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The piece is wonderfully tidy; its stories don't end happily, yet somehow we leave having been swept clean.
Every fiber of this production seems to have been crafted in true collaborative spirit.
Showing posts with label new work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new work. Show all posts
Reviews: I Came to Look for You on Tuesday at La MaMa
More than just performances at La MaMa
The Huffington Post calls it, "Creative, Engaging, and Quite Brave" but there is much more to I Came to Look for you Tuesday than the run on East 4th Street.From it's beginnings at New Dramatists two years ago to the world premiere currently at La MaMa, it's been an honor to be a part of this beautiful project.
To learn more about the Salons, Guerilla Street Art, and other unique aspects of this endeavor read the features on TDF or HowlRound, or visit the Tuesday Following Official Website.
Page 73 Yale Summer Residency
In addition to attending the famous residency dinners, pizza parties, and late-night ice cream treks, he will be part of a company of New York actors and Yale School of Drama students, workshopping Meghan Kennedy’s new play, The Wholehearted.
Meghan is the winner of the 2012 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize for her play Light, and her play Too Much, Too Much, Too Many will be produced by the Roundabout this Fall.
The Page 73 summer residency will also support the work by Nick Gandiello, Caroline V. McGraw, and Mfoniso Udofia and is sure to be an exciting time of intense work and creative cross-pollination.
The week culminates on Saturday August 18th with readings.
World Premiere at La MaMa
How do we survive in the aftermath of disaster?
Who do we cling to? How do we find them?
At the time of the Japan earthquake in March 2011, playwright Chiori Miyagawa saw a photo of an evacuation center wall, covered with handmade messages seeking contact with missing family members and friends. This image moved her, and she began thinking about the concept of reunion, especially following a natural disaster or war. To reunite is a collective human need. Chiori and Alice began with only this seed of an idea.
In Fall 2011 Chiori and director Alice Reagan held salons with artists from different backgrounds to share reunion stories. The result was extraordinary. Given this simple prompt, participants dug deep into their personal histories to tell stories that were intimate, heartbreaking, and inspiring.
Following the salons and additional research, Chiori wrote a magnificent play, I Came to Look for You on Tuesday.
Jens first became involved with the play during a two week Playtime Developmental Studio at New Dramatists, and has been honored to be a part ever since.
Scandinavian American Theatre Company & Chekhov International Theatre Festival
The Fundamentalist first opened to rave reviews in Finland in 2006 and subsequently went on to win the prestigious Nordic Drama Award for Best Play in 2008. The Scandinavian American Theatre Co gave it it’s US premiere, last season at the New York International Fringe Festival, where it opened to rave reviews and was chosen as one of two highlights out of the festival’s 200+ shows by The New Yorker Magazine. This month it was remounted with Jens Rasmussen in the lead role for performances at Scandinavia House on Park Ave in NYC and at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival.
The Fundamentalist tells the story of Markus, a reformed Minister turned public critic of the church, is approached by Heidi, his former student and now a member of religious extremist sect, who wants to save Markus from going to hell. THE FUNDAMENTALIST is a suspenseful two-character drama that offers an astute and nuanced investigation of the inner workings of fundamentalist belief. It questions the appeal of fundamentalism next to modern-day pluralism and tolerance, and encourages us to reflect on our values, worldview, faith and human responsibility to each other.
Juha Jokela is one of Finland and Scandinavia’s most renowned modern writers. The Nordic Drama Award jury wrote: “His witty and surprising humor, compelling narratives and nuanced characterizations are tightly bound to the present moment. Whether focusing his sharp vision on the world of business or the spirit, he writes with deep understanding of the personalities involved.”
Scandinavian American Theater Company is the 2011 recipient of the American Scandinavian Society’s Honorary Cultural Grant. The company was founded in 2009 to promote the new generation of Scandinavian playwrights and produce innovative interpretations of the classics. SATC also produces the SATC Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series at Scandinavia House, in which they present five staged readings annually of new Scandinavian plays. For more information, visit www.satcnyc.org.
Off Broadway with the Working Theater
Directed by Tamilla Woodard the cast features: Maria Helan, Andrés Munar, Tony Naumovski, Jens Rasmussen, Gabriel Sloyer, Jeanine Serralles and Nikki E. Walker.
The playwrights are: Gail Baskerville (clerical worker – Department of Education), Mirsada Damms (Building Service Worker), Bernadette Elstein (911 Operator), Michael O’Hara (Building Maintenance Worker), Julian Pimiento (Doorman) and Eric Sposito (former laborer in NY Daily News print shop).
Set & Props Design: Deb O, Costume Design: Emily DeAngelis, Lighting Design: Christopher Weston, Sound Design: Jeremy J. Lee,Production Stage Manager: Amy Francis Schott , Assistant Stage Manager: Nicholas Betito.
Now in its 27th season, Working Theater is New York's only professional Off-Broadway theatre company dedicated to producing plays for and about the working men and women of New York. Past productions include Lisa Ramirez's play about nannies, EXIT CUCKOO directed by Colman Domingo, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's KING OF SHADOWS, Stefanie Zadravec's Honey Brown EYES; Israel Horovitz's HENRY LUMPER ; and Rob Ackerman’s CALL ME WALDO, TABLETOP, and DISCONNECT.
The play will run from June 14th – June 17th, 2012: Thursday – Saturday at 7, Saturday at 2 and Sunday at 3. Dorothy Strelsin Theatre at Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex (312 W. 36 St.) in Manhattan.
Tickets are $15 at smarttix.com or by calling 212.868.4444. For more information call 212-244-3300, email mark@theworkingtheater.org or visit www.theworkingtheater.org.
Rasmussen has a menacing air of self-satisfaction that's quite effective.
In "The Other Man," their first produced play, authors Bryant Martin and Mark Botts have written an often taut if not always convincing thriller-cum–love story, in the process giving Martin a savory meal of a role. The actor plays Tom Donaghy, a young thug from England just released from a New York prison. Facing deportation, Donaghy is desperately searching for his vanished drug-addicted girlfriend Lisa. Not only does Martin's Donaghy sport a tangy cockney accent with generous amounts of rhyming slang; he can be violently threatening one moment, barking orders in a booming voice; funny and sexy the next, gently but confidently flirting with a woman he's just met; and then crushingly sensitive, recalling his early years in an orphanage. Martin melds it all into an impressive performance.
As the play begins, a gun-wielding Donaghy storms into the office of Raphael Cardozzo, a big-time drug dealer, demanding to know Lisa's whereabouts. It seems that Cardozzo not only sold Lisa drugs but also had a ruinous affair with her, and apparently his office has up-to-date records on all his old customers. While Angelica, Cardozzo's secretary-mistress, searches in the next room for information on Lisa, Cardozzo, captive in handcuffs, and Donaghy chat it up. The ex-con rhapsodizes about his love for Lisa, and in flashback we see their romance developing and then collapsing as Lisa sinks deeper into addiction. He also forces Cardozzo to telephone his wife and confess his affair with Angelica and periodically threatens to harm Cardozzo's two young daughters. The men further manage to go at each other in a nicely staged brawl.(Choreographed by Rasmussen.)
Toward the end questions of blame come up—who's really responsible for Lisa's downfall—but they seem perfunctory. The play runs a scant 70 minutes or so, but some of the talk has the feel of obvious filler, despite Kimberly Faith Hickman's well-paced direction and a skillful cast.
Jens Rasmussen's trim, well-spoken Cardozzo may not be the most brutish mob boss around, but he has a menacing air of self-satisfaction that's quite effective. Kara Durrett believably limns Lisa's journey from fresh young thing to wretched addict, and Lucy Sheftfall imbues Angelica with an appropriately scary hard edge. But it's watching Martin bringing his own script to life with relish that gives the show its raison d'être.
Reviewed by Ron Cohen
The Strangest at HERE's CULTUREMART
Midway through Camus's classic "The Stranger," an unnamed Arab is killed. Leaping from this moment and working backwards through possible histories of tangled romance, ethnic conflict and random violence, Betty Shamieh has crafted a new play inspired by this unknown character. The Strangestis an absurdist murder mystery about three Algerian brothers who vie for the love of the same woman, one of whom will be inexplicably gunned down by a French stranger. Infused with elements of Middle Eastern storytelling traditions, audience members enter into a simulation of an Algerian coffeehouse where masters of the oral tradition once told tales. Directed by May Adrales.
Two Intensive New Play Development Programs
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Read on to learn more about these fabulous companies and their programs.
PLAYTIME DEVELOPMENTAL STUDIO
New Dramatists presents the 10th annual PlayTime, a 2-week developmental lab for five plays-in-progress designed to give playwrights the time and space needed to explore, workshop, rethink, and revise ambitious new work in a collaborative company of directors, actors, other writers and New Dramatists staff. PlayTime offers our writers one of the most extended, intensive developmental processes available within our year-round artistic programming. This year’s writers are Tanya Barfield, Marcus Gardley, Rob Handel, Dan LeFranc, and Chiori Miyagawa.
PlayTime will begin with two days of play readings and preparatory discussion between the five playwrights, their collaborators, and ND’s artistic staff, including resource playwright Sharon Bridgforth. A company of actors will join the lab, and the five projects will rehearse on a rotating schedule, with time off for rewrites. Surrounding the rehearsals, there will be group events – meals, yoga classes, collaboration meetings, and tea-time – to foster collaboration and exchange.
The Projects:
Untitled New Play by Tanya Barfield
directed by GT Upchurch
The House that will not Stand by Marcus Gardley
directed by Patricia Mcgregor
Untitled New Play by Rob Handel
directed by May Adrales
Untitled New Play by Dan LeFranc
Directed by Kip Fagan
I came to look for you on Tuesday; I'll come back again in two days(working title)
by Chiori Miyagawa
directed by Alice Reagan
Final presentations will be held December 15 through December 17. Some readings may be open to the public. Please call for the schedule of readings, as reservations will be required.
terraNOVA Collective's GROUNDBREAKERS is an annual developmental playwrighting lab, in which 6 playwrights receive the unique opportunity to work on a specific project with the goal of creating a completed draft. Each playwright brings in their play 3 times over 18 weeks for a round-table reading with professional actors, receiving feedback from the Groundbreakers playwrights group and special guests, along with the artistic staff of terraNOVA Collective. terraNOVA assembles a diverse group devoted to creating theatrical, original, innovative, socially relevant new work for the stage and welcomes submissions of new plays and solo shows in various stages of development that will benefit from collective feedback and further terraNOVA Collective's artistic mission. They are especially interested in playwrights who, in addition to working on their own play, have an interest in attending weekly workshops to give other playwrights in the group feedback.
You can meet the 2012 Groundbreaker playwrights here: http://www.terranovacollective.org/2012-season.html
Queens Odyssey: The Internationalists’ Which Direction Home?
On a warm day in June, in an overheated rehearsal studio in Bushwick, peppered with sawdust on the floor and punctuated by garage door openings and exitings, an experiment in theater is underway. Stage left sit Athena, Poseidon, and Zeus with a MacBook on their desk, calling the shots for the now immortal mortals, Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and other beings from a tale that has been passed down through the millennia. The rehearsal proceeds as many others in this early stage: at times the crew, including director Jake Witlen, break into a chorus of, “ring, ring, ring, ring,” providing the necessary telephone cue; lines are forgotten and remembered; a song is sung with sparing accompaniment; at its conclusion a conversation of further scoring is had. While the story of The Odyssey is re-made, re-shaped and re-created in this room, the real odyssey for these artists and for artists the world over will begin in July. Today’s piece will then become but one of a slew of odysseys making up Which Direction Home?, a theatrical event conceived and created by The Internationalists, a collective of theater directors from around the world.
In Which Direction Home?, eight of the member-directors have created new shows which will be brought from six different countries and are, according to their website, “inspired (more or less) by Homer’s epic poem.” The shows are split into two different programs, presented on alternate evenings. There will also be one marathon performance in which the audience can view both programs in a single day. The individual pieces easily fall into the over-used category of “experimental,” or, as producer Cathy Bencivenga says, “I hesitate to call them all plays. Many of them are performances.” A sampling: from Germany, Dina Keller is bringing an event that will begin every evening by inviting the audience to sit with cast members, enjoy food and drink, and enter into discussion about “foreignness” and a journey, setting the evenings to sail. Witlen’s production has a text that was “wiki”-ed by 10 playwrights from around the world. Doug Howe, in from Paris, invited six playwrights from all over the world to create a piece based on the theme of home—who, where, and what is it? Sama Ky Balson, from Australia, has created a piece of documentary-theater, taking the stories of boys from around the world who grew up without fathers as a way to prism into the story of Telemachus, Odysseus’ son. And one evening will feature an environmental theatrical event, created by Romanian director Ana Margineanu, in which a single audience member at a time will be led to five different site-specific locations, blindfolded, to experience theater (theatron: seeing-space) sans the thea part. But the real experiment underpinning all of these experimental theaters is The Internationalists.
The Internationalists was founded by a group of directors who met during The Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors lab in the summer of 2007. While living and creating in different places on the globe, the directors came together, becoming unified with the mission “to create a more open, sustainable, and interactive global theatrical community.” Over the years the members of the collective have found ways to collaborate across borders. They’ve traveled to collaborate on projects, experimented with producing work in two locations simultaneously, and hosted artists from disciplines ranging from Burmese Butoh dancers to commedia dell’arte and site-specific work. Annual events include “Around the World in 24-hours”: a marathon, 24-hours of theater with live performances from different artists in New York and simulcast performances skyped in from locations around the world. The collective also hosts a New Year’s Eve party, “New Year’s Eve(ry) hour” with the ringing in tracked across the globe. And they are one of the few organizations in the city that hosts “World Theatre Day.” (There is one, it’s March 27.) Artists interested in global theater congregate and hear the World Theatre Day Message read aloud in various languages by member-artists around the world. While all of these events have various obstacles to overcome—language and cultural barriers, systemic differences, technological hurdles—Which Direction Home? is The Internationalists’ most ambitious project yet.
The event is a culmination of a year-long residency that the collective is concluding at the La Guardia Performing Arts Center in Queens. “It’s one show’s worth of residency over eight people,” is how Bencivenga sees it. The difficulties of producing any single production are here multiplied by a factor of eight. Add to this the incorporation of four productions that have been in development in other countries over the past year. Their creators are arriving a month before the event to add their works to those created by the artists who are based in New York. In weaving these pieces together, the “designers have been like dramaturgs,” says Witlen. Lighting designer Stephen Arnold adds, “Creating a lighting language that can serve all the widely spread ideas has been a fun challenge.”
This challenge has been necessary in order to achieve the most important goal of the event: learning about each others’ work. The members will get to experience the pieces as a whole, but even more importantly, they will get the rare opportunity to watch each other work. In order to best achieve this, each of the directors was given very little in terms of guidance. While The Odyssey is a story that is well known in the Western world, these pieces are, as Howe explains, “Not based on a reinterpretation of The Odyssey but truly inspired by it.” The result, he says, was that, “everyone latched on to the things that were interesting to them.” The diversity of pieces created due to this inspirational freedom shows the various backgrounds that each of the artists are coming from, the way this shapes their view of the world, their art, how they create their art and what is important to them in their art. Over the next month the artists will be able to communicate about their work and learn from each other in a way that technology simply doesn’t allow. As Howe explains, “Having everyone in New York gives the opportunity to be in the same room to create.”
One of the other theatrical experiences audiences and artists will be able to have will be something that the group is calling “Instant Theatre.” In this experiment the directors will collectively create pieces of theater with participating audience members before each show. This poses the question, Witlen and many others may ask, “Can two directors work at the same time? Can six?”
“Hopefully, by the end of this,” says Howe, “we have the ability to define the questions,” — questions that Witlen describes as “never-ending. They continue to grow and get deeper and more intimate.”
The most worthwhile experiments start out with questions. Expect The Internationalists to continue to ask questions of the international arts community, expanding and shaping its possibilities well into the future. In the near-future a world of theater will be in Queens and for those who make The Odyssey Howe declares: “July is Odyssey month. A kumbaya of theater.”
Nightlands Workshop at New Georges
Jens was delighted to join fellow Acclaim Award winner Kelly Hutchinson, Karen Kandel, Hubert Pont du-Jour, along with the rest of the company and Director Tamilla Woodard to work on Sylvan Oswald’s latest play.
The play has interesting challenges for actors and audience, including men in the company playing both male and female roles without camp, juxtaposed with intensely real relationships, set against the starkly abstracted world of Philadelphia in the race charged 60’s.
I’ll be in Cincinnati doing Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries during the Off-Broadway Premiere, so I’ll have to miss it, but I wish everyone well!
No Shame Rides Wave of Success
The areas newest night-life event shows no signs of stopping. In just 3 short months No Shame Theater has premiered over 150 new works in numerous performance styles, shown dozens of pieces of visual art, spawned an improv group a burlesque group, and a comedy music quartet that has already released their first CD. More icing was recently put on the cake in the form of a sizable grant for the upstart program.
At a time when competition for arts funding is at an all time high, the Springer Opera House has received $5,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for its No Shame Theater.
“We are honored to be recognized in this way,” said Jens Rasmussen, the Springer’s No Shame director. “No Shame has been a huge success and attracted hundreds of dedicated fans, but foundation support like this is another affirmation of the positive impact we’re seeing every Friday night at No Shame performances.”
The Knight Foundation funds projects that transform communities based on the foundation's values of: discovery, vision, courage, know-how and tenacity. Qualities which are definitely present in the No Shame program and its participants.
No Shame Theater is an uncensored evening of original performances that allows anyone to explore their creative potential. It happens every Friday at the Springer Opera House. Admission is $5 for everyone, including performers. The first 15 acts to sign up at 10 p.m. get a five-minute performance slot, and the show starts at 10:30 p.m.
“The beauty of No Shame is its simplicity and lack of censorship,” said Rasmussen. “There are only three rules - each act must be less than five minutes, must feature original material and can break no laws. Otherwise, there are absolutely no limitations to what one can perform at No Shame.”
Presentations have included original plays, improvisation, spoken-word, rap, music, stand-up comedy, monologues, dance, spoons, interpretive sign-language, poetry, rants, burlesque – even a color guard routine that combined flag, sword, dance, and music.
The first No Shame was started 23 years ago by Todd Ristau and Jeff Goode in the back of a pick-up in Iowa City, Iowa. Since then, branches have sprung up in New York, Miami, Chicago, Cleveland, Austin, Charlottesville, and other cities. Well-known No Shame alumni include John Leguizamo (Ice Age), Camryn Manheim (The Practice) Rebecca Gilman (Spinning into Butter), Naomi Wallace (Things of Dry Hours), Rick Cleveland (Six Feet Under), and Johnathan Larson (Rent).
To learn more about Columbus' No Shame and to watch past performances, visit: www.facebook.com/noshametheater
Springer ‘cuts loose’ with No Shame Theater debut
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| No Shame Columbus - founded by Jens Rasmussen |
Magic, music, dance and drama, even stand-up comedy or acrobatics - you might see all this and more in one night of No Shame Theater, said Jens Rasmussen, director of No Shame Theater, which debuts in Columbus Friday at the Springer Opera House.
"You don't know what you're going to get," he said. "It has this stability and this complete wild card kind of feel."
Created in 1986 and now a nationwide movement, No Shame gives a twist to the traditional talent show or open mic night.
For the artists, it's first come, first served, and the pieces, which must be original and no longer than five minutes, are not censored or reviewed in advance, Rasmussen said. That leaves audience members with the chance of seeing everything from performance poetry to juggling.
"I was just blown away by it," Rasmussen said. "It was so exciting and such a broad range of people came in. When you go to No Shame, you're going to see something that no one has ever seen before. It's shameless; it's risk taking. Even if the art is not polished, the spirit of it is just so engaging. That's really at the core what No Shame is."
Ashley Laughter, campaign coordinator for the Springer, said she is excited about opening night.
"It's like an adventure," she said. "Come with an open mind. Come prepared to be shocked - but in a good way."
Laughter said the unique form of entertainment will help the Springer cater to a younger audience and will be particularly good for Soldiers, since it's a weekly event with no sign-up necessary.
"We always try to get Soldiers involved here at the Springer, but it's hard for a Soldier to make a commitment to a show because it can be time-consuming," said Laughter, wife of a Sand Hill drill sergeant. "But this is ‘bring what you got and do it one night.' I think No Shame is going to offer the Columbus area something brand new. All the works are original, which is something you just don't get to see as often as people should."
"You don't know what you're going to get," he said. "It has this stability and this complete wild card kind of feel."
Created in 1986 and now a nationwide movement, No Shame gives a twist to the traditional talent show or open mic night.
For the artists, it's first come, first served, and the pieces, which must be original and no longer than five minutes, are not censored or reviewed in advance, Rasmussen said. That leaves audience members with the chance of seeing everything from performance poetry to juggling.
"I was just blown away by it," Rasmussen said. "It was so exciting and such a broad range of people came in. When you go to No Shame, you're going to see something that no one has ever seen before. It's shameless; it's risk taking. Even if the art is not polished, the spirit of it is just so engaging. That's really at the core what No Shame is."
Ashley Laughter, campaign coordinator for the Springer, said she is excited about opening night.
"It's like an adventure," she said. "Come with an open mind. Come prepared to be shocked - but in a good way."
Laughter said the unique form of entertainment will help the Springer cater to a younger audience and will be particularly good for Soldiers, since it's a weekly event with no sign-up necessary.
"We always try to get Soldiers involved here at the Springer, but it's hard for a Soldier to make a commitment to a show because it can be time-consuming," said Laughter, wife of a Sand Hill drill sergeant. "But this is ‘bring what you got and do it one night.' I think No Shame is going to offer the Columbus area something brand new. All the works are original, which is something you just don't get to see as often as people should."
Laughter said she plans to perform with a burlesque dance group - "kind of reminiscent of the vaudeville era."
She will be joined by other local talent, including Becky Macy, an actor in the Springer's current production of Footloose and wife of an Infantry Mortar Leader Course instructor on post.
Macy said participating in No Shame will appeal to people of diverse backgrounds.
"It's less pressure. You don't have to audition. It's an outlet for your own creativity," she said. "I just think it can be inspiring … everybody has something to put out there."
To "cast themselves," people 18 and older should show up at 10 p.m. at the Springer, Rasmussen said. The first 15 in line get to perform.
The show starts at 10:30 p.m., lasts roughly 90 minutes and costs $5 per person, performers and attendees alike.
"It's a small investment, and it's going to be a really welcoming, laid back, enjoyable group … a great place to meet people, to make new friends, to talk about new ideas," Rasmussen said. "It's about fearlessness; it's about putting yourself out there and not censoring. It's about cutting loose — individual expression. There's no limits."
The Springer saloon will be open during the show. For more information, call the Springer at 706-324-5714. For more about No Shame Theatre, visit www.noshame.org.
She will be joined by other local talent, including Becky Macy, an actor in the Springer's current production of Footloose and wife of an Infantry Mortar Leader Course instructor on post.
Macy said participating in No Shame will appeal to people of diverse backgrounds.
"It's less pressure. You don't have to audition. It's an outlet for your own creativity," she said. "I just think it can be inspiring … everybody has something to put out there."
To "cast themselves," people 18 and older should show up at 10 p.m. at the Springer, Rasmussen said. The first 15 in line get to perform.
The show starts at 10:30 p.m., lasts roughly 90 minutes and costs $5 per person, performers and attendees alike.
"It's a small investment, and it's going to be a really welcoming, laid back, enjoyable group … a great place to meet people, to make new friends, to talk about new ideas," Rasmussen said. "It's about fearlessness; it's about putting yourself out there and not censoring. It's about cutting loose — individual expression. There's no limits."
The Springer saloon will be open during the show. For more information, call the Springer at 706-324-5714. For more about No Shame Theatre, visit www.noshame.org.
By Cheryl Rodewig / The Bayonet
Rasmussen Brings New Works to Springer Theatre
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| No Shame Columbus Founder, Jens Rasmussen with Paul Pierce |
When Jens Rasmussen told him about the No Shame Theater concept, Paul thought it was a great idea. Not only to get people in the seats, but to get people on stage.
Jens has become a favorite on the Springer stage and off it. Before he even began acting at the Springer, he was teaching in the Springer Theater Academy. Once he hit the stage, people couldn’t get enough of this talented man.
Jens is the director of Columbus’ No Shame Theater.
It’s an easy concept. It happens every Friday at 10 p.m., starting Sept. 25.
At exactly 10 p.m., you sign up to do something — sing, dance, tell jokes, do a monologue, whatever.
There are three rules: Everything you do must be original. You have five minutes, no more. You cannot break any laws.
“Or yourself or the theater,” Paul said.
Only 15 people will be allowed on stage on any given Friday. So it would be good to show up and get in line earlier than 10 p.m. if you want your chance to get on stage.
There’s a rumor that a local dancer wants to do a burlesque act for her five-minute time slot.
When I said her name, Paul looked at me and said, “Has she talked to you about it?”
No, but from another venture she mentioned a couple of years ago, she would be my first guess. And I was correct!
There’s one other rule: You have to be 18 or older to get in.
A cash bar will be available in the Springer Saloon.
I’m thinking that’s going to be way too small, because I think it will be an alternative for people who want to go out but don’t want to go to a bar on a Friday night.
Paul’s hoping someone like my colleague Tim Chitwood would do some social commentary on current events. Tim would be great! He’s got this wry sense of humor and a wonderful way of writing. Paul really wants writers involved.
Playwrights would be able to come in with a scene and ask if anyone would like to read the scene. That’s if the playwright’s not an actor, of course.
Jens went to see the Chattahoochee Shakespeare Co.’s production of “Goobers!” and was so impressed with Alyssa Farmer’s songs that he’s hoping she’ll do five minutes of her original songs.
And the No Shame part comes in because with an audience of actors, you’ll find nothing but encouragement.
I know because I’ve done shows and I know I can’t sing, dance or act, but everyone made me feel welcome.
So for $5, it’s a lot cheaper than going to a movie. You’re going to have fun, too.
Walking, slowly, toward the peace
An hour earlier, the people who had written the words had scattered, from Duke Chapel to Science Drive. They were walking, deliberately, one step every five seconds or so, converging from all angles on the trees at the circle's center. They were ADF dancers, taking part in a form of political protest and movement called "slow walk."
Though they were in different dress, many in white, all had one clothing choice in common: a pale blue sash, with words or symbols each had written or drawn to express a deeply felt wish.
Conscientious, compassionate action, one sash read. The Hindu Aum was on another. A third read, Walk toward a new beginning: Vote.
On a fourth, Justice was written on one end of the fabric. On the opposite end was Just Us.
As they moved silently down the paths, you could sense the space, the people in, it calming down as well. A few pedestrians asked questions. Most just watched--and walked slower, more carefully, through the space themselves.
Apparently, peace is contagious.
That's the real reason for a slow walk in the first place. "It is an example," said organizer Jens Rasmussen. "It's an example of being the change we want to see in the world, to quote Gandhi. I'm angry and outraged, but this is a way of channeling that energy that's more constructive than a lot of demonstrations I've been a part of. It builds us up and empowers us, instead of tearing us down."
"I loved seeing people moving faster than me," said Marcela Giesche, a dancer from Ohio State University. "I loved seeing nature move faster than me. The wind blowing my hair was like a thousand times faster than my walk."
"The time just sort of melted away," observed dancer Alice White from Berkeley, Calif. "It didn't feel like an hour at all."
A young man wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with "1984" printed on the front held his sash in his fingers, almost like a rosary. Slowly he walked forward, eyes closed, head bowed.
Then the clouds opened at 7:45. A clap of thunder brought waves of water down upon the walkers.
No one accelerated. All moved quietly toward their goal.
After a moment, a young man in an NYPD T-shirt strode back out into the deluge. When he reached one of the walkers, he opened a yellow umbrella and escorted her slowly down the ramp, holding it carefully over her head.
After a moment, he handed her the umbrella and ran back under the Bryan Center awning.
A moment later he ran back into the rain--and handed another umbrella to another walker.
Then he did it again. And again.
By the time we spoke to dancer Joshua Christensen, he had reallocated at least six umbrellas from concert-goers to the dancers in the rain, walking slowly toward peace.
After hanging their sashes in the trees, the protesters stood, holding one another; silent, smiling, peaceful, in the rain. One portrait of what peace looks like after you've walked a while to get there.
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