Me, You & Eli

Ana's Key to Anarchy for a UU forum in Comal Co.

2012-01-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

Kathy Center could not read Ana's role, as I explained with the last entry. I did it myself. I welcomed the assembled Comal County UU's as if they were the delegation sent from Mayor Walmsley's Office (New Orleans) to see what kind of old lady would object to the Mayor's comments with "He doesn't even know what anarchy is!" (She'd seen in the Times-Picayune his statement, referring to the streetcar workers, on strike for better conditions, that "Anarchy must cease". ) Jan Estes, who organizes the Forum events on Wednesday night for the UUs, said she wished we'd taped it, for the play but also for the great discussion that followed.

But once again, I failed to get any pictures! Sorry.

I want to thank the Comal County UU's, of course, including Jan Estes; also my friends Bev and Rob who drove me over, Paul Martin who rode his bicycle from Seguin, Monta Zengerle and John Bushnell for attending, and Carol Hersch (the Mosheim Mansion, Seguin) for loaning me an antique telephone appropriate to 1929. Thanks.

Kathy Center in a new play

2011-12-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

When I learned that Ana's Key... may get another staged reading in January, I wrote Kathy Center who did such a fine job with the role for the staged reading at the Blue Theatre in Austin in August, hoping she might be interested in reading the part again. But Kathy will be in rehearsal for another play. Below is what she could tell me about that play and and its performances:

Here's the play info so far:

CAFÉ AT THE END OF TIME
A stage play by Sue Carroll Moore
the story of a gay bar in the Florida Keys and the characters that call it home.

Directed and Produced by former LA Director - Marian Jones.
Performance Dates Feb 3 - Feb 19 at the Daugherty Arts Center, Austin, TX

I'm playing "Tony" the bar owner and manager, a dyke from New Jersey who's juggle two girlfriends: the former, emotionally-dependent gal who just won't let go, and the younger, current gal, who's losing patience. All the characters are gay or lesbian and equally colorful.

Thanks,
Kathy

BLUE THEATRE ANNOUNCES!

2011-07-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Good news for new play!

2011-06-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

Ana's Key to Anarchy will get a staged reading at the Blue Theatre in Austin! Also to have a staged reading, the same evening, PÈRE BOISSON, based on a story by Guy de Maupassant. Hurray for Blue! August 8, 7:30 pm, "Free and Open to the Public." Link to Blue Theatre at the right.

beaucoup de français, mais pas trop (in new one-woman show)

2011-06-06T15:01:00.001-07:00

Elisée Reclus

I've just finished a new play. It's Ana's Key to Anarchy. Catchy title, right? The one woman of show is Ana Fortier, whose family had the sugar plantation in Louisiana where Elisée Reclus, who would become an important geographer and anarchist, was the resident French teacher from 1853 to 1855. She's 87 as she addresses us in 1929.(He left, of course, because he could not tolerate an economy based on slavery). Dans cet piéce il y a beaucoup de français, mais pas trop.

One more play set in 1929 and I'll have another trilogy. A December Eve's Visit with Frederic Demuth (NYC International Fringe Festival show 2008, a one-man show) was also set in 1929. Any ideas?

This new play takes place as the streetcar strike is in progress in New Orleans. Ana is wanting one of those new PoBoy sandwiches that the Martin Brothers created to give out to hungry strikers.

I've re-subscribed to Celtx, though it has no Celtx Central anymore, which I dearly miss. With this new Celtx you can generate PDF files of the plays, so that helps. If anyone would like a copy, let me know!

It's 106F here in Texas where I post this. (I like that snow on the mountains behind Monsieur Reclus.) Stay cool.

Little Lucila still helping her belovèd Chile

2010-03-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Just wanted to note here that Lucila: a play for Gabriela Mistral was shown once in my home and will be shown again to a Unitarian forum. We passed the hat for donations for Chile and came up with $250 the first time, all of which we are sending to a real person in Santiago who has worked with a theatre group in poor neighborhoods and through them will give it directly to someone(s) in dire need at this time.

His name is Mauricio and he is a friend of my poet friend, Monique Laforce. He rented a room from her when he was working on his PhD at the University of Laval. Later, when he was working, back in Santiago, he paid for Monique to travel to Chile.

Lucila was even lovelier, to me, this last time. Thanks again to all who gave the play their time and talent, their heart and soul.

Thank Heavens for old friends, but about Celtx Project Central....

2010-02-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Just returned from a visit to the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, with of course a cross over to Mexico for just a taste of it. Cold but sunny that day, Friday, in Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas with my friend Rosemary Miranda and her friend-once-husband, Manual Miranda, a painter.

Manual asked about my plays. I told him about the two produced in NYC in 2008, then told him I'd give him the URL for Celtx Project Central, where all my play scripts are available. But guess what? They're not there! Or maybe they're there, but there's no there there (as Gertrude Stein said of Los Angeles -- or was it Oakland?). Celtx Project Central is all gone! If you click the link at the right to my portfolio, you'll see the sad news of its retirement. And if Manuel hadn't asked about my plays, I'd not even have known, as I use Celtx only to input a new play, and I haven't written one lately.

I've long wanted to publish plays. Real plays. Real paper. Maybe now's the time. If anyone wants to help publish plays, tell me.

with his old camera i took pictures, like these in Quebec City, last day of October

2009-12-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

Anthony Joseph (Tony) Weisman

2009-10-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

Tony Weisman
May 31, 1944-September 29, 2009

Tony Weisman fixing a neighbor's roof last November, right, and Tony dressed in his nicest jacket, above.

We lost an angel of a friend when Anthony Joseph Weisman died on September 29, 2009. You can see many photos of him at www.MeM.com, where you search with Weisman, Anthony, or just use the link at the right.

He was a gift to everyone who knew him, but he was especially a gift to me, Sylvia; to Leecia (her daughter, Stella, calls him Opa Tony); and to my brother, Thomas Sherwood Manning, 1955-2005, mentally and physically handicapped, for whom Tony made a home the last nine years of his life.

Tony and Sylvia in 2008 in New York for the NY International Fringe Festival, with Stella.

Encore une fois, Bread & Puppet

2009-08-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

We, Sylvia and poet friend Monique LaForce, of Québec, attended the B&P Circus this last Sunday. It was in the New Theatre instead of in the field, because of weather. They performed to two packed houses, one after the other, but with no Pageant in the woods. It was even better than before. It was great. Monique, who had never seen a Bread and Puppet performance before, said it was like entering another world.

And Peter Schumann was Uncle Sam again on his sky-high stilts. Go to this URL to see him on them: http://breadandpuppet.org/ (or click at the Bread & Puppet link on the right)

Monique LaForce, poet, after picking wild raspberries at Mullein Hill, Glover, Vermont.

more Bread and Puppet pictures from July 4, 2009

2009-07-22T14:40:00.001-07:00

Some in rags, some in jags ...

I love these new puppets with (I think) plastic buckets for mouths. I love their bright colors and how, moving down Glover Road in Barton, Vermont, their ribbons of rags lift in the cool July breeze.

and some in velvet gowns.

And who wouldn`t love Dirt Cheap Money, title and theme of this year's circus?

From the north country

2009-07-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of being in northern Vermont -- in the Northeast Kingdom, as it's called -- is the opportunity to see the great Bread and Puppet Circus.The sunshine came out just for them, when the band started playing in the Barton parade, and it stayed all afternoon so that people could enjoy the first circus of the season. (Otherwise, not a lot of sunshine that week in the Kingdom.)

Elizabetta, from John Reed's Insurgent Mexico

2009-06-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Back in the Texas heat for a month as of today, and in a small town where local theatre is not very local and not, in the opinions of some, theatre, after giving two book talks on Right Relationship: Building a Moral Economy, I found myself putting into Celtx a (new and improved, that is to say, revised) version of a play I wrote some time back. Well, I wrote it on the last typewriter we purchased, a manual Smith Corona which now lives, with its extra keys for Spanish, at the cabin in upstate Vermont. Think of it? I wrote this play before we ever owned a computer.

But it's computerized now!

So the play is Elizabetta. "Elizabetta" is also the title of Chapter 13 of John Reed's book, Insurgent Mexico. But the play gives more than just that chapter. I worked to present some of the depth of Reed's experience there, from the whole book; and beyond that, it begins and ends in a prison cell in Russia.

As the movie Reds has it, he didn't actually die in prison, but shortly after being released; but drama is fiction, or so I learned as a cataloger. One can take liberty.

If you'd like to see the play, follow the link to my plays on Celtx, on the right. For a little while, Elizabetta will be on the opening Projects page. Afterwards, you will need to put either SilviCol or Elizabetta in the Search Box.

Celtx is no longer free to those of us who use it for writing or production purposes, but it's still free to the browsing public.

I thought this play might be good for radio and looked up that format. The new Celtx, though, makes an instantaneous adaptation to Audio Format or Screenplay. That's good enough for me for now.

Joe's Mrs. Warren's Profession!

2009-04-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

"The acting is great," reads one review. Another has this:

"Joseph Franchini’s performance as Praed is also a gem, from the time he nervously approaches to meet Vivie and becomes inexorably drawn into the family’s drama...
That each character wholeheartedly believes in his own standpoint and worldview, whether with a sense of naïveté or entitlement, makes their interactions captivating and provocative to watch throughout the performance...." (Off Off Online)

Below Joe's picture, on the right, is a link to a review; or just search Google with Mrs. Warren's Profession, Joe Franchini.

Congratulations, Joe.

Anouihl's Antigone

2009-04-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw a wonderful production of Jean Anouilh's Antigone at Théâtre de Poche (Pocket Theatre) here in Quebec City, at the University Laval. Antigone had lip piercings and unkempt hair, dressed in grunge black. The jacket she left behind on her last entry into her tomb the young Hémon will hold it as if it were the bundled child they might have had. The audience walked through the cast, assembled beforehand on-stage as Anouihl requested for curtain rise -- and here there was no curtain. The tone was set from the moment your ticket was taken by one of the guards.

It's a splendid script, of course, and these young French Canadians actors were in their element with the French.

Sylvia SilviCol news

2009-03-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sylvia Ann Manning (SilviCol) is happy to note that her play about Walt Whitman's housekeeper was one of two plays chosen for a Herstory event by Co-op Theatre East. The full name of the event is COTE Tales: "In Her Own Words: Retelling Herstory".

The title of the SilviCol play is Elizabeth's Book about Mary.

The staged reading will be Sunday, March 29, 2009, at 6 pm at Kaffe 1668, 275 Greenwich St. in Tribeca, NYC.

A link for Co-op Theatre East is at the right. If you go to the link, go on to the blog.

Joe's in Mrs. Warren's Profession!

2009-02-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

Joe Franchini has taken a role in George Bernard Shaw's play, Mrs. Warren's Profession.

(That's Joe's picture at the left from back in 2005 when he directed Pierrot le Quin at the Connelly Theatre. A more recent picture is on the right, above the link to the Boo Arts website -- with more information about the production he's in.)

"I am so happy to be working on a Shaw play," he says. "I love his work. The language is a joy to work on (and difficult to learn!).

Thanks again to Annalisa Derr, our Lucila

2009-01-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

Annalisa in group is second from left; Annalisa below is second to none.

Here's what Annalisa tells us about playing the role of Lucila:

As a non-native Spanish speaker, this is the second time I've played a Spanish speaking character. However, playing Lucila brought a handful of challenges aside from language. One of which was bringing to life the non-fictional character of a young Gabriel Mistral. I had to discover the truth, complexity, and freedom of this young woman without playing at being a 'little girl.'

One of the many fun things about being an actor is the process of discovery and growth that happens with each new play and character we inhabit. I had the fortune to learn about a talented and mysterious poet while recreating her through my own eyes.
There are universal human truths that we can all draw on to, "step into the shoes" of the character, or empathize with them. These truths I drew from while molding the character of Lucila. And sometimes, as actors, we ask for guidance and permission from that of the deceased soul of the character we are portraying in order to create a well-rounded portrayal."

[That's Gabriela Mistral on the left —Lucila grown up. She's smiling because someone worked hard to tell the story of what happened to her in Vicuña, Chile, when she was a child. Lucila's story.]

We're glad to know that Annalisa has been up to a lot of things since the 2008 New York International Fringe Theatre Festival.

I just wrapped a web series entitled "Empire," in which I played Katherine. Nearly completed filming the feature-length film, "Mara."
I am always creating; whether I am acting, writing, singing, dancing, painting, taking photographs with my Polaroid, I am "doing." I just returned from a three-week trip to Poland in which, among many things, I was able to perform my rendition of "My Funny Valentine."
Thanks!
Annalisa Derr
But we're back to the top where we who thank her for doing such a great job. Wish we could see her Funny Valentine.

Il y a longtemps; it's been a long time ....

2008-10-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hello. I'm in Quebec City again. Sorry if anyone was checking here for updates. As it all turned out, the plays went well enough, including my one performance as Frederick in Glover, Vermont at the town hall, though Peter Schumann told me I needed a director.

I wasn't able to stay in New York City as long as I wished, for several reasons, so I wasn't able to thank people who worked so hard on the two plays. I'll put a thank you here.

It looks like Frederick was à propos, no? The capitalist barbarians of whom he spoke did indeed take the gates, and as Frederick thought his father thought, nothing could stop them.

Here in Quebec City I have difficulty with access to the kind of technology a writer needs now. Even so, I'm writing. I don't know if I'll write plays for a while, not unless Mark Dannenhauer wants to be Basho, in which case yes I'll write about Basho. But I'm trying to write stories now, be they true or fiction.

I love this quotation from William Maxwell, seen in a recent New Yorker magazine article about him:

"For me, 'fiction' lies not in whether a thing, the thing I am writing about, actually happened, but in the form of the writing ... a story, which has a shape, a controlled effect, a satisfying conclusion — something that is, or attempts to be, a work of art." William Maxwell

I'm going to start a new blog, this one with essays about the Quebec and Mexican borders and about learning French and Spanish as I've tried to do.

Anyway, thanks again to all: Ralph Pochoda and Gwynn MacDonald, especially, and all the many talented people who did Lucila's Story. I think it was important, your doing it. I know it was, for me, and I hope it was for you, and I really hope it was, if even just a very little, for the world at large.

Courage, now. Courage.

Frederick will also show in Vermont

2008-08-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

In the Glover Town Hall, Aug. 20, 8 pm, free of charge, the playwright in the solo role. (No competition for Ralph Pochoda in the Fringe, as anyone can surmise.)

Paul McCartney was here and ...

2008-07-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

he was truly great. He said for one song, "Sing with me, this one's for John," and 250,000+ sang, again and again, "All we are saying is Give Peace a Chance." It was amazing. And it was free!

Back to the website?

2008-07-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

Since I'm still in Quebec City without good access to a computer whereon I can put site-building software — but where I get to see Paul McCartney free, with 200,000 other celebrants of the 400th anniversary of Quebec, July 20 — we're expecting a more normal and certainly more complete website soon. In any case, to go back to the website, click here: http://www.meyouandeli.com/.

Ralph Pochoda sent a photo!

2008-07-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here`s Ralph Pochoda who accepted the solo role in A December Eve`s Visit with Frederick Demuth. Ralph was recommended by Jason Grote of Theatre against War.

Fringe matters

2008-06-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Below, a link to the New York International Fringe Festival, a production of The Present Company:
http://www.fringenyc.org/

How to read the scripts for both Fringe 2008 plays

2008-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Scripts for both Me,You & Eli productions in Fringe 2008, as well as our Fringe 2005 production, Pierrot le Quin, and many other plays by Sylvia Manning (SilviCol) are at Celtx Project Central. The play about Frederick is on Celtx with the working title of A Christmas Eve`s Visit with Frederick Demuth.

The links are in the right column of this page. If for any reason the link doesn`t work, enter Celtx Project Central in the Google search box, then Silvicol in the search box on the Celtx page, and you will be directed to a list of plays.

"I really like Celtx, a Canadian free collaborative website. If you write plays and need software for formatting, I really urge you to download the free Celtx before you spend money on something that`s no better. Actually, all members of any production can benefit by using the collaborative features of Celtx." -- Sylvia M. SilviCol

Schedule for both Me, You & Eli productions in FringeNYC 2008 Festival!

2008-06-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

So here are the schedules for both plays, just received today.

VENUE #19: CSV Cultural and Educational Center - Milagro
CAPACITY: 63
ADDRESS: 107 Suffolk Street
(Rivington & Delancey Streets)
SUBWAY: F train to Delancey Street
J, M to Essex Street

VENUE RESTRICTIONS: 11:30pm out, Saturdays not before 2pm

SHOW TITLE RUNNING TIME
2. A December Eve's Visit with Frederick Demuth 30
2. FRI 8/8 @ 5:45 – 6:15
2. SUN 8/10 @ 8:45– 9:15
2. SUN 8/17 @ 2:45 – 3:15
2. WED 8/20 @ 8:00 – 8:30
2. FRI 8/22 @ 8:30 – 9:00

VENUE #17: The Connelly Theater
CAPACITY: 99
ADDRESS: 220 East 4th Street
(Avenue A & Avenue B)
SUBWAY: F, V to 2nd Avenue & Houston

VENUE RESTRICTIONS: Out by Midnight

SHOW TITLE RUNNING TIME
6. Lucila: a play for Gabriela Mistral 90
6. SAT 8/9 @ 2:45 – 4:15
6. TUE 8/12 @ 4:45 – 6:15
6. WED 8/13 @ 7:30 – 9:00
6. SAT 8/16 @ 5:00 – 6:30
6. FRI 8/22 @ 5:45 – 7:15

Note from Sylvia SilviCol, the cast so far for Lucila

2008-06-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hello. I write from Quebec City, the University of Laval, where I`m doing a long-term stay (sejour longue), meaning I have a very comfortable room with telephone and shower (or even a bath!) and all is beautiful as always here in the civilized city. Yesterday Quebec celebrated 400 years of history. Imagine? And still civilized, still kindly, still gracious, still a city where the bus drivers kindly correct the manners of the young, if need be.

So if need be I apologize for going so long without posting anything (and worse for the website itself) but it`s mainly because I was first in a cabin in the woods without electricity, in northern Vermont, and since coming here I`d been unable to find a computer to use because all was closed for the weekend and early week celebration of the 400th anniversary of Quebec.

But here we are, with Joe`s note below. He also sent a list of the cast so far, and I`m very, very pleased to see that he himself will play Don Baldomero. Here`s the list:

Inma Heredia (The Queen of Truth)
Annalisa Derr (Lucila)
Elena Araoz (Emmelina)
Elizabeth Acosta (Pepita)
Laura Gaspari (Adelaida)
Joseph Franchini (Baldomero)

And by the way, to read either of the plays chosen for this year`s FringeNYC festival, go to Celtx Project Central with http://pc.celtx.com, then put the name SilviCol in the search box. A thumbnail feature sketch comes up -- the picture is me at 11 in Central Park -- and then if you click there you`ll have a list of plays. The play for Frederick Demuth is called A Christmas Eve`s Visit ... on Celtx, and the play for Gabriela Mistral is called Lucila`s Story.... Once you have the play come up, click for the stageplay. There. That`s simple, right?

By the way, the play Me, You & Eli produced for the 2005 NYC Fringe Festival, Pierrot le Quin, is there, too, along with two other Maupassant adaptations. The idea was to have the three produced together as a full evening with Maupassant, a wonderful story teller.

Celtx, by the way, is free to use for playwrights and screenwriters and anybody working collaboratively. It`s a great way to go, in my opinion. It`s Canadian. No W`s.

Laissez-vous des comments!

Sylvia SilviCol

Word about Lucila from Joe Franchini, Director

2008-06-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

From Joe:

We had our call backs this past week and I think we have a terrific cast! It is very exciting! In every case we got the actor we wanted for the role.

I am now organizing the schedule and then will book the rehearsal space. Our hope is to rehearse Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday early afternoon beginning the week after July 4th. We have a lot of work to do.

Next on the agenda is getting the musicians. We have some promising candidates (from Craig's List!) and hopefully we will be lucky there, as well. Jeff is writing the songs and I am sure they will be great.

Leecia is keeping up with the set, lighting and musician guys. I am hoping for news about them soon.

Joe

Casting Call from Joe Franchini for Lucila's Story

2008-06-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
>
> I am directing a show in this year's NY Fringe Festival and before we
post a casting notice we thought it would be a good idea to send this
out asking for recommendations from people we know. We will be putting
a casting notice up on various websites in about two weeks. Auditions
will take place at that time, as well. The performances are in
August.
>
> There is no pay involved but we (same writer/director) did a piece in
fringe a couple of years ago that got great reviews and was a fun
experience.
>
> This year's piece is called Lucila's Story and is a play based on the
childhood experience of Gabriella Mistral, the first South American
woman to win the Noble Prize for literature. The piece takes place at
the turn of the 20th century and is about the title character's journey
into the world to get an education.
>
> In most cases we are looking for actors who can convincingly appear
Chilean. We are open to all submissions and will consider everyone.
>
> Cast breakdown:
>
> Lucila. Actor should ideally be in her 20's but with a youthful,
girlish quality. She is a fanciful, hardworking, serious and thoughtful
young girl. Actor should appear South American (Chilean). Some choral
singing.
>
> Emmelina. Lucila's big sister. Late 20's. Serious and determined
to advance her family's position by becoming a teacher. Actor should
appear South American (Chilean). Some choral singing.
>
> Pepita. Lucila's mother. 40's to early 50's. Musical, open minded,
poor, unconcerned with advancement, content with her life. Actor
should appear South American (Chilean). Some choral singing.
>
> Adelaida. 40's. A teacher. Stern, critical, highly strung. She is
losing her eyesight. Actor should appear South American (Chilean).
Some choral singing.
>
> The Queen of truth. A spirit who lives in the forest and Lucila's
friend. Mystical, full of humour, wise and spiritual. Open to actors of
all races. Some choral singing.
>
>
> Please let us know if you or anyone else you know might be interested
in auditioning.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Joe Franchini
> 212-234-6288

2008-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hi. I just learned today that a blog is the best way to go if you're on the go, which I am in these summer months leading up to the FringeNYC 2008 Me, You & Eli productions in August. It's a little strange for the webmistress, if you will, to never have mastered blogging much less have even begun, but that's the situation. This is my first post ever. As I'll be in Quebec, maybe NY, and Vermont, this is the way to go if you don't have your own situation for sitebuilding. Or so I just learned from Jethro Hayman here in the village of Glover. Anyway, we'll have both places going, this site and www.meyouandeli.com (to be built again with Yahoo Site Builder, which Jethro explained to me is less usable when you're anywhere but at your own desk.) So, ok, we'll see if this posts. We'll see what happens.