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Showing posts with label john shea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john shea. Show all posts
Friday, October 4, 2013
It Came From Rhombus!
Hear scenes from some of the plays Rhombus playwrights' group has developed over the past ten years in the anniversary extravaganza It Came From Rhombus! The evening will include readings of work by past and present Rhombus members, which is a roster of BPT and BTM alums. Proceeds from the event will benefit Rhombus' creative home -- Boston Playwrights' Theatre!
Monday, October 7, 7 p.m.
Facebook event here
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Alumni news, in brief:
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| Demonio at Clybourne Park |
The CFA’s
production of John Shea’s Erin Go
Bragh-less has been honored by KCACTF as a Distinguished Production of a
New Work; director Hondo Weiss-Richmond was recognized as a Distinguished
Director of A New Play; and the cast and crew were honored as a Distinguished
Performance and Production Ensemble…
Michael
Parsons’ one-act The Lighthouse is a
finalist for KCACTF’s John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short play…
Don’t miss
Company One’s XXPlayLab Festival this
weekend, featuring discussion panels and readings of new work by Lydia Diamond and BPT friends
Kirsten Greenidge and Natalia Naman…
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Alumni news, in brief:
Plays by
Melinda Lopez (Bad Santa, co-written with Maxine Lopez-Keough) and Michael Towers (The Contender) will be featured in An Evening of Theatre and Poetry on Dec. 8, at Lexington's Munroe Center
for the Arts, part of its Munroe Saturday Nights series of events…
Lifers by Chicky and Guy (Maureen Cornell and our own John Shea) is part of Argo Productions' Triple Play: New Work Weekends Dec. 7-9, at BPT...
Lifers by Chicky and Guy (Maureen Cornell and our own John Shea) is part of Argo Productions' Triple Play: New Work Weekends Dec. 7-9, at BPT...
A new play
by Karen Zacarías, Just Like Us
(based on the best-seller by Helen Thorpe), will bow at the Denver Center
Theatre Company’s 8th Annual Colorado New Play Summit Feb. 8-10…
Rick Park’s
Go to Helen Hunt for It (part of
Boston Theater Marathon XII) will be on the bill of February’s Snowdance Comedy Festival in Racine, WI…
Coppin
State University’s Coppin Repertory Theatre continued its 2012-13 season with Lydia
Diamond’s Harriet Jacobs Nov. 16-19…
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
My bad
This
would’ve been part of yesterday’s Alumni News, if I had added it to my running
list of events the other day instead of scrawling it on a Post-it that ended up
buried under a stack of scripts and other things. Good one.
Go see John
Shea’s Erin Go Bragh-less – it opens
tonight, and it’s FREE!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Alumni news, in brief:
Plenty of alums are on the bill for Boston Theater Marathon XIV. The line-up will include Peter M. Floyd, Deirdre Girard, Heather Houston, Melinda Lopez, Walt McGough, Ronan Noone, Rick Park, Michael S. Parsons, and Donna Sorbello. Keep an eye on this space for much, much more about all things BTM in the coming weeks...
Boston's Fresh Ink Theatre Co. announced its very exciting 2012-13 season last week, which will feature Ginger Lazarus' The Embryos, Emily Kaye Lazzaro's Girl Sports, and [BTM regular] Patrick Gabridge's Fire on Earth...
And speaking of Patrick Gabridge, check out the latest of his blog's excellent "Juggler Interviews" -- a Q&A series which focuses on writers busy parenting while still making time for their art -- featuring BPT alum John Shea...
Wes Savick's Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M., a science theater collaboration between Underground Railway Theater & MIT, opens this Thursday at Central Square Theater. H.M. features Wes' BPT classmate Steve Barkhimer...
Les Hunter's adaptation of Turkish playwright Ozen Yula's For Rent opens April 11 at NYC's LaGuardia Performing Arts Center...
Walt McGough shared some thoughts about writing non-human characters with fledgling dramatists last week, as part of the Massachusetts Young Playwrights' Project's New Noises Festival. Get a taste of his talk here...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Alumni news, in brief:
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| John Kuntz, photo by Stratton McCrady |
Sinan Ünel’s Pathétique will be part of Hartford Stage’s Brand:NEW playreading festival in November…
Emily Kaye Lazzaro will take the stage this December as a member of
the cast of the New England premiere of classmate Walt McGough’s Priscilla Dreams the Answer, produced by Fresh Ink Theatre Company…
Check out Gregory Fletcher's contributions to NYC’s Stage and Cinema blog…
John Shea has a new Web site – find information about his work, his
blog, and more at www.pages2stages.com...
Monday, August 22, 2011
Alumni news, in brief:
John Shea’s Junkie, produced by Argos Productions, opens this Thursday, August 25, right here at BPT…
Ginger Lazarus’ The Embyos will be part of Rhombus Playwrights’ fall reading series, at BPT in September…
The Book Club Play by Karen Zacarías opens at D.C.’s Arena Stage in October…
Michael Chernus has joined the cast of Molly Smith Metzler’s Close Up Space, which opens at Manhattan Theatre Club in December…
K. Alexa Mavromatis’ ten-minute play ‘Jinxed’ (a 2011 Heideman Award finalist) will be included in the forthcoming Smith & Kraus anthology 2012: The Best 10-Minute Plays…
Friday, August 19, 2011
The Inside Scoop on John Shea's JUNKIE, Opening Next Week!
With BPT Alum, John Shea's new play, Junkie, opening next week, I was excited to ask him a few questions about his new piece and what it's been like gearing up for the production.
Anna Pattison: Can you tell us a little bit about your creation and development process of Junkie? How has the rehearsal process shaped the play?
John Shea: I started writing Junkie, as a long monologue, maybe three or four pages, just to prove I could. My style usually consists of clipped, short sentences creating a staccato rhythm…Reading the works of other playwrights, I always admired the speeches and soliloquies…so I decided to write a monologue, possibly with the idea of it being in some shorts festival somewhere…anyway, the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays commissioned a work while I was with the Huntington and I decided to elaborate on Junkie, a piece I felt would easily lend itself to a longer work. Once I started, the character took over and I wrote a first draft in about 4 weeks…the quickest I’ve ever finished a piece, and with some expert cutting by director Brett Marks, it really hasn’t changed much since that first draft. What Brett has done is to focus more on the intimate moments, allowing actor Sean Cote to get at the emotion. I was surprised, as I’ve watched it progress, how moving it is…Brett and Sean have found a way to make the alien world (alien to most of us I think,) of addiction and rehab, human and accessible. And thank you Deirdre Benson for keeping us all on track…
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
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...
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.
Friday, July 15, 2011
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.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Dates for Shea’s ‘Junkie’ announced
The dates for alum John Shea’s new play Junkie, to be produced later this summer by Argos Productions, have been set for August 25 to September 4 at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. The play will be directed by Argos Artistic Director Brett Marks and will feature Sean A. Cole.
From the Argos Web site: Is it possible to turn your life around in 30 days? A close look at one man’s search for redemption and understanding, Junkie follows Cal, a Somerville heroin addict, as he undergoes thirty days in a state rehabilitation center. Over this brief span of sobriety, Cal faces not only his own choices which brought him to rehab, but also the world he couldn't avoid. Funny and unapologetic, Junkie shows us the path to understanding is not always a clear trail.
For more information visit http://www.playsbyshea.com. Be sure to watch this space for an upcoming feature on Argos Productions.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Play by Shea featured in The Somerville News
John Shea’s The Painter, which is playing at Unity Church in Somerville through May 1, is featured in The Somerville News. Read the story here.
When an Irish-American painter and his African-American employer come face-to-face in a battle of wills, the result is a crime that will change both of them forever. Was it anger? Madness? Or something deeper?
When an Irish-American painter and his African-American employer come face-to-face in a battle of wills, the result is a crime that will change both of them forever. Was it anger? Madness? Or something deeper?
Tickets and additional information: http://www.playsbyshea.com/
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Openings for Bauer and Shea
Hello, Omaha! Monica Bauer’s play My Occasion of Sin opens tonight at the Shelterbelt Theatre.
My Occasion of Sin is inspired in part by real events that happened during the 1969 Omaha race riots. George, a South Omaha music store owner, tries to evolve with the rock & roll trend. Luigi, a North Omaha jazz drummer, longs to restore the Dreamland Ballroom to its former glory. Mary Margaret, a 16-year-old South Omaha girl, stages her own revolution -- in music. Vivian, a 14-year-old North Omaha girl, struggles to understand the events swirling around her, and to find her own voice.
My Occasion of Sin is inspired in part by real events that happened during the 1969 Omaha race riots. George, a South Omaha music store owner, tries to evolve with the rock & roll trend. Luigi, a North Omaha jazz drummer, longs to restore the Dreamland Ballroom to its former glory. Mary Margaret, a 16-year-old South Omaha girl, stages her own revolution -- in music. Vivian, a 14-year-old North Omaha girl, struggles to understand the events swirling around her, and to find her own voice.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
7 Questions with John Shea (playwright)
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| John Shea |
1. When did you attend BPT's BU MFA program, and what was the experience like for you?
I attended the BPT program from September 2001 to May 2002. The experience was my first brush with the “professional” side of theatre. So, being a professional experience, I saw the good, (Kate’s guidance and oh-so-gentle approach to writers,) the bad, (not really bad, but the tough, Derek Walcott’s brutally honest approach to writers,) and the ugly…all right so there was no ugly, I just wanted to complete the trio. The experience was terrifying, exhilarating, and I left with a very well rounded view of what life in the theatre would be like.
2. How many plays have you written? What has been your biggest success? Your biggest failure?
I have, now, 11 full length plays and dozens of shorts (my store pile for Boston Theater marathon submissions…). I think my biggest success was with, Erin Go Bragh-less, being accepted into the National Playwright’s Conference at the O’Neill Center. Had I known
what a big deal it was, I would have been too afraid to submit, but I had never heard of the O’Neill when I entered…. My biggest failure…I hope you’re talking about playwrighting here. Let’s just say I don’t have enough of a production history to have any failures YET…and we’ll leave it at that.
3. What is different about this current play - Welcome to Somerville, Permit Parking
The only thing different about this play is the size of the cast…17. I wrote it out of sheer frustration. Stylistically, it’s very similar to my other Somerville plays, and since producers aren’t producing my 9 and 10 character plays, nor my one and two character plays, I decided to write what I wanted, and not worry about cast size. It was actually very liberating and a hell of a lot of fun….
4. Why do you need that many characters to tell THIS story?
I need this many characters because it is really the story of a city, a city finding its own identity in the shadow of Boston across the river. It’s a city where familiarity can be comforting and dangerous, a city where everyone knows everyone’s business and the large cast makes clear just how entwined everyone’s life is with those around them. What affects one, has a trickle down affect, invading (infecting perhaps,) the lives of many. I could have shown this as effectively with a smaller cast. My smaller cast plays (the 9 and 10 character plays,) focus on a particular group in a particular neighborhood, this play takes in the entire city…at least I like to think so.
5. This concert reading is the closest to self-producing you've ever gotten. What are you learning about being a producer? Why use local readers?
Being a producer sucks….too many decisions, and this isn’t even a full production. From designing print materials and paying to have them printed, advertising and blogging as often as possible for free publicity...(luckily, Somerville Access TV gave me a wonderful spot)…organizing actors and scurrying to fill a role. But, I do like having total control. I guess I was surprised by how much energy is in constant motion.
I wanted to use local actors for two reasons: one, their friends and family and I made it hard to say, “no,” and two, they have an authentic sound, accents, inflections, that will lend a natural rhythm to the play. It’s set in Somerville, why not use Somerville voices?
6. What kind of feedback are you getting from the community? It's based on pretty recent
news, isn't it?
Oh boy…yes it’s based on recent events and the backlash…I mean feedback, has been quite interesting. Some are embracing Somerville being in the spotlight, some think I am portraying Somerville in a negative light and some have just openly attacked me, trying to ruin my reputation (as if I needed help ruining my reputation.) I've been called a drug addict, a drunk and it's been said I have an ongoing relationship with prostitutes. (If I could afford an ongoing relationship with prostitutes and drugs…I would have no problem producing my own work.) So, now I know firsthand what it’s like to be publicly vilified, wasn’t fun.
7. What's next for you?
I am going to keep producing. I like the idea of Community Theatre in Somerville for the Somerville Community…most of my plays take place here, they should be done here using local people. I am going to produce my two character play, The Painter, (not set in Somerville oddly enough,) in the spring and take things from there. I would love to fully produce, Erin… It’s my favorite piece and the play that got me into the BPT
program (under a different title…), then dragged me into the world of professional theatre.
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You can read more about Welcome to Somerville, Permit Parking Only at http://www.playsbyshea.com/
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