Breaking Ground Series continues

Contributed by Lisa Timmel

We’ve been busy and we haven’t been blogging!

Readings, readings, readings!

FIRE ON EARTH

We kicked of this year’s Breaking Ground Reading Series in late August with HPF Patrick Gabridge’s powerful historical drama FIRE ON EARTH which chronicles the struggles of William Tyndale and his friends as they illegally translate the Bible into English.  Recently, Patrick wrote a couple of posts about life as a playwright in Boston on his blog, www.writinglife3.blogspot.com.  Check it out.

LONG SEASON returns!

Right after Labor Day, collaborators Chay Yew and Fabian Obispo headed back to the rehearsal room in New York to rework their epic musical about the lives and loves of Filipino cannery workers in 1920’s Alaska.  They ended up with a really tight structure and some fantastic new songs. 

… next up

MAKING UP THE TRUTH by Jack Hitt

Directed by Jessica Bauman

Friday, September 24^th at 7pm

Calderwood Pavillion at the BCA—Wimberley Theatre

RSVP here:

Jack Hitt tells extravagant, true tales — a yarn about the childhood neighbor who was one of the first men to become a woman, or his apartment super with a deadly secret identity. But, the stories always lead people to ask, did that really happen? The Atlantic Monthly recently called This American Life contributer Jack Hitt "one of America's best storytellers." In his new show, Making Up the Truth, he shares his stories and learns that, of all things, new scientific breakthroughs point to an answer to that question: Do extraordinary things only happen to certain people, or do we all swim unaware in a sea of the uncanny and unbelievable?

Jack Hitt is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and public radio's This American Life.

- Lisa

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Breaking Ground: Unknown Soldier

The Huntington Theatre Company's artistic staff cordially invites you to a Breaking Ground reading of:

UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Book by Daniel Goldstein
Music by Michael Friedman
Lyrics by Daniel Goldstein & Michael Friedman

Featuring: Heidi Blickenstaff, Spencer Moses, Zachary Prince, Jennifer Simard, Erica Spyres and Clark Thorell.

A timeless search for love crosses two generations: an old letter spurs Lucie Rabinowitz to look into her grandmother Lucy's past.  Decades earlier, in the wake of World War I, Lucy seeks her husband, missing in
action.  The searches lead both women to the same lost young man, an unknown soldier.  UNKNOWN SOLDIER was commissioned with support of the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays. 

Sunday, June 13th, 2010 - 5:30 PM
Deane Rehearsal Hall
The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP via Survey Monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2JZX6TH

In Praise of the Actor’s Voice

Where does a writer’s voice come from? Beats the hell out of me. But it’s not terribly uncommon to be able to guess at what other kinds of art a playwright gets up to in the other places of his or her life. Poetry, movies, comic books, and music all leave traces on plays. That is to say, if a playwright also writes comic books, certain tropes and storytelling techniques from that literary form often show up in his plays. And vice versa. There’s nothing better for a playwright who struggles with structure than to spend a few years toiling away on a police procedural type television show. It makes perfect sense that who we are in one area of our creative, work or personal lives bleeds into who we are in other areas.

Huntington Playwrighting Fellow Jacqui Parker is a well-known actor and producer in Boston. Her play Jeanie Don't Sing No Mo’ has been a long time coming. She started it in 2005 and picked it up again to work on when she became a fellow. In reading the drafts, I understood intellectually that the language, the structure of the dialogue, is intended to work in a certain rhythm. But, the story is long, the relationships are complex and I wondered how and if it would really come together as a play. Well, dear reader, you’ll be happy to know that the play came together in the reading in a way that I had not anticipated.

As the cast practically sang their way through the script, I remembered that the writing is informed by an experienced actor’s point of view. The actors, of course, understood it immediately. It is the hardest kind of writing for me to recognize, not having been an actor. Ironically, it is often the kind of writing I find most pleasurable. It was a delight really hearing Jacqui’s voice in this play for the first time.

- Lisa Timmel, Director of New Work

And Now for a Complete Change in Tone: Lydia Diamond and LIZZIE STRANTON

I have a huge girl crush on Lydia Diamond. She is smart, lovely, funny and genuine, and, as we learned during her Breaking Ground reading Tuesday night, she can tell a good dirty joke. It’s like I died and went to dramaturg heaven.

Lydia’s brand spankin’ new comedy, Lizzie Stranton, is a very loose adaptation of the Greek classic, Lysistrata. Now, for those of you who don’t remember your freshman intro to drama class, the original tells the story of a group of Greek women who decide to boycott sex until their men stop the Peloponnesian War. If you haven’t read it, edumacate yourself.

Lizzie Stranton takes place in 2016, and the first lady, a woman who just so happens to resemble the ever girl-crush worthy Michelle Obama, exhorts the women of the world, a group far less repressed/oppressed than the women of ancient Greece to, well, you know.

The great joy of Lydia’s play is its earthy and genial humor. Jokes about sex (and women) are the staple of every slick and cynical stand-up comic (and the movies they make). So this particular mature-themed comedy is notable in how it combines truly filthy jokes without gratuitous exploitation. But fundamentally this play is not about sex; it’s about the long war and the seemingly unanswerable question of how to end it.

The draft we heard read on Tuesday is a fairly early one so there was much to be learned about how the text plays. Afterward, Lydia turned to me and said, “This play needs an instigating event.” Did I mention dramaturg heaven?

-Lisa Timmel, Director of New Work

Form vs. Function, Structure vs. Content and other false dichotomies

More from Director of New Work Lisa Timmel:

Joyce Van Dyke’s Deported/a dream play dramatizes the Armenian Massacre of 1915 and its repercussions on a survivor by drawing on the rich tradition of expressionism in writing that came out of the traumas of the birth of psychology and the horrors of the 20th century. That is a nice little thesis, isn’t it? Is it correct or true? Maybe. Anyone can have a theory about or an opinion on a piece of writing; the crux is what to do with it. I want to write a little bit about the legacy of modernism in theatre with regard to the choices writers have to make in crafting a play.

Modernism very broadly speaking taught us to look at the structure of things as originating from content; that form should follow function. Yesterday, I posted a bit about the function of a reading in terms of new play development. By implication, the content is a bit beside the point. As with most things, it’s more complicated than that. Dramaturgs and directors have spent a lot of time coming up with creative ways of making readings more communicative to an average audience about what the end result would look like (trusting product over process?). Deported/a dream play has been through several readings and workshops recently. Director Judy Braha and the actors have been working with Joyce for about two years developing the piece, which has a stylistically expansive dramaturgy. There are songs; there are dances; there are objects and images of great symbolic importance. None of which I allowed in yesterday’s reading because I had the sense that the text was getting lost in the development process. Did I have any proof? Nope. It was a just a hunch. In any case, I needed to hear the text and I have yet to figure out how to listen to projections.

Ultimately, I believe it’s sometimes important to pay attention to the established structure and ignore the demands of the content as part of a development process. On the one hand, theatre seems like an almost endlessly pliable art form. It truly is whatever you want it to be, from guerrilla street theatre to Broadway. On the other hand, the satisfaction granted by an engaging, disciplined and familiarly drawn narrative is impossible to deny. Herein lies the rub when approaching the content of Joyce’s play. How do you write about a generation of survivors who steadfastly refused or simply did not have the ability to translate their experience into narrative? To tell the story of her ancestors who were shamed into silence about their own horrific experiences, the writer has to find a storytelling form that is neither glib and easy, nor inaccessible to the audience who does not carry this culture memory. How do you tell a story that could not be told until after it had been superseded by ever more efficient atrocities? What is the structure that can allow for the content of this story and when does the style of piece interfere with the substance?

What I love about all those modernist mad men creating new forms of theatre and writing manifestos while Europe burned around them is that they bequeathed to us an almost bottomless bag of tools for storytelling. But a creative life with out boundaries is hard to navigate. Joyce, a fiercely intelligent writer, is clearly up to the task of finding the balance, of synthesizing the competing impulses at play in her current work. I can’t wait to see where she takes us next.

Tonight: Lizzie Stranton by Lydia Diamond.

In Media Res: Random Thoughts on Theatre and New Writing

From Director of New Work Lisa Timmel:

Inherent in making theatre is a tension between process and product, journey and destination. Many theatre practitioners invoke the journey as the most important aspect of creating art. Broadway producers, notoriously, are all about the end product, one that will sell tickets regardless of quality. The truth?

Well let's turn to that old standard, Ecclesiastes: "...God shall judge the righteous and the wicked..." No wait, wrong verse. Here's the one I mean: "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ...a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak..." (If you've never read Ecclesiastes, you should. Now.)

Our Breaking Ground Reading Series is our time for process: a time for casting away wonky scenes and superfluous characters, a time for layering ambiguities, and a time for sewing up loose ends. It is a time for us to re-examine a play by listening instead of reading or seeing. It is just one of many processes a play and its creators go through on the road to production. By hearing it out loud read by other theatre artists, working in collaboration with a director, and feeling how it works with outsiders in the room, the playwrights can learn a lot about how and if this text will function as a production. The reading, which might seem like a "product," is in fact pure process. It informs the next step in the journey.

But for now, for the next three nights, we've invited you to join us in the middle of the journey. You're picking up the story of these plays in media res. And by doing that, by joining us in listening to a new piece of writing, you are becoming a part of the work itself. And good work, as you will learn from reading Ecclesiastes, is a key component of a good life.

Tonight we'll be hearing Deported / a dream play by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Joyce Van Dyke. More on that tomorrow.

For those of you who are joining us this week, please post your thoughts and ideas.

Breaking Ground: "Deported / a dream play" tonight

ArtSake, the MCC's blog, recently posted a great interview with Huntington Playwriting Fellow Joyce Van Dyke, whose play, Deported / a dream play will be read tonight at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA as part of Breaking Ground. Check out the interview and join us tonight at 7pm - RSVP at tickets@huntingtontheatre.org or 617 266-0800. Readings of plays by Lydia R. Diamond and Jacqui Parker are tomorrow and Wednesday, respectively, also at 7pm.

Playwriting often travels a path from solitary labor to deep collaboration with other artists. Playwright Joyce Van Dyke has crossed back and forth between both ways of working - and between improvisation, personal history, and invention - to create Deported / a dream play. Joyce, whose play will be read on Monday, August 3, 7 PM as part of the Huntington Theatre Company Breaking Ground Festival of New Play Readings, spoke with us about the surprising journey of crafting a new work of theatre.

ArtSake: Deported / a dream play grew out of improvisational workshops with a group of actors. Is this the first time you’ve developed material that way? What has surprised you about that experience?

Joyce: I’ve never done anything remotely like this before. There were many, many surprises including how much fun it was to work this way, how eager all the actors and Judy [ed. Judy Braha, the director] were to help create a play (rather than receiving a finished script to interpret), the thrill and relief of feeling that I was not all alone as a writer, that I was sustained by everyone in the group. Because the process was completely new to me, I had no idea what the outcome would be, if it would even yield a play and, if so, would I feel like I’d written it? And that turned out to be another surprise, that the resulting play feels simultaneously like it’s mine and ours.

ArtSake: At the core of the play is a true story, the experiences of your grandmother and her friend during the 1915 Armenian genocide. What have you found to be the major challenges (and rewards) of working with such personally important material?

Joyce: I grew up aware of my grandmother’s and other Armenian relatives’ experiences during the genocide. It was knowledge that I fled from in the sense that for most of my life I avoided learning any more of the history. Writing this play gave me a purpose and perhaps a shield to venture into that territory, as well as the challenge of trying to find the aesthetic form for this overwhelming material. I also began to feel my way into an understanding of my grandmother’s lifelong refusal or inability to speak about what she experienced. To my amazement, partway through the writing of the play I started to feel a sense of happiness, despite the harrowing material, that never left me. There is both sadness and satisfaction in my sense that my relationship to my Armenian grandparents is so much closer now than it was while they were alive. I felt a deep sense of obligation to this material – to tell the truth, to do justice to the characters – impulses that belong to playwriting in general, but that operated in a doubly potent (and sometimes conflicting) way here, both on the historical/non-fictional plane and on the level of the drama. At times I felt my control of the play wrenched away almost physically by the primary material – some of which included the words of my grandmother and her friend, the play’s two main characters. At times during the writing I simply had to yield to the power of that reality. I gave way, and said, I’ll go back and rewrite this, I’ll go back and turn it into a play, but first their story must come out.

ArtSake: Judy Braha, the director of your reading at the Breaking Ground Festival, also directed your play The Oil Thief at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in Fall 2008. How does an ongoing relationship with a director impact the evolution of a new work?

Joyce: Judy’s direction of The Oil Thief came about because I’d already been working with her over a period of about two years developing Deported, which was our first collaboration. So I already knew she was a director who could help me see what my play wanted to be – and I knew there was still work I wanted to do on the script of The Oil Thief. Judy is an unusual combination: very patient, very open (in a way that frees others), and very exacting. With The Oil Thief, she did some of the same things she’d done with Deported: for example, asking me to write what we called a “download” of everything that was swirling in my mind at all levels about the play’s issues, dreams, images, metaphors, characters, etc. Doing this turned out to be very helpful to me in revising both plays, and also in helping me to hold onto their original impulses. In terms of Deported, the collaboration with Judy was intrinsic to the whole process and resulting play. I might well have written a play on my own about the genocide, but it would never have been the play that emerged from our process. For a writer to have an ongoing relationship with a director you can trust completely both personally and artistically – well it has to be a good thing, doesn’t it? We all want to trust, and we all want to work with people we can trust. I think it’s hard to generalize because there’s no recipe – that’s the whole point, everything depends on the quirks of the individuals involved, their shared aesthetic, how they complement each other, the specific ways they talk and work together. For me the experience has been liberating, consoling, encouraging, inspiring and more.

ArtSake: Before turning your energies to playwriting, you taught Shakespeare and poetry, and worked as a speechwriter in D.C. Can you talk about how those “past lives” reverberate in your current work as a playwright?

Joyce: I think the reverberations are very extensive and deep – especially with respect to teaching and Shakespeare – but it’s not easy to put my finger on where and how and why. And it’s not as if I am always drawing on those past experiences in a conscious way. For example, Hamlet ended up becoming a sort of shadow-play that is woven throughout The Oil Thief, but not by design. It’s just that one character in The Oil Thief is an actor, and he needed to be cast in something and I wanted it to be a recognizable role so I made him Claudius in Hamlet. It was a simple decision, I thought. And then very much to my surprise, it was as if I’d opened a gate and Hamlet began flowing into The Oil Thief to an almost alarming extent to me. Right now I’m starting to work on a new play about a production of Othello. But it’s not as if I am trying to base my plays on Shakespeare’s or anything like that. The Othello story interests me because it’s about a real historic production of the play, and it’s a backstage story – which is always fascinating – although this particular situation also has big cultural and political ramifications. The fact that I also get to be immersed in a Shakespeare play that I love is part of the personal pleasure of working on this project. A lot of what I am conscious of in terms of reverberations has to do with technical and structural things or ways of thinking about character or the use of language. Or attitudes toward the audience. I think the audience is a brilliant organism, and I think I derived that sense from Shakespeare. As for the time I spent writing in D.C. – it’s a reservoir I’d like to draw on, but haven’t yet. I’ve had quite a few Washington characters and themes that at first loomed large and then were pruned out of plays I’ve written. I’d like to center a play in D.C. In America hardly anyone writes plays (at least that that I’m aware of) about the people who run the government. Isn’t that strange? Why do we not write about the center of power in politics, and also in corporate life?

ArtSake: What’s next for you?

Joyce: I’ve just finished revising Deported / a dream play for the Breaking Ground reading at the Huntington on August 3 which I’m excited about. Hearing this newest version of the play along with an audience will give me a feeling for the whole – which you can only get with an audience’s contribution – the rhythms, proportions, sense of flow, and anything about the storytelling that needs work. I’m sure I’ll be making further revisions based on what I discover from the Breaking Ground reading. I’m also working on a couple of new plays, including the Othello play. And then there’s always the work of trying to get productions.

Joyce Van Dyke received the 2009 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script for The Oil Thief, which was commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloane Foundation Science and Technology Project, and received its premiere in 2008 at the Boston Playwright’s Theatre. Her play A Girl’s War premiered at New Repertory Theatre in 2003. Joyce is a Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and her play Deported / a dream play will be read on Monday, August 3, 7 PM, at the Carol Deane Rehearsal Hall, Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts as part of the Huntington Theatre Breaking Ground Festival of New Play Readings.

Breaking Ground 2009

The 6th annual Breaking Ground Festival of New Play Readings brings brand new plays (including a new musical) to Boston audiences over the course of five days in the summer. These new works come from playwrights both local and beyond, and each reading is conveniently located at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. Over the last five years, Breaking Ground plays have appeared on Huntington stages, and at theatres across the country, and internationally. This program that brings exciting national writers into partnership with the Huntington and promotes the work of local playwrights to the larger community.

July 24, August 3-5, 2009

Read More Here


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Blogging Breaking Ground: Next Year?

Lauren sent in the following today:

Written Sunday Night…

I'm sad to report that the festival is now all but over, as we are headed to Picco for our 2008 Post-Breaking Ground Festival. It's been a wonderful 5th anniversary and many thanks to all the incredible staff members, cast members, playwrights, directors and other administrators who made it possible.

Thanks so much to Todd Williams for allowing me to serve as the Breaking Ground guest-gabber this week on the Huntington Theatre Company blog. It's been great fun!

All best to you, dear blog readers.

I better see you all next year at BG09 !!

Lauren

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Five

It is already our final day of Breaking Ground! Thus far we have had 33 hours of rehearsals in three different rooms with 27 actors, 4 directors, 1 music director and 5 playwrights/librettists/composers. We have had eager audiences stick around after readings for four post-play discussions, made dozens of copies of rewrites and new drafts and welcomed scores of new play fans to the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston’s South End.

For the final reading of BG 08, we’ll be hearing the latest from Boston-based playwright/actress Melinda Lopez read tonight. Having helmed the recent world premiere of Gary at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, director M. Bevin O'Gara again teams up with Lopez for this first public reading of Caroline in Jersey. Caroline was born out of a commission from a company on the other side of the country (South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, CA, to be exact) and will delight the East coast this evening with a cast of incredible actors (Becky Ann Baker, Will Lebow, David Beach, Karen MacDonald and Libby Woodbridge).

Prepare for this evening’s reading a bit by checking this out.


********

Emergency update!

Breaking Ground is nothing if not exciting. Midway through the rehearsal today, Will Lebow fell ill and had to be replaced! The well-oiled machine of BG went into immediate effect. Casting Director Justin Waldman happened to be watching The Cry of the Reed, so the House Manager Katie Most found him and asked him to meet HTC Literary Manager Ilana Brownstein in the lobby. Five minutes later, we had a substitute: thank you Jerry Kissel! Jerry left his house so quickly he forgot his reading glasses, so Festival Associate Brett Marks ran to CVS to buy a pair. Within about an hour and fifteen minutes of Will falling ill, we were back up to a full complement of actors in the rehearsal hall.

Ilana Brownstein adds: “Thanks to everyone for amazingly quick triage!”

Get better soon, Will.

********
Later!
L

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Five

Mini-update…

Tonight’s reading of Nathan Louis Jackson’s Broke-ology was especially exciting, as it was the beginning of Mr. Jackson’s storm of Massachusetts! As you know, Jackson’s play was read tonight in Boston and, as you might not know, it will receive its world premiere production this summer just west of the city. It was recently announced that Jackson’s play will be produced this July as a part of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 54th season.

Massachusetts state bird? Chickadee.
Massachusetts state insect? Ladybug.
Massachusetts state bean? Baked navy bean.
Massachusetts state playwright of the season? Nathan Louis Jackson.

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Five

Ok.. I wrote this earlier, but I’m only posting now.. Sorry!!

We're again juggling two casts today and are thrilled to have so much going on here at the Calderwood Pavilion! Mat Smart's Thomas Repair is having spacing rehearsal (it’s like a mini-tech) in the Deane Rehearsal Hall before their 2pm performance, while Nathan Louis Jackson's Broke-ology will rehearsing this afternoon before their reading this evening. After talking to Evan Cabnet last night about my previous post regarding the Six Degrees of Breaking Ground, he added to my list of connections between readings -- noting that Ken Urban originally began Sense of an Ending while at Soho Rep for a director/playwright series that also included Mat Smart. The world gets smaller and smaller.

After these long days of rehearsals, readings and discussions, Breaking Ground cast and crew head to area watering holes. So far, we've hit the Red Fez and Coda (Brickhouse had a line and I've heard rumors that Delux was so crowded last night that the waitress had to exit out of the front door to get around to the back door/kitchen). It's a great time for discussion (both of the readings and aforementioned Kevin-Bacon-style connections). So now you know where we go after the readings.

ALSO…

Here is an incredibly brief glimpse of just a few of the productions Breaking Ground plays have received (Festival Producer Ilana Brownstein shared this exciting overview at a Development event earlier this week.) Consider it a sampling:

Etan Frankel’s Create Fate (BG05)
Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2005

David Marshall Grant’s Pen (BG05)
Playwrights’ Horizons, 2006
Guthrie Theater in 2007

David Rambo’s The Ice-Breaker (BG04)
New Repertory Theater, 2006
Laguna Playhouse, 2007
Magic Theatre, 2006

Huntington Playwriting Fellow John Kuntz’s Jasper Lake (BG04)
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 2004

Huntington Playwriting Fellow Melinda Lopez’s Alexandros (BG01-02)
Laguna Playhouse, 2008

The following Breaking Ground plays have appeared on HTC stages:
Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez: BG04, produced 2004
Carol Mulroney by Stephen Belber: BG03, produced 2005
The Hopper Collection by Mat Smart: BG05, produced 2006
Persephone by Noah Haidle: BG06, produced 2007
Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck: BG06, produced 2006 (Broadway 2007!)
The Atheist by Ronan Noone: BG06, produced 2007
Brendan by Ronan Noone: BG05, produced 2007
The Cry of the Reed by Sinan Unel: BG07, ON STAGE NOW AT THE WIMBERLY!

Great track record, right?

Ok, now it’s time to catch a swift bite to eat, then prep for tonight’s reading of Broke-ology.

Later!
-L

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Four - Six Degrees of Breaking Ground

Hi all--

We are in full-swing here at Breaking Ground 2008. As I type, both Ken Urban's SENSE OF AN ENDING and Mat Smart's THOMAS REPAIR are in rehearsal, with both casts hoping to catch a simultaneous break to see friends in the other room. The world of the theatre is very small. Let me illustrate for you...

• Ken Urban is a current Huntington Playwriting Fellow (HPF) and has been working on SENSE OF AN ENDING in HPF group meetings, which include fellow Fellow Jacqui Parker, who is playing Sister Justina in the reading of his play this evening.
• Jacqui was in the HTC production of BREATH, BOOM, directed by Michael John Garcés, with her fellow SENSE cast member Chinasa Ogbuagu.
• Chinasa and Jacqui were joined in that 2003 production of Kia Corthron's play about a Bronx girl gang by Zabryna Guevara, who will be reading the role of Sam in Mat Smart's THOMAS REPAIR tomorrow afternoon.
• Zabryna appeared in HTC's 2006 production of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST with fellow THOMAS REPAIR cast member Noah Bean, and with SENSE OF AN ENDING's James Fouhey.
• Noah is a 2000 graduate of Boston University's College of Fine Arts (CFA); James is a current BU senior; and Chinasa graduated from CFA in 2003.
• Not only did the 2005-2006 Huntington season include LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, but it also included the a production of Mat Smart's THE HOPPER COLLECTION on the Boston University stage.
• Evan Cabnet, director of SENSE OF AN ENDING, has previously directed Mat Smart's work.
• Evan also recently worked on a production of SHIPWRECKED! AN ENTERTAINMENT at Long Wharf Theatre, where THOMAS REPAIR director Melia Bensussen has helmed several productions.
• Melia has directed for Hartford Stage, where THOMAS actor Keith Randolph Smith has performed (TARTUFFE in 1992, Google says).
• Keith has appeared on "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: SVU," as has THOMAS actor Lisa Joyce.
• Actually, so has Chinasa.
• Like Keith, SENSE's Ato Essandoh and Gilbert Owuor have performed at the Public Theater in New York (Ato in MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN and Gilbert in the recent production of THE BROTHERS SIZE).
• (FYI: Ato recently appeared in STREAMERS at the Huntington... and has also been on Law & Order.)
• Gilbert has previously performed in Boston with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, as has his fellow SENSE cast member Johnny Lee Davenport, who has worked at Watertown's New Repertory Theatre, like THOMAS REPAIR's Maureen Keiller.

So you see, it's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon -- I mean, Breaking Ground -- around here.

Later!

-L

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Four-- Check this out!

Here's an awesome interview with Breaking Ground Festival producer, Literary Manager Ilana Brownstein, on the Arts Fuse blog.

Check it out.

L

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Four

As you already know, Breaking Ground is a weekend full of rehearsals, rewrites and readings. For all these readings, we need lots o'actors, which means a lot of work for the company manager -- the great unsung hero of every theatre company. What exactly does a company manager do, you ask? Well, I had an e-interview with Teresa Gozzo, our hero-in-residence, to get a rundown on what BG2008 is like in her office.

L: You have over 30 actors converging on the Huntington this week for Breaking Ground readings alone, and the Huntington's production of SHE LOVES ME is right around the corner. This must be a particularly hectic time for you! What are your days like with so much going on?

T: You're right -- it is a hectic time! Anna Fisher, our Management Assistant, and I are spending a lot of our time calling actors and talking to them about their upcoming trips to the Huntington. We also spend a good chunk of the day on Amtrak's website, booking trains between NY and Boston and back again. When we're not trying to get ahold of actors, we check in with the casts of SHINING CITY and THE CRY OF THE REED to make sure they're holding up ok.

L: So how does your job differ as you work on these readings vs. Huntington productions?

T: When we're working on the Breaking Ground readings, actors,directors, and playwrights are typically only with us a day or two.They usually stay in a hotel instead of the Huntington's block of apartments on Bay State Road (especially this year, since those apartments are full of actors from the two shows currently in production). It's convenient because they can check into the hotel on their own, whereas when we house artists in apartments, a Huntington representative has to meet them at the train station or airport, give them keys, and take them to Bay State Road. With so many artists in for the Festival, we don't have the manpower.

L: For those blog readers who have never heard of a company manager, what does you job usually entail?

T: In a nutshell, I'm responsible for arranging transportation and housing for all visiting artists, as well as being a general resource for them once they're here. If someone needs to go to the doctor, wants to know about things to do in Boston during their free time, or has any kind of emergency (and I do mean *any* kind), they come to me. I help them to feel at home as best I can, since actors can spend months at a time jumping from project to project. It's a crazy job, but I have a lot of fun.

[L: And it shows! I'm really impressed with the way Teresa runs this show, with a smile on her face the whole time. You can really tell she's having a great time, so I had to ask her...]

L: What's your favorite part of your job? What's your least favorite?

T: The first question is easy. I really enjoy getting to know so many different people. My least favorite part would probably be getting a late night phone call from someone who has locked themselves out of their apartment... or worse, forgotten where they live.

L: What's your least favorite question, that you get asked on a regular basis?

T: "My best friend/brother/second grade teacher is coming to the performance tonight. From out of town. I know it starts in 20 minutes, but can I get three comps? To a sold out show?"

L: Ok Teresa. Fill in the blanks. (Teresa's additions are in all caps.)

1. A typical work day for me includes BURNING UP A LOT OF CELL PHONE MINUTES.

2. I start my morning by CHECKING MY EMAIL....BEFORE I'VE EVEN GOTTEN TO WORK.

3. I really can't live without ANNA (Management Assistant and Huntington rock star).

[L: Anna, there's your job security.]

4. A good company manager should never TELL SECRETS.

[L: We're trying to figure out how much Teresa could make by publishing her memoirs. Any guesses? Would she be all set for retirement? Send in your guesses and/or bids!]

5. Never leave home without your COMPANY MANAGEMENT CELL PHONE.

6. My company manager mantra is, "TWO MONTHS AT A TIME."

Thanks to Teresa for guest-starring in this blog entry. Your answers are great and I hope our readers enjoyed learning about yet another part of all the work that goes into the festival and all the incredible staff that make it happen..

Later!

-L

Blogging Breaking Ground: More from Day Two

Today is our second afternoon of rehearsal for UNKNOWN SOLDIER with the whole creative team here at the Calderwood Pavilion in the Deane Rehearsal Hall. Before Thursday evening's reading of Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein's new musical, the cast will have spent a total of approximately 18 hours in rehearsal. This is time to be spent learning and working music, on the discussion of characters and structure, sometimes figuring out rewrites/refinements, and discovering opportunities for further development of the piece before it's shared with an audience tomorrow night. In addition to all these points on their rehearsal to-do list, they are also trying to figure out the simple logistics of how actors will navigate the space in performance on Thursday night (when actors are to move to their places for scenes and songs, who stands where, etc).

For all the other readings, all of above has to occur in even less time -- 5 hours to be exact. It's quite a whirlwind, and it's what makes Breaking Ground so very exciting (and possible!) as 5 readings take place this year over only 4 days, during which I will surely continue humming the songs of UNKNOWN SOLDIER I've heard over the past two days ("Cut that meat!")

Speaking of the songs, the lyrics are proving to be quite a riot. If you make it to the reading tomorrow night, be prepared for some slightly, um, adult-themed songs. They are AMAZING.

(PS: It turns out that Maria wasn't the only one involved in UNKNOWN SOLDIER who was called away unexpectedly. Near the end of rehearsal, co-creator Michael Friedman found out he was needed later this evening in NYC for a last-minute adjustment to current project in production. He'll be back tomorrow, but it looks like Michael is going to spending a lot of time on Amtrak in the meantime. Now that we have his car keys, I wonder what kind mischief we can get into?)

Mwa ha ha ha..

Lauren

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day Two

Hi all!

Yesterday was a wildly productive day. UNKNOWN SOLDIER Musical Director, Steven Malone, worked through all the music with the cast, many of whom were wielding digital recorders to get samples of all they have to learn by Thursday night. Doing a reading of a musical seems an awful lot like actor/singer bootcamp. They sang all day yesterday, are sure to review everything today, and then jump right into textwork with their director, Will Frears, and creators Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein. They have a couple hours tomorrow to finish-up and then they'll perform for all of you on Thursday night. Whew.

As a former intern at HTC, and after having worked in similiar capacities at a handful of other theaters, I know, first-hand, the adventures of interning. Today holds such excitement for Faye Stone Intern (and recent BU grad, fabulous actor, and all-around nice guy) Jared Craig. Here's the story: Maria Thayer, the accomplished actress playing Lucy LeMay in UNKNOWN SOLDIER, was called back on short notice to return to the set of her latest film project. She'll be in D.C. for the day, then return for Thursday's rehearsal and reading. This is part of the excitement of bringing in exceptionally talented actors from out of town -- they're always in demand!

[Note for all you Amy Sedaris fans: Ms. Thayer played Tammi Littlenut in the STRANGERS WITH CANDY film of 2005. See you at the reading on Thursday night.]

So, what is the point of this reflection on the intern experience, Jared Craig, and Tammi Littlenut, you ask?

We're out an actress today, so Jared is stepping in to read her part during rehearsal. (It's been an exciting few months for Jared -- he recently played Lucius, the deaf mute boy in ART's production of Julius Caesar.)

Hey Maria... watch out!

More soon--

Lauren

This week only

Hi folks -

We have 7 plays for you to see this week - 6 of which run this week only!

Shining City closes on Sunday. Click here to buy tickets.

Breaking Ground runs Thursday through Sunday. Five plays in four days. Click here for more info. Please call the Box Office at 617 266-0800 to reserve your seats, or send your reservation request to tickets@huntingtontheatre.org. Please note that seating is limited and reservations are strongly recommended. Admission is free - recommended donation is $10.

This nationally-recognized new play festival provides development opportunities to writers at all stages of their careers, and invites Boston audiences to experience the excitement of new work from the ground-up. This year, Breaking Ground features two Huntington commissions, two plays by Huntington Playwriting Fellows (including local favorite Melinda Lopez), and a new work by a young Juilliard writer whose play goes to Williamstown this summer.

Breaking Ground also features work by accomplished directors and actors from Boston and beyond. This year, see actors from previous Huntington productions like "Sonia Flew," "Love's Labour's Lost," "Breath, Boom," and "Streamers" (among others), as well as from the critically acclaimed New York theatre company The Civilians, HBO's "The Wire," and local favorites like Will Lebow, Jacqui Parker, and Karen MacDonald (among many others).

I welcome Breaking Ground Festival's Lauren Ignaut to the blog. She will be posting here all week about the behind the scenes activities. Be sure to comment and send in your questions!

The Cry of the Reed is now up and running. Click here to buy tickets.

Playgoers 35 and under can get best available tickets for only $25. Click here for info

Blogging Breaking Ground: Day One

Greetings!

My name is Lauren and I'll be your HTC blogger for the next week. Having spent two years interning with the artistic department here at the Huntington (and working on the Breaking Ground Festivals of '06 and '07), I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to return Boston to work on BG2008 as a Festival Producing Associate. I now live in Minneapolis and work at the Guthrie.

[Note: Apparently, the land of 10,000 lakes wins the cantilever-showdown architect Jean Nouvel started between our states -- see here. Also, in Minneapolis, not only do we have the most theater seats per capita (second only to New York), but we also carve our dairy industry princesses out of 40 lb. blocks of butter. Yes, you read right.]

I'll be reporting from the Calderwood Pavilion this week, both from inside the rehearsal room and readings. Get ready for the breaking news on Breaking Ground, courtesy of yours truly. Interested in more details on Breaking Ground events? Visit the BG2008 page on the HTC website, here.

The latest: We're in music rehearsal for Thursday night's reading on UNKNOWN SOLDIER. We have an incredible cast that includes Maria Thayer, Sara Saltzberg, Stephen Plunkett, Damian Baldet, Kate deLima, Aimee Doherty, Curly Glynn, Charlie Pollock and Brendan McNab . The musical, by Daniel Goldstein and Michael Friedman, sounds wonderful so far and it includes some quite interesting and amazing lyrics.... Be here on Thursday night for the fun.

Stay tuned for updates sometime soon.

Lauren

Breaking Ground 2008

The press release with full details should be out any day - but here are some of the details of this year's 5th Anniversary Breaking Ground Festival at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts - April 3-6, 2008. Hope to see you there!

THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 7:30p

Unknown Soldier

Music and Lyrics by Michael Friedman, Book and Lyrics by Daniel Goldstein

Directed by Will Frears

This epistolary chamber musical’s intimacy beautifully conveys the tale of WWI-era lovers separated by time and space. When a modern-era woman discovers their letters, the past becomes present as she enlists the help of a researcher far away, and their correspondence begins to mirror that of previous generations. Unknown Soldier is the result of a commission from the Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.

FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 8p

Sense of an Ending

By Ken Urban

Directed by Evan Cabnet

An African-American journalist arrives in the land of his ancestors to uncover dark truths about an act of genocide. The trip becomes something more troubling, however, when he finds he may be part of the story. After he meets a survivor, the journalist struggles to understand the nature of man's inhumanity, and to find the path that returns us to the best versions of ourselves. Ken Urban is a current Huntington Playwriting Fellow.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2p

Thomas Repair

By Mat Smart

Directed by Melia Bensussen

A family crisis ensues when a mysterious girl appears in Jacob Thomas’ quirky repair shop. She’s blue – literally and figuratively – and as she attempts to “come clean,” the relationships around her are thrown into chaos. Things left unsaid begin to fester and rot, and she proves she might be the only one who knows how to fix what’s long been broken. Thomas Repair is the result of a commission from the Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 8p

Broke-ology

By Nathan Jackson

Directed by Amanda Charlton

In this family serio-comedy, the sons of an African-American family are torn between familial obligations and the dreams they’ve established for themselves. With dashed hopes for higher education, an ailing patriarch who sees his dead wife, and the mounting expenses of a new baby, the boys help each other face the major decisions of their lives. Together they just may discover a new definition of what it means to be a family.

SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 7p

Caroline in Jersey

By Melinda Lopez

Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara

Things aren’t looking so great for Caroline. Her husband has left her for a younger woman, she’s about to be thrown out of her sublet in New Jersey, her landlady thinks she’s crazy… and the spirit of Arthur Miller’s accountant lives in her refrigerator. Thrown into this mystery, Caroline must discover the truth about her haunting (and herself) to help to heal a broken family across two planes of existence. Melinda Lopez is a 2003-2005 Huntington Playwriting Fellow; Caroline in Jersey is the result of a commission from South Coast Repertory Theatre.