VERY STILL AND HARD TO SEE at Rorschach Theatre / Photo: C. Stan Photography
Very Still & Hard to See, was just nominated for five Helen Hayes awards!
Outstanding Play
Outstanding Director of a Play, Randy Baker
Outstanding Set Design, Brian Gillick
Outstanding Sound Design, Frank DiSalvo
Outstanding Lighting Design, Robbie Hayes
Steve Yockey’s wild mash-up of Japanese Ghost Stories, Twilight Zone mystery and Stephen King horror – ran at Rorschach Theatre in April, 2015. We placed audience on the stage of the Lang Theatre at Atlas and began telling the story in the elevators. We incorporated masks and Suzuki-inspired movement and stitched together worlds with an electro-swing soundtrack.
Coming up in April I’ll be directing Stefanie Zadravec’s The Electric Baby at Rorschach Theatre, the company I run with Jenny McConnell Frederick. It will be the area premiere of this play about a group of fractured souls who encounter a magical dying baby and begin to rewrite the stories of their lives. Zadravec’s Honey Brown Eyes played at Theater J to great acclaim in 2008.
My production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream just finished its run at WSC Avant Bard on February 14. Incorporating an east-meets-west aesthetic inspired by Indonesian Wayang Kulit and Gamelan music, the fairies were performed as Shadow Puppets while the rest of the characters lived in the non-shadow world. Actors manipulated the puppets and performed in a found-object percussion orchestra. Check out some of the images and reviews here. You can even read a little bit about what I had to say about the production in my director’s notes here.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at WSC Avant Bard / Photo: Teresa Castracane
Other upcoming projects include directing three educational projects: Lord of the Flies (Performs April 29-May 1) for the Imagination Stage Acting Conservatory, The Island of Dr. Moreau (Performs April 7-9) at Theatre Lab and Columbinus (Performs August 19) for Theater Lab’s Summer Institute for Teens.
Ongoing playwriting projects include The Monastery – a play that was initially commissioned through Theater J’s locally grown program, The Burning Road which was developed at Arena Stage and my adaptation of Rashōmon which I wrote for production at American University. Stay tuned for some exciting news about Forgotten Kingdoms to be announced soon.
In the last six months:
In November I directed Big Love at Catholic University, Charles Mee’s huge and hilarious tragedy/comedy based on the world’s oldest play (Aeschylus’ The Suppliants).
In September I led 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 – ran at Rorschach Theatre September 4 – October 5. The team of playwrights included Norman Allen, Heather McDonald, Shawn Northrip and Alexandra Petri.
Some smaller projects in the last six months include writing two plays for the Second Annual One Minute Play Festival which were performed at Round House Theatre and was organized by The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF), directing Tina Howe’s Museum with the talented kids at Theater Lab’s Summer Acting Institute for Teens, and helping to create Rorschach’s latest installment of Klecksography.
BIG LOVE at Catholic University / Photo: Daniel Corey
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