Elizabetta, from John Reed's Insurgent Mexico

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!

"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

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

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!

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

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 ....

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.