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365 Days/365 Plays Detailed Calendar
“A few years ago I got this notion --“ said Suzan-Lori Parks, “I’d write a play a day for a whole year. Every day for the next year I would wake up and ask myself 'ok, so what’s the play?' and I wrote down what came… A couple of theatres suggested productions, but I didn’t feel the production models spoke to the spirit of the plays.
Then one day Bonnie Metzgar asked me 'what’s up with those 365 Plays?' 'I’ve done them,' I said. 'Yeah, but now you’ve got to do them,' Bonnie said. And she told me of her production idea: a simultaneous world premiere shared by many theatres around the country. Bonnie’s production concept spoke to the spirit of my plays.”
The world premiere of this play cycle will be performed as a year-long national festival simultaneously in major cities and communities around the country. From November 13, 2006 to November 12, 2007, over 600 theaters in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Colorado, Greater Texas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, Northeast, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Southeast, Universities (365U), Washington DC Areas and Western U.S. will create the largest theater collaboration in U.S. history.
Each participating Atlanta arts organization will produce one week of the festival, then pass along the baton...
For More Information:
National 365 website: www.365days365plays.com
Danielle Mindess at mindan@woodruffcenter.org, or 404-727-8935
Atlanta 365 MySpace page: www.myspace.com/atlanta365"Suzan-Lori Parks is a truly significant American playwright, and one of the most powerful African-American voices in our country today. The theaters, organizations, and individual artists who have united in order to bring 365 days/365 plays to life in Atlanta over the next year demonstrate the impressive scope of our city's artistic landscape, giving us all a chance to celebrate Atlanta's diversity, vitality and cultural strength. The City of Atlanta takes tremendous pride in being one of the sites of this innovative shared World Premiere event."
-Mayor Shirley FranklinClick on the weeks below to access dates, times, locations, and descriptions.
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Week 35 Week 36 Week 37 Week 38 Week 39 Week 40 Week 41 Week 42 Week 43 Week 44 Week 45 Week 46 Week 47 Week 48 Week 49 Week 50 Week 51 Week 52
Week 1: The Alliance Theatre (In case you missed it)
On Friday, November 17, the Atlanta 365 dream became a reality! The Alliance kicked off our year of plays with a directors showcase featuring the work of Susan V. Booth, Freddie Ashley, Kent Gash, Andrea Frye, Jay Freer, David DeVries, and David Kote. Although each director's individual touch seeped in, the evening felt cohesive as a whole. The bare bones production values placed the focus on the acting and staging, which was clear, creative and delightful. Sitting out in the packed house, the audience's energy was tangible. All of the plays managed to garner huge laughs, as well as the taut silence of a captivated and emotionally moved crowd.
One could attribute the electricity in the room to the vast scope of the project and the excitement of helping to launch the biggest world premiere theatrical event in history... but I think ultimately it was a result of one thing... excellent theater.Week 2: Working Title Playwrights (In case you missed it)
Held November 20th at Emory's Schwartz Center, Working Title Playwrights' production of "Week 2" offered a chance to explore the work as pieces of writing. Patricia Henritze directed the plays as a (very) staged reading, allowing us to visualize the pieces as well as clearly hear the words. The performance began with actress Yvonne Singh quoting Suzan-Lori Parks, thereby casting her as the writer for the rest of the evening. Throughout the piece, Singh acted as a narrator and used an array of unusual instruments to create a vivid soundscape for the stories. The presence of the "writer" was a terrific way to keep the audience constantly aware of the "act of writing." As Lisa Paulsen noted, it felt as if we were allowed into the playwright's head as she wrote.
The laid back, welcoming atmosphere of the post-reading discussion provided a forum for audience members to comment on, and inquire about, the process. Many useful insights were offered, and many challenging questions posed. Director Patricia Henritze remarked that she felt the plays contain everything a director needs within them. As soon as an actor's voice and body lifted the words off the page, the scripts lived. This led to, "the spirit of 'Let's do our thing!'," in the rehearsal room and in performance. Production Director Karla Jennings suggested that perhaps the plays are seeds of ideas that may one day blossom into full length work. Celise Kalke discussed Suzan-Lori's understanding/use of myth and ancient stories. An articulate 8th grade student felt moved by The Twentieth Century. The visual image of time moving reminded her that life goes by quickly, and one should take care not to miss it!
Week 3: Clark Atlanta (In case you missed it)
Clark Atlanta's week took place in their TV studio, and it was great to see all that equipment. The play of the day I saw was about the funeral for Mr. Lincoln, and featured some fleet footed dancing ambassadors. The actors used masks and exaggerated characters to portray the 19th century dignitaries, and it was great to be once again in the world of Suzan-Lori's obsession with Lincoln. The highlight of the performance was watching the show with Lisa Paulsen's son Tannus, who at four is a seasoned theatre goer with a great laugh. Tannis relaxed into the show once Carol Mitchell-leon reassured him that the plays were "not scary". And it was great to be on the Clark Atlanta campus on a Saturday afternoon!
Week 4: Community Theater Initiative (In case you missed it)
The energy in the room on Saturday night was bouncing off the walls! There was no mistaking the love that had been generated between the artists in the process of producing Week 4. Upon entering the beautiful Horizons School performance space, the audience was greeted with loud, powerful hip hop music, and actor Shon Sims in the midst of the first "Action in Action" of the evening. The weeks worth of plays, directed skillfully by Jess Wells, were presented as a cohesive evening. This was achieved through the repetition of the "Action In Inaction" constant, as well as through clever devices such as a common song whistled by the same actor in multiple pieces. My favorite play, "The View from Here," featured a young married couple bantering playfully, and imagining their life together after leaving their current home. For me, the short snippet captured true love in an honest moment, devoid of cynicism. The final image of actors Yohannes Sharif and Nena Kelli holding each other and looking to the distance stays with me. Kristi Casey Sanders from Savage Tree Arts Project spoke at the end of the evening to introduced Week 5. It was exciting to watch this embodiment of the passing of the torch! I'd like to see this happen as much as possible in weeks to come!
Week 5: Savage Tree Arts Project (In case you missed it)
Savage Tree is the first of the Atlanta 365ers to present each play on the day it was written. They preceded the Savage Tree festival event at Push Push every night of the week. The constant "Action in Inaction," a video installation by Sabina Maia Angel, was projected on the wall throughout the week. I was able to attend 2 of the plays, "What Do You See" on December 11th, and "Hippy" on December 14th. I arrived on the 11th, took my seat, and expected to sit back as a quiet observer. How wrong I was. Highlighted scripts were handed out to 5 or 6 audience members, myself included, and we were promptly tossed onstage with no rehearsal. 365 breaks audience/performer barriers! Woohoooo! The performance on the 14th was more traditional, featuring actors Claire Christie and Justin Welborn on the Push Push mainstage.
Week 6: Southwest Arts Center (Teen Acting Ensemble) (In case you missed it)
I love my job. Seeing the work of the Tri-Cities high school students (and one alum) reaffirmed that fact. Led by director Jade Lambert-Smith and viewpoints coach Crystal Dickinson, this young ensemble created a powerhouse performance. The evening began with the actors working through a viewpoints warm up. I thought it was choreographed, but learned later that they were improvising. Like in the plays to come, the actors moved in a tight controlled unit. This is not to say that it each performer lacked individualism... every one of them was bursting with energy and personality... but they were always working as a group for the group. From my limited training in the viewpoints method, it was clear that these performers not only understood the concepts, but could execute them to the benefit of the plays. The specific and fully committed physical work newly illuminated Parks' writings for me. The performance ended aptly with "Chamber Music," a human symphony using words, vocalization and movement as instruments. It felt like a culmination of the elements used throughout the plays. The show was followed by a the most enthusiastic talk back I've ever attended. The articulate and thoughtful responses to questions about the process displayed the tremendous preparation and purpose behind the event. Intermittently, audience members stood and congratulated performers or others in the room for various successes. The sense of community and pride was breathtaking!
Week 7: Studio Zero Productions &
Week 8: Studio Zero Productions (In case you missed it)Weeks 7 and 8 were an amazing start to the New Year. 365 was performed in the Granite Room, an amazing gallery space on Peters Street in Castleberry Hill. Studio Zero had asked visual artists to make art inspired by the plays for both weeks. So in addition to performing all fourteen plays this group also curated fourteen visual artists. The pieces were thought provoking and wandering around the gallery before the plays started was a treat. Befitting New Year's Eve And New Year's
Day refreshments were served. The plays themselves grew out of the gallery experience, with audience and actors traveling together as a group from piece of art to piece of art. The flow was managed beautifully, with a musician (first a violinist and then a guitarist) leading the audience like a 365 Pied Piper. On New Year's Eve a highlight place was one where four long term couples
kissed the new year in, with the crowd exuberantly chanting 3. . 2. . .1. And on New Year's Day a crying baby helped to deepen the effect of the group of actors staring the new year down. The acting across the plays was terrific, especially a young woman who on New Year's Day played a long suffering telephone without irony. This was a sophisticated and well executed way to bring in the New Year!Week 9: Southwest Arts Center (with the Fresh Air Collective) (In case you missed it)
Week 9 featured Crystal Dickinson and Brandon Dirden (in collaboration with Jade Lambert-Smith) in a "Pas De Deux." With the exception of one appearance by students Tetrianna Silas and Marion Wright, the duo played every role. It was fascinating to watch the transformations in the actors between the plays. For example, Dirden went from AFRICAN KING (dialect and all) in THE PALACE AT 4 AM to a dying man in THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER to a young countrified man in BARN BURNERS. This project allowed subtleties in acting to shine. The most memorable aspect of the piece was the physicality. In the post-show discussion, the actors explained that they used a pulling movement as the thread between the plays. One felt the sense of tension, pushing, and pulling throughout. My favorite play was THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER, in which a sickly woman leads a dying man to the cemetary. She explains that she wants him to walk there on his own two feet. In the end, after proving unable to carry her on his back, he says, "I'm still a man." "Sure you are," she replies, putting out her hand to steady him. He places his hand in hers and they continue struggling toward the graveyard.
Week 10: The New Jomandi (In case you missed it)
The New Jomandi performed a combination of the plays over the course of 3 days. I attended on Friday, catching the first four, CHICKEN WINGS, WINGS, 1-2-3, and OUT TO SEA. The plays were performed as readings in a wonderful black box space in City Hall East. Formerally a department store, the large space is wonderfully cluttered with remnants of old shows. The plays were performed with three actors, and many of the poetic stage directions were read aloud, which I enjoyed hearing. I connected most with the last play, OUT TO SEA, in which a stage director simulaneously rehearses a Suzan-Lori Parks play and discusses the ocean with a passionate woman. The latter results in the suicide of the woman, and it is difficult to tell whether she is part of the play or part of reality. The plays were followed by a discussion in which actress Jen Harper noted that these plays offer inspiration to those who are daunted by the idea of writing a play. In expands the idea of what a play can be. She realized that we all write small plays in our heads everday, and that interesting plays can form from these simple thoughts. Another actor remarked that her plays, "are not confined by logic." He finds this notion liberating as an artist.
Week 11: Kennesaw State University (with Rising Images) (In case you missed it)
After having performed the 365 plays "guerrilla style" on campus throughout the week, Kennesaw students took the plays to the stage on Sunday night for an audience of almost 200. Despite the fact that the plays were directed and acted by separate groups of students, they flowed together seamlessly with well constructed transitions. This was assisted by the continuation of the constant "Action in Inaction" which reappeared throughout the evening. Each segment was a beautifully acted movement piece. Another standout was "The Wagon," in which a young woman laments "falling off the wagon." A young stranger notes, "There's another one coming by...". And sure enough, an actor wrapped in green mossy thread and bells comes through the audience pulling a small red wagon. The young woman gets another chance to climb on. A lovely play!
Following the production, there was a talk back with the actors and faculty advisors. We had not yet seen all the actors on stage at once, and when they re-emerged for the talk back, it was fun to see so many bodies on stage (25-30 or so)! This was, by far, the biggest cast we've seen yet. Something about the sheer number of committed individuals adds power to the event. During the discussion, the actors recalled their guerrilla performances throughout the week. They noted that sometimes the unsuspecting audiences loved what they were doing, while others were annoyed or dismissive. Some actively tried not to watch, while others went so far as to ask them to stop. One cast member said that it was harder for people to buy into what they were doing when the performers were not in traditional theatrical "costumes." The plays in which actors wore everyday clothing got more negative responses. The actor noted that in seemed people were uncomfortable when the plays were too "close" or "familiar," as if costumes separated the audience from the performers.Week 12: Collection of Spelman and Morehouse Alumni (In case you missed it)
Week 12 featured a group of energetic artists newly graduated from Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. The post-college conundrum theme permeated the event, set in the bustling Jazzman's Cafe on the Morehouse campus. The anchor of the set, a striking giant dream catcher, held all of the prop pieces. Actors constantly interacted with this Native American symbol, reminding us of its presence in the room. The performance opened with the constant "Action in Inaction" which featured two actors on the graduation stage contemplating life's next step. The final piece of the evening, the constant "Inaction in Action" showed these same students using the items on the dream catcher to try on a variety of future occupations and lifestyles. The sounds made by a six piece jazz ensemble, Jaspects, wove the evening together. Comprised of recent alum and current Morehouse students, this talented sextet added to the sense of liveliness and exploration in the work.
Strong images from the plays include a small young woman holding a full grown man on her back in "Horse & Rider," camouflage-clad dancers slithering through the audience and onto the stage in "Turtle Soup," the hilarious conjuring of an elevator through Jaspect's muzak rendition of "Girl from Ipanema," and a well-crafted mirroring dance in "Groundhog Day."Week 13: Lov'n It Live Restaurant (In case you missed it)
It felt like Rodney Williams had invited us (the audience and actors) into his home for a round table play reading/discussion on Monday night at Lov'n It Live Restaurant. The evening followed an entirely different format than any of the performances thus far. The company of actors read each play and then engaged with the audience in a lengthy discussion of that individual play. Whenever all present felt satisfied with the conversation, the company moved on to the next play. The discussions were lively, thought provoking, and newly illuminated the material for me. The cast, comprised of four gracious actors from the Alliance's "Sister Act" who willingly spent their only night off 365ing, brought each play to life through their energetic reading. Monday night reminded me of just how many layers and interpretations lie in these short works! Oh, and get out to East Point to try Lov'n It Live's delicious raw food delicacies! My meatless, uncooked "burger" was to die for!
Week 14: The Company Acting Studio (In case you missed it)
Week 14, cleverly titled "Presidents and Valentines" by The Company Acting Studio had an upbeat feel from the beginning. The event began with empowering pre-show music, and continued to use music and dance to create a positive vibe in the room. Early on, the company danced and sang along to John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change," and invited the audience join them. The evening ended with reprise of this.
The direction during this week includes a lot of synchronized movement and speech. For example, "Revolver Lover" began with a sort of courting dance between a man with a heart taped to his back, and a woman with a revolver afixed to her back. The dance successfully captured two people coming together, coming apart, and coming together again. The synchronization, and the specificity of the times when the couple were not in synch, clearly depicted the movement of a complicated relationship. It was also hilarious!Week 15: The Other Side of the Tracks Project (In case you missed it)
It's not too late to catch all the plays from The Other Side of the Tracks Project! See the fantastic docu-plays at http://atl365tracks.org. Georgia State film professor Niklas Vollmer, and sculpture professor Ruth Stanford took the plays of Week 15 downtown, turning unsuspecting passers-by into performers and commentators. Wandering around public spaces in conductor uniforms, Vollmer and Stanford stopped strangers and asked them to read the plays. They created short documentaries for each play and mounted them on an interactive website, atl365tracks.org. The footage on the website offers a sampling of performances and reactions the team met with throughout the week. On the first day, a young man from Decatur offered the following commentary on his experience with the plays, "It really made me feel, honestly like, it made me feel like a love toward this type a thing. Cause you know how love is sometimes. You don't really go out and find
it, it just happens to you by chance. So that's what it really made me feel like." Another gentleman took the opportunity to speak his mind about other issues, " What do you think about this historic moment that's gonna take place tomorrow, being that Atlanta is the uh, one of the birthplaces of, you know, well, the struggle, the truth, that railroad, I mean, democracy, Martin Luther King, blackism, I mean, whitism, I mean, you got a historical moment that's gonna be taking place on a football field played by two black coaches, and this is a very historical moment. And I have a problem that Atlanta, being a very historical city, is not exposing that, you know, not bringing that out. It's not about black folks or white folks, but then again if we gonna celebrate black history month this being February, I think this is very significant. And I wonder why Coca Cola, CNN, MARTA, Payless, Alabama Street, right here... is it... is it? What's wrong with that? I mean, there's something missing here man."Week 16: Synchronicity Performance Group (In case you missed it)
Synchronicity Performance Group took the plays of Week 16 to Grady High School drama classes. Just as Suzan-Lori Parks took on the act of creating art everyday for a year, Synchronicity wanted to create art every day for the week, thus choosing to perform each play on the day it was written. Synchronicity co-founder Hope Mirlis and three other actors performed one play each day during 7th period for a class of Grady students. The week culminated in a Saturday performance of every play. I was unfortunately unable to attend, and therefore cannot comment on that event.
On Monday, Feb. 26th, the constant "Action in Inaction" was performed simultaneously with the day's play. The students first assumed that the two plays were one. When they discovered that the plays are separate, students explained the relationships they had drawn between the two events on stage. Following the days performance, Hope Mirlis led the class in the "critical response" process, a technique conceived by dancer Liz Lerman for critiquing new works. The students had some difficulties sticking to the format of the process, and Mirlis let the technique go for the rest of the week. On subsequent days, students were engaged in a freestyle discussion which garnered many interesting insights and questions. Throughout the week, many students wanted to know exactly what was scripted, and what was created by the performers. On Friday, one student commented on a musical choice, explaining that for her it detracted from the play. Other students jumped on this conversation, some agreeing, some disagreeing, but all citing legitmate reasons why the music was aesthetically consistent or inconsistent with the mood of the play. Perhaps the most notable student comment of the week was offered to actor Theroun Patterson: "We ladies of the class must inform you that you are a very sexy man."
Week 17: Collective Works (In case you missed it)
First off, huge thanks to Steven Westdahl of Collective Works for jumping in at the last minute and rescuing Week 17 from oblivion in Atlanta. Upon learning the week needed a helping hand, Steven immediately set to work creating videos for each of the plays. The videos range from realistic film work (featuring members of Collective Works and others), to animated shorts. An example of the latter, "Father Comes Home from Wars, Part 3", conjures an exaggerated ideal American family scenario. Mother bakes while her adorable and well-behaved son and daughter look on lovingly. Father returns home from war in "Hi Honey, I'm home" style, but in this version, he is flanked by two military men in fatigues. His tone soon becomes rough and unsuited to his pre-war world. Westdahl's chilling interpretation of this piece contrasts iconic images of the American home with those of war. The war literally invades the "American Dream."
Another stand out is "Dragon Keeper" which begins like an old timey black and white photograph set in 19th century Russia. The film then cuts to a montage of apocalyptic imagery, as we watch the world collapse and rebuild to "the moment before the play began." Only this time, we [humanity] are unaware of our power.
Week 18: Collective Works (In case you missed it)
On Friday night, Collective Works created an informal setting in which to present plays, videos, and kick off the month of 365 at Push Push (and Agnes Scott). At the start of the evening, Steven Westdahl outlined the order of the presentation and invited the audience to ask questions and discuss the work throughout. First, the Week 17 videos were shown. For me, watching the movies on the big screen proved more effective than watching them on the computer. I caught many nuances in the work that I had missed when watching them online. Between clips, the cast and crew offered anecdotes about the process.
Next, the plays for Week 18 were performed live. Three of the pieces required large casts, and Collective Works had prepared by holding workshop evenings where anyone could show up and participate in that day's play. When those pieces came up during Friday's event, anyone who had been present at the workshops jumped on stage and became part of the cast. I had the pleasure of attending one such workshop for a play called "The Runaround." The stage directions called for a mob of people to walk, run, and finally push and leap around the stage. Performing this in the dark was an adrenaline rush! The workshop earlier in the week provided an inviting environment for anyone and everyone to play. Collective Works made in easy to jump right in and feel like a part of their process.
After watching the live plays for Week 18, Collective Works presented the filmed versions. Some of the videos offered a different perspective than the play live. For example, "The Runaround" was filmed using night vision.
Friday evening closed with a mixer, allowing audience and performers to eat, drink and chat. This provided a forum for conversation about the plays and generally welcomed 365 into the space. I met a Bosnian engineer who is a frequent patron of Atlanta theater. He explained that Push Push is one of his favorite venues because, as an audience member, he
always feels like a part of the work.Week 19: Agnes Scott College (In case you missed it)
In late March, 2003, the President of the United States declared war on Iraq. His announcement came during Week 19 in Suzan-Lori Parks' writing of 365 DAYS/365 PLAYS. The first play of the week (March 19) features a crowd shouting "No war! No war! No war!" and the sound of bombs in the distance. The second play (March 20) is entitled, "More
of the Same,"and indeed it is. On March 21 Parks wrote, "A Play For the First Day of Spring Entitled 'How Do You Like The War?'" Each subsequent play during Week 19 includes the word "war" somewhere in the dialogue or stage directions.Week 19 offered the most thematically linked set of seven plays thus far in the cycle. Agnes Scott College fully embraced this, presenting the anti-war sentiment of their plays without hesitation. The marketing materials for event feature a tie-dye motif and giant peace
signs. The actors entered the stage singing along to the Vietnam-era protest anthem, "War, What Is It Good For?" Costumed in tie-dye t-shirts, the company channeled the most recognizable group of war protestors in our nation's history, the hippies. While the costumes were reminiscent of a war gone by, Agnes Scott used masks to draw a
connection today's conflict. They depicted some of our current political figures including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and conservative pundit Ann Coulter.
The constant "Action in Inaction" provided my favorite image from Agnes Scott's presentation. A young woman stood center stage and opened a large red umbrella. The rest of the cast (also young women) formed a semi-circle behind her and simultaneously opened black umbrellas, presenting an arresting tableau.
The production ended appropriately with the all female cast bowing in military formation.
Suzan-Lori Parks' Speech at Agnes Scott College, March 22, 2007:
Suzan-Lori Parks' inspiring talk at Agnes Scott College featured personal anecdotes, theatrical reading, dramatic gesticulation, and sage advice.
She began by recounting her first rendezvous with writing. Her parents scrimped and saved to purchase a piano in hopes that their daughter would develop into a brilliant concert pianist. However, little Suzan-Lori was more interested in using the space beneath the massive instrument as a writing cave. In the fourth grade Parks had read two novels and enjoyed the pictures in a third. There amongst the steel pedals of the upright, she felt ready to write her own. Standing on the Agnes Scott stage at forty-three years old, Parks remarked that one can begin something new at any age. She noted that the famous writer D.H. Lawrence started painting at age forty because prior to that he felt too afraid to take the first step. During her speech, Parks (an avid Yoga practitioner) often stood balanced on one foot, lifting the other as if ready to take a step forward. This physicality mirrored her advice: begin anything by taking a first step, continue by taking the second, then the third and beyond. "If
you feel the urge to start something while I'm speaking, go ahead," she offered, "It's much more important that what I'm saying."
As a writer, Parks "entertains all of her far out ideas," an invaluable lesson learned from her former teacher, the late great writer Mr. James Baldwin. Baldwin taught her to "conduct herself in the presence of the spirit." She went on to share specific examples of crazy ideas developing into some of her most notable works. In her writing process, Parks practices "radical inclusion." Parks cited "365 Days/365 Plays" as a product of this method. She included all of her far out ideas, and then expanded further by inviting anyone and everyone to join the production team.
This notion of "listening in to the self" permeated Parks' address. "Our task is to discover our path, and then to walk it," she explained. After receiving acceptance to Mount Holyoke College during her senior year of high school, a teacher/advisor asked Suzan-Lori what she planned to study. Parks excitedly announced that she would declare an English major and become a writer. The teacher looked over Suzan-Lori's transcript, which chronicled consistently horrible grades in spelling, and told her that such an unsuccessful speller could
never succeed in an English program. Disappointed, Parks accepted this and entered college as a Physics major. After many life sucking hours in the lab, Suzan-Lori soon realized she belonged in the English program. From this experience she learned that sometimes even smart, well meaning people offer advice that does not jive with her inner self. She discovered the necessity of making sure every decision resonates with the self first.
"A successful artist can be a gracious and kind person," Parks noted. She stressed that success is not license to treat others poorly. "Never underestimate the importance of human kindness," she implored, "and never mistake kindness for weakness." (In my personal experience with her, I have found that she truly lives this mantra.)
"Don't worry about being cool, you'll miss half the fun," she then offered.
Parks went on to explain that each person creates his/her own luck. Contrary to popular belief, luck does not happen to you. "Don't sit around waiting for the phone to ring," she urged. She told the story of her first production in New York. She asked the owners of her
local hangout if they would let her produce a play in their space. They agreed to provide the seating if she did the rest. She scraped together a bit of money to hire a few actors and buy some simple flood lights, which she ran herself by plugging and unplugging them in the
dark. Although her production was attended only by her family and a few friends, she had taken that first step, and could now call herself a New York playwright.
Following her speech, audience members were invited to ask questions. These questions led her to discuss other topics, including the challenge she finds in facing today's news. Everyday she sees the potential we have as a human race to stand up for ourselves and avoid becoming brainwashed.
She also remarked that she does not go into her writing with a "meaning" in mind. She writes stories and characters, and any meaning that may surface reveals itself long after the writing process ends.Week 20: Twinhead Theatre and Performance Group
Twinhead Theatre brought 365 back into the Push Push lobby with a well conceived staging of Week 20's plays. The production strung the plays together and connected them through images of war and peace. In the Twinhead production, war was explored, but peace prevailed. The evening opened with a new interpretation of the constant "Remember Who You Are." In this version, the "Someone" character was embodied by a group of actors. This set up a new relationship between "Someone Else" and "Someone". The play no longer depicted a relationship between two individuals, but rather the relationship between an individual and a greater force of some kind.
The all female cast made many of the characters of Week 20 feel gender non-specific. Because women played all the roles, I stopped thinking of any of the characters as either male or female (with the exception of George and Laura Bush). For me, this made the plays feel more universally human.
Twinhead deftly incorporated music and choreography into their production. A folk song was inserted between plays with violent war imagery, as if Twinhead was offering a peaceful alternative. During the song, the actors passed flowers to each other, and then to audience members. The final play of the week included a song and dance number. Fully staged with vocal arrangements and choreography, it provided a playful and energetic end to the evening.Week 21: The Essential Theatre at Push Push Theater (In case you missed it)
The Essential Theatre brought 365 back to the Push Push lobby, using the space quite differently than Twinhead the previous week. The staging was spare, with a set comprised of four chairs. The performance utilized clean action and focused acting to bring the plays to life. The first constant, "Remember Who You Are" opened the evening. The Essential took a different spin on the character "Someone" than past productions in the Atlanta network. The "Someone" character was agitated and forceful with "Someone Else," playing the lines as a reaction to Someone Else's annoying behavior.
A highlight was "Greek Tragedy & Jerry Springer" in which Oedipus, Tantalus, Cassandra and Clytemnestra duke it out talk show style before a live studio audience. The hilarious staging ended in a tableau of the four characters wielding chairs high in the air, poised to bring them down on each other's heads. With the play "Look," the Essential served up another eye-catching image using flashlights in the dark. Week 21 includes three "Father Comes Home From War" plays, which consistently stand out as some of my favorites. In Part 4, we watch a father come home from the war to an empty house. He changes into an army issue suit and describes his good luck compared with some of his fellow soldiers. Parts 5 & 6 depict Joe, a man returned from war, now telling his horror stories to an uncomfortable audience at a high brow dinner party. The Essential captured a brutal moment in which Joe's comical rendering of a war story suddenly turns emotional and unpleasant. The guest become uncomfortable, and Joe immediately reverts to humor in the remainder of his retelling.Manny's Gathering: April 3rd
For the April Manny's meeting, we chose "365 in education" as our topic. Karen Robinson, professor at Kennesaw State University, facilitated. Karen began by noting that she sees the plays of the 365 cycle as an amazing teaching tool for the years to come. With these brief pieces, students can take total control in acting and directing. Also, they serve as a model for the type of work a young playwright could successfully complete. She explained that these plays tear down some of the perceived boundaries of theatrical expression that students often have. They change the idea of what theater could be. Lisa Paulsen added that the plays leave enough open to force students to learn to make choices.
Robinson recently visited Kenya where she learned about it's performance style. She found that Kenyans incorporate performance into everyday life. This reminded her of 365, as it is a free, daily form of theater which brings performance back to the people.
Celise Kalke noted that she has been educated by this project because it reversed the process of making theater that she had been taught, and has practiced thus far in her career. Normally, the process of making theater is constantly "narrowing down." Working in the literary department, she narrows down plays, then narrows down actors, and unfortunately, audiences are narrowed down by ticket prices. Conversely in the 365 project, her job is to constantly open the scope of what theater can be. This idea ties to Suzan-Lori Parks' term "radical inclusion" (see Suzan-Lori Parks Speaking Engagement blog).Week 22: A Collection of Dancers
For Week 22, I comment not as an audience member, but as a performer. At the last minute, dancer Lillian Ransijn, agreed to put together an ensemble and create a movement-oriented Week 22. In this short amount of time, the group she compiled choreographed movement for three of the week's plays and one constant. The rest were done as a reading. Rehearsals took place at the homes of the choreographers, and everyone involved seemed gung ho to create art for art's sake.
My favorite artistic moment of Week 22 was in the rehearsal for the constant, "Remember Who You Are." The dancers immediately interpreted the words "I am that, you are that... and that is all there is," to mean that the landscape of the scene and the characters must be one and the same. We choreographed dancers to embody "the bench." At the end, the bench dancers became the characters, and the characters became the bench.
The event took place in the living room of a trendy, colorful loft space. The audience sat on couches for the laid back affair. One of the dancers referred to it as a "happening," and I agree with this label. The evening felt spontaneous and hip.
Celise Kalke offered the perspective of an audience member: "The movement pieces looked like they had a great understanding of Suzan-Lori's text and were clear. The choreography seems very rooted in telling the "story" of the plays. It was interesting to see the first constant done once again with an ensemble (something I saw first at Twinhead's week) but this time an ensemble of dancers. It was also fun to have the plays in someone's living room, except that living room was a cool loft space in the Telephone Factory. The evening was further enhanced by a very well behaved one year old, who toddled around before and after the show demonstrating her own love and discovery of movement. During the performance she sat quietly on her Dad's lap, riveted."Week 23: The Process Theatre Co.
Saturday, April 21 @ 11pm
Whole World Theatre, 3rd space
1216 Spring Street
for more info call 404-245-4205The Process Theatre Co. is a home of plays in progress. The 365 plays with follow Process Theatre Co.'s mainstage production of SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES.
Week 24: AIDS QUILT PROJECT
Sitting in a circle which included a few audience members, the staff of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project read the plays of Week 14 among the 47,000 panels of quilt. In addition to the week's plays, the afternoon provided a sort of American history lesson for me. After the reading, we were given a tour of the space and a brief history of the quilt. The NAMES Project began 20 years ago in San Francisco as a means by which to honor those dying of the mysterious AIDS virus. People formed panels approximately 3 ft x 6 ft (to provide the sense of a human grave) which reflected the life of a friend of family member who passed. Eight of these 3 x 6 panels are sewn together to form what is called a "block" of quilt. The approximately 47,000 panels of quilt form the largest community art project in history. The quilt lives right here in Atlanta, and is stored and archived like the stacks of a library. The panels are archived in a computer database, along with any information about the individuals memorialized. One person has been the seamtress for the quilt since its beginning! She has a workshop in the space where she repairs, maintains, and creates new quilt. She also holds workshops for inexperienced quilters looking to make a panel. Pieces of the quilt are generally being displayed at over 200 locations throughout the country at any given time. Staff members curate a specialized section of quilt for each organization that asks to display it. For example, if a request for quilt comes from a college, staff members go through their archives and find blocks which memorialize people of that age group so that the quilt will resonate most with its audience. The incredible quilt staff has 47,000 memories in their hands, and they receive more everyday. They take great care in sharing these memories with the world in order to keep educating and keep remembering the lives that have been lost.
Suzan-Lori Parks' plays celebrate life. Being surrounded by 47,000 hand-made memorial quilts, and a passionate staff of curators and educators, that celebration felt renewed. I had no idea the nation's AIDS Quilt lives in Atlanta! For more information, or if your organization is looking to display quilt:
National Headquarters
The NAMES Project Foundation
637 Hoke St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30318-4315
Phone: (404) 688-5500
Fax: (404) 688-5552
web site: www.aidsquilt.org
general e-mail: info@aidsquilt.orgWeek 25: Georgia Shakespeare
Thurs., May 3 - Sun, May 6, 5:30 p.m.
Visitor's Center, Lake Clara Meer at Piedmont ParkEach summer, Georgia Shakespeare remounts productions from their season for a free performance on Lake Clara Meer at Piedmont Park. Though free of charge, audience members must stand in a long line for a ticket to these "Shake at the Lake" performances. Last week, the company of "Twelfth Night" performed fully staged versions of the plays of Week 25 for those waiting in line at the park. Not only did this provide a built in audience of people already planning to attend the theater, but also anyone passing by in the park could watch the plays. They offered a real sense of bringing theater out into the community. A beautiful day brings a huge amount of foot traffic to the park, and many of these individuals likely are not frequent patrons of the theater. This format for 365 gave interested individuals a free glimpse into the world of drama. This particular week of plays contained plenty of humor, and the bursts of laughter from the line helped to lure additional audience members. At the Sunday performance, a small child driving a huge motorized toy land rover through the park provided additional humor to the event. The cast moved down the line as they performed each play, using the Atlanta 365 banner as a beacon to guide the audience's eye to the start of the next segment.
One highlight featured two men eating meat off the bone, when a third man came looking for his horse. The perfectly crafted moment when the audience realized the two eaters were in fact consuming the missing horse was hilarious!
Manny's Mondays: May 7th
For our May Manny's gathering, the Atlanta network welcomed national 365 producer/mastermind, Bonnie Metzgar. After Suzan-Lori Parks completed her 365+ plays, Bonnie conceived of producing it on this unparalleled scale. At our meeting, she fielded questions from network artists and offered suggestions based upon her experience with 365 around the country.
Bonnie spoke about documentation, and its importance to the project. Now at year's halfway point, the national team is attempting to document the next six months, as well as backlog the events thus far. She explained that every group has ownership over its own 365 materials (pictures, videos, etc.), however the national team also must have equal access to these materials and permission to use them.
Celise asked Bonnie what other networks are doing that Atlanta does not do, and Bonnie discussed the marathons that have been taking place in some other cities. She noted that Atlanta does not have any event where a whole series of the plays can be viewed at once for those who missed them.
Bonnie also brought the group into a discussion about the use of live streaming on the internet. The national team has been kicking around the idea of featuring a few groups per week using this technology. Our group discussed whether or not this seemed practical, interesting, or unnecessary. The response on this issue was mixed.
All in all it was fantastic to have Bonnie Metzgar around for a of couple days. With her contagious fervor for the project, she served as an energizing force for our network!Week 26: Emory University directing students
Monday, May 7th @ 8:30pm
Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, Emory campus
1700 North Decatur RdAlliance Artistic Director Susan Booth assigned plays from week 26 to her directing students as their final exam. Monday night's showcase featured the week of plays and the culmination of the class. Each play was directed by a different student (although some students did two), and featured mostly Emory student actors. Some plays also featured the mother of NBAF's Alvelyn Sanders, whose grounded presence on stage added some age variation in the cast. Some of the plays were staged in the usual playing space, with the audience seated proscenium style. However, others required the audience to get up and follow the actors to different corners of the blackbox, sometimes even pulling the audience into the action.
The students made strong choices, fully utilizing the built in rests and pauses provided in the text. One highlight featured two women dressed in combat gear playing a hyper-tense card game of "war". The two are mortal enemies, until they discover a distant kinship and common relatives. The shift from the tension of war to the banter between old friends was slow and carefully crafted so that the audience believed the transition. Another highlight was the week's version of the 3rd constant, "Remember Who You Are." In this staging, the two characters enter war-torn, one carrying the other. We hear the sounds of bombs and guns in the distance. This setting brought clear meaning to the text, and I fully understood the lines, "I am that, you are that, this is that, and that's all there is."Week 27: Out of Hand Theater
Out of Hand Theater
Saturday, May 19th @ noon
Piedmont Park, 14th Street gate entrance
... bring a picnic lunch and a spare tomato! .For Saturday's performance of Week 27, Out of Hand invited folks out to Piedmont Park for an afternoon of plays and picnicking. In keeping with Out of Hand's irreverent style, audience members were encouraged to bring a tomato to throw during the play. Prior to the start of the play, audience members arrived and set up picnic blankets and food, mingled, and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. After an informal introduction, a megaphone-wielding Out of Hander led the audience to the first play. Between each play, the audience moved leisurely from one spot to another, as instructed by the orange megaphone.
The active and energetic versions of the plays included kooky characters and interaction with the audience. The actors acknowledged the presence of the audience, and the audience played a role in more than one of the pieces. For example in GOODBYE,CHILDREN, we (the audience) were asked to make a large circle around the performers, who instructed us to turn 180 degrees when touched. The actors tapped us one at a time, and the when all faced away from the action, the actors discussed us behind out backs. The diverse audience included many youngsters who appeared to thoroughly enjoy the participatory style of event. Especially the tomato throwing! Following the performance, the audience and actors settled back down to their picnic blankets to enjoy sun and snacks. The event made for a lovely Saturday afternoon!Week 28: The Salon Group
The Salon Group is comprised of recent Emory alums (+1) who gather weekly to discuss, read, and workshop theater. 365 Week 28 marked their first official public performance as a group, and let's hope it isn't their last! Sunday night's performance featured a collaboratively developed event as zany as it was grounded in Parks' texts. The audience entered the Schwartz Theater Lab at Emory to find the ante-room turned into a bedroom. Audience passed through this area quickly to avoid spending much time right next to a couple making out in a bed. The room was filled with debris: artwork askew on the walls, side table covered in cigarettes, papers and condoms. Upon entering the main playing space, an actor in clown garb held up a chalkboard instructing the audience to "sit or stand anywhere." The sizable crowd took him up on the offer, moving overthrown chairs to create seating. Others stood on the edges of the room or sat on the floor. The plays occured in quick succession, and although there was no particular delineation between them, the stories were told so clearly that I could always tell when one piece ended and another began. The most intriguing element of the production was a giant projector screen which featured a live feed to the ante-room, as well as a variety of pre-recorded video footage throughout. The group used the videos to set the scenes (i.e. when we saw traffic whizzing by on a city street, we knew we were on the street corner. When an airplane came in for a landing, we could assume we were looking out from inside an airport terminal.) Much of the action took place in both the main room and the ante-room simultaneously, with the live feed allowing the audience to act as voyeurs. In the play "The Good Cook of Szechuan," we could see the cook in bed with his pregnant whore (in the ante-room), though we remained in the room with "The Loudmouth" character. The audience had the opportunity to watch the cook's unseemly offstage behavior, rather than just imagining it.
Week 29: MultiShades Atlanta & The Academy Theatre
MultiShades Atlanta held six "guided viewings" of their Week 29 presentation this past weekend at the Academy Theatre. The event began in a traditional theater setting, with rows of chairs facing a playing space. After watching a violinist and one play in this space, a troupe of actors dressed from head to toe in black (including face-covering hoods) led the audience from space to space. Each location within the Academy Theatre had its own life, set up with extreme detail to create the ambiance for the play it housed. The audience entered one room in complete darkness. Another play was set in the bathroom, and required the audience to peer in. In another instance, the audience watched one play, then turned around upon instruction, to find that doors had opened onto a patio where another play began. Our eyes adjusted from near darkness to the light of day. Another piece featured a gorgeous movement series created by a dancer/acrobat dangling by various body parts on two pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling. This spectacle took place at the far end of a large, diimly lit room, with audience positioned at the other end. Following this, we moved to another part of the room and watched a puppet show. Next, that same play was performed by live actors in a new space. I loved seeing a play done twice in two totally different ways! The various settings were enhanced by wall projections created by Sabina Maja Angel. Throughout the event, the violinist moved along with the audience, playing during transitions and sometimes underscoring the plays. At one point, this multi-talented young musician switched to the flute. If you missed this fantastic event, you will have the opportunity to view a video version that Ms. Angel has in the works!
Week 30: Project A.R.M.
E. Christopher "Cockails" Cornell, an Atlanta-based producer and spoken word artist, produced and directed Wednesday night's Week 30 event under the name Project A.R.M. (Atlanta Renaissance Movement). The multi-disciplinary production certainly lived up to its name. Set at the Cinefe 8 movie theater, the event featured musicians and spoken words artists in between the plays. One song or poem preceded each play and evoked a similar mood or theme. The talented musicians and poets threw themselves wholeheartedly into the project, immersing themselves in the world of the plays.
Because spoken word and music performances tend, by nature, to acknowledge and include the audience more than traditional theater, and because Cockails served as an MC guiding the evening, Project A.R.M fostered a relationship between the performances and the audience in the room. The audience felt free to clap along to songs, or react audibly to the plays. Performers changed costumes out in the open, as they morphed from one character to another between plays. This created a relaxed atmosphere where artists did not separate themselves from the act of creating art.
The plays themselves featured vivid imagery. For example, in "The Tragedy of the Least Favorite", a man beheads a woman onstage, then throws the severed head (a prop, of course) towards the audience. A flower then grows up in the spot where the woman died. The actors took this on with full commitment, unafraid to venture into the grotesque.Week 31: Southwest Arts Center
The Southwest Arts Center hosted its third and final 365 week of the year. Each of their three weeks has differed greatly in goals and aesthetics. For Week 31, Jade Lambert-Smith sought to engage members of the southwest Atlanta community from a variety of backgrounds. The group of actors she compiled featured people of all ages and levels of acting experience. She decided to rehearse and perform the plays privately, using a video camera to capture the experience. Friday night's presentation served as a viewing of this video footage, with live narration by Jade. The background she provided about the actors and the stories behind each filming added depth to my perspective of the event. The camera worked especially well for the non-actors-turned-actors because it captured the truth in the work without requiring the stage acting technique necessary to convey the same subletly in a live setting. The performances felt quite organic, and the actors made bold choices.
The first play of the week featured a Clark Atlanta professor and a young man from the community. The men played the roles with such conviction and grounding in reality that one could never tell that they were complete novices to the craft! Another stand out play featured two young men embodying a wave using synchronized movement and a wave-like vocal quality. Jade explained that she gave them thirty minutes to choreograph movement to go along with play, and the results are completely of their own imagining!Week 32: Stage Door Players
Stage Door Players brought 365 to a new audience demographic. The well-attended show mainly played to retiree-aged folks in the Dunwoody area. This audience responded strongly and enthusiastically to the plays. Director Dewayne Morgan and his cast crafted the plays with clarity, by making strong choices that brought out the humor of the writing as well as the emotional depth. Throughout, the audience had vocal reactions to what they saw, and threw themselves wholeheartedly into audience participation opportunities. For the play "Paper Tomatoes," an actor passed out bags of crumpled newspaper and encouraged the audience to throw it at the stage. People leapt from their seats and stormed the stage without hesitation.
My favorite play, "Are We There Yet?" portrayed two servants using synchronized movement to feed a snooty couple. The "Gentleman" tries to please his "Lady," but she never seems satisfied. The Lady makes demands even of the theatricality itself, asking for a change in lighting and music, yet never appearing satisfied.
During a post-show talk back, the audience responded with tremendous insights and thoughtful questions. Stage Door offered a reception following the talk back, and most everyone stayed to a have a snack and discuss the show.Week 33: 7 Stages - Youth Creates
Thursday night's performance of Week 33 began with a gorgeous image of a woman in a shimmery black dress (Producing Director, Faye Allen) holding a lantern on a dark stage. An older man joined her onstage (Artistic Director, Del Hamilton), and and the play continued in dim lighting, dark costumes, and at a deliberate pace. Suddenly, the stage went awash in light, loud contemporary music blared, and a gaggle of dancing teenagers in brightly colored clothing flew onto the stage to interrupt the action. The orgininal two actors stood dumbfounded by the new inhabitants of their world. When the dancers cleared the stage as suddenly as they appeared, the man asks, "You all right?" The woman replies, "No." This powerful juxtaposition of youth and age continued throughout the plays, as the two older actors often reappear amidst the ensemble of students. Most of the presentation featured a video backdrop of a giant planet and stars. This gave a sense of largeness and eternalness that fit well with the multi-generational concept. To add to this cyclical feeling, the end of the performance led to an audience participatory count down to the next generation of Youth Creates students. The audience then received a glass of ginger ale, and the whole room toasted the next class of young artists. The week's plays tended to be cynical, with a strong focus on money and power, yet this celebratory ending reminded us of the power of art and the next generation of artists.
Week 34: Dad's Garage
365 at Dad's Garage captured the fun, spontaneous style of the theater. The week's plays were done in between the 8 o'clock show, and the 10:30 show, necessitating quick pacing. They performed in the theater's parking lot, catching the maximum number of audience members leaving the first show and arriving for the second. An actor with a megaphone drew the crowd's attention, and the ensemble immediately leapt into the plays with enough energy to fill the giant outdoor space and reach those standing on the porch of the theater. They powered through the plays like an athletic event, punching each moment and moving agilely onto the next. A car served as a prop and lighting instrument-- quite apropos for this big, loud, fast version of the week's plays. My favorite moment featured two actors sitting on a ramp with the car's headlights shining in their eyes. The headlights served as a catalyst for all the action to come... eventually leading the actors to jump in the car and drive away from the theater. Quite a "light's down" moment!
Week 35: The Alliance Theatre - Collision Project
Graduates from the Alliance Theatre's Collision project came together for one week to direct and perform the plays of Week 35. Quoting from Alliance materials, "[Through the Collision Project], metro Atlanta teens create theatre for and about themselves by "colliding" with a dramatic text during a three week summer workshop. This material ultimately serves as the inspiration for a new play about their contemporary experience. Working with award-winning playwrights and Alliance Theatre artists, students explore a classic text through participation in theatre games, writing exercises, improvisation, and more." The reunion group that came together for 365 included members of Collision projects spanning the program's six years. This meant that college juniors collaborated with high school sophomores, and every age in between.
The Collision project focuses on creating a new play about the "contemporary experience" of the student artists, and this approach was evident in the work on Friday night, as their direction of the plays clearly came from a personal place. The students excelled at owning the plays-- finding ways to stay well within Parks' "blueprint," as one student described the scripts during the talk back, while making strong choices that both illuminated the material and the artists' perspective.
The event offered two versions of the play, "I Can't Help the Mood I'm In, But Right Now I'm Thinking That the Narcissism of White America Knows No Bounds." The two versions, each directed by a different student, featured a drastically different take on the material. Both felt quite personal to the given director. In the first version, a white man sits under a blanket between two non-white females. He constantly asks them, "You thinking of me?", which forces them to come out from under the blanket and answer him, "NO." In the second version, this dialogue takes place between two men on a bench, but on the other side of the stage offers various tableaus depicting common injustices perpetrated against non-whites in America.
Due to its great success, the Alliance Theatre's Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth, Rosemary Newcott, hopes this is the first in a possible series of collaborations between Collision Alumni.Week 36: National Black Arts Festival
I arrived at the 14th Street Playhouse at 2:30 for a 3 o'clock show, thinking I was early. I barely got a seat the first showing. By 2:30 hordes of people stood in the lobby of the theater waiting to see the performance, and hear Pearl Cleage speak with Suzan-Lori Parks. The second showing drew an equally enormous crowd. The plays, directed by Andrea Frye, had people on the edge of their seats, reacting vocally, often with loud laughter. The performance began with the constant "Action in Inaction," in which Frye brilliantly used a fan to evoke the "sound of wind and whales forever." All of the plays were carefully crafted gems, but the highlight of the performance was "The Plane on the Runway at 6 AM." This play-without-words depicts a stewardess miming all of the flight safety instructions before take-off. The mime, so clear and specific, built in intensity and hilarity as it went on. Just when I thought it was over, two more stewardesses joined her to repeat the sequence, multiplying the humor. Just when I thought it couldn't get any funnier, two slightly more clumsy men join these three graceful women to repeat it again. At this point, the stewardesses and stewards cast the audience as the passengers, and entreated us to join them in performing the mime (which with we had become quite familiar by this point).
Week 37 included two plays for famous people who died, Barry White and the writer Carol Shields. In "A Play for Barry White," a wide-eyed actor draped in blue and green cloth depicted the "World," which would not stop gleefully turning despite the passing of Barry White, much to the chagrin of "The Mourner" who sobbed and wept uncontrollably at the loss. What a striking portrayal of death! Those who feel connected to the deceased will feel that life has stopped, but the world keeps turning at the same pace. The world stops for no one, not even Barry White.
The titles of the plays were projected on the wall after each play, serving as a kind of punchline. Seeing the plays first allows the audience to get the jokes in the titles, and this addition added a lot to the humor of the whole performance.
The conversation between Pearl Cleage and Suzan-Lori Parks was delightful. It felt like two brilliant women with great interest in one another chatting excitedly in someone's living room. In their discussion of the writing process, they discovered some similarities in methods and experiences, but mostly differences. This allowed the audience to see that many approaches to art exist; all successful people do not follow one simple formula. Ms. Cleage and Ms. Parks also seemed to be absorbing new ideas from each other.Week 37: True Colors Theatre Company
Week 37 at True Colors Theatre Company took place on the set for CEREMONIES IN DARK OLD MEN. Using this complex set, full costuming, props and detailed staging, True Colors mounted fully realized versions of the week's plays. The performance was framed as a Vaudeville act using clown characters, costuming and placards displaying the names of the plays. An actor in a hat and striped jacket removed the top card after each play, displaying with grandeur the name of the next one. The constant REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE served as a bookend for the event. The two versions of the play began in the same way, casting "Someone" a no-nonsense elderly woman in a wheelchair, and "Someone Else" as a young male clown. The scene mostly ran the same way, but changed directions in the end. In the first version, the elderly woman remains cold towards the young clown, while in the second version she climbs out of her wheelchair and approaches him with an assuring kindness for the final lines. This choice ended the performance with a moment of connection rather than distance.
The play OUR SECOND ANNIVERSARY captured a moment of real love. The simple play portrays a couple on their second wedding anniversary giggling like teenagers as they drink champagne and toast their life together. The husband tells his wife, "I want to love you until yr all shriveled up like a prune. I'll love you the most then. What do you think?" She grins and answers, "Yummy." A yummy moment indeed.Week 38: Theatre du Reve
For Week 38, we received an international treat. Atlanta's unique French language theater company performed the plays at the International Farmer's Market on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. The plays began outside the market, travelled into the back offices, then finally into the aisles. Theatre du Reve translated the scripts into French, and one into Arabic. The performance offered a smattering of the three languages. Some of the plays were shown once in English, then again in French. Others were performed once using a mixture of the two languages. The mixture of the Farmer's Market and the multiple languages created a sense of universality to the work. Whether the actors spoke in English, French or Arabic, many shoppers stopped searching for the perfect tomato or the ripest plum to watch the action. Some even abandoned their fruit search all together to join the audience. Many of these individuals spoke neither English nor French, yet they still found a point of connection in the plays. Not knowing French myself, I often found that the language mattered little. When I had already seen a play in English, the French version took on a new feeling because the words themselves have a different flow. The highly visual staging also helped breakdown the language barrier.
One of the plays performed in the back offices of the market (where no customers picked over food), featured a man relieving himself loudly and vigorously with his back to the audience. Though it was quite clear that the defecation was not real, but merely conjured using sound effects body positioning, many audience members reacted in extreme disgust. The actor boldly portrayed a man lacking a private place to perform this bodily function. It fascinated me to watch how strongly the audience reacted to this event onstage.Week 39: IKAM Productions and Theatre on the Prowl
The first performance of Theatre on the Prowl's Week 39 was held in Pine Lake, GA. It seemed that many of the cast members and audience were Pine Lake community members. Program bios indicate that many of the actor/community members had a history in the performing arts, but had moved onto other careers. 365 offered a community-based opportunity to revisit the stage, and the actors were ready! The diverse ensemble filled the room with creative spirit, giving their complete energy to the plays without reservation.
Week 39 focuses largely on death, endings, and new beginnings. It begins with a play about a blind waterbearer who cries into a bucket and carries the sadness of the world. The second play of the week is called "All's Not All Well." As the week continues, the writer continues to grapple with pain and loss. There are three tribute plays for people who passed that week, and one about the closing of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Topdog Underdog" on Broadway, and its simultaneous opening in London. Theatre on the Prowl captured the negativity and despair present in the material without losing its sense of hopefulness and new beginnings. The actors connected with both ideas and managed maintain a sense of lightness in all the dark material.Week 40: IKAM Productions (in association with the African American Alumni Association of Oglethorpe University)
For Ikam Productions' Week 40 we got to go back to the fabulous Southwest Arts Center, the gorgeous arts facility in Southwest Atlanta. The show featured an ensemble of six women and one man, which brought out the feminine perspective of the work. The spare production values allowed the focus to fall on the writing, staging, and acting. The week featured the work of three directors, and it was fun to see the difference in styles.
One highlight, "Back in LA," featured two homeless people begging in LA. The man, dressed in a make shift space suit explains that he has never "been up" because he is "pro-cras-tin-a-tor." He finally attempts a trip to Mars, and when it fails he describes LA as "The land of 'limited ability'." Hmmm... I wonder what our writer thinks of Los Angeles? Another striking moment included a ensemble of women wrapping a dancer in a long piece of red fabric until she appeared to wear a strapless floor length red dress.Week 41: Aurora Theatre
The Aurora Theatre used 365 as a theatrical tour of their gorgeous new Lawrenceville home. The plays were performed in various rooms, including the mainstage theater, and the smaller
"Discovery Point Theater." Local playwright Gabriel Dean (whose play is currently in production in the Discovery Point Theatre) led the audience through the space. Our guide also provided information about all the rooms we visited-- he even hopped into the scene during certain plays as an actor. The Aurora succeeded in caring for its conservative audience base while still maintaining the integrity of the plays by letting the audience know which rooms along the tour would house plays with strong language. In this way, individual audience members held the responsbility for their own sensitivities. I attended Saturday night, and I believe that everyone watched all the plays despite the warning. I'm told the same held true for Thursday and Fridays nights, though much of Sunday's audience decided to opt out of going to those rooms. This wide acceptance seems indicative of the Aurora audience's willingness to give edgier material a chance.
This week, Ms. Parks must have felt a bit restless or uneasy. The plays mostly include characters who search for something, or characters who ponder the meaning of things. One of the plays is even called, A Search For The Meaning of Life. In another play, Bear, the Woman character comments, "I dunno. I feel very- insignificant. I've been writing - 'plays,' I call them. I have, what my dad would call, the 'audacity' to call them plays. Shits. Theyre shits. 365 shits."Week 42: Alliance acting classes
Week 42, performed by the Alliance Acting Program's advanced students, played like a good ghost story. The acting, music and staging choices supported this sense of other-worldliness. The most disturbing play of the week, Live Free or Die, featured the cast playing a spirited game of red rover to an eerie version of "Que Sera, Sera." Though the game seemed innocent and happy, an ominous mood hung over the scene from the beginning. Finally, a young woman with bloody hands holding a knife enters, and the two red rover lines form a circular chain around her. She makes repeated unsuccessful attempts to break through, but remains trapped.
More $ Than God featured a man dressed to the nines, "Mr. Suit," counting his gold while his children watch with disgust. The man's voice and countenance genuinely made my skin crawl, especially when he yanked a rope and an enslaved man tied to the offstage end came flying into view. A repetitive rap song about money played in the background, providing an additional connection of our current culture (the week featured a terrific soundtrack, adding greatly to moods evoked). Much of the week focuses on this idea of power, greed and money. Later on, in play A Play About Suit we learn the history of the enslaved man, and how he came to this position. Though it is a long passage, I find it worth quoting here. "I was free, living my life, doing a host of beautiful things, and I had the respect of my community. 'Come with me,' he said. 'I'll make you big cause I am big,' he said, 'I got pockets full of money. I got a fancy car, I got a garage for 2, I got the mortgage due, I got--," Slave explains. In this play, Slave ultimately blinds Mr. Suit, using his own greed against him. In a later play, Parks writes of a Knight and a King who must now scrub floors. The Knight rails against this fate, while the King poetically accepts that for now, they must scrub. "He scrubs with noble vigor. His strokes are strong and even." For Parks, true nobility means that when life calls for scrubbing floors, one does so with all one's might..Week 43: Change of plans!
Due to unforseen circumstances, our original programming for Week 43 didn't work out, so we took the opportunity to have an open workshop where anyone could come work through the week's plays. We ended up with a small but enthusiastic group, and had an in depth discussion about each play. We read from the table, but considered various staging possibilities aloud. The play Too Close simulated some of our most interesting staging questions. The play features the Writer character and her parents, who speak about the Writer in a made-up language. The parents' lines are written in this unintelligible language, but translations for each line appear in parentheses. We spent some time pondering various means of communicating these translated lines. At first we suggested that they could be projected on the set somewhere, then one participant argued that the Writer ought to speak the translations. In this version, we learn that the Writer can hear her parents talking about her. It also adds subjectivity to the translation-- do we trust our translator? This example shows that these plays often hold more layers than meet the eye, if one does a little digging.
Week 44: 7 Stages
Saturday, Sept. 15th @ 8pm
at 7 Stages
1105 Euclid Ave., Atlanta7 Stages is a professional, non-profit theatre company devoted to engaging artists and audiences by focusing on the social, political, and spiritual values of contemporary culture. 7 Stages gives primary emphasis to international work and the support and development of new plays, new playwrights, and new methods of collaboration. It is committed to bringing international plays and theatre artists to its community to share in their wisdom and to bring different cultures into intimate contact. It also maintains a multidisciplinary performance space that is a facility for other arts groups based in Atlanta.
“We do not know: if we will stage them in the theatre proper, parking lot, lobby, café or bathroom. We do not know: if we will invite an audience or if we will just do them spontaneously, as pre-show, post-show. There is some mystery going on about this thing that I doubt even SLP comprehends. We want to bring that mystery to however we present the works. It’s more than her dream, or that she wrote them for this clever one of-a-kind national project. There’s always mystery and we are charged with finding it. Maybe it will be professional actors working in a seemingly non-professional situation. It won’t be script in hand. It won’t be unrehearsed. It must be thoughtful, and well prepared.”Week 45: Drama Tech Theatre
Le Chat Noir Theatre
Friday, Sept 21st & Saturday, Sept 22nd @ 7:30pm
304 8th Street, Augusta, GAWeek 46: Kennesaw State University
Tues 9/25- Sat 9/29 @ 8pm
Sun 9/30 @ 3pm
In KSU's Studio Theater
space is limited, call 770-420-4446 for reservationsWeek 46 will be presented as a part of Kennesaw’s studio season slots.
Week 47: Savannah College of Art and Design
365 Days/365 Plays week 47 are seven highly political plays about time, expressing the inner punk, and instilling a sense of action in our social , economic and political standing. When will we act? When is the right time to act? We are trying to instill a reaction within the audiences of the week of plays we are presenting. Our focus has been on the language and content of what these plays are saying to us as artists. We have taken Suzan-Lori Parks's works and have expressed ideas about the content of American art, culture and politics. Raw and Urban; We Will Punk You Up!
Week 48: Gainesville Theatre Alliance
Tues, Oct 9th
11:30am on the Gainesville Square
12:30pm Brenau campus gazeboThe Gainesville Theatre Alliance is a nationally-acclaimed collaboration between Gainesville State College, Brenau University, the Northeast Georgia Community and Professional Guest Artists. Since 1979, GTA has produced theatre designed to entertain, inspire, enrich and unite. The Gainesville Theatre Alliance has been showcased at the Kennedy Center as “a model program,” and received the national award for “Academic Excellence” from the American Council on Education. The plays are performed October 12 and 13 at the Ed Cabell Theatre and in unique locations in the community from October 8-14.
Week 49: Emory University's Transforming Community Project
Wednesday, Oct. 17th @ 1:30 & 3pm
Emory QuadrangleLaunched in 2005-06, the Transforming Community Project (TCP) seeks to mobilize individuals in every sector of Emory University to engage in creating a stronger campus community through the process of establishing a reflective, fact-based understanding of this institution’s racial history and current experiences of race. The goal throughout is to use research and community deliberation to move from the ambiguous reality of integration to the challenge of lasting transformation. Creating a shared history will help to reshape policies, consider innovative forms of repair, and emerge as a community deeply committed to reflective action.
TCP sets a central goal for the project: using artistic expression as an avenue to illustrate the discovered institutional history. In addition, the collaborative effort (involving cross-racial and cross-hierarchical groups of staff, faculty, students, administrators and alumni, among others) to achieve performance value is a model it expects to replicate.
TCP invites its seven Fall 2007 Community Dialogue Groups and previous Community Dialogue participants to create the setting for each day’s play out of their TCP-specific readings. Two theatre directors (Judge Luckey and Ken Hornbeck) provide creative expertise as each group discovers its members’ skills.
Performances take place in public sites on Emory’s main campus, the Oxford College campus, and other locations represented by the various groups.Week 50: Theater at Emory
The many diverse subsets of the the Emory theater community came together to create Week 50. The plays were produced by Theater Emory, Theater Studies, the various student groups, and a team of alums. The spirit of the week at Emory was in-keeping with the type of collaboration the whole national 365 project has embodied. On a national scale, a different group of artists took on one week of the year, and at Emory each took on one day of the week. These groups came together once at the beginning of the rehearsal process for a dramaturgical meeting, and out of this discussion came a set of artistic precepts for all the groups to follow. Just as the national project has certain rules to cohere the year, the Emory artists created certain rules to cohere their week. Throughout the week, each play was performed a couple of times during the day in the middle of campus as "happenings" for the Emory community. On Saturday night, the groups came back together to perform the plays in order as a "walkabout" through campus. The audience gathered in the Schwartz
Center and was led to each location by a sign-wielding guide. I participated in this week as a director and performer, so I did not personally experience it as an audience member. I acted in PLAY HERE PLEASE and FIRST FAMILY, both produced by Theater Emory. The Vice President of Emory University played my dad! Staged in succession as if they were one, these zany plays offered one heightened glimpse at the American family, ending with the disturbing image of a little girl in a red checkered dress violently kicking a giant stuffed dog. That little girl happened to be me, and I could feel the horrified gasps the moment my cute red cowboy boot made contact with the plush, brown doggy. Another highlight of the week was BEE, in which a person plays a bumble bee clumsily wobbling around on all fours before falling backwards down a hill. It seems the most notable images for me this week involve a cute animal-like creature.Week 51: Horizon Theatre with the University of West Georgia
Students at the University of West Georgia collaborated with Atlanta's Horizon Theatre Company Apprentices to produce Week 51. At different times during the week, the production was staged at the Horizon Theatre, and at the University of West Georgia. Prior to the rehearsal process, the students took on their own SLP-like writing exercise, completing a play everyday for a week. The directors selected 22 of these pieces for performance, and the final production showcased these student-written plays, interspersed with the plays of Week 51. The student plays felt quite personal; some dealt with death and relationships while others grappled with today's political situation and our current war. All seemed grounded in the students' realities. The hilarious first play (student written), featured sock puppets coming to an awareness about the nature of sock-hood... a self-discovery play using clever puns about feet. Another striking student play featured a couple on their first starry-eyed first date, and then sped through their engagement, marriage and eventual divorce. One young lady wrote a monologue about her struggle with her mother's breast cancer. She used the aquisition of "pink stuff" as a metaphor for her personal fight to keep her mother alive. She discussed every child's irritations with their parents' weird habits, but how all of that changes when that child faces losing those quirks forever. Another play discussed career by featuring an intelligent but tremendously nerdy guy working at a fast
food counter. After he finishes babbling to customer about the history of the burger joint, she asks him ,"Why aren't you a history teacher?" He replies, "Then who'd sell burgers?" Suzan-Lori had lots to say about war this week, and the students did too. Two plays from the series "Father Comes Home From the War" appeared, and were placed back to back with war-related plays by the young playwrights.Week 52: Actor's Express
Actor's Express
887 W. Marietta St.
Atlanta, GA
Wednesday, November 7th @ 6:30pm
Final party to follow at the Highland Inn Ballroom!
644 North Highland Ave, Atlanta, GAActor's Express Theatre offers original voices and new perspectives that reflect Atlanta's diverse and evolving community. It firmly believes the relevance and vitality of the American theater depends upon a continual infusion of new work and the nurturing of new playwrights. New plays are the lifeblood of theatre, and playwrights are the chroniclers, critics, and prophets of our times. These writers bring important messages about the world, the way we live, love, and sacrifice; they also provide new insights into our humanity. Actor's Express is committed to championing the next great American play.
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