#nnpn

[aguidetodancingnaked]

BUILDING THE WALL closes next Wednesday! It has been such a life changing experience working on this show. 💕Get your tickets now! #buildingthewall #robertschenkkan #nnpn #newplay @curioustheatrecompany

[daniellemohlman]

As a playwright living and working in Washington, DC, I see about fifty plays a year, sometimes more. In the three and a half years I've lived here, nothing has hit me harder than Colossal by Andrew Hinderaker at Olney. I was in the first row and I wish I could have gotten closer. I wanted to be on the stage. I wanted to be lying on that floor. 

The thing that stood out to me the most about this mini documentary put out by the American Theatre Wing is the emphasis that Andrew Hinderaker puts on the encouragement he received from his UT Austin mentor Kirk Lynn to write an "unproduceable" play. To allow this play to be as big as it needed to be, as intricate and complex and interdisciplinary as it needed to be in order to be the play it is today. Even if that meant it was too big or too expensive to ever be produced. And the thing that remains unspoken in this documentary is that writing an "unproduceable" play is terrifying. Dedicating all that time to writing and workshopping something that is so big, so easy to get wrong, isn't an easy thing to resign yourself to. I'd call it brave if it wasn't for the fact that I'm in the middle of it right now. 

I've been working on an "unproduceable" play of my own for the last three years or so. I've been working on Dust off and on for so long that it's difficult to imagine this play making it onto a stage. The piece has demanding poetry (that I haven't been able to get right yet), an abstract simultaneously metaphorical and literal setting, physically demanding choreography, and a story that is unfolded in an almost backwards way. Every time I rewrite this play, it looks completely different. The list of places I've workshopped Dust is longer than I ever thought it would be. It's a play that's resonated with the audiences who've encountered it, but one that I struggle to unlock. Sitting down to work on this play is at times so exhausting it's discouraging. And yet I keep coming back to this play. I keep rewriting it, hoping to find the combination of story and poetry and vocabulary of movement that will unlock the play I see when I close my eyes. Because despite the way that writing Dust knocks the wind out of me, it thrills me to envision the rehearsal process for the first production. Whenever that may be. 

I am quick to point out the lack of gender parity in every art form that I encounter. The other night, I was at an interactive DJ show and I pulled Jeremy down to my level twice so I could comment in his ear: once to offer commentary on how loud the show was and once to give him the statistics on the male to female artistic representation. One song by a woman for every ten by a man. And it would so be easy for me to take fault with the overwhelming maleness of Colossal. If it wasn't such a beautiful play -- so nuanced, so gorgeously choreographed, so multifaceted -- maybe I would. And I dare say this is the only play I've seen that has earned having that many male characters. It's an intimate story about an institutionally all-male organization told within the confines of the locker room, the football field, the bond the team. Simply put, it's an incredible play. But it's more than that. 

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You should also read my friend Garrett's (aka i-heard-that) response to this play and mini documentary. It was his summary that prompted me to write a response in the first place. 

[iandyouplay]

I AND YOU rolls and rolls

Great great great news. 

I AND YOU, this brand new play about 2 high schoolers' strange/funny/universal journey into knowing, is starting it's life as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. That means it's first step as a walking-talking play will be amount to a hop-skip-and-jump across the country. 

What a way to premiere...

NNPN Announces the 38th Rolling World Premiere: I AND YOU by Lauren Gunderson

WASHINGTON, DC - The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country’s alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 38th Rolling World Premiere:  Lauren Gunderson’sI and You will receive three productions through the Network’s Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2013/14 season.  I and You will begin its Rolling World Premiere at Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA, October 10 – November 3, 2013), followed by performances at Olney Theatre Center (Olney, MD, February 26 – March 23, 2014) and Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN, March 13 – April 14, 2014).

  ABOUT THE PLAY

One afternoon in your town, Anthony arrives at Caroline's door bearing waffle fries, a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself", and an urgent assignment from their high school lit teacher. Living most of her life online, Caroline is sick and hasn't been to school is months, but she is as quick and sardonic as Anthony is athletic and popular. As these two let down their guards and share their secrets, this seemingly vanilla poetry assignment unlocks a much deeper mystery that has brought them together. I and You is a valentine to youth, life, love, and the strange beauty of human connectedness.

Read on here...