MOCKINGBIRD, adapted by Julie Jensen from the book by Kathryn Erskine, has been nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards. One for Outstanding Original Play or Musical Adaptation, and one for Outstanding Production, Theatre for Young Audiences. See the full list of nominees here.
The American Theatre Critics Association has announced the six finalists for the 2015 Francesca Primus Prize, including New York-based playwright Yasmine Rana. The Primus Prize is offered annually to an emerging woman playwright and includes a $10,000 award.
Rana is a finalist for her play “The War Zone is My Bed” written after extensive interviews with survivors of the Bosnian conflict. The other finalists include Liz Duffy Adams for “A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World,” Tira Palmquist for “Ten Mile Lake,” Nambi E. Kelley for “Native Son,” Sharyn Rothstein for “By the Water,” and Catherine Trieschmann for “Hot Georgia Sunday.” Finalists were selected by a national committee of critics.
What was your first experience with Theater?My entry point into theater was cast recordings, when I was a kid that was all I listened to (let’s be honest, they’re still basically all I listen to…I listen to cast recordings at the gym). I had a cassette tape when I was very young of songs for kids from Broadway shows?—?“Consider Yourself,” “Getting to Know You,” “I’d Do Anything”?—?that I listened to every night before I went to bed. I memorized the songs. My parents noticed this and they also were musical fans, and so they took me to a variety of local and regional productions. My first really clear memory of seeing a piece of theater is seeing the SECRET GARDEN tour in Chicago (I’m from Gary, Indiana…). My mom and I had watched the number from the show on the Tonys and we had been listening to the tape, and I think that was the first major touring show I got to go to. I remember sitting in the front of the balcony, peering over the edge and watching Mary sing and thinking that could be me, I need to be a part of that.
When did you recognize you were a writer? Or when did you start writing?
I used to write stories when I was in elementary school and everyone would tell me I was a writer, and I would say, “yeah, yeah, I want to be a painter.” And then, in middle school I got picked to write a column for the local newspaper and I HATED it, and everyone said, “oh you’re such a good writer, you should be a writer,” and I said, “No way. I’m never going to be a writer, that’s the last thing I ever want to be after this.” But, there was a musical theater writing class in my high school that was a big deal, where you got to take a trip to New York (from Indiana), so I did that and I loved it, but I still wasn’t going to be a writer, I wanted to be an actor. When I got to college, Brown had this program where students could write musicals for the main stage and I did that with my friends and it started to creep into my mind that MAYBE if I could write musicals, that wouldn’t be so bad. But I was still in denial about being a writer. My playwriting teachers were amazing, and very encouraging, but I don’t think I really accepted that I was a writer and that that was going to be the thing that I was going to do until after I graduated from the Musical Theatre Writing grad program at NYU. I still don’t really love the label, I never want to be one thing, I want to do all kinds of things, so now I say I’m a writer AND…
Read the full interview here.
Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Alumni EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn have been named 2015-2016 Dramatist Guild Fellows. Each year, the Dramatist Guild selects writers into their Fellows Program, which provides support and training through one-on-one mentoring and group sessions with theatre professionals.
Learn more here.
From the L.A. Times, by Charles McNulty
“I was working at the time at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills,” Sachs recalled. “I was there for almost two years, and we were doing ‘Love Letters,’ which was running forever, when I got this call out of the blue from Deborah Lawlor, who said that she wanted to start a company.
“Deborah and I had worked together on a project when she was an independent theater producer in L.A.,” Sachs continued. “But she was in New York and had got in a very serious car accident. When she was lying in the hospital, she said to herself, ‘If I survive this, I’m going to do what I always wanted to do, which is to have a theater of my own.’ Thank God she survived. And she called me — I remember that phone call so well — and said, ‘I want to start a theater. Will you run it with me?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”
The Fountain occupies an easy-to-miss building on a nondescript stretch of Fountain Avenue, the street made famous by the practical advice Bette Davis reputedly offered young actors with their sights set on Hollywood: “Always take Fountain.”
Inside, with its folksy upstairs café and single unit men’s room with delicate plumbing, it looks more like a private home in need of a gut renovation than a prominent theater and dance hub. (The Fountain, in addition to being one of the top five small theaters in L.A., is also the foremost presenter of Flamenco in the area.)
The moment Sachs and Lawlor walked into the building, they knew they found their theater. “There’s the wonderful relationship of the stage with the audience that’s intimate and embracing. We just felt that this was home,” Sachs said. “We bought the building in 1990. We own the building outright. Smartest thing we’ve ever done.”
Stephen Sachs will be honored on October 3rd at a special event commemorating the theatre’s 25th anniversary.
Read the full article here.