All posts by Constance Strickland

All Hail Fringe Femmes! Meet Rasika Mathur

playwriting

By Constance Strickland

This Fringe season welcomes a thrilling group of women from varied backgrounds and experiences, making this an exciting and by far one of the most diverse Hollywood Fringe Festivals ever! I wanted to take this week to share the voices of these women who will be sharing pieces of themselves this June at a variety of local theatres along Theatre Row.  Today I am ecstatic to present the resilient, vibrant and hysterical returning fringe femme Rasika Mathur!

Fringe Alum Rasika Mathur in Psychodelicate’s Magical Mystery Comedy Show

This was the one month death anniversary of Larry Harvey, the founder of the Burning      Man Festival. And I wasn’t sad because I knew that he got to live a full life and give it all away and that made me feel so good, that his body could be free of pain. He basically had a terrible breakup as a young man and then decided at his breaking point to build a       wooden effigy of a man and burn it in a bonfire, a few close friends as witness. He asked      they bring something to also toss into the fire. The next year they did it at the beach, and 88 people showed up! It got some attention and every year it grew until they realized it was growing too big for the city of San Francisco. So every year thereafter, an entirely new city and culture are born once a year for 10 days out in Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

 

And what I learned from this playful, magical, synchronistic, art-nature- spirituality-inspired, “hunger games” dress code-having, “leave no trace” and let it all burn in the fire philosophy-spreading movement, was to bring that sense of play out there out into this world and share it every day. Not just perpetuate stories about drugs and being naked. Though on the right drugs out there you can indeed learn to embrace yourself as a naked being. Primal, warty and all! Over there, two people on bikes crash into each other, dust themselves off and hug. And I’m sure there are fewer and fewer people who can ignore, optimally function and/or abide by what is happening more and more at this very dark moment in our country’s political climate. It’s clear we could all use some Appreciation for Life, Childlike Wonder and Inner Peace.

Creatress, Producer, Performer and Fellow Burner Alayha Aquarian, in Psychodelicate’s Magical Mystery Comedy Show is “here now to spread the good news of the Multiverse, opening hearts and expanding minds through interdimensional travel demonstration and practicum.” We are all fools bringing the feeling of Utopian inclusivity complete with sound bath, metaphysics, and a clown band to a small black box theater on Santa Monica Blvd.

 

For myself, I will be having an existential crisis, but as my longtime performed spinster (but don’t tell her that) character Nilam Auntie. It leads to a nervous breakdown. And in classic Rasika fashion, I turn to you, my audience, to participate in evoking her healing. Last year, I was new to Hollywood Fringe, and as a scholarship winner for my OWS Hey Hollywood, My Hustle Has ADHD, I felt like “Wow, I’m worthy of my misfit story also belong on stage! I wanted to cast my audience to go on my horrible and hilarious self-revealing journey with me. People would play my dad and imagine themselves as dads, it was insane! And Alayha was there on my closing night, cast as “The Understudy” and she lit up!

I love Fringe’s ability to do that. To keep lighting the candle for each other, and making you see yourself in these other amazing women, doing things that we maybe hadn’t dreamed possible before since all my idols growing up were men. Women who lit the Fringe candle for me: Deana Barone (2016’s Metafam, also Directed and Developed ADHD), Lauren Flans (her shows ALWAYS sell out before May 1-also interactive theater) Chris Farah, Miss FANCY! Herself. Chris was my mentor – and this year, I now mentor scholarship winner, Camille Jenkins, Producer, Director and Playwright of “The Goddesses Guide: Adura for the Women of African Diaspora.” So many stories that need to be told.  In June there’s no place I’d rather be than Los Angeles. Because it’s summer, the theater kids have come out to play, and that sets the stage for all kinds of ✨magic✨

 

Written, Performed & Co-Directed by Alayha Aquarian “Psychodelicate”
Co-Directed/Co-Created by Jessica Lynn Johnson
Cast Hymnal, Joe Borfo, Princess Giggles, & Brother Silence, Matthew Godfrey, Grayson Morris, Alan Rich, Michael Soldati, Steve Chang, Rasika Mathur, Josh Berkowitz, Corina, Niaz Navidi, Em Hoggett, Richard Michael Johnson, Jennifer Jonassen, James Kyson, Helene Udy, Jacqi Bowe, Kina Sinewave, Sierra Sullivan, Paul Reimers, Maxwell Rich, Michael Rayner!

 

“PSYCHODELICATE’S MAGICAL MYSTERY COMEDY SHOW” opens May 31st @ 7 pm at Studio C.  Tickets and more information: http://hff18.org/4958

All Hail Fringe Femmes! Meet Camille Jenkins

playwriting,

By Constance Strickland

This Fringe season welcomes a thrilling group of women from varied backgrounds and experiences, making this an exciting and by far one of the most diverse Hollywood Fringe Festivals ever! I wanted to take this week to share the voices of these women who will be sharing pieces of themselves this June at a variety of local theatres along Theatre Row.  Today I welcome the powerful and poetically gifted Camille Jenkins to the blog, where she reveals how her show manifested.

Conjuring up “The Goddesses Guide: Adura for the Women of African Diaspora”

The Goddesses Guide first appeared in my consciousness like a dream that lingered in my mind the next day. It’s whispers echoed around my head, buzzed through my thoughts. What is it that you want Camille? What art do you want to see in the world? How can I create it? Am I able to manifest this dream?

The answers to those questions were discovered upon reflection of my own identity. My identity as a black person in a predominately white society, as a woman finding her voice, as a human in a beautiful mad world. A human who is searching for their own palace of peace and empathy like anyone else. A human who realizes that art is one of the biggest, if not the biggest vehicle for understanding in this world.

Ahh there it is. That buzz, that whisper. Identity, black women, a search, a journey. Then out of those themes came: Africa, Yoruba, Orishas, Goddesses. And still more: empowerment, divinity, consciousness, peace.

I believe that theatre is a continuum of ancient rituals. In this play, summoning the past to converse with the present brings new perspectives on the experience of black women in America. This play is a love letter to black women and all people who support our search for individuality, mindfulness, empathy, and freedom.

I invite you into the world of The Goddesses. It may surprise you with the ways in which their world reflects your own.

“The Goddesses Guide” opens June 22nd at The New Collective.  Tickets and more information: http://hff18.org/4934

All Hail Fringe Femmes! Meet Ayesha Siddiqui

playwriting,

By Constance Strickland

This Fringe season welcomes a thrilling group of women from varied backgrounds and experiences, making this an exciting and by far one of the most diverse Hollywood Fringe Festivals ever! I wanted to take this week to share the voices of these women who will be sharing pieces of themselves this June on a myriad of local theatre stages.  I introduce you to a playwright whose writing style is delicate, distinctive and unique… Ayesha Siddiqui!

Coming Full Circle with #FringeFemmes for “Baba, Jee (Father, Yes)”

As I sat in the Green Room at Samuel French this past Saturday for the annual Fringe Femmes Gathering, I was struck that just a year ago, I was in this room for the very same event. I remember walking in and noting that the space was filled almost entirely with women, all of whom appeared to have shows in the Fringe. As I walked to the stage to drop my Micro-Read off, I was awed that an entire table was covered in show postcards exclusively by female playwrights. I shyly introduced myself and the work I had brought, picked up as many postcards as I could hold, and left the event feeling hopeful. “So much work by women,” I kept thinking, “Maybe next year that could even be me.”

The week after the Fringe Femmes Gathering, I felt inspired to write a one-act play called Baba, Jee (Father, Yes in Urdu.) The show is based on the true story of the time my dad came to visit from Pakistan and stayed with my boyfriend and me in our tiny New York City apartment. Then Hurricane Sandy struck, and we were all trapped inside for days. The setting felt perfect to explore themes of culture, belonging, and the experience of being a bi-racial, white passing woman in America. Yet when I first decided to do the Fringe earlier this year, I wondered who I was to even be taking this on. It felt daunting.

But as I walked into the Fringe Femmes Gathering on Saturday, I felt so much more confident dropping my Micro-Read off. A year ago, I would have never imagined myself capable of writing, producing, and acting in my own work. This is due, in part, to the LA FPI community and the willing help and expertise I have found within. So many Fringe veterans were ready to read my script, provide advice on producing, and answer questions. It is not always easy – your inner critic and self-doubt are loud. I often wonder if my work is too female, too much, too rooted to my own life and experience. And yet, as I sat in the Green Room looking to the stage, I heard unique, female voices writing to share, connect, expose, push, and to take our rightful space. The Fringe Femmes event was and is a reminder of why we do this. After all, a year ago I left so inspired that I wrote a little play.

“Baba, Jee (Father, Yes)” is a Hollywood Fringe Scholarship Winner, opening June 4th @ 7pm at Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre. Tickets and more information: http://hff18.org/4943 

Authenticity

Performance, Performing Arts, Play, Playwright, playwriting, Theatre, Women, , ,

by Constance Strickland

Authenticity: Letting the work go.

This is the word that I have lived with and tried to honor over the past few months. The word has become an ode of sorts as my theatre company’s new piece Medea: A Soliloquy or the Death of Medea has undergone a workshop.

Theatre Roscius is me. Although I am lucky to have a loving partner whose consistent help is often needed – for as we know in the theatre the work is continuous, at times overwhelming, when trying to do so much alone, no matter how satisfying or beyond worth the work is.

Entering my first workshop, the process has been a gift as well as a huge adjustment for an independent theatre artist who produces work not so easily defined, who has no artistic home. Nor are there consistent sponsors, donors or a team with whom I work with on a daily basis. Nor is my theatre company a nonprofit… so I’ve learned to do the work my way by any means necessary. Which has its faults while allowing room for magic to manifest in an organic fashion that lacks structure.

Yet the workshop process requires order, roles, structure… all that do not necessarily come together when you are playing all the roles. I have gotten used to writing, producing, directing along with acting in my work. When the work takes a toll on the self it does not allow your best work to shine through. One can also miss what makes theatre so beautiful: The collaboration, the merging and discovery of ideas.

So I have practiced during this workshop giving the work away in order to let it fly. It has not been easy. I have had to ask myself if I am trusting enough? Am I giving pieces of myself, money, giving time, taking time and not trusting the ensemble and director fully? Will I allow the director’s vision to flourish?  Can I allow the piece to develop beyond my images? It has not been easy for me to answer these questions.

During these forty plus fast paced hours of workshop development, the script has morphed into many faces, with the dialogue and movement just beginning to mold as well as fuse into one, yet the conversation is still being had between the two. I have discovered my strengths as an actor, producer and writer. I’m quick on my feet, my body is strong, I give 110% to the space and can adapt to direction. I have also been told and found my weaknesses. As an actor I can be easily distracted, as a playwright I can be defensive and as a producer I procrastinate and can lead with fear instead of fearlessness.  

Workshop is a rigorous process that has allowed the play to reveal itself in many forms that could not have manifested without the players bodies or our director’s leadership. I reached out to everyone I knew. One woman whom I had never encountered before responded to my email, met, and agreed to helm the work. I’ve learned from this gesture deeply when approaching the work inside and out.

Ultimately as playwright I’m excited, uncomfortable, and honored that our director Caitlin Hart, Artistic Director of the Vagrancy Theatre Company along with the players: Carolyn Deskin, Madison Nelson and Meredith Brown have embarked on this experiment together and that we will have a chance to share Medea with an invited audience. This opportunity to hear feedback from audience members on January 22nd after sixty-two hours of development will be quite rewarding. 

As the new year approaches I will not let fear lead the work. None of us must. So let us all Go Big & Be Fearless this 2018!

Constance

Encore! of “No Traveler: A Comedy About Suicide”

Female Artists, Fringe Festival, Play, Playwright, playwriting, Production, , , , ,

by Guest Blogger Constance Strickland

IMG_0450-1We rarely find ourselves aware that every 12.95 minutes a human being commits suicide… unless we experience it directly.

Penny Pollak is a wonderful physical performer who, in her solo show “No Traveler,” combines intensity and prowess as well as having the ability to seem familiar. Watching Penny, you recognize the girl drinking too much who can’t seem to finish the puzzle, you recognize the pain of feeling completely lost. Then all of a sudden you find yourself laughing because that, too, is what occurs when we we are able to step outside ourselves and can see the bigger picture – we laugh, for we have found the humor within our pain.

“No Traveler” reveals what Hell sounds like, how glorious Heaven will ring upon our arrival and the questions that can arise if we find ourselves in Purgatory. Penny goes in between characters with stealth and ease and has a great co-actor in a vintage metal bucket onstage; it was a pleasure to see the bucket have a life of its own – I fully heard it talking.

What “No Traveler” does also does quite powerfully is remind us to listen, really listen, to those around us for we just may have the chance to save a life.

This piece can take many forms from an installation piece to theatrical staging so it will be quite interesting and beautiful to see it adapted into a feature film!

“No Traveler” is receiving one Encore! performance on Friday, July 3rd, 8pm at the Complex Theatres. Info Here: theencoreawards.com/projects/2385

A few numbers to call if someone you know needs to talk:

Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Crisis Line
877.727.4747
caring counselors are available to talk 24/7

Teens Helping Teens
(310) 855-HOPE or (800) TLC-TEEN [toll-free in CA]
from 6pm to 10pm PST

No Traveler: A Comedy About Suicide
Written & Performed by Penny Pollack
Directed by Lindsey Hope Pearlman
Lights & Sound by luckydave
Music by Mike Milazzo & Lee Goffin-Bonefant