because when I hear "play about a journalist in x war zone" i immediately flinch. However, this play deals with the issues so well- we neither make the journalist the hero nor the villain, and she's not impossible to sympathize with like Maryka. We also see the real world, 13 years later, which allows us to step out of the Bosnian world, something that I think is really important (alienation, anyone?) And the doll world... I think it's the surreal/magical elements of both plays that endears me to them, far more even than their subject matter, even though that is what initially draws me to them.
The director of Mother Mennie, Chris Smith is a fascinating Bay Area director that I really hope to keep in touch with beyond this week. I will also be working with Madeleine Oldham (the literary manager at Berkeley Rep) at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in a couple weeks, as well as on Mother Mennie.
They were just read-throughs today, but the discussions were fascinating, and I'm sad that I can't be a part of the entirety of all of them, although I will see Mother Mennie through to the end, since its last day is tomorrow. And I'll be back with Toymaker's War on Wednesday.
I met Adrienne Thompson, one of the associate directors at the festival who saw Goliath and loved it- I need to make sure I keep in touch with her. Also the dramaturg on Peacock Men, Faedra Chatard Carpenter, got her Phd from Stanford only a couple years before I left. :-) And Kim Rosenstock, one of the playwrights, produced the Ars Nova Wikipedia Plays (one of which I was in/organized interns for) last summer. The world only gets smaller...
Play to look up: The Monument by Colleen Wagner.
On that note I need to crash because I have coffee at 8, but I would also like to mention that I have become the expert at getting the internet to work on macs. I can explain it in theory to people with PCs... It was definitely worth the hassle of figuring it out, besides just getting it to work, to have people appreciate my help. :-)
Goodnight!