If you're wondering why we haven't posted any playwrights of the day this past weekend, it's because I was doing some digging into the depths of African-American dramaturgy. Keeping in the theme of Black History Month, I'd like to honour a new African American playwright every day. Of course, to start we had Langston Hughes last week. Jumping off his work, we'll leap straight to Lorraine Hansberry who openly drew inspiration from Hughes' works. You probably all know Hansberry from her award winning, heart-breaking, horrifyingly beautiful Broadway work A Raisin in the Sun (1959). Did I praise it enough in that last sentence? Read the play and you'll totally get it. Hansberry was in born 1930 and she passed away from Pancreatic cancer in 1965. She wrote five dramatic works in her lifetime, each one inspired by and provoking discussion around African-American history and the influence of that history on the modern African-American. Hansberry was known for her compassion and for her high hopes in humanity. Her humanist qualities drove her towards constructed some of the most dynamic characters I've come across in dramatic literature. It's really a strange feeling to read one of her works. Each character is likeable and then, a second later, completely detestable, but yet, all at once, understandable. Hansberry loved people. She has faith in mankind and you can tell she channels that faith into her characters. Of course, it wouldn't be an article about Hansberry without speaking about her political influence. Hansberry had a really unique, some might say controversial, political presence. She wrote and spoke out for a number of Black Power groups and publications. The interesting and unique thing about Hansberry, however, is that she seems to see things from all sides. She really doesn't seem to allow any value to be placed on categories and that, in fact, is what she was speaking out against. So, while others were speaking specifically to African American issues, Hansberry spoke to universal issues of equality. She did, of course, identify as a Black woman but she often publicly explored the contradictions between those two categories. Her public declarations always were in the interest of discovery and never really in the interest of over-powering anyone else. In her words: "Must I hate men anymore than I hate White people--Because they are savage or commit savage acts? Of course not." Though Raisin was her most famous work, I think her most compelling statement was made with her final piece Les Blancs which was released after in 1994, after Hansberry's passing. To my knowledge, she had the opportunity to workshop the piece but never saw it to its full production. I almost cried reading the piece. It is set in Africa and it explores the complex relationships between the White settlers and the Natives. I don't know how she did it but she successfully creates an entire community onstage. It's fantastic and so endearing...Please read it. Some call the work preachy but I would argue that, if it's preachy, then it is preachy from several points of view. However, her characters are so confused by so many things that it keeps them from being too preachy. After all, how can anyone be preachy if their doubting their own beliefs? That complexity of thought, was Hansberry's hallmark. Though her collection of works is minimal, it is absolutely worth studying. Hansberry's contribution to theatrical history, Black history, and world history at large has been a true gift from a brilliant woman.
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Please visit our online campaign and help us reach our goal. Your contribution will benefit nearly 100 young theatre artists this summer. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/odds-and-ends-2013-new-short-works-by-new-young-playwrights We're counting on you for support. Please be generous and we promise a fantastic festival this summer. I've never seen a play at The Cameron House. I also couldn't picture how Heart in Hand Theatre could transform the small backspace into the set of Cowboy Mouth. When I walked in last night, however, I was instantly excited and intrigued. For those of you who don't know the show, Cowboy Mouth was written and performed by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith in 1971. The script centers around Cavale, a crow-like rock and roll groupie and Slim, her coyote-like rock and role hero. Cavale has captured Slim, taken him away from his family and has declared him the next god of rock and roll. Situated in her apartment, she attempts to build him into her dream rock star. The script is terrifying in that the language is very specific. Smith and Shepard wrote the script for the purposes of their own performance. Therefore, a 2013 rendition of the show is a considerably difficult ambition. Heart in Hand Theatre has done an excellent job. Cavale is my favourite female Sam Shepard character and I've also pictured her in a particularly edgy, cool light. I didn't expect the performance I saw onstage by Jessica Huras but her version of the character is endearing, likeable and a lot prettier than I anticipated. Jason Collett makes a very believable Slim. His musical contribution to the show would please Sam Shepard who is also a musician and has declared music to be a very important element to a number of his works. Collett has successfully found Slim's ease and he also contrasts that ease well with the heights of Slim's desperation. Both performances are colourful and admirable. The set and costumes were phenomenal. It was a brilliant idea to make use of the Cameron House because the set really did end up looking like the lived-in room of a music junkie. In all its messiness, it was still endearing. I somehow, wanted to live there. Just as the script calls for, an unexplainable aura of "cool" existed on stage. Akiva Romer-Segal, set and costume designer, also did an unforgettable job on the costumes. I would explain further but I wouldn't want to give away the show's most interesting design asset. As a company, Heart in Hand Theatre has done a fabulous job with a very challenging script. Don't miss it, onstage at The Cameron House until February 14: http://www.heartinhandtheatre.com/ www.biography.com Since today is the first day of Black History Month as well as Langston Hughes' birthday, it's the perfect day to make Langston Hughes our playwright of the day. There is so much history and context behind Hughes' works that it's hard and a little terrifying to try to summarize his significance in a simple blog post. To begin with, I should probably remind you that Hughes is a notable scholar, poet, novelist and political activist. His contribution to the theatre is vast but it certainly doesn't overshadow the various other facets of his legacy. Hughes was a notable member of The Harlem Renaissance, a movement towards a higher-standard of living for African-Americans. The movement began to take off around 1910. In 1917 a play entitled Three Plays for a Negro Theatre, written by White playwright Ridgley Torrence was released and praised for its intelligence. The play contributed to the Harlem Renaissance in that it hired an all Black cast and each character had a full range of emotion. Despite being directed and produced by a White production crew, the show was a huge step away from Blackface and other offensive portrayals of African-American culture, never mind the fact that it ignored many facets of African-American life including their occupations, matters of their conversation and the fact that they have actual social lives. The show ran for one month and then was shut down due to racial uprisings. Despite its short run its popularity in the press empowered a series of works written by African-American playwrights. African-American playwrights began writing and producing "People's Theatre", works that were written by Black writers for Black audiences. Hughes contributed to the movement by opening The Harlem Suitcase Theatre in 1938. The theatre was the first stage to be theatre in the round in New York City. Hughes intended for there to be a wide variety of experimental works performed there. Most of the shows performed at the theatre were written by Hughes including Don't You Want to Be Free (1938), an experimental, poetry piece which featured the poetic works of Hughes and the musical talents of local African-American musicians. Prior to opening Harlem Suitcase, Hughes had already made his name known through the opening of his Broadway play Mulatto (1935). I highly recommend reading this play. It is incredibly lyrical, thoughtful and moving. It's written in poetic verse and it centers around a conflict between a son of mixed racial descent and his White father. The coolest part about this play, to me, is that Hughes chose to write it from the father's perspective. It is a brave work considering it's place in National history but also considering that it comes from Hughes' personal tensions that he had with his father. It really is a must read. If you have the opportunity, take a couple of hours and read through it in honour of Black History Month. Hughes' other works include Mule Bone (1931), Tambourines to Glory (1956), Black Nativity (1961) and Jericho Jim-Crow (1964). For many works and many years of brilliance, we honour Langston Hughes on what would have been his 101st birthday. www.telegraph.co.uk If you're looking for a strong, political, female playwright for a role model, seek no longer, I've found her. Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti is a a British Sikh writer whose works have premiered at the Soho Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England. Bhatti has also written extensively for radio and film. I recently came across her work today when the headlines told me of a censorship dispute between Bhatti and the BBC (http://bit.ly/12aHZl5). Bhatti, whose works have been known to centre around women and female identity within religious institutions, had written a new radio show for BBC entitled Heart of Darkness. The show was centred around the story of the murder of a 16-year old Asian girl. In the play, the murder is alluded to have been an honour killing. The article cited above gives details as to which lines are being taken out and why they are, according to Bhatti, completely misunderstood. Her fight for understanding is the reason why I've made her today's playwright of the day. I sat and enjoyed Bhatti's Behzti (Dishonour) this afternoon and I was struck by her ability to dramatize mundanity. Bhatti does such an incredible job constructing her characters and their relationships to one another from the start of the play. The stakes of the show grip the audience from the beginning despite the fact the little more is happening than a doubtful love interest and a trip to the temple. In the second half of the play, when rape and murder are intertwined into the narrative through subtleties as gorgeous as a slight costume change or offstage drama, I actually jumped, just reading the play, out of compassion for the characters. The show is incredibly dramatic with only the slightest bit of theatricality. Despite her beautiful depiction of terror, the play was protested on opening night. Bhatti had offended the Sikh temple to the point of violence erupting resulting in a cancellation of the show. Bhatti's bravery is under-spoken but it is fascinating. She holds her head high above censorship and protest and we hold our hands high in support of her incredible contribution to the contemporary dramatic canon. www.vanityfair.com Since it is the 57th anniversary of the premiere of Sweet Charity on Broadway, we've opted to honour Neil Simon as today's playwright of the day. Simon has been revered as one of American Theatre's most classic comedic writers. He's won more Oscars and Tony's combined than any other writer which puts him in the running as one of the most successful writers in American pop culture history. He began his career in 1950 writing alongside other notable comedic writers including Woody Allen and Mel Brooks for Sid Ceaser's live comedy show Your Show of Shows (See PBS' "American Masters" http://to.pbs.org/14qtbxu) Since then he's written notable comedic classics including Lost in Yonkers (1991) The Odd Couple (1968), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Sweet Charity (1966). His comedy is representative of an era in comedy that we don't often see replicated anymore. The jokes are calculated and familiar, they comment on complexities of American identity and they can be extracted from the text without much harm to the narrative. Simon's comedy is formulaic and it acts as a template for a lot of modern comedy that we see today. Simon also wrote a lot of plays that worked within the context of his own personal history. His characters were often Jewish and from New York, just like Simon. His familiarity with these characters allowed his humour to be grounded in realism thereby riddling each piece with little nuances that grounded them in authenticity. Sweet Charity closed its most recent New York run last fall. Read the New York Times review here: http://nyti.ms/T5Iadv Photo Courtesy of: http://nyti.ms/X41AvV "Any play that can be described in one sentence should be one sentence long". If nothing else, Edward Albee wrote complicated plays. His works are seemingly simple, production wise, but they are excruciating to pick apart. Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962) is absolutely Albee's most famous play. Despite controversial subject matter, it won the Pulitzer that year as well as a Tony for Best Play. The play moved to Hollywood and became viral amongst movie-goers. Albee went on to write a number of notable works but his career was slow to lift off. The Zoo Story (1958), his first play, was "politely refused" by New York producers. It's a one act that, to me, epitomizes the immersion of Theatre of the Absurd into American drama. It was only a matter of time before Americans came to appreciate Albee's avant garde aesthetic. Eventually a composer friend of his showed the work to a colleague in Berlin that Albee was able to get the show produced. Since it's initial production it has been spread and admired by dramatists worldwide. Other notable titles of Albee's include The Goat (2002), A Delicate Balance (1966), The Sandbox (1959) and adaptations including Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966) and Lolita (1981). I'll end this article with a quote that I found in the preface of a very old copy of The Zoo Story that I've acquired. To any playwright who fears the reception of their work, just know that you're in the same shoes as Edward Albee "...opening nights do not really exist. They happen, but they take place as if in a dream: One concentrates, but barely; one tries to follow the play, but one can make no sense of it. And, if one is called to the stage afterwards to take a bow, one wonders why, for one can make no connection between the work just presented and oneself. Naturally, this feeling was complicated in the case of The Zoo Story, as the play was being presented in German, a language of which I knew not a word, and in Berlin, too, an awesome city. But, it has held true since. The high points of a person's life can be appreciated so often only in retrospect." http://broadwayworld.com/article/Legendary-Playwright-Edward-Albee-to-Appear-on-CBS-SUNDAY-MORNING-Today-20130126#
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/jan/28/edward-albee-broadway-is-junk http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57566050/q-a-playwright-edward-albee/ Photo courtesy of http://bit.ly/Y6RmO4 Last night Heart in Hand Theatre opened Cowboy Mouth in Toronto and, though I'm not sure I'll be able to see it until next weekend, I'm really excited that they are tackling such a provocative Sam Shepard piece. Sam Shepard is nothing if not provocative. There is almost always a moment in his works where you stop and think "yeah. He went there." Somehow, however, he rarely elicits an eye roll from me. Shepard has a way of crafting oddities into poetry thereby avoiding cliche. If you haven't experienced it yet, it is masterful. He's has contributed about 50 plays to the canon of American drama. He has won many highly-regarded awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child. He is shameless, fearless and a creative machine. Comedic? Barely. His award winning work first full-length piece La Turista (1967) is actually pretty funny until its pace takes a turn for the crazy at the end of the show and things become horrifying. "Horrifying" doesn't begin to describe the series of beautifully freaky family tragedies that Shepard has penned beginning with Curse of the Starving Class (1978) through to Buried Child (1979), True West (1980), Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985). After reading each of these pieces, it becomes clear that, not only is Shepard fascinated with the back-alley absurdities of the "redneck" American West but he is really good at transforming these absurdities into eery realities. Shepard explores themes of abandonment, incest, wayward reunion and the unfortunate result of being tethered to a family whom you may not get along with, may not even like. These themes become vivid and moving even amongst the constant twists and turns that we're faced with when experience one of his pieces. Other than family dramas, Shepard has explored theatre from a number of different angles. "Avante-Garde" is what he is usually taken for and, in many respects, Shepard has absolutely always been ahead of his time. For example, works such as Cowboy Mouth (1971) The Tooth of Crime (1972, Tongues (1978) and Suicide in B♭ (1976) incorporate Shepard's love for music. Through these works he has been able to express his fascination for the 1970s adornment of rock stars. He was before his time in his exploration of celebrity worship and the theme shines brilliantly in these works. For a Sam Shepard experience, go see Cowboy Mouth produced by Heart in Hand Theatre and being performed at The Cameron House in Toronto until Feb. 14: http://www.heartinhandtheatre.com/ I'm calling this a review for the sake of titles or maybe for the sake of consistency or maybe because "Best Idea Ever" just seems overly enthusiastic...for a title.
This is much more than a review. It's a bit of a gush-post. I was invited, graciously by the good people of Workhouse Theatre to read at an event that I shamefully had never heard of. WORKplay is a curated gathering of works that are written by established and emerging writers. One after the other, each work is read and received by an audience of peers. Last night was the fourth instalment of Workhouse's WORKplay series. This year, acclaimed artists including Jason Maghanoy, Litmus Theatre, and Peter Genoway shared their work with the room. The works varied in stages of development. Each one was drastically different from the next. The room was packed with artists which made the event a great networking opportunity for everyone. I could tell there were people in the room who have been returning to WORKplay for years. Workhouse has created a community of artists, it seems, who get together regularly to explore and develop new works. They are a leading example, for Newborn, of artists who work for and with other artists. They were also, consequently, the nicest room of people I've ever walked in to. Workhouse Theatre is premiering Gwen Powers, a piece by Michael Goldlist, at The Theatre Passe Murraille backspace this coming March. For more information on WORKplay and their 2013 season, visit their website: http://www.workhousetheatre.com/ Kenneth T. Williams is an award winning Cree playwright and filmmaker from the George Gordon First Nation. He is the first person of "Indigenous extraction" to earn an M.F.A in playwriting from the University of Alberta.* If you live in Toronto you may have heard of or seen his show Thunderstick playing at The Free Gallery this month. Previous to his work reaching Toronto, however, Cree playwright Kenneth T. Williams has made himself known as the "Feral Playwright" on the Westcoast with works including Gordon Winter, Cafe Daughter and Three Little Birds. Williams has also released a number of works for young audiences including an adaptation of Are We There Yet, a play teaching adolescents about making sexual decisions. I admit, I had never heard of Williams before his show premiered in Toronto. After reading Thunderstick and being moved by the unusual relationship between Jacob and Issac, I decided to share his name with all of you and hopefully inspire you to explore his work. Upon reading the piece, I was struck by the motif of imprisonment. William's characters are confined by their upbringing. Their struggles with paternal figures growing up have restricted them in adulthood and Williams uses images of deduction such as a jail cell or Jacob's first line "I am a paramecium" to explore the ways in which these characters face their restrictions. Furthermore, Williams is funny. His work has a gentle poetry to it but, all in all, his characters are really funny. If you haven't heard of him before, join us next week at The Free Gallery for Thunderstick (Closing Feb. 2). You can also find most of his works published. Williams also has Deserters opening in April as a Native Earth Performing Arts production. For a wonderful Globe and Mail article on Williams: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/as-idle-no-more-heats-up-cree-playwright-kenneth-t-williams-descends-on-toronto/article7540876/ *http://www.nativeearth.ca/ne/kenneth-t-williams-artist-profile/ (Jan 24, 2013) |
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