Stage Banter: The Arena Stage Blog

In the Room: Reflections on the Journey so far...

by Jamil Jude, Artistic Coordinator for Journey to the Door of No Return

Hello! I'm actually writing this post from inside the rehearsal room of the latest Downstairs New Play Reading Series workshop. Journey to the Door of No Return...a new play by Arena Stage master teacher Psalmayene 24 is being reborn here at Georgetown's Davis Center. Although we are only on day two of the four day workshop but the energy is overflowing and spilling out of the room! After the first read, I was so happy to be working on this play. The revelations the actors and the creative team arrived to opened my eyes to the possibilities and promise that this play has.

Today's work will focus primarily on understanding the relationship between the main character (Baraka) and the eccentric novelist (the aptly named The Eccentric Novelist). The actors did so much work while we were away and have brought back so many new questions. New work is so much fun!!!

Don't walk, RUN to the final presentation of the workshop today (June 24). We'll present the play, in a staged reading, at 7:30 pm here at Georgetown University (37th and O Sts. NW) in the Gonda theatre inside of the Davis Performing Arts Center. Please call the Arena Stage box office (202-488-3300) or email me (jjude@arenastage.org) to reserve your seats. See you soon!

The Wonderful World of Workshops

by Jamil Jude, New Play Producing Fellow

As a New Play Producing Fellow here at Arena, I've had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. Of all the opportunities, I cherish being a part of new play workshops the most. There is nothing like being in the room as the playwright, director, actors and other co-collaborators create a new work. The creative energy in these rooms is so contagious and uplifting. Being able to aide in the process over my time here at Arena has been a tremendous blessing.

I had the opportunity to aide in this process recently when resident playwright Charles Randolph-Wright workshopped his sci-fi, rock musical at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theatre. From May 8 through May 14, Charles, his musical collaborator, Nona Hendryx and their musical director Joseph Baker were hard at working bringing Skindiver to a late night audience in the Kogod Cradle. We rehearsed Skindiver over the course of six days, grooming the text, working on the songs and crafting a memorable performance. We assembled an amazingly talented acting core who really worked hard to bring the music and the book to life. The late night presentations on Friday, May 13 (how fitting for a sci-fi, rock musical right?!) and Saturday, May 14 were the first of their kind for us here at the Mead Center. It opened the door for other late night (11:00pm) events at Arena. I'm very proud of the work we did on the project and I look forward to seeing what the creative team of Skindiver come up with next! 

Fresh off the momentum of Charles' piece, I jumped right into the planning of Pslamayene 24's (shown here to the right) new play Journey to the Door of No Return. This piece, a hip-hop infused story of one man's search for his own truths, will be workshopped June 21-24. Continuing with ongoing partnership with Georgetown, we will rehearse and present a staged reading of the play at Georgetown's Davis center (stay tuned for more information coming soon!!!). For this piece, we are traveling in Dominic Taylor of Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis to collaborate with Psalmayene 24 and a talented core of actors. I'm very excited about this project. I've had to opportunity to work with Psalmayene 24 through his work with Arena Stage's Community Engagement department and I met Mr. Taylor a number of times through some of the American Voices New Play Institute's programming. The collaboration will prove to be very successful and we are sure to see the play in a brand new light.

As I continue to learn about the American Theatre, new play processes and what it takes to bring a play from inception to production, workshops continue to be an invaluable opportunity for me to get my hands dirty. I've always realized I learn best by doing and I've been able to do here. I thank all of the artists who have allowed me to the chance to work with then my supervisors here at Arena who have placed me in those positions. I am truly appreciative.

Alright, time to go back to work. Stay tuned for more updates on the presentation for Journey to the Door of No Return!

Walking the Line Between Culture and Art: The Downstairs Series Presents Beyond Eden

by Aaron Malkin, Artistic Coordinator for Beyond Eden

Between the Albee festival and A Time to Kill (which I will write about soon!), I haven't been able to spend much time on the blog in the last couple of months.  But in the last few weeks I have jumped into our latest Downstairs Series project, Beyond Eden, which is certainly worthy of a blog post!

Beyond Eden is a musical written by Bruce Ruddell with music by Bruce Ruddell and Bill Henderson.  The piece had its world premiere in Western Canada last year. After critical and popular success, Bruce decided to keep working on the piece and has been working with Anita Maynard-Losh, who is directing this workshop, weekly since November. The piece, based on the historical expedition of Wilson Duff and Bill Reid in 1957, follows a white anthropologist, Lewis, and a half-Haida (the Haida being a First Nations people from western North America) photographer, Max, as they travel to an island off the coast of British Columbia.  The purpose of the expedition is to cut down Haida totem poles to preserve them in museum.  As the play unfolds, both Max and Lewis are forced to question where to draw the line between preserving art (the totems are beautifully carved and decaying on the island of Ninstints) and respecting culture (each totem was carved for a specific symbolic purpose with an understanding that it would decay over time).

This question, and many more, came up at the first rehearsal yesterday.  The cast and creative team began by watching a documentary made during the real expedition about the cutting of the totem poles.  We then read through the play and talked about initial reactions, places that confused us, and personal experiences that the piece brought up.  We are fortunate enough to have Native American actors playing the Haida roles and each of the actors brings a wonderful sense of history and a personal connection to the piece. We'll continue to rehearse through the weekend and then there will be a presentation Monday June 6th at 8pm in the Ammerman Rehearsal Hall at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. If you'd like to attend, call the Box Office at 202.488.3300.

If you have thoughts about preserving art versus respecting culture, please feel free to write in!

The Great Man

by David Dower

I'm really happy to have had the opportunity to work with Charlie Shulman on his play The Great Man, which you have a chance to hear tonight. This is a very literate play. It's charming, and funny, and has the added benefit of being "lightly disguised fiction", which is actually a running theme in the play. It's about a "fictional" great author and his "fictional" biographer, and you'll have fun guessing who's who in here if you're a lover of great books and big authorial egos.

But it's also been a great chance to practice what we've been preaching about suiting the new play development process to the needs of the playwright.

Charlie's got a big future lined up for this play. There are whispers of a major star interested in the role and more than one producer thinking about Broadway for it. But he's not yet done with it. And what we've given him is a chance to develop his vision and his confidence in the material before it starts to become the center of the maelstrom that is high-stakes, celebrity-based commercial production.

Several times this weekend Charlie has remarked at how important this opportunity has been for him. The generosity of the actors, who gave up their weekend and their day off (Monday) to help create this development space for him, has really touched him, and helped him advance a significant new approach to the way the story unfolds. It's a very different draft than he started with, and much closer to what he was aiming for when he set out on this path. So, hats off to Christin Siems and Travis Ballenger for making such a productive process for Charlie, and to the actors for letting it fly!

I hope you'll join us tonight. It's free. And it starts at 7p. In our Crystal City theater.

A Letter to Janine (who is in Italy)

By Christin Siems, Dramaturgy/Literary Management Fellow

[Editor's Note: Technically, Janine is now in Switzerland, stranded by the volcanic ash. So, she's missing even more of the fun around here-- perhaps as much as another week's worth! Here's hoping Christin continues to water that plant!]

Dear Janine,

You are totally missing out.  I know you thought I'd be envious of you when you unloaded your Literary duties for a week in ITALY (pfft).  You even pitied my sad lot as you packed your bags and asked me to water your plant.  You did.  I saw it.

But Janine, now is the time to tell you... It is really I who feels sorry for you.

While you were eating gelato and actual real pizza last night, SOPHISTICATED LADIES opened and BLEW EVERYONE'S MIND.  The audience was so overwhelmed by the amount of talent onstage that multiple times throughout the show they STOOD UP for a standing ovation-- right in the middle of the show!  It was SO COOL I think my spleen exploded.  And yup, you missed it. 

After the show, the opening night party at Eatonville was so delicious and fun, I stopped thinking about how much fun (and nutella gelato) YOU must be having.

And it's not over yet.  This Monday at 7 PM in the Crystal City theatre, local playwright Charlie Schulman will have his new play THE GREAT MAN read by four talented actors.  And guess who will be there?  ME.  But you're going to miss it.  Because you are in Italy.

I know you must be heartbroken over there in Italy.  And I don't blame you.  A lot of cool things are happening here.  And YOU ARE TOTALLY MISSING OUT.

The good news is I've been watering your plant.  And it hasn't died.  Yet.

Love,

Christin

The little known Harriet

by Janine Sobeck

Last night we completed the current season of the Downstairs New Play Reading Series with a reading of Lydia Diamond's Harriet Jacobs. 

Now, I'm going to be honest.  I'm a history buff- especially American history.  But the first time I had heard of Harriet Jacobs was when I read Lydia's play a little over a year ago.  However, the story intrigued me enough that when Lydia suggested this work for the series, the first words out of my mouth were, "Oh, the girl that hid in the box.  That's a crazy story."

And a crazy story it is.  Based on her autobiographical tale "Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl," Harriet recounts her life as a house slave, the obsession and sexual advances of her master, and her desperate flight to freedom.  However, Harriet's tale takes an unexpected twist.  Harriet was, at that time, the mother to two children (fathered by a white lawyer).  Unwilling to leave them behind, but unable to make the journey with them, Harriet made the ultimate sacrifice.  With the knowledge that her children would be bought by their father and raised by her grandmother, Harriet "moved into"a tiny crawlspace above the porch of her grandmothers house.  There, in a space that was nine feet long, seven feet wide with sloping ceiling that didn't allow her to turn over, Harriet remained for SEVEN YEARS, watching her children grow through a peephole.  Finally, in 1842, she made the journey north.

In the discussion after the reading, I was curious.  Was I the only one ignorant of this fantastic tale?  So I asked.  And only two other people in the audience raised their hands saying that they had heard of Harriet Jacobs before encountering this play.

I find that somewhat overwhelming. Lydia mentioned during the day the somewhat ironic fact that we are a society where everyone (rightly) knows the story of Anne Frank, and her time in hiding to escape the Nazis.  I recently had the chance to travel to Amsterdam and was able to go into the house and the secret annex, and let me tell you, seeing the small space that the family lived in, and knowing the conditions they endured made the story all the more poignant.  And yet, in the theatre yesterday, we were telling a similar story of courage, oppression and sacrifice of a young woman (she was only 22 when she went into the space) whose writing gives us incredible insight into a world that most of us find unimaginable.  And, yet, this story - which comes straight out of our country's own history - is relatively unknown.  

After the experience we had with the work, and feeling the power that Harriet's story has, all I can say is: I hope that changes.

Playwright Lydia Diamond part of Downstairs Series

By Ronee Penoi Senior Producing Fellow

It's a fuzzy place where plays are born. The beauty and challenge is that it can be a process of stops or starts, inspiration or obstacles, typing furiously or staring at a blank screen. I'm excited to be line-producing a project of our Downstairs series, because there, playwrights can work through wherever they are in that fuzzy process to get to the next step – and can pick their actor/director/etc. partners on that journey.

We’ve already had two recent readings as part of this series, Seamus Sullivan’s adventurous Harlan at the Rockpile, and Psalmayene 24’s epic Journey to the Door of No Return: A Hip-Hop Odyssey. This upcoming Monday night, we hoped to present our DC audiences a reading of Tazewell Thompson’s new play Mary T. & Lizzy K., a play that touches on the little-understood relationship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress and confidante, the freed slave Elizabeth Keckley. But, as the writing process is unpredictable, and exciting changes are happening in the writing of the play, it appears that now isn’t the right time to take that next step.

However, its fortunate timing that playwright Lydia Diamond is interested in an opportunity to look more closely at her new play Harriet Jacobs. Lydia's play Stick Fly will be part of the second half of Arena's Restaged Festival in Crystal City, and we're very excited to have her here on Monday to work on Harriet Jacobs. 

Lydia's play Harriet Jacobs is based on a true story. In her book "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," Harriet Jacobs describes with brutal honesty the hardships she endures under slavery, including the extraordinary choices she makes to be near her children. To survive, she escapes into her imagination and through writing, discovers hope for a better life. Accompanied by the rich musical traditions of slave spirituals, Lydia Diamond's Harriet Jacobs is an inspiring look at a young woman’s fascinating journey from slavery to freedom.

Those that love poetic theatrical language and imagery will fall in love with Lydia’s voice in this piece, and American history buffs will no doubt be engrossed by this tale based on a true story.

A little plug: The Downstairs series reading of Harriet Jacobs is this Monday, June 29^th at 7PM at our Crystal City theater and is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. You can RSVP with the sales office by phone at 202.488.3300, or in-person at the box office in Crystal City.

I hope you’ll join me on Monday to watch how Harriet Jacobs evolves, and experience part of the exciting, unpredictable process of developing a new play.

An Intern's Journey to the Downstairs

by Meghan McCormick, HR/Finance Intern

Last night I had the privilege of attending my first downstairs play reading, Psalmeyene24's Journey to the Door of No Return: A Hip Hop Odyssey, with a group of my fellow interns. It was unlike any play reading I have ever seen before. In this modern urban odyssey, music is a character and the movement that flows out of it informed the entire style of the piece. In a few moments scattered through the show, the audience was given a true glimpse into what the piece will become. It was strongest at the points where it allowed sound and movement to communicate desire. The choreographed dance between the seductress, Love Lee and the protagonist, Baraka, gave the audience more insight than any of the explicit verbal passes she makes at Baraka. Towards the end of the play, Baraka goes through a transformative dance that was not performed in this production. Instead the stage directions were read and from the description of the movement, I was left with an intense longing to see them performed. I look forward to a full production of this piece so that I can experience Baraka’s transformation in the way that is truest to his character, music and dance.

After the reading ended, there was a post-show discussion with the playwright and dramaturg on the project. Psalmeyene24 took in the audience reaction, not saying much, but scribbling down many notes on the responses to his pointed questions. The first question was about themes and more than ten different ones were supplied, making it clear to the audience and the playwright that this play is very a personal experience. Each person who has the privilege of seeing it will take from it their own message.

Part of being an intern at Arena Stage is exposure to new works and the opportunities to engage with the next generation of American artists. This reading excites the possibilities of a new type of theater that incorporates all forms of human expression. I look forward to witnessing its artistic growth and to seeing what next week’s downstairs reading of a new play will bring. 

A "Journey" like No Other

by Amrita Mangus, Allen Lee Hughes Dramaturgy Fellow

It's hard to believe that today is the final day of rehearsal for Psalmeyene24's Journey to the Door of No Return: A Hip Hop Odyssey. Mirroring the play's central storyline of a young man embarking on an odyssey-inspired journey in search of knowledge and discovery, we've encountered a pretty monumental "journey" in the rehearsal room as we workshopped the first Hip Hop piece in the Downstairs series.

During the first day of rehearsal, we read the play out loud without incorporating any of the music or movement and quickly realized that both elements are essential characters in the piece that help the narrative move forward. We then broke up our rehearsals for the next few days so that we could spend more time with the music and the movement, taking the rap songs and analyzing the meaning, meter, and beats and determining whether the movement represents a certain dance style or helps define a location. Having very little experience with hip hop music and dance, I was fascinated by the impact of these elements on the entire piece once we started to put everything together. One moment that particularly struck me was during a recitation of Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" by the main character, Baraka, after he's accused of stealing by his manager at the Gap. The actor first rapped the song with the same meter and music as the original song, but then realized that it didn't quite fit what he wanted to say. Our director, Kamilah Forbes, then proposed rapping the song with the focus on his intention and motivation, allowing him to spend more time with certain words and  re-imagine it in the context of the play. The results blew my mind, completely. It deepened the meaning of that moment and made the entire theatrical experience far more exciting.

That's just one of the fantastic moments that you can catch tonight at the staged reading, starting at 7:00 p.m. in the Crystal City Theater. Admission is free, so check it out! Watch the story, the music, and the movement come together, then stay for the talkback with the playwright and tell us what you think. The journey doesn't end until the final ingredient, the audience, is incorporated into the mix.

Hip Hopping the Downstairs

by Janine Sobeck

Today we make Downstairs history.  In about a half hour I'm going to go down to the theatre to watch the first read through of Psalmeyene24's Journey to the Door of No Return: A Hip Hop Odyessy (the new title to the previously announced Slavery: The ReMix).  As far as my knowledge goes this will be the first time we've done a Hip Hop piece in the Downstairs New Play Reading Series, and we're all a little curious to see how this format is going to support the development of Psalm's work - especially since its directed by Kamiliah Forbes, Artistic Director of the annual Hip Hop Theatre festival.

We'll keep you updated this week with tidbits from the rehearsal room, and you are all invited to come and experience the end results of this week of work with the staged reading that will happen this Monday (the 22nd) at 7:00 in the Crystal City theatre.  Admission is free, so bring a friend and come on this hip hop odyssey with us.  It's bound to be an adventure.