Exciting things are afoot in the next six months…
VERY STILL AND HARD TO SEE at Rorschach Theatre / Photo: C. Stan Photography
In September I’ll be leading a group of all-star playwrights in adapting “A Softer World,” Emily Horne and Joey Comeau’s cult hit web comic. Truth and Beauty Bombs: A Softer World – directed and conceived by Jenny McConnell Frederick – will premiere at Rorschach Theatre in September. The team of playwrights includes Norman Allen, Heather McDonald, Shawn Northrip and Alexandra Petri.
In November I’ll be directing Big Love at Catholic University. Charles Mee’s huge and hilarious tragedy/comedy based on the world’s oldest play (Aeschylus’ The Supplicants) is something I’ve wanted to direct for a long time.
In January, I will direct my own adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at WSC Avant Bard (formerly Washington Shakespeare Company). Incorporating a sort east-meets-west aesthetic inspired by Indonesian Wayang Kulit and Gamelan music, the fairies will be performed as Shadow Puppets while the rest of the characters will live in the non-shadow world. Actors will manipulate the puppets and will perform in the a gamelan-inspired percussion orchestra. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: These Offending Shadows will run January 17 through February 14.
Some smaller projects coming up soon: In July two of my plays will be included in the Second Annual One Minute Play Festival which will play on July 28 and 29 at Round House Theatre and is organized by The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF). I’ll also be returning to Theatre Lab to direct Tina Howe’s Museum with the talented kids of the Summer Acting Institute for Teens. Check out some of the terrific pictures from last year’s production of Naomi Iizuka’s Anon(ymous).
As I continue to develop The Monastery – a play that was initially commissioned through Theater J’s locally grown program and The Burning Road which was developed at Arena Stage, also brewing is a play for young audiences and a musical with Matthew Nielson. Stay tuned for some exciting news about Forgotten Kingdoms to be announced soon.
VERY STILL AND HARD TO SEE at Rorschach Theatre / Photo: C. Stan Photography
In the last six months:
My Arena Stage playwright residency at The Playwright’s Arena, (a part of the American Voices New Play Institute) sadly came to an end after two and half years with a remarkable group of playwrights and phenomenal support from Arena Stage. After last year’s public reading in The Cradle where I presented The Burning Road, I began developing a play for young audiences about a young girl and her strained relationship with her storyteller father. Thanks to the playwrights – Norman Allen, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Heather MacDonald, Danielle Mohlman and Shawn Northrip – and the artistic leadership at Arena – David Snider, Robert Barry Fleming and Jocelyn Clarke.
very still & hard to see – Steve Yockey’s wild mash-up of Japanese Ghost Stories, Twilight Zone mystery and Stephen King horror – ran at Rorschach Theatre in April and May. We placed audience on the stage of the Lang Theatre at Atlas and began telling the story in the elevators.
In February I directed an adaptation of Rashōmon at American University. The production featured an original script that I adapted, using the original short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and stories and characters devised by the cast itself.
RASHŌMON / Photo: C. Stan Photography
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