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Pew Fellowships in the Arts interview with Russell Davis
Bio
Russell Davis grew up in Europe and the Middle East and then went to college in the United States. His plays have been produced at various theatres, including People’s Light & Theatre, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Long Wharf Theatre, Center Stage, Yale Repertory, and Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival. He has been a 2008-10 recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. He was resident playwright at People’s Light for the residency program of the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group. He has received grants and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, McKnight Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, as well as two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a past member of New Dramatists. He has been a visiting artist at institutions such as Lehigh University, Yale University’s Divinity School, Virginia Tech. University, Ohio University, University of Utah, and University of Puget Sound.
He is also a juggler and was one of four jugglers featured in ‘The Best Jugglers You’ve Never Heard Of’ (cover story JUGGLE magazine, Winter 2007, published by the International Jugglers’ Association). He has performed as a juggler and unicyclist for The Road Company’s Flying Lemon Cirque, for The Instant City Circus at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre Company, and in People’s Light’s production of his new vaudeville piece for all ages, The Thoughts & Travels of Nicki. He worked with Jon Held, a juggler and former member of Airjazz, to develop Jon Held’s solo performance piece Tales of Lunacy which was produced by Touchstone Theatre. He directed Tony Duncan who won the juggling championships at the 1994 International Jugglers’ Association Convention, and worked with the juggler Michael Moschen in Michael Moschen in Motion at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 1988 Next Wave Festival and at the Lincoln Center’s SERIOUS FUN! Festival 1990. He has led circus workshops at various theatres, universities, and schools. He has been a juggling/unicycling instructor for the Big Apple Circus’ education program and at HB Studio in NY.
Plays
MAHIDA’S EXTRA KEY TO HEAVEN
2 acts; unit set; 2w, 2m
synopsis: Thomas, a young American painter, encounters a wary Iranian college student, Mahida, who has been left by her brother to wait for a ferry that will not come until the next day. In the midst of this awkward situation Thomas respectfully offers Mahida shelter for the night at his mother’s house nearby. This simple offer triggers a chain of events that results in a confrontation between Thomas’ mother and Mahida’s brother, which threatens to engulf them all in violence and death. Gracefully plumbing this collision of cultures, Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven, speaks in a language painfully current and eloquent, unique and haunting.
publication: Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2010; 2010: The Best Women’s Stage Monologues & Scenes, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2010; 2010: The Best Men’s Stage Monologues & Scenes, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2010.
production history: Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Madison (4/22-5/9/10); Epic Theatre Ensemble, New York, NY (9/16-10/18/09)
development: National New Play Network, Stanford, CA, 2005; New Harmony Project, Indiana, 2005
THE DAY OF THE PICNIC
2 acts; unit set; 4w, 2m
synopsis: Betsy Fullbright keeps hearing someone outside, or down the hall, call out yoo hoo. The television seems stuck on a program where people are burning flags. A goat seems to have been left out on the lawn and there may be a leopard prowling nearby. Meanwhile, the retirement home staff have vanished and most everyone else is away on a picnic. A silent black man, who arrived the night before, now sits in a wheelchair and stares at her. Could this be someone she knew once upon a time in Kenya? Did this person somehow follow her here after all these years?
production history: People’s Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA (1/28-2/15/09); Yale Repertory, New Haven (1/16-2/25/84); City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh (1/12-2/5/84)
development: Playpenn, Philadelphia, PA, 2007; National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Center, CT, 1983
THEATRE FOR YOUR MOTHER: THE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD SHOW
1 act (general/family audience); unit set; 3w, 1m
synopsis: This new dramatic version of the “Little Red Riding Hood” story is a gentle reconceiving of the tale, a questioning of its assumptions, in particular about the role of the mother in such a tale which is limited, in the versions received by us, to essentially sending her child off onto a path through the woods. In this version the mother is “restored” to a much more central role, but this is not done arbitrarily, but rather in a spirit of great fun, and with attention to the detail and logic underlying this tale. The roles of the Wolf, the Grandmother, and Little Red Riding Hood herself are also questioned and revitalized, so that this tale now not only speaks to very young children, but speaks out to adults and children of all ages.
production history: Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Orlando, FL (7/15-8/8/10); New Zenith Co, Waterbury, CT (1/11-1/21/05); Honolulu Theatre For Youth, Honolulu, HI (4/17-5/15/04); People’s Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA (6/18-7/27/03)
CECILIA’S LAST TEA PARTY
unit set; 3w, 1m (plus 3 puppets)
synopsis: Cecilia’s Last Tea Party takes place on a small island in Southeast Asia emerging from colonial rule at the end of World War II. Like Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, the story is told from the point of view of a young girl – in this case, Cecilia, whose parents are missing for a reason unknown to her. An unsympathetic Aunt Tambora has come to stay at the house in their stead. Cecilia spends her time now holding tea parties with her stuffed toy tiger and stuffed toy pelican.
Beneath this rather innocuous, humorous surface, however, it becomes apparent that Cecilia’s situation is actually rather dire. Her father, a western administrator, has been executed. Her mother, a native islander, has been imprisoned. All this is articulated from within a child’s own struggle with what to believe in a dangerous situation with no parent, no trustworthy adult, to call on for help. At some point Cecilia does find help – some dream, or extraordinary vision, where an idealistic impulse, or lyricism deep within herself, finds voice.
production history: Todd Mountain Theater Project, Roxbury, NY (8/7-8/17/08); Passage Theatre Company, Trenton, NJ (5/8-6/1/08)
APPOINTMENT WITH A HIGH WIRE LADY
2 acts; unit set; 2w, 1m
synopsis: The play is about Richard, a young man in trouble, who cannot remember his past. And Louise, a friend, who comes to visit. N.Y. Post, 2/11/92: “There is so much good writing in Appointment with a High Wire Lady and it’s such a thoroughly professional production you have to wonder….This tiny new developmental theater company could teach Broadway a thing or two….As she tries to pull Richard back from the abyss, Louise’s perception of reality wobbles under the onslaught of his meandering thought processes…. During its penultimate moment Appointment with a High Wire Lady achieves a level of descriptive prose rarely seen onstage. As Richard, retrieving a lost memory, describes how he felt when Louise rode behind him on his motorcycle, all of Davis’ ideas merge into an ornate tapestry and the delicacy of his weaving becomes, for the first time, apparent.”
publication: Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2007; The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 2003, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2004; Plays by Russell Davis, Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2003; The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 1992, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 1993
production history: School House Theater, Croton Falls, NY (2/14-3/9/08); Andrews Lane Studio, Dublin Fringe Festival, Ireland (9/28-10/3/04); Alice’s 4th. Floor, Theatre Row, NYC (1/30-3/1/92); Long Wharf Theatre, Stage II, New Haven, CT (12/13/91-1/19/92); Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC (3/22-4/22/91 – workshop production); New York Stage & Film, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (June, 1990, workshop production)
CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD (adaptation)
1 act (general/family audience); unit set; 4w, 4m
synopsis: Stage adaptation of Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Newbery Medal, 2003).
production history: People’s Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA (1/17-2/24/08)
THE SONG OF GRENDELYN
unit set; 3w
synopsis: It’s every mother’s fear. You leave your child at home for the day and someone strange turns up. While Hannah, a recently widowed writer of children’s stories, is off at a book signing, her old friend and now famous rock star Melinda Avery shows up to take a nap in Hannah’s room before her triumphant hometown concert. Melinda’s not in a good mood and she’s not used to being pushed around, but she didn’t expect Siggy, Hannah’s unimpressed eleven year old daughter who wants her to go sleep in the guest room and won’t take no for an answer. Their fateful struggle, and Hannah’s intuitive sense that “something is going on at home,” points out the invisible connections between us all and how the healing of our wounded spirits takes odd and circuitous paths.
production history: Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Madison (4/7-4/24/05)
development: New Harmony Project, Indiana, 2000; New Work Festival, Mark Taper Forum, CA, 1995-96; New Work Now, New York Shakespeare Festival, 1994
THE SECOND DEATH OF PRISCILLA
2 acts; unit set; 4w, 3m
synopsis: The Second Death of Priscilla takes place in Priscilla’s bedroom, in a forest, and in the big blue sky outside. A friend named Peter comes to visit Priscilla. There is a wolf who lives in a fabulous land next door. It is a play about Priscilla who sets out in her mind to slay this beast which lurks outside her window.
publication: Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2007; Humana Festival 2003: The Complete Plays, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2004; Plays by Russell Davis, Volume Two, Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2004
production history: Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2003 Humana Festival, Louisville, KY (3/25-4/6/03); Long Island University, CW Post Campus, NY (January, 2001)
The Thoughts & Travels of Nicki
1 act (general/family audience); unit set; 3f, 2m
synopsis: There’s a monster in Nicki’s house. He eats her bed, then her room and her parents too, and continues to eat everything all around her. When the monster finally threatens to eat Nicki’s very thoughts, she decides to confront him. With the help of a sly cat named Pharpar, Nicki rides a flying horse, meets a unicycling bear and joins up with a pair of world-class juggling performers. In the midst of a wildly fun and fantastical circus show, Nicki finds a way to turn her fears into amazing feats of imagination.
production history: People’s Light & Theatre Company (3/16-4/14/01)
SALLY’S GONE, SHE LEFT HER NAME
2 acts; unit set; 2w, 2m
synopsis: Sally wants to leave home, as soon as possible, for art school in New York. Her mother seems increasingly distracted, or absent, and her younger brother Christopher is no help. Her successful father may or may not be involved with a younger woman at work. After Sally has a confrontation with her father, her mother suddenly disappears in the middle of the night. The play is about the last two weeks in the life of a perfect American family. But as this family unravels, as words and longings are misunderstood, and things falls apart, a larger spirit in each of these characters begins to show signs of life.
publication: Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2008; The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 2003, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2004; The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 2003, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2004; Plays by Russell Davis, Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2003; Audition Monologues for Student Actors, Meriwether Publishing, Colorado Springs, CO, 1999; Great Scenes for Young Actors, Volume Two, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 1998; 100 Monologues – An Audition Sourcebook from New Dramatists, Penguin Books USA, New York, 1989; Plays in Process, Theatre Communications Group, New York, 1985
production history: People’s Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA (4/28-6/6/99); Academy Theatre, Atlanta (2/16-3/18/89); Acme Theatre, Ottawa, Canada (2/5-2/21/87); New York Theatre Workshop, NYC (4/23-5/26/85); American Stage Festival, Milford, NH (7/17-7/28/84); Center Stage, Baltimore (3/20-4/26/81)
THE WILD GOOSE CIRCUS
2 acts; unit set; 4w, 2m
synopsis: The story of a dysfunctional circus in which a fortuneteller has wrested control of the circus from her ringmaster. Beasts and dark shapes never seen on earth come forth to present, or disrupt, their acts. Until an absent clown, or child, finally comes back to lead the circus’ opening parade. Kranes, Artistic Director, Sundance Playwrights Lab: “I remember the community at Sundance after two and a half weeks of work and the play’s final reading: everyone was deeply, deeply moved. Some were stunned. Both (the dramaturg) and (the director) who had worked on the play – and had had reservations about how completely the play might work – were shocked – registering that it amazed them, with all their professional work, that they hadn’t seen the real power and potential of the play up until the final reading.” Chambers, Managing Director, Sundance Playwrights Lab: “Maybe it was the emotion at the end of the Lab, or the incredible work of the actors especially Walter Bobbie who read the lead, but the reading was the most memorable and moving in my ten years with Sundance.”
publication: Plays by Russell Davis, Volume Two, Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2004
production history: University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, (March, 2004); Virginia Tech. University, Blacksburg, VA (November, 2000); Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (March, 1999); Annex Theatre, Seattle, WA (6/8-7/1/95)
script development: Sundance Playwrights Lab., Provo, UT, 1990; play originally developed through a commission grant received from the New York State Council on the Arts, 1987-88
THE LAST GOOD MOMENT OF LILY BAKER
2 acts; unit set; 2w, 2m
synopsis: Bob & Lily Baker get together with Sam, Bob’s best friend, and Molly, Sam’s wife, for a 15th wedding anniversary. What is intended as a celebration of enduring companionship begins to be undermined by a sense of misgiving and a strange sadness that seems to have befallen Lily. This is a tale of a difficult, challenging weekend, during which two marriages seem on the brink of collapse. But it is also the weekend when Bob and Lily Baker fall in love with each other again.
publication: Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2007; The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 2008, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 2009; Plays by Russell Davis, Volume Two, Broadway Play Publishing, New York, 2004; The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 1991, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 1992; The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 1991, Smith & Kraus Publishers, Lyme, NH, 1992; Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1991
production history: Annex Theatre, Seattle, WA (3/31-4/23/94); Alias Stage, Providence, RI (4/1-5/2/93); Stonehill Theatre Project, Accord, NY (6/21-6/29/91); People’s Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA (1/10-2/11/90); Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, MO (1/18-2/5/89); New York Stage & Film, Vassar College (6/30-7/10/88); Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, San Diego, CA (10/22-12/19/87 – Drama-logue Critics Award, Los Angeles, 1987); The Road Company, Johnson City, Tennessee (6/23-6/28/87); Unicorn Theatre, Kansas City, MO (4/14-4/26/87); George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, NJ (Dec, 1986, workshop production)
development: National Playwright’s Conference, O’Neill Center, CT (1986); university production, Cornell University (October, 1985)
