Playwright and performer Kirk McGee and I are looking forward to taking The Honorable Herbert Peabody on the road to headline Holmdel Theatre Company’s first “Evening of New Works!” We’ve spent the last several weeks revising and expanding the script from its original incarnation seen last Fall, and can’t wait to share the new draft with the fine folks of the Garden State! Special thanks to Artistic Director Kathy Connolly for inviting us.
Taking Andrew Rosendorf's "REFUGE" to New Heights (literally)
The air may have been thin, but the experience was rich as Andrew Rosendorf and I headed to Creede, CO (el. 8,799’) to work on his play REFUGE as part of the HBMG Foundation’s National Winter Playwrights Retreat! (I felt especially luckyto be the only director among this year’s cohort.) It was a rare treat to have a week to just work one-on-one with a playwright, and the town and its people couldn’t have been more wonderful!! And then there were the other wonderful writers—icing on the cake! Here are a few images of the experience.
(With special thanks to Anne and Manuel Zarate, Isaac Grody Patinkin, Rhonda and John at Arp’s, and the wonderful local actors who joined us for the readings!)
HBMG Foundation National Winter Playwrights Retreat
I’m looking forward to joining playwright Andrew Rosendorf next week in Creede, CO (Pop. +/- 300, El. 8,799 ft.) to continue working together on his new play, Refuge, thanks to an opportunity from the HBMG Foundation.
“A playwright-based retreat, the National Winter Playwrights Retreat prioritizes the playwright, not the work being produced. Playwrights have an opportunity to have work read or sung, conversation over dinners and coffees, sightseeing in the San Juan Mountains, and an introduction to local theaters. The retreat provides respite and renewal for playwrights. Inevitably, the artist's rejuvenation finds its way into her work. In enabling the playwright freedom from expectations, we enable the art.”
Updates (and photos) to come!
Art House's Inkubator playwrights group
Thanks to Aiden Walker and Alex Tobey for inviting me to be a guest artist for tonight’s Inkubator meeting at Art House Productions in Jersey City. The diversity and range of the writers in this group was really exciting, and ArtHouse is a fantastic new facility. These folks are making Jersey proud!
Read More
Noor Theatre's DEAD ARE MY PEOPLE at New York Theatre Workshop Next Door
I’ve spent the past several weeks working as Associate Director with Leah C. Gardiner on a unique and exciting new musical with book and lyrics by Ismail Khalidi, co-lyricist Patrick Lazour and music by Hadi Eldebek.
Dead Are My People follows Nicola, a young Syrian man who flees to the U.S. from famine-stricken Mount Lebanon during World War I. Once there, he hopes to track down his uncle Tanios, who emigrated West years before. Finding few traces of his kin, Nicola must ultimately navigate the treacherous terrain of the Jim Crow South. Grappling with the legacies of white supremacy, immigration, and assimilation, Dead Are My People is an unexpected and timely journey to the core of the American experience. Dead Are My People is Noor Theatre’s first full-length play commission.
To our knowledge, this is the first American musical with a book and score balanced between English and Arabic. The short run is already sold out (!!) but fingers crossed you’ll be hearing more about this timely project in the future!
Check out NYTW Next Door’s website for more details!