Stage Voices

EXCLUSIVE: READ FREE EXCERPT FROM JOANNE BRASIL’S NOVEL ‘BIG MAMMA’S #1 WITH COLESLAW, TO GO’

Thanks so much for visiting Stage Voices for the latest in Theatre news and writing. Currently, we are privileged to be offering a free chapter from playwright JoAnne Brasil’s first novel--in a series of four--called Big Mamma’s #1 with Coleslaw, To Go.

The revised and expanded edition is set in Phoebus, a small military town in southeastern Virginia and told by the narrator and protagonist Cecelia O’Malley.  As the inside cover of the original novel puts it, “Raised by the Irish immigrant owners of Billy’s Bar-B-Que . . . Cecyl escapes after high school graduation and moves to Boston where she supports herself by working as a janitor. Ill-prepared for the larger world of late 1960’s America . . . Cecyl is usually caught off-guard, but she always rebounds with a tenacity and love that draw us to her spirit.”

Originally titled Escape from Billy’s Bar-b-que--the book went into a second printing--Alice Walker (author of the Pulitzer winner, The Color Purple)--who published the work through her Wild Trees Press in 1985—has written “To those who have wanted to dismantle racial pigeonholes and leap over social barriers in a single bound, this book will offer special insight and encouragement.” 

Additional praise includes:

“This is a novel written the way people talk. That leads us into the way people feel, and we are rewarded with one woman’s story and a valuable reminder that hearts and times do change—and for the better.”--Gloria Steinem 

“This fragile novel packs a surprising wallop you’ll feel for a long time afterward.”--Patricia Holt, the San Francisco Chronicle

“Brasil has written a brilliant story about the way people talk, the way they feel and, as Cecyl puts it, the way they should ‘treat each other normal’.”--Publishers Weekly

 “Cecyl is funny and sad, brave and devastatingly honest. JoAnne Brasil is uncompromising and true. So is her brave heroine.”--Dorothy Bryant (self-published Berkeley literary icon)

“Off-beat Characters on the Mark. . . . Brasil’s story is both hopeful and convincing, and given the size of the social walls Cecyl runs into this is no small accomplishment . . . perceptive and well-written. . . . ”--Daily Californian (UC Berkeley paper)

JoAnne Brasil is a writer living in Salem, MA. She’s worked as a news reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer in Brattleboro, VT, was a letter-writer for Smithsonian, wrote an astrology column for Poets & Writers magazine, and was the host of a Sunday morning radio program for WBUR Public Radio in Boston. She has written numerous plays, scripts and short stories, and is now in the process of completing the third in the Escape from Billy’s Bar-B-Que novels.

Copyright 2013, JoAnne Brasil. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

For rights inquiries contact: Bobjshuman@gmail.com

Visit JoAnne Brasil’s Web site: http://www.joannebrasil.org/

JoAnne Brasil at Hildegard's Wander Theater: http://wandertheater.org/index.htm

Photos: Top of page, German production of The Wander Theater:  JoAnne Brasil (r) and actor Andrea Rump (l) at the Project Theater (it was part of the Dresden Yiddish Theater and Music Week). Above, American production: JoAnne Brasil (r) and Georgette Beck (l) in front of the Griffen Theater in Salem, MA. Photos courtesy of JoAnne Brasil.

BOOK: APPLAUSE TO RELEASE 'PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE: MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS AGES 7-15', JUNE 2013

(From Broadway World, 4/30.)

Kids today face a different world-and a different set of challenges-than did the children of even 15 years ago. Young actors need a highly diversified selection of monologues to choose from when studying, practicing, or auditioning for theatre.

Playing with a Purpose: Monologues for Kids Ages 7-15 (June 2013, $16.99), from Applause Books' well-known One on One monologue series, fills a pressing need for a new volume of monologues that convey a worldview that kids can more easily relate to. In the introduction, the editors state:

"Ingenious directors, teachers, and parents have put youth theatre together in their communities, passing strong speeches along and compiling notebooks, but core work is scattered everywhere.Monologues, those delicate objects of passion, anger, heartbreak, or whimsy, are like the theatre itself; they exist in the present moment and can become unobtainable because of rights issues or mere neglect. Beautiful pieces from the past can be lost as new work, new plays, new artists take their places. Reclaiming this material was part of our task, much like locating a forgotten folk- or fairytale or finding a melody heard long ago."

Playing with a Purpose includes monologues from the ancient Greeks and Shakespeare; other classics like Lewis Carroll, James Joyce, and Mark Twain; contemporary dramatists including realist Carson McCullers and magical realist José Rivera; plays based on literature like Treasure Island and Roald Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World; and even monologues written by middle school students who worked with theatre artists from the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.

Playing with a Purpose will be released on June 18, 2013.

9781557838414
Paperback
$16.99
256 pages
5.25" x 7.75"
Applause Books,
an imprint of Hal Leonard

Stephen Fife (Santa Monica, CA) has written extensively about actor training for the New York Times, Village Voice, American Theatre, and many other publications; he has also worked with kids as an acting teacher/coach, writing teacher, and stage director over a period of 37 years, in a variety of different formats and programs in the New York City and Los Angeles areas. For the last five years, he has worked directly with kids in his company, the Young Actors Workshop.

Bob Shuman (New York City) is the owner of the Marit Literary Agency and the theater website Stage Voices, as well as a publisher, a playwright, and currently a professor at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. He is a recipient of Hunter College's Irv Zarkower Award for excellence in playwriting and is a fellow of the Obie-winning Lark Theater Company. He is the co-author of Simply Elegant Flowers with Michael George and co-editor of Duo!: The Best Scenes for Two for the 21st Century, One on One: The Best Women's Monologues for the 21stCentury, and One on One: The Best Men's Monologues for the 21st Century. 

View book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Playing-Purpose-Monologues-Applause/dp/1557838410

Read more about Applause to Release PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE: MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS AGES 7-15, June 2013 by broadwayworld.com

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WAGNER CONTROVERSY: OPERA CANCELS HOLOCAUST STAGING OF 'TANNHÄUSER'

 

(from Der Spiegel, 5/9.)

A staging of Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" -- set during the Holocaust and including a gas chamber and a shooting scene -- shocked audience members so badly that some had to be given medical attention. The theater has now cancelled the production out of fear it will damage its artistic reputation.

Düsseldorf's Deutsche Oper am Rhein opera house announced late Wednesday it was cancelling a highly controversial staging of Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" after outraging audiences at its premier on Saturday.

Director Burkhard Kosminski set the production in the time of the Nazi regime in an effort to address the controversial but popular composer's anti-Semitism and the later influence he would have on Nazi ideology. The staging depicted the character Tannhäuser as a Nazi war criminal and it even included a gas chamber on stage.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein said its managers had been conscious ahead of the premier that the production would be controversial. "We are reacting with the utmost concern to the fact that a few scenes, particularly one involving a very realistic depiction of a shooting scene, appears to have created such a strong stress for numerous visitors, both psychological and physical, that they had to receive medical attention afterwards."

(Read more)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/wagner-opera-cancelled-due-to-holocaust-staging-of-tannhaeuser-a-898937.html

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FOREMAN: ‘OLD-FASHIONED PROSTITUTES (A TRUE ROMANCE)’/NADLER: ‘I’M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF’ (REVIEW PICKS, NY)

 

(Michael Feingold’s article appeared in the Village Voice, 5/8.)

Samuel (Rocco Sisto), the central figure of Richard Foreman's new work, Old-Fashioned Prostitutes (A True Romance) (Public Theater), has a problem. Not a major problem—those were dealt with in Foreman's 1993 creation, Samuel's Major Problems. But as usual with Foreman heroes, Samuel's problems, major or minor, come from over-introspection. Like those very early Foreman protagonists
who had trouble just getting through the door, he's often too hung up to move at all. Hence the new piece's many long, loaded silences. Its opening, in fact, is very nearly also its closing: An initial announcement is followed by a moment of dead air, broken by one of Foreman's crash-box effects, and an offstage voice that thunders, "End of play!"

(Read more)

http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-05-08/theater/richard-foreman-and-mark-nadler-revive-tormented-erotic-memories-in-i-m-a-stranger-here-myself/

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NEIL BARTLETT: ‘THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME’ (REVIEW PICK, NY)

(Charles Isherwood’s article appeared in the New York Time, 5/5/13.)

Strange as it may seem in these days of increasingly blurred gender norms, watching a woman dressed as a man singing songs of love for women may actually be a more exotic entertainment today than it was a century ago. In “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” a lovely show that opened on Sunday night at the 59E59 Theaters, the gorgeously gifted singer Jessica Walker and the writer Neil Bartlett conjure a vanished novelty of the theater, the cross-dressing female performers who once fascinated large audiences in England and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

(Read more)

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/theater/reviews/the-girl-i-left-behind-me-at-59e59-theaters.html?_r=0

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HELEN MIRREN EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU

(James Beal’s article appeared in The Sun, 5/6.)

ACTRESS Helen Mirren stormed out of a theatre and swore at noisy street drummers — dressed as the QUEEN.

Astonished onlookers saw the 67-year-old star try to grab the conductor’s arm and heard her yell at the band to “shut the f*** up”.

Then the actress, who plays the monarch in hit play The Audience, went into a tirade on behalf of the theatre-going paying public — who later gave her a standing ovation.

Promoter Joe O’Leary, 32, who was at the drumming parade, said: “She said people had paid ‘a lot of f***ing money’ to watch her show and that we were ‘f***ing ruining it’.

(Read more)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/4916622/helen-mirren-shouts-at-street-band-dresses-as-queen.html#ixzz2STBMRhaR

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DION BOUCICAULT: ‘THE OCTOROON’ (ON BBC RADIO 3, THROUGH 5/12—LINK BELOW)

The Octoroon

By Dion Boucicault
Adapted by Mark Ravenhill

As part of a season of plays curated by playwright Mark Ravenhill, BBC Radio 3 presents new production of Dion Boucicault's 1859 melodrama The Octoroon -... 6 Show more

Drama on 3, Curated by Mark Ravenhill Episode 2 of 3

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

First broadcast: Sunday 05 May 2013

Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s351n

As part of a season of plays curated by playwright Mark Ravenhill, BBC Radio 3 presents new production of Dion Boucicault's 1859 melodrama The Octoroon - a play that sparked debates about the abolition of slavery and the role of theatre in politics. The drama was recorded in front of an audience at Theatre Royal Stratford East, the venue that saw an earlier production of the same play in 1885.

The story centres around the inhabitants of the Louisiana plantation of Terrebonne. Zoe, the "octoroon" of the title, is the daughter of its owner Judge Peyton by one of his slaves, but she has been raised as part of the family. When the Judge dies, the plantation falls into financial ruin and the Judge's handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent. George and Zoe soon find themselves in love, but their future happiness is thrown into jeopardy by the plantation's evil overseer Jacob McLosky who has dastardly designs on both the property and Zoe. McLosky will stop at nothing - not even murder.

Dion Boucicault's play contains all the elements of great melodrama - doomed love, murder, corruption, and live musical accompaniment throughout. When it first opened, two years before the start of the American Civil War, The Octoroon sparked debates about the abolition of slavery and the role of theatre in politics.

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Mrs Peyton .... Barbara Barnes
Sunnyside .... Geoffrey Burton
Jacob M'Closky .... Steven Hartley
Salem Scudder .... Toby Jones
Wahnotee .... Earl Kim
Dora Sunnyside .... Claire Lams
Paul .... John MacMillan
Zoe .... Amaka Okafor
Ratts .... Paul Stonehouse
Pete .... David Webber
George Peyton .... Trevor White

Music composed and performed by Colin Sell

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
Production Co-ordinator: Lesley Allan
Studio Managers: Colin Guthrie, Alison Craig, Steve Oak
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer. 5 Show less

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HARPER LEE, AUTHOR OF 'TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD', SUES LITERARY AGENT

(Paul Harris’s article appeared in the Observer, 5/4.)

Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill A Mockingbird, has sued a literary agent, claiming that he tricked the ageing writer into assigning him copyright on the classic book.

The move marks a rare step into the spotlight for Lee, who is known for keeping a low profile for such a household name, living quietly in a tiny town in the deep south of America and eschewing almost all media requests.

However, in a shock move, 87-year-old Lee has now filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan court alleging that Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's long-time agent, Eugene Winick, tricked Lee into signing over the copyright on the book.

The case claims that Pinkus "engaged in a scheme to dupe" Lee into assigning the copyright without any payment. The ploy is alleged to have taken place in 2007, five years after Winick became ill and Pinkus started diverting some of his clients into his own company. Lee's lawsuit says Pinkus engineered the transfer of Lee's rights to secure himself "irrevocable" interest in the income derived from To Kill A Mockingbird. It adds that he also avoided paying legal obligations that he owed to his father-in-law's company for royalties that Pinkus had allegedly misappropriated.

(Read more)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/04/harper-lee-sues-agent-copyright

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QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES: ‘THE HAPPIEST SONG PLAYS LAST’ (REVIEW PICK, CHI)

 

(Chris Jones’s article appeared in The Chicago Tribune, 4/22.)

"Write about your own life" says many a writing teacher to many a young scribe. Confronted with
that authoritative solipsism, the young writer tends to worry about two things.  First, that my life is not interesting enough to write about, especially not two or three times over. Second, my life is too disconnected, too esoteric, too darn individual to push any kind of universal button and actually mean anything to anyone else.

Well, the compelling argument presented at the Goodman Theatre by "The Happiest Song Plays Last,"
the delightful premiering play by Quiara Alegria Hudes, who won the Pulitzer Prize in drama just last year, would suggest that those writing teachers are exactly right.

Directed in Chicago by Edward Torres, this intensely engaging new drama is very much based on Hudes' own life, composed of a eclectic and unusual set of personal experiences and circumstances that really should not work as a unified play — this thing bounces between Philadelphia and the country of Jordan — but in fact works darn well, precisely because it is an eclectic and unusual set of experiences and circumstances that you could not imagine anyone inventing out of whole cloth. Life really can be better than fiction. And it's good for a liberal writer to have a military guy in the family.

(Read more)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/theaterloop/ct-ent-0423-happiest-song-review-20130422,0,3106029.column

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"BOY, COULD I USE A SHOW TUNE": 'JOEY JOEY JOEY' FROM 'THE MOST HAPPY FELLA'

 

 

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CAT JONES: ‘GLORY DAZED’ (REVIEW PICK, UK)

(Michael Billington’s article appeared in the Guardian, 4/28.)

I first came across Cat Jones's 60-minute play when it was submitted for one of the playwrights' bursaries annually awarded by Pearson. I'm happy to say that this story of a soldier trying to adjust to civilian life after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq proves every bit as gripping on the stage, where it's won prizes on the Edinburgh and Adelaide fringe, as it did on the page.

Given that Jones's play derives from discussions with ex-servicemen doing time in Doncaster, you might expect it to go easy on its screwed-up hero. If anything, it does the reverse, since the returning Ray is seen as a misogynist, racist bully. He hammers on the door of a backstreet pub demanding to be let in just as fiercely as he once battered his ex-wife Carla who is lurking inside. Having gained admission, the blood-spattered Ray not only proves to be on the run: he also locks the doors, and proceeds to intimidate the teenage barmaid and timorous publican, and forcibly try to get Carla to flee to Brighton with him and their two children.

(Read more)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/may/01/glory-dazed-review

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