Accepting the “Not Quite”

News, ,

Sometimes things don’t work out the way you’d hoped.

Some of you may know that I had designs on jumping into the lip-synch craze with a bunch of fellow female playwrights.  I was supposed to be filming this Sunday… downtown… but there’s a MARATHON, my choreographer got ill, and I had to make the tough decision to cancel postpone the project.

But I want to take a moment to talk about the theatre that was going to host us this Sunday – The Los Angeles Theatre Center!

I worked at the LATC from 2008 – 2009.  I came on as an intern, and then Artistic Director Jose Luis Valenzuela gave me the wonderful opportunity to stay on as Literary Manager.  I learned so much working at that beautiful theatre, and I fell in love with their mission of producing work by theatrically under-represented peoples.

And this Spring, they are featuring FOUR new works by female playwrights!

  • Shades * World Premiere*  March 21 – April 14th
    Written by Paula J. Caplan. Directed by Jon Lawrence RiveraIt’s 1997, the Hale-Bopp comet zooms overhead, casting its magical glow over a time of relative peace in the U.S. An American family is both haunted and strengthened by its generations of service at home and on the front lines. The politics of war, race, and sex collide with echoes of the past in this compelling drama about what happens to family ties when oppositional politics threaten to tear them apart. Witnesses to life’s fleeting nature, each must take action now or risk losing all. A play about discovering the path to love, laughter, and even some peace beneath the ruins of war. Recipient of the Inaugural Pen & Brush Award for Playwriting.
  • Habitat  *L.A. Premiere* April 12 – May 12th
    Written by Judith Thompson. Directed by Jose Luis ValenzuelaJanet and her mother Margaret both live on Mapleview Lanes – the perfect neighborhood until Lewis Chance buys a house on their street to open a group home for troubled adolescents. Raine, unable to respond emotionally when her mother dies, finds herself at this group home, in a community that has little tolerance for its newest residents. The ensuing battle – over whether the group home stays or not – allows Raine to re-awaken her emotions through rage, and a political will she didn’t know that she possessed.
  • The Anatomy of Gazellas  *World Premiere* April 25 – May 12th
    Written by Janine Salinas Schoenberg. Directed by Jon Lawrence RiveraAlex, a mysterious teen, arrives at a transitional house for young women run by a charismatic Evangelical leader. As the two women struggle to understand each other, Doña Lydia becomes more determined to save the young girl from herself.  But Alex has already devised her own plan for salvation with the help of her imaginary friends.
  • Beautiful *World Premiere* May 23 – June 16th
    Written and performed by Jozanne Marie. Directed by Geoff RivasBeautiful is a solo play about a young girl, an island, and a secret that begs to be told. Told through the spoken word poetry of international artist Jozanne Marie, this harrowing coming of age story will stay with you long after you leave the theater.

Please support this amazing theatre, and enjoy the amazing shows, the beautiful interior, and the four fabulous stages of the Los Angeles Theatre Center!

~Tiffany Antone ~

Happy Anniversary LAFPI!

LAFPI, Uncategorized

It’s been 3 years since March 6, 2010 started it all for us…  

Read Laura Shamas and Jennie Webb’s blog article about our beginnings and Laura’s article “Taking Stock“.  

Here’s to this year being better than the last for women in theater!

 

International Women’s Day – March the 8th

Uncategorized

Women'sDay

Laura Shamas suggested that this week’s blogger write something about International Women’s Day.  I didn’t know that there was one and went to Wikipedia (where else) to find out something about it.

The entry is complicated and long and not very well written and I’ll have to take more  time to understand the history of the Day, which started in the Soviet Union, and then spread to Eastern European countries and the rest of the world.

In dozens of countries, some of which observe the day as a holiday, women have used IWD to agitate for equal rights in every aspect of a woman’s life –  the right to vote, to hold public office, to end sexual exploitation and employment sex discrimination.  In the Soviet Union, it was also a day in which to thank women for their heroism and selflessness in World War II.

In 1977, the United Nations formally proclaimed March the 8th as International Women’s Day –  a day for women’s rights and world peace.

Shockingly, human trafficking is the second most profitable business enterprise in the world, just behind the Drug Trade and ahead of Arms Sales.  The U.N., which has given each year a slogan, perhaps acknowledging that, calls 2013 a year in which “A Promise is a Promise:  Time for Action to End Violence Against Women.”

Today, the day before IWD, is a good day for women in the U.S..  President Obama just signed a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which has been extended to cover Native Americans, Immigrants, and Gays.  The renewed law makes it easier to prosecute crimes against women in federal court, and provides such services as domestic abuse hotlines and shelters for battered women.

“All women deserve the right to live free from fear,” Obama said during a signing ceremony at the Interior Department. “That’s what today is about.”

A day for hope.

Violence Against Women Act

What if there was an International Men’s Day, I thought to myself?  Would that mean that we had achieved parity?  Turns out there is one.  Founded in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999, to encourage good role models, gender equality, and men’s health, it has now spread to 60 countries.

And that’s a good sign, too.

The Blank Living Room Series

Uncategorized
The Living Room Series
The Living Room Series

Tonight, my romantic comedy, The Piaggi Suite, is having a staged reading at The Blank theater in Hollywood.  The reading is part of the Monday night Living Room Series of new plays the Blank has been hosting on its 2nd Stage since 1991.

The plays are free (suggested donation $10) to the public.  The actors have books in hand but give a sense of how the plays would be in full production.

I have been reading for the series for several years, turned on to it by fellow lafpier, Sara Israel.

I have been so fortunate with Piaggi, a play that is close to my heart.   It has incidental music and I looked for a long time for a composer who liked the piece and wanted both to write for it and promote it as well.  Ignoring the scoffers and the supercilious, who said, “bigcheap?”, I posted  on the big cheap list and found Andy Chukerman who wrote some lovely music and got us this gig tonight.

This is just part of his resume: Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award and the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award as composer/co-lyricist of the musical, “The Princess and the Black-Eyed Pea”, Andrew Chukerman works extensively in film, television, theater, and concert work, as a composer, orchestrator, music director, and keyboardist.

He also worked with the Blank producers and found the BEST DIRECTOR AND CAST I have seen in a long time.

I’m posting the names of the cast.  If you are ever looking for first rate people, here they are:  Lisa Zane, Maura Knowles,  Megan Moran, Chris Devlin,  David Lago, J.P. Karliak, Peter Katona,  Julie Garnye  and  Mary Carrig.

David Glenn Armstrong, the director, is from New York, in town visiting his brother and putting this up for fun.  Instantly likeable, he accomplished miracles in three very short days.  Efficient, specific, encouraging and engaging, he moved nine actors around a small space and encouraged everyone to play, play, play.

David has staged over 160 productions/workshops seen in 49 states.  He has also worked extensively with Sheldon Harnick and just finished working with him on a new musical.  (Kitty!  Sheldon Harnick is 88 and still going strong.)

So, I’m looking forward to tonight but the best part has already happened.  I haven’t been happy with the ending of the play for sometime.   Voila!  David found me a new one and the rewrite is on.

PiaggiBlank

Back Row:  Lisa Zane, Chris Devlin, David Glenn Armstrong, David Lago, John Paul Karliak, Maura M. Knowles

Front Row:  Mary Carrig, Andy Chukerman, Diane Grant, Julie Garnye, Megan Moran, Peter Katona

 

 

Sigh

Uncategorized, , ,

I hate writing about this. But it should be known that the Great Plains Theatre Conference has become a much lesser plains for the ladies.

I’m a big fan of GPTC. My play KIGALI was chosen several years ago to be one of the mainstage shows. I had an entire week to work on rewrites, working with terrific director Sonia Keffer and wonderful actors like Amy Lane and Terry Brannen. A year later, I was invited back to give feedback to other actors and hear another great reading of my short play TOP OF THE HOUR.

I didn’t apply this year. It’s just as well, apparently.

That first year I participated, more than half the shows chosen for mainstage readings – five of the eight chosen that year – were written by women. This year, there is just one play by a female writer on the mainstage. 26 other writers were invited to participate in the conference PlayLabs. Of them, seven are women.

And this in the year GPTC is honoring the wonderful writer Connie Congdon.

Artistic leaders say the selections are blind.

I don’t argue for a quota system. But when the numbers look like this, it begs a closer look at who is making those blind selections. And what criterea they are using. How blind is blind?

Or perhaps it just means we don’t write very well.

Dangerous Influences

Uncategorized, ,

They always talk about how violent films and video games affect the minds of young people. What about those of us with older minds? How affected are we writers by what we watch?

For me, the answer is “quite a lot.” And I found out the hard way.

I’m writing a rom/com.

I deserve it. I’ve been slogging through heavy pieces on election violence in Kenya and the LA Riots and racism in Dutch holiday traditions. I’ve written about the Metrolink disaster and my own version of what REALLY happened in the 1960’s when racial covenants were thrown out.

I wanted to write a comedy. A romantic comedy. And set it in a very specific place that most people would find fascinating.

I was having a marvelous time, writing way too many pages for the first act, not caring, just wanting to plow through to the end before editing myself. I had characters I loved, a great design concept, dialogue that flew off the keyboards.

And then I watched “House of Cards” on Netflix.

It’s very good and it’s great fun to see them pass Baltimore off as Washington, DC. But it’s dark, cynical, rather depressing at times. And it began to cling to me and my writing like cat hair.

All the joy I felt when I sat down flew out the window as I tried to be “adult” and “serious.” I became embarrassed about “only” writing a rom/com. My characters embarrassed me. I stopped writing. It wasn’t fun to sit down with them anymore. It was downright depressing.

Finally, I told my husband that we had to stop watching “House of Cards.” Later, we can watch it later. It was eating up my writing mojo. My husband, a writer of books on serious subjects like preventing nuclear war completely understood.

And it’s working. I’ve started watching BBC rom/coms about Scottish restauranteurs who return to the castle to become the “laird” and any movie with Colin Firth. I’m listening to music that makes me happy, reminds me of those first few months of absolute joy and craziness when I first fell in love, I’ve stopped apologizing for my work. I’m actually looking forward to sitting down with my characters again.

What about you? How much of your writing is influenced by what you’re watching, reading, listening to at the same time that you’re writing? Do you have a soundtrack for each play?

Writing “Crazy”…

LAFPI, playwriting, , , , , , , , , ,

I have been working on writing “crazy”.  There has to be a way to write it where it can be intense and alive off the page.  Not the crazy way out there kind of crazy but the almost perfectly sane, breaking beneath the surface kind of crazy.  I have been working internally on this for over a year now because I don’t really rewrite and know that if I haven’t solved it inside, it ain’t coming out any time soon.  Yes, I said it.  I am one of those.  I am not completely averse to rewriting but I haven’t had a play to date that has warranted me rewriting it.  I do tweak here and there.  My plays live internally so long that by the time they come bursting out I am in need of some serious Kegel exercises to get myself back to the place where I can begin again – conceiving/growing another play…  I have never seen a parent of a new born cutting limbs and shoving things in odd places on their newborn so I can’t see doing it to mine…  The sheer exhaustion of pushing out a play is enough to make me feel “crazy” without reorganizing parts. Never apologize for how you get the words to your page.  I am a firm believer that one of the things that makes Art – art, is how it is filtered through the artist…

I have heard Edward Albee say the following in person regarding rewrites:

Edward Albee: I don’t rewrite. Well, not much. I think I probably do all the rewriting that I’m going to do before I’m aware that I’m writing the play because obviously, the creativity resists — resides — in the unconscious, right? Probably resists the unconscious, too — resides in the unconscious. My plays, I think, are pretty much determined before I become aware of them. I think they formulated there, and then they move into the conscious mind, and then onto the page. By the time I’m willing to commit a play to paper, I pretty much know — or can trust — the characters to write the play for me. So, I don’t impose. I let them have their heads and say and do what they want, and it turns out to be a play.

You can read the rest of this interview at the Academy of Achievement website : http://achievement.org/autodoc/page/alb1int-4

I adore Edward Albee.  He’s a big reason why I work so hard on my craft.

Back to writing “crazy” – I saw “Silver Linings Playbook” today (David O. Russell, screenplay; Matthew Quick, novel, also directed by Russell).  What awesome writing! What a story…  The different levels and forms of crazy that people can be…it was like being in a “how to” seminar. And, the actors were phenomenal – all of them. This film answered a lot of questions about how “crazy” can be realized through story fearlessly.

Regarding my story — the one I need to write crazy in — I was afraid to let Valpecula have her full say…afraid I would edit her before her words could find air — something I never want to find myself doing because then, I’d have to rewrite.

Here’s to “crazy” and writing it fearlessly…

Got Rights?

playwriting, , , , , , ,
Erica Bennett
Erica Bennett

Gary Garrison, David Faux, Seth Cotterman and Amy Von Vett came to visit and a wonderful time was had by all!

Last Saturday at the DG’s Saturday event, I was met by the irrepressible Larry Dean Harris with a hug. Then Gary opened the session with a town hall meeting where he encouraged and cajoled and reminded us his team is there for each and every one of us, from contracts to advice to the members only portion of the DG website. Specifically, he reminded us, he cannot help, if he doesn’t know; if we don’t tell him. I was helped immensely by David Faux several years ago during a difficult time. Saturday made me proudly remember I am a member of a community and not just writing alone in my far corner of the world.

Gary also discussed the first national DG conference last year in Virginia and promoted the second coming up this August in Chicago. Much of the content will be streamed so even those of us who cannot make the trip, can watch a portion of the conference. And he announced the 2015 conference will be held in Los Angeles!

I attended David Faux’ break-out session on the business of playwriting where he broke down the DG Bill of Rights into witty, passionate and accessible terms and answered many questions. If you’ve not read the DG Bill of Rights, here is the link: http://www.dramatistsguild.com/billofrights/. Take the time to read it. It is who you are; a professional. I needed to be reminded. I find it difficult to stand up for my rights. But stand up I will. It’s funny. I realized, if I don’t demand a professional contract, why should anybody else treat me as one?

Oh, then lunch. I cannot say enough about the kindness of Ebony Rep/Nate Holden Performing Arts Center and their volunteer run snack bar. The turkey sandwich with the added slice of apple was simply delicious!

Thank you so much for a marvelous afternoon and for bringing me back to the fold. 🙂

 

Permission to Say…

Playwright, playwriting,

“You have to give yourself permission to say…” Theresa Rebeck

As a writer, “you have to give yourself permission to say” whatever needs to be said to tell the story – striving always not to sensor the authentic truth of the story.  Don’t sensor yourself.  It’s hard enough to release the flow of words from their birthing chamber without changing them as soon as they reach the light of day for fear of how they might be received.  Fearlessness is needed, as well as being honest in the writing and having confidence in your voice as a writer…

This is what I got from the conversation with Theresa Rebeck  at the Dramatists Guild Symposium on Saturday.  She was quite fascinating…

Creativity and Life: A Love Story

Uncategorized

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” ― Martha Graham

I am at work turning a play of mine into a screenplay — or rather, using the play as a loose basis for a screenplay.  I’m writing about a writer having a crisis of heart and of faith.  She yearns for a larger, more “important” meaning in her life and is convinced it lies outside of herself, outside her small apartment.  She doesn’t know where, but it’s certainly not on the hard drive of her computer.  She’s tested; she has an epiphany; she’s tested some more.  Someone dies, something in her dies and she is reborn and realizes that everything she has to give the world lies within herself.

“We must cultivate our gardens.” — Voltaire, Candide.

Along the way, my heroine sheds certain habits that don’t serve her.  She stops cooking compulsively and does things that don’t necessarily feel comfortable, like spending the day with a slightly douche-y neighbor (with whom she ultimately falls in love).  As for me, there are several ways I manage to avoid writing.  In my last blog post I talked about spending the day helping some Chihuahuas fly across the country.  Easier and less gut-wrenching avoidance tactics include living out the fabulous lives of Facebook acquaintances, obsessively browsing casting breakdowns, and organizing my face products.  As my heroine is on the brink of change, I cling to these habits even more tightly.  I write a word, I check Facebook.  I eek out a sentence; I forage through the fridge.  Fear grips me — fear of moving into uncharted territory, fear of being called talentless, fear of not finding my mascara minutes before a date.

“In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude. But with action came anxiety, and the sense of insuperable effort made to match the dream, and with it came weariness, discouragement, and the flight into solitude again. And then in solitude, in the opium den of remembrance, the possibility of pleasure again.”  — Anais Nin

Like my heroine, I know I have to move past these habits.  I have to sit down and let the story write itself.  It feels like a mythical match of wills because in some way it is: love versus fear, three-headed demons that grunt and shuffle versus incandescent fairies that fly, life versus death.  I know this.  I also know I have no choice.  If I want to tell this story, I have to sit down, move out of the way, and let it happen on its own.

“Creativity takes courage. ”  —  Henri Matisse

I force myself.  It’s one of those do-or-die moments.  Did I mention this story is slightly autobiographical?  My heroine doesn’t make a casserole.  I don’t check Facebook.  I realize there’s nowhere to go, that this is life, right here in this moment and on this page.  I realize this just as she finds peace and solace in her life.  Or maybe she came first?  It’s impossible to know.  One informs the other in a beautiful, terrifying, life-altering dance that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.  The fact is, everything that comes after — for her and for me — is gravy.  We had to do this.  We were called forth, our destinies inextricably linked.

I’m thinking next time I’ll write about a five year-old boy.