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Jan. 31, 2007

Contact: Hunter Hanger, 404-712-9118, hhanger@emory.edu

Brave New Works Theater Festival Features Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Guest Artists and Various Issues in Translation

Theater Emory’s spring season begins with the biennial Brave New Works festival. This year’s installment — presenting 20 days of workshops, rehearsals and presentations of works in progress from Feb. 6, 2007 until Feb. 25, 2007 — is unique in its varied and interdisciplinary programming. Dramaturges, writers, translators, choreographers and adapters will all be in residence to work with a mixture of student and professional actors to develop new works for the screen and stage. These visiting artists come from Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Europe. Brave New Works festival highlights include: a visit from South African freedom fighter Albie Sachs, a play from Emory Creative Writing Program Director and 2005 Academy Award-winner for Literature Jim Grimsley, an intriguing play about journalists and the IRA set in Belfast by celebrated writer Matthew Maguire, translations of works by Cyrano de Bergerac and Johan Nestroy, a screenplay by Atlanta writer Bret Wood, and a dance/theater piece adapted from the magical “A Blessing on the Moon” by Emory’s Joseph Skibell.

“‘Brave New Works’ has been established to advance the mission of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory, contributing significantly to the development of new works for stage and, increasingly, screen,” says Lisa Paulsen, director of the Playwriting Center, which sponsors the festival. “This February, in order to meet the needs of seven separate projects, we will coalesce an impressive company of Emory students and faculty, local professionals and nationally recognized artists for three weeks’ work at Emory.” All rehearsals and presentations are free and open to the public. For more details on times and locations of all rehearsals and presentations, please call the Arts at Emory Box Office at 404.727.5050, or visit www.arts.emory.edu.

“The Jail Diaries of Albie Sachs” (play)
Written by David Edgar
Directed by Tim McDonough, Artistic Director, Theater Emory
Staged reading: Feb. 6, 5:30 p.m., Schwartz Center, Theater Lab
The first project of the Festival coincides with a visit by famed South African freedom fighter Judge Albie Sachs. The staged reading of excerpts from “The Jail Diaries of Albie Sachs,” featuring Tim McDonough in the title role, will be followed by a discussion with Judge Sachs. British writer Edgar’s expansive career includes works for the stage (“Pentecost,” 1994), radio (“Ecclesiastes,” 1977), TV (“The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” 1982) and movies (“Lady Jane,” 1986). NOTE: David Edgar will not be in residence for this reading.

“99 Uses for a Naked Man” (play)
Written by Jim Grimsley, Senior Resident Artist and Director, Creative Writing Program
Direction and Dramaturgy by Joseph Megel
Staged reading: Feb. 11, 2 p.m., Schwartz Center, Theater Lab
“99 Uses for a Naked Man” examines the complexities of the relationship between Porter John and Billy, the boy he abducted long ago. Director Joseph Megel, currently a visiting professor in Performance Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has an extensive career with many accomplishments, including three Drama-Logue Awards, a nomination for the NAACP Theatre Award and an Ovation award nomination. Megel also directed Guillermo Reyes’s “Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown,” which won the Outer Critics Circle Award in its off-Broadway production at the 47th Street Theatre and the Best Production Award in Los Angeles.

“Watershed” (play)
Written and directed by Matthew Maguire
Dramaturgy by Morgan Jenness  
Staged reading: Feb. 17, 7 pm, Schwartz Center, Theater Lab
“Watershed” takes place in Belfast. Niall and Emma are two American journalists in an uneasy relationship who get entangled in a plot by a rogue unit of the IRA to end the peace agreement. Emory is proud to welcome Los Angeles Times Critics Choice-winner and OBIE Award-winner Maguire, and New York dramaturg and literary agent Jenness, who both bring experience and national critical acclaim to Brave New Works.

The Translation Renderings
“Cyrano on the Moon,” written by Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Donald McManus
“Der Talisman,” written by Johan Nestroy, translated by Michael Evenden
Combined presentation: Feb. 18, 2 pm, Schwartz Theater Lab
The Translation Renderings is a research and methods process that aids Emory faculty members Michael Evenden and Donald McManus in their respective translations of foreign works. Donald McManus is translating Cyrano de Bergerac’s “Cyrano on the Moon (Histoire Comique des États et Empires de la Lune)” from its original 17th-century French. Through physical work with actors, McManus hopes to solve issues of adaptation and translation, including questions of gender and making the language of aliens comprehensible to audiences. Evenden is translating Johann Nestroy’s “Der Talisman” from its original German, a text widely considered untranslatable. He enlists the aid of student actors who specialize in improvisation and physical comedy to help him set guidelines for writing areas of improvisation in a play’s text. He also works with the actors to reflect layers of class through language. All rehearsals will be monitored and recorded by Emory students, as the Playwriting Center strives to compose methods for researching and compiling translation efforts for future research symposia.

“The Seventh Daughter” (screenplay)
Written by Bret Wood
Directed by Alexandre Harrington, Vocal Coach, Theater Emory
Dramaturgy by Joseph Skibell, Creative Writing Program
Round-table reading: Feb. 24, 7 pm, Schwartz Theater Lab
Atlanta writer Wood’s piece is the only screenplay being workshopped in Brave New Works this year. In this Victorian-era drama, a teenage girl is transformed into a spiritual medium under the oppressive hand of her father, a burned-out carnival magician. Director Harrington is a graduate of London’s Central School of Speech and Drama and the founder of the Compagnie le Poete Ivre theater company in Paris.

“A Blessing on the Moon” (dance/theater piece)
Novel written by Joseph Skibell, Creative Writing Program
Adaptation/Direction by Rebecca Novick and Rebecca Salzer
Choreography by Rebecca Salzer
Music by Andy Tierstein, with lyrics by Joseph Skibell
Musical Director: Kendall Simpson, Dance Program
Dance Coordinator: Lori Teague, Dance Program
Culminating presentation: Feb. 25, 2 pm, Schwartz Center Dance Studio
Panel Discussion: “Adapting ‘A Blessing on the Moon,’” Feb. 7, 5:30 pm, Joseph W. Jones Room (Room 311), Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University
Emory Creative Writing faculty member Joseph Skibell’s novel “Blessing on the Moon” receives an unconventional adaptation from Rebecca Novick and Rebecca Salzer, who will use the text as inspiration for a dance/theater piece with songs. The adaptation team is joined by acclaimed danced composer, Andy Tierstein. The story follows a Polish Jew named Chaim who survives as a ghost when everyone in his village is shot by soldiers and embarks on a 50-year quest to reach the “World to Come.” During the journey, Chaim comforts Ola, the dying daughter of the Poles who have moved into his house, spends a night in the woods with the head of the soldier who shot him and becomes entangled in the struggle of two unlucky Hasids whose greed has pulled the moon down out of the sky. This workshop is also a joint effort between the Playwriting Center and Emory’s Dance Program, and Novick, Salzer and Tierstein are all Coca-Cola Artists-in-Residence.

This three-week developmental workshop will also be accompanied by a panel discussion titled “Adapting ‘A Blessing on the Moon’” on Feb. 6, 2007 in the Jones Room of the Robert W. Woodruff Library. Skibell, Salzer and Tiersten will be joined by noted scholar Rabbi Lawrence Kushner for the discussion.

- Gina Atwater

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