Trieschmann finds inspiration in his home state

Werner Trieschmann

Alum Werner Trieschmann and I have a connection beyond BPT – I went to middle school and high school with two of his cousins (one of whom is Catherine Trieschmann, an esteemed dramatist in her own right) in Athens, Georgia. I am delighted to have connected with him in this way, and have the opportunity to learn a little about his latest play!


Tell us a little bit about Disfarmer.
It’s a play that began as a commission from a new and exciting company, TheatreSquared, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They were looking for plays about an Arkansas subject for their first New Play Festival. Disfarmer was a portrait photographer who worked through the Great Depression and World War II in Heber Springs, a relatively small town. Disfarmer died an obscurity but years later his work was discovered and he’s now considered one of the finest photographers this country has produced. Disfarmer’s story is fascinating on many levels. Perhaps the most intriguing part is that he changed his name from Mike Meyer to Disfarmer and put forth the story that he was picked up by a tornado when he was a baby and dropped on the doorstep of the Meyer family. 
 
Now there’s a real Southern tale! Did he ever offer any explanation of why he did that?
Not that I have read or heard. The assumption offered by most people writing about Disfarmer was it was his way to distance himself from his farming roots and identify himself as an artist. I like to consider him an early and much more daring version of Lady Gaga.

Dohrn's 'Outside People' set for world premiere Off-Broadway

Alum Zayd Dohrn’s play Outside People will receive its world premiere – a co-production of the Vineyard Theatre and Naked Angels – at the Vineyard Theatre, starting in December 2011. The play was developed in Naked Angels’ ‘Angels in Progress’ series, and the production will be directed by Evan Cabnet.

Synopsis from the Naked Angels Web site: A dark, comic look at China-U.S. relations – economic, political, and sexual. In modern-day Beijing, a young American guy falls for a Chinese girl and then struggles to understand where she’s coming from. A play about loneliness, culture-shock, language, and trying to make connections across borders.

For more information, visit www.vineyardtheatre.org or www.nakedangels.com.

Summer Blog Series: New Boston Companies To Make Playwrights Swoon #3

MuseForge Theatre Collaborative: A Must-See, Must-Know!

Learn more about this exciting new venture HERE

And they also have a blog. Check it out here.

What’s on your summer reading list, BPT? (part two)

A few weeks ago, we asked BPTers to share the titles on their night stands with us. Here's part two of the official BPT summer reading list...

Masha Obolensky

I am looking forward to reading Laura Harrington's new book Alice Bliss (http://www.lauraharringtonbooks.com/alice-bliss/), and then I will hopefully finally get around to read Patti Smith's Just Kids. And if I am really ambitious (which is unlikely considering the overwhelming desire I now have to sleep all the time) I will read: Middlemarch (Eliot), Freedom (Franzen), Cleopatra (Schiffer), and Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story.

One of my jobs involves doing research on hope and optimism for an author -- so I will be reading books by Martin Seligman and the like (including Learned Optimism).

Marc Olivere

Summertime and some parts of the winter are the only periods when I can get caught up on my reading list. This summer my list includes An Object of Beauty, by Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin, the comedian. It’s his second novel, I believe. A tale involving the art collectors and auction houses in NYC, and a fast, somewhat loose, but no less aggressive woman’s rise to the top of that industry. It started out slow, but quickly picked up steam and became quite compelling. He’s really a fine author.

After that, I’m now into Richard Russo’s book The Risk Pool, a coming of age story set in mid nineteenth century, somewhat autobiographical in nature. He wrote it back in the eighties. It’s part of my quest to read everything he’s written.

Beyond that, I’m looking forward to Phillip Roth’s Nemesis, a must-read-everything-the-author-has-written thing. The same applies for TC Boyle, When the Killing’s Done. And there are two new writers for me to check out: David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, in honor of his passing. And Rikki Ducornet’s Netsuke. Don’t know anything about her except she’s the Rikki in Steely Dan’s “Rikki don’t lose that Number,” but it sounds like an interesting book.

Hopefully, I’ll get it all in before mid-August when I start up work again.

Can I just say THANK YOU?!

I’m seriously loving that more and more organizations are making video of conference sessions easily available online, like the Dramatists Guild (via Newplay TV) did last month. Theatre Communications Group sent out a press release last week, outlining the contents of its online archive of video from its annual conference, held in Los Angeles in June. (This year’s TCG event was record-breaking attendance-wise, and kicked off the organization’s 50th anniversary…and Beantown will host TCG next year, so tune in and take notes, people!) Playwrights' Commons posted several wrap-ups of the recent conference of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas on its blog, as well as its #LMDA11 tweet stream.

These organizations (and others, of course) offer theatre artists support – legal advice, advocacy, grants, fellowships, publications – on so many different levels that it seems almost endless, and this is one more way they’re looking out for us. So, thanks DG and PwritesCom! Thanks TCG, for putting these archives at the fingertips of folks who perhaps couldn’t afford to attend; for making them available to those who did attend, and who want to share their favorite sessions with friends and followers; and for granting access to the many of us who simply fight the daily battle of the over-scheduled life and can’t be everywhere all at once.

It’s wonderful to know this information is online for everyone. Now I just need the time to watch, read, and process it all!  ;)

Summer Blog Series: New Boston Companies To Make Playwrights Swoon #2

Our mission is pretty simple here at Argos Productions. We’re in the business of producing new work.

Our style is to work with playwrights with an end goal in mind. Whether that be a production, promotion of the work to other companies, or even just enough development to get a new draft or a reading together, we don’t take on new projects without first looking down the line. There is no endless development, no promises of a production “if you fix this and this and this…” Frankly, we don’t feel that works for us.

We like getting the playwrights involved in the process. Since theatre is a three-dimensional art form, it can’t hurt to have the playwright see first-hand what goes on behind the scenes, and playwrights are a fun bunch! It’s great to have you all in the room, interacting and collaborating with the other artists participating in the work. It adds value to the production side of things, having a playwright in the room, and it also gives playwrights the opportunity to see first-hand how actors breathe life into the play.

Diamond's 'Stick Fly' Broadway-bound!

BPT alum (and CFA professor) Lydia Diamond's play Stick Fly will open on Broadway this fall! CONGRATULATIONS, Lydia! Wow!

From the press release:
Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys with Reuben Cannon & Nelle Nugent are proud to announce the Broadway premiere of Stick Fly, the critically-acclaimed American play by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon, opening on Broadway on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at the Lyceum Theatre (149 W. 45th Street). Performances begin Friday, November 18, 2011. Tickets are now on sale through Telecharge.com.

Stick Fly follows the LeVays, an affluent African American family who come together to spend a summer weekend at their Martha’s Vineyard home. The adult sons, aspiring novelist Kent and golden boy plastic surgeon Flip, have each brought their respective ladies (one Black and one White) to meet the parents. Food, drink and Trivial Pursuit tangle with class, race and identity politics in this contemporary comedy of manners.

McGough’s ‘Priscilla’ premieres at Capital Fringe…

…and gets a five-star review, too! Way to go, Walt!

About Priscilla Dreams the Answer

Priscilla is lost, so she spends her days (and nights) searching for the answers. The aliens who call her collect at 3am need those answers, too. Aided in varying degrees by Harri - a war veteran who's either senile or immortal - and Simon - a game show champion who always seems to know the answer - they're out to save the universe. Produced by Nu Sass Productions, with Lighting by Sarah Tunderman, Costumes by Christine McAlpine, Set by Betsy Haibel, and Sound by Ben Russo, under the Direction of Emily Todd, this world premiere production by Walt McGough will answer all of life's questions.

Summer Blog Series: New Boston Companies To Make Playwrights Swoon #1

Hello Boston,

We don’t know if you’ve heard, but Playwrights’ Commons has launched! As a playwright development organization, our mission is to strengthen the local theatre ecology through workshops, fiscal support, and innovative collaborative opportunities. We love New England, and we love our artists; we aim to be that really great friend who somehow manages to offer dead-on advice and knows when to buy you a strong drink. 

We’re ramping up steadily over the next few months, so be on the look-out for upcoming programs like the Donut Hole lab (if you’re feeling like you’re somewhere between “emerging” and “established,” this lab might be for you); workshops on how to build one’s artistic brand, and on using new social media platforms; and master classes with talented theatre leaders from near and far. A recent poll of local playwrights revealed a strong desire for programs that help individual artists make stronger, more useful connections to the field and to producing organizations – we’re working on developing a series to address these concerns.

Shouldn’t these people be wearing capes or something?

L-R:  Scott Edmiston*, Jeff Poulos*, Kate Snodgrass*, Brad Peloquin and Jack Welch*  Photo: Cheryl Singleton

Past StageSource Theatre Heroes* (including BPT wonder woman Kate Snodgrass, who was honored in 2001) helped celebrate this year’s honoree Jeff Poulos at the Hall of Justice…I mean at the Hero Bash at Club Oberon last week. Congrats, Jeff -- you're a super friend to Boston's theatre community!

Bauer headed to Sewanee

Bauer

Alum Monica Bauer has been selected for this summer’s Sewanee Writers' Conference.

The conference is hosted by the University of the South, and supported by the Walter E. Dakin Memorial Fund established through the estate of the late Tennessee Williams. Each year, a group of accomplished writers, critics, agents, and other visitors take part.

Read more about this prestigious conference here.

Congrats, Monica!