Saturday, March 27, 2010

Beowulf Alley Theatre Presents "Last of the Boys" by Steven Dietz

Beowulf Alley Theatre Presents

Last of the Boys by Steven Dietz

Last of the Boys, by Steven Dietz, directed by Susan Arnold, will be presented by Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. 6th Avenue, 85701, downtown between Broadway and Congress. Last of the Boys, a 2006 Pulitzer Prize nominee, is presented in recognition of and to honor our American military families for their shared sacrifice.

 

“Ben and Jeeter fought in Vietnam, and for thirty years they have remained united by a war that divided the nation. Joined by Jeeter's new girlfriend and her off-the-grid whiskey-drinking mother, these friends gather at Ben's remote trailer for one final hurrah. As the night deepens, the past makes a return appearance, and its many ghosts come flickering to life. This is a fierce, funny, haunted play about a friendship that ends—and a war that does not.”

Dramatists Play Service

 

May be inappropriate for persons under 13 years old.

 

"Last of the Boys is about the way the past creates the present and the present repeats the past.”

 -- Philadelphia City Paper

 

The Cast includes Royah Beheshti, Mary Davis, Lucas Gonzales, Gabe Nagy, and Clark Ray.

 

Susan Arnold works in theatre and film as an actor, director, writer and producer. Her directorial credits include Dinner with Friends, and Stones in His Pockets with Beowulf Alley, where she contributes to the Artistic Development Committee. Susan served as Artistic Director for the Attic Theatre in Detroit, MI and is the recipient of several theatre excellence awards for acting and directing. She has appeared on stage in a number of productions including most recently Big 8 in Beowulf Alley’s Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage; Cleopatra in Immortal Longings and Claire in the production of The Maids at The Rogue Theatre. She is a member of Screen Actors’ Guild and Actors’ Equity Association and currently serves as Artistic Director for C.A.S.T. Clean and Sober Theatre in Tucson.

 

Steven Dietz is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City. A graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, he moved to Minneapolis and began his career as a director of new plays at The Playwrights' Center and other local theaters. During these years he also formed a small theatre company (Quicksilver Stage) and began to write plays of his own. Commissioned by ACT Theatre in 1988 to write God's Country brought him to Seattle, Washington where he lived and worked in Seattle from 1991 to 2006. He now divides his time between Seattle and Austin, Texas where he teaches playwriting and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. Awards include a PEN U.S.A. Award in Drama (for Lonely Planet); the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life With Iris); the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Award (The Rememberer); the Yomiuri Shinbun Award for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's Silence; and the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe

Award for Best Mystery for his adaptation of William Gillette's and Arthur Conan Doyle's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Dietz is also a two-time finalist for the prestigious Steinberg New Play Award (for Last of the Boys and

 

Performance Dates, Times and Ticket Prices:

 

Preview Performance: Friday, April 9, 7:30 p.m. – All tickets $10 this performance only

Opening Night with reception following performance: Saturday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.

Dialogues with… post show discussion following Sunday, April 11, 1:30 p.m.

Thursdays – Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. April 15, 16, 17 and April 22, 23, 24.

Sundays, 1:30 p.m., April 18 and April 25

 

Ticket Prices, April 10-25:

 

General, by phone or at the door - $20 (VISA, MasterCard, Discover)

Online only discount - $18 via PayPal or Google (any credit card they accept)

Advance Military Discount – $15 (must present military ID at will call night of performance)

Student/Military Rush - $12 (cash only, ID required, 15 minutes prior to curtain, based on seating availability)

 

Box Office Phone Number: (520) 882-0555

 

Run Time with intermission: 2 -1/4 hours

 

Parking: There is no charge for parking on the street or at meters on weekends and holidays!  The first hour of parking at the Pennington Street (at Scott Avenue) garage is free and $2 per hour after that (up to $8 max.). The lot across from the theatre at 6th Avenue and Broadway is available after 5 p.m. weekdays and all day Saturdays and Sundays.

 

Special Downtown Event Note: Tucson Club Crawl will take place in the evening on Saturday, April 17, but traffic patterns will be adjusted earlier in the day. Please see our website for suggested routes and plan to leave home a little early. The two main streets that will be closed off for the event are 5th Ave between Toole and Broadway (at 8 a.m.) and Congress Street between 4th Ave and 6th Ave (closed starting at noon). The City will re-route west bound traffic from Congress Street down Broadway which becomes two way traffic from 4th Ave to 6th Ave. The normal westbound traffic flow on Congress Street resumes at 6th Ave. Come see the play and then join in the festivities of the Tucson Club Crawl!

 

Monday, March 22, 2010

2010-2011 Season Actor Auditions, Designers and Technicians Call

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company

2010-2011 Season

Actor Auditions

Designers &Technical Crew Wanted

 

 

ACTOR AUDITIONS

 

When:              Saturday, April 17, 2010

                        10:30 a.m.-11:50 a.m. & 12:30 p.m.-4:50 p.m.

                        By Appointment – see procedure below

                        Callback audition dates are noted with individual play descriptions

 

Where:             Beowulf Alley Theatre

                        11 S. 6th Ave., Tucson 85701 (Downtown between Broadway and Congress)

 

Who:                Tucson metropolitan area non-Equity actors of various ages (see details below).

                        One role, for a young girl aged 14-18, requires parental approval.

 

Special notes: 

 

1.)   Parking and Traffic – Tucson Club Crawl will take place in the evening but traffic patterns will be adjusted earlier in the day. Please see our website for suggested routes. There is no charge for parking on the street or at meters on weekends and holidays!  The first hour of parking at the Pennington Street (at Scott Avenue) garage is free and $2 per hour after that (up to $8 max.).  The lot across from the theatre at 6th Avenue and Broadway will be available during the day. Please do not park in the theatre’s small back lot. The two main streets that will be closed off for the event are 5th Ave between Toole and Broadway (at 8am) and Congress Street between 4th Ave and 6th Ave (closed starting at noon). The City will re-route west bound traffic from Congress Street down Broadway which becomes two way traffic from 4th Ave to 6th Ave. The normal west bound traffic flow on Congress Street resumes at 6th Ave. Plan to leave a little early.

 

2.)   Complete and send ONLINE AUDITION FORM, headshot and resume prior to noon on Thursday, April 15. The online audition form is located at 2010-2011 Auditions.  Your headshot (this can be a regular photo if you do not have headshots) and resume can be sent electronically via e-mail to batcauditions@gmail.com. By submitting these items in advance, we can expedite your audition process. If you are unable to submit these forms and photos electronically, please mail them to: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 South 6th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701, assuring that they arrive by Thursday, April 15. (You are also welcome to bring these materials with you to auditions, but we highly recommend submitting them online or by mail so our directors have time to read them.)

One of our volunteers will send a confirmation of your audition appointment time via e-mail. If you do not receive your confirmation e-mail within 48 hours of your submission, please contact us at (520) 622-4460.

 

3.)   Please prepare two (2) contrasting monologues, each one minute in duration. Examples are: comedy/drama or classical/contemporary. If you have skill with Celtic dialects, please show this in a monologue.

 

4.)   Perusal copies of the scripts will be available at the office beginning on March 29. They may be checked out overnight (maximum of two) and must be returned by noon. To arrange to borrow a copy, please call the office at 622-4460.

 

5.)   Representatives from our Late Night, Out to Lunch and Reader’s Theatre series and our Education Program will also be present at the audition and may be interested in contacting you.

 

6.)   Rehearsal Schedules: Actual rehearsal days and times are determined closer to the rehearsal start date by the director and cast members with final approval of the schedule by the Managing Director.

 

7.)   Performance Days: Thursdays – Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, 1:30 p.m. In the event of additional performances, we will first schedule within the performance opening to close dates rather than schedule a holdover beyond the closing date.

 

DESIGN AND TECHNICAL PERSONNEL

 

Please submit your resume online using the e-mail address batctechdesign@gmail.com. We appreciate your interest and will contact you in the near future as plans are being made.

 

OUR MAINSTAGE 2010-2011 SEASON

 

Shining City by Conor McPherson

Directed by Susan Arnold

smarnold@dakotacom.net

September 10-26, 2010

 

Callbacks: Mon. April 19, 6-10 p.m.

Rehearsal Period: July 12-Aug. 29. Technical Rehearsals: Aug. 30-Sept. 10.


Shining City has been described as "modern day ghost story about human contact."  Set in a therapist's office in Dublin, the play grapples with faith, guilt and redemption, underscoring the failures of language to communicate the truth. A middle-aged man (John), who has recently seen the ghost of his deceased wife, seeks professional help from a priest-turned-therapist (Ian). The travails of the guilt-ridden John offer more than professional fodder for Ian, and the routine visits become a gripping struggle to survive. 


"…moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping…[McPherson is] the finest dramatist of his generation." —Daily Telegraph (London)

NOTE: Set in Dublin


Characters (Irish dialect):

 

Ian (30-40) a priest turned therapist, conflicted by recent turn of events, including break with girlfriend.

 

John (45-55) A businessman who recently lost his wife, disturbed by appearances of her ghost.

  

Neasa (30-40) Ian’s ex-girlfriend, living with their child in Ian's brother's home; estranged, displaced, angry.

 

Laurence (25-35) Derelict friend who Ian finds in the park.

 

One of Ireland’s most prominent contemporary playwrights, Conor McPherson has won overwhelming acclaim for his insightful, meditative plays, which focus with a quiet, unblinking eye on the big themes: the crisis of modern masculinity, spirituality, frailty, solitude and – of course – death. In a review of his twice Tony award-nominated 2004 play Shining City, the Daily Telegraph called McPherson ‘‘the finest dramatist of his generation’’. Awards for his theatre work include the Laurence Olivier Award, Evening Standard Award, Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, George Devine Award, Meyer-Whitworth Award and the Stewart Parker Award. He is also a screenwriter.

 

Susan Arnold works in theatre and film as an actor, director, writer and producer. Her directorial credits include Last of the Boys (April ’10), Dinner with Friends, and Stones in His Pockets with Beowulf Alley, where she contributes to the Artistic Development Committee. Susan served as Artistic Director for the Attic Theatre in Detroit, MI and is the recipient of several theatre excellence awards for acting and directing. She has appeared on stage in a number of productions including most recently Cleopatra in Immortal Longings and Claire in the production of The Maids at The Rogue Theatre. She is a member of Screen Actors’ Guild and Actors’ Equity Association and currently serves as Artistic Director for C.A.S.T. Clean and Sober Theatre in Tucson.

 

 

The Transylvanian Clockworks by Don Nigro

Directed by Dave Sewell

dndsewell@cox.net

October 22-November 7, 2010

 

Callbacks: Mon., Apr. 19, 6-10 p.m.

Rehearsal Period: Aug. 23-Oct. 10. Technical Rehearsals: Oct. 11-22.

 

The author investigates the Dracula myth in a powerful, complex, darkly funny and utterly terrifying vampire play unlike any you have ever experienced. Set in London and Transylvania in 1888 (the year of Jack the Ripper), it captures the erotic power and poetry of Stoker's novel while looking more deeply into the characters' souls to examine the sensual and frightening undercurrents of this captivating Victorian tale. Jonathan Harker has returned from Transylvania so profoundly disturbed that he is confined to Dr. Seward's mental hospital and Van Helsing has been called in to help unravel the mystery of Jonathan's dementia. Jonathan's version of events at Castle Dracula leads them into a waking nightmare involving the mysterious foreign gentleman who seems to be seducing the women in Jonathan's life. Or is this mysterious gentleman simply opening their eyes to a new reality? In the surprising conclusion the real souls and motivations of both Count Dracula and Van Helsing are laid bare for all to see.

"...sharp, probing and intensely erotic. This is a ‘Dracula’ that teases shadowy intimacy and obsession from the myth, turns everything on its head and reveals a surprising new world." --Seattle Times

Characters

Jonathan Harker (20s - 30s) A young professional, a property agent; later, a patient in a mental institution.


Dr. Van Helsing (50s-60s) An eminent psychiatrist from Amsterdam; confident, insightful, driven; a bit intimidating.


Dr. John Seward (30s) A distinguished doctor at a mental hospital in London.


Dracula (50s - 60s) "A modestly dressed older gentleman." Emphasis on gentleman; maybe an air of mystery or wistfulness

 

Lucy Westenra (20s) Very attractive and she knows it. Intelligent, flirty, vain.


Peg, a Maid, (20s) Attractive, working class. Smarter than she gives herself credit for.


Mina Harker (20s) Attractive, but not necessarily gorgeous. Very intelligent and perceptive, with a biting, extremely dry and subtle wit.

 

(Note to actors: It’s a fun play, but we’re not looking for fangs, camp, Bela Lugosi, Buffy, or Twilight. No accents, please.)

 

Prolific American-born playwright, Don Nigro, is the author of challenging and indefinable plays that deal with madness, sex, obsession, history and love. He is considered the most published American playwright with over 200 scripts.

 

Dave Sewell has directed Wait Until Dark and Arcadia for Beowulf Alley. He is Chairperson of the Artistic Development Committee and currently serves as the Youth Education Director for BATC’s ActingKids@the Alley. A native of Southern California, Dave has directed over thirty productions and participated in countless others as an actor, set designer, or technician. Since moving to Tucson in 1995, He has worked with Catalina Players, Desert Players, Old Pueblo Playwrights, Stark Naked Productions, and Tucson Theatre Ensemble. He has directed plays in a wide variety of genres, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, ‘night, Mother, Measure for Measure, Galileo, and Deathtrap. Dave holds a degree in Theatre from the University of California, Riverside.

 

Blackbird by David Harrower

Directed by Laura Lippman

 laura.lippman@yahoo.com

December 3-19, 2010

 

Callbacks: Saturday May 1st, 10 am – 3 pm

Rehearsal Period: Oct. 18-Nov. 21. Actors on Stage/Tech Rehearsals: Nov. 22-Dec 3.

 

Fifteen years ago Ray and Una had a relationship. (She was twelve, he was forty) They haven’t seen each other since. Now she’s found him again. In a claustrophobic, messy break room, they confront each other’s past, present, and future.

 

“Neither condoning nor condemning, Harrower has produced a fine, thought-provoking piece on a taboo subject.”

--Independent

 

Ray (late 40's - early 60's) Ray has done his time and is getting his life back on track. But the hold he has on the new life he's created is tenuous. He's trying to keep the past at bay. When Una shows up at his place of work, the veneer he's painstakingly crafted is threatened. He's forced to struggle between his memories and his desire, his present and his past.

 

Una (20's – 30) Una has never really gotten her life back on track. She'd like to let go of her past, but it confronts her daily. She's looking for some kind of resolution or anything to close the door on the past...or re-open it.  She believes that confronting Ray is the only way to do this.

 

Girl (14-18 - small role) Ray's twelve year old step-daughter. Prep-school student, sweet disposition. Her arrival at the end of the play propels Ray and Una towards an inevitable decision.

 

Scottish playwright, David Harrower's plays include Knives in Hens, Kill the Old, Torture Their Young, Presence, and Dark Earth. Blackbird was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Book of the Year Award and won the 2007 Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Play.

 

Laura Lippman recently relocated to Tucson from Orlando, Florida. Recent Orlando directing credits include Rockaby and Endgame for Empty Spaces Theatre Company’s Beckett Festival and movement director for Equus at Rollins College. In addition, Laura has directed and developed new plays for over a decade, including recent works such as Charm and Letters to Sala at Orlando PlayFest, The Toymaker’s War for the National New Play Network Showcase, Upright Position, Destination: Reality and Transference with the Women Playwrights’ Initiative and Songs my Brother Sang for the GLBT New Works Series. She also adapted and directed Euripides’ Cyclops for the 2008 American Philological Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago along with her husband Mike. Laura studied acting at Bennington College and The Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales. She received her MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.

 

 

Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl

Directed by Eugenia Woods

eugenia61@msn.com

January 21-February 6, 2011

 

Callbacks: Sunday, April 18, 6-10 p.m.

Rehearsal Period: Nov. 15, 2010-Jan. 9, 2011. Actors on Stage/Tech Rehearsals: Jan 10-Jan 21.

 

In Eurydice, playwright Sarah Ruhl re-imagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Orpheus lives in musical reverie, Eurydice in the intrigue of words and interesting ideas.  A victim of manipulation by the Lord of The Underworld, Eurydice dies on her wedding day.  She is reunited with her father in the Underworld, where together they struggle to recall the memory of lost love.   With characters you might meet on a NY subway, quirky plot twists, and breathtaking imagery, the play is a magical dip in the flow of the unconscious.

 

Characters:

 

Eurydice  (Female. 20-30)  Impetuous.   Impressionable.  Eternally attached to her father.

 

Orpheus  (Male. 25-35)  Passionate and still grounded.  As devoted to Eurydice as he is to his music.

 

Nasty Interesting Man and Lord of the Underworld  (Male. 25-35 - doubled).  Scheming and manipulative with a transparent debonair veneer.

 

Eurydice's Father (Male.  50-60). Dutiful, devoted father.  Hard working, and dead.

 

The Chorus of Stones: stoic arbiters of the rules of the underworld:

 

Little Stone  (Male or Female, any age)  Small.  The gentle stone of the bunch.

Big Stone (Male, any age)  Big.  Not the sharpest stone in the quarry but still a little threatening.

Loud Stone  (Male or Female, any age)  Outspoken mouthpiece for the gang.

 

“Rhapsodically beautiful. A weird and wonderful new play [Eurydice] - an inexpressibly moving theatrical fable about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory.” The New York Times

 

Sarah Ruhl is a fresh, compelling, and versatile American playwright. Her play, Eurydice, was written while a graduate student at Brown University. She received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship award. This young playwright is emerging as a powerful presence in the American theater. Ruhl’s play, The Clean House, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005.  Her plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and Europe at such venues as the Lincoln Center Theater, New York, the Actor’s Centre, London, the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, among many others.

 

Eugenia Woods lives in Portland, Oregon but travels to Tucson frequently. While in Tucson, she has produced and directed the four plays of the First Words: Relativity play festival and directed the award-winning production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot for Stark Naked Productions, as well as Eight for 8 and The Pillowman for E & A Productions. Eugenia is active in the Portland theatre community, pursuing her study and exploration of playwriting, directing and dramaturgy.

 

 

The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh

Directed by Sheldon Metz

thedrektor@gmail.com

February 25-March 13, 2011

 

Callbacks: Sunday, April 18, 6-10 p.m.

Rehearsal Period: Dec. 27, 2010-Feb. 13, 2011. Actors on Stage/Tech Rehearsals: Feb. 14-Feb. 25.

 

The play is a blend of black comedy, melodrama, horror and bleak tragedy. The story is set in an Irish village Leenane, Connemara in the early 1990s. The entire play takes place in a shabby, poorly lit kitchen, resulting in a claustrophobic sense of entrapment. Forty-year-old Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early forties, lives with her aging and manipulative mother, Mag. Many years she has spent looking after and caring for her mother. One day, it seems like Maureen might be able to escape from her sad and depressing life when she thinks she has met the man of her dreams, Pato Dooley. But Mag succeeds in interfering with her daughter’s first and possible final chance of a loving relationship, and this interference sets in motion a train of terrible and consequently fatal events, marred with violence, hate, and despair...

 

“An outstanding first play that makes you impatient for more McDonagh.” --The Guardian

 

Characters (Irish dialect):

 

Mag Foley (40 year-old) spinster, who takes care of her invalid mother

 

Maureen Foley (70-year-old) selfish, strongly manipulative mother

 

Ray Dooley (20 year-old) non-threatening “bad-boy,” - younger brother of Pato.

 

Pato Dooley (40 year old) suitor of Mag. A middle-aged construction worker fed up with having to live and work in England, disappointed by the limitations and loneliness of his life as Mag is in hers. 

 

Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has no formal training, but a sheaf of plays he wrote during one long stretch back in 1994 turned him into one of the most celebrated new English-language dramatists of his generation. Nearly all of McDonagh's plays are set in Ireland, and draw heavily from Irish idiom and culture in their skewering of once-sacrosanct literary and political ideals.McDonagh became the first playwright since William Shakespeare to have four of his plays produced professionally in London in a single season. A school drop-out, McDonagh wrote “Beauty Queen” in just eight days and earned a London Critics Circle Award and Evening Standard Award (both in 1996), a Drama Desk Award (1998), and six Tony Award nominations, four awarded (1998).

 

Sheldon Metz directed the MAC Award-nominated Proof and the World Premier of Gavin Kayner’s Noche de los Muertos at Beowulf Alley. He currently serves on Beowulf Alley’s Artistic Development Committee and is Program Chair for the Old Time Radio Theatre. Sheldon is an actor, set designer, director and served as Executive Director of A.C.C.T., too! - The Association of Commercial and Community Theatres - the West Coast Theatre Conference (Los Angeles) and The Theatre Conference (New York). He also served as a Producing Director for the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble (PKE ), under the Artistic Direction of Dan Lauria.

 

Monday, March 15, 2010

Open Call for Directors - Beowulf Alley's LNT@the Alley

Beowulf Alley’s LNT@the Alley announces

An Open Call for Directors’ Projects for 2010!

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre’s late night theatre, LNT@the Alley, announces an open call for director’s projects for its 2010 late night season. Directors who feel passionately about their projects may apply to the LNT committee by emailing a letter of interest to Michael Fenlason at michaelfenlason@aol.com no later than March 31th, 2010. Please include LNT PROJECTS as the subject line. Interested directors without email, may send a letter to: Michael Fenlason, c/o Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701.

 

Letters of interest should include

 

The directors name and contact information.

The name of the play or project.

Interested date range for production.

A synopsis of the play and a brief description of the director’s vision for the production.

 

Production constraints include but are not limited to:

 

The production will be mounted in front of the Beowulf Alley mainstage shows. Production budgets are minimal and will be determined in advance of any selection. Production dates, once fixed, are not flexible.

 

That being said, the opportunity to create exciting theater and realize a theatrical vision is boundless.

 

Email Michael Fenlason at michaelfenlason@aol.com for more information.

Auditions for A Piece of My Heart - Female, Asian

Beowulf Alley’s Audition

A Piece of My Heart by Shirley Lauro

Female, Asian

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre will hold open auditions for A Piece of My Heart by Shirley Lauro at the theatre, 11 South 6th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and Congress), on March 22, 2010 from 6:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Whitney Morton will direct this poignant chronicle of the women of the Vietnam War.

 

The true stories of six courageous women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocably changed them and a nation that shunned them. A work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in our history, full of shattered expectations,
desperate encounters, and the anguish of the war zone.

 

Character description:

 

LEEANN: 20-40, a nurse.  Asian. Attractive, strong, tough, determined, with an urban, hip quality.

 

The audition will consist of a cold reading from the script. No appointment is necessary. Sides will be available at the time of arrival.

 

Rehearsals begin the week of April 12. Technical rehearsals begin May 20. Performances are

Friday, May 28, 7:30 p.m. - Preview Performance, Saturday, May 29, 7:30 p.m. - Opening Night with Reception, May 30, 2010 1:30 p.m. - Dialogues with… Sunday, following the performance plus Thursdays-Saturdays, June 3 – 5, June 10 – 12, 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, June 6 and June 13, 1:30 p.m.

 

Email Whitney Morton at whitney.morton@gmail.com with questions or for more information.


A Piece of My Heart has earned The Susan Blackburn Prize (Finalist) as Best English Language Play by a Woman, The Barbara Deming Prize for Women Playwrights, and The Kittredge Foundation Award. The Vietnam Vets of America, Inc. has cited the work as "the most enduring play in the nation on Vietnam."

 

The playwright has written over twenty plays and one-acts. Currently the director of the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Shirley Lauro is an adjunct professor of playwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

 

...Shirley Lauro's new play A PIECE OF MY HEART, is a catharsis as well as a coup de theatre...There have been a number of plays dealing with Vietnam...but none with the direct, emotional impact of Ms. Lauro's work...(she) has turned first hand impressions into a disturbing drama that evokes empathy for survivors as victims.                -The New York Times

 

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Old Time Radio Theatre: St. Paddy’s Day special

Local St. Patrick’s Day Events

Old Time Radio Theatre: St. Paddy’s Day special

Beowulf Alley Theatre – Downtown – 11 S. Sixth Ave. – TucsonMarch 16 : 7 p.m.Get into the Irish spirit with readings of “Fibber McGee and Molly: Molly Wants a Budget” (from April 18, 1939), from the long-running show that set many of the conventions for the situation comedy, and “The Great McGinty” (April 20, 1946), spun from the Preston Sturges film.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Offbeat characters bring 'Guns' to life

Offbeat characters bring 'Guns' to life:

Offbeat characters bring 'Guns' to life

Kathleen Allen Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, March 5

Let's just get this out of the way:

'Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage,' which Beowulf Alley Theatre opened Saturday, is ridiculous. Bloody. Over the top. Far-fetched.

And, yes, funny.


Lucas Gonzales and Holly-Marie Carlson in Beowulf Alley's "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage."

The Jane Martin play can't be serious - it seems the playwright just wanted a home for these deliciously offbeat characters, so she wrote 'Flaming Guns' (or he did; some think Jane Martin is the pen name for director Jon Jory).

Director Steve Anderson certainly - and thankfully - didn't take it seriously. He played up every ludicrous moment, poured on the gore, made sure there were a few horror moments.

'Flaming Guns' takes place on an isolated ranch where Big 8, a one-time rodeo worker, repairs young cowboys who have been injured or otherwise broken. She's tough as silver spurs and isn't afraid to act it.

It's 3 in the a.m. when she's doing some repair work on one of her cowboys, RobBob, when a woman with hair that looks like 'thrown-up strawberry milkshake' comes tumbling in the door. Her name is Shedevil and she's looking for Big 8's son, who's left her high, dry and pregnant. And oh, by the way, she's being chased by a one-eyed Ukrainian Hells Angel.

Well, all hell breaks loose, guns are fired, blood is shed, beer is drunk, a body is dismembered. You get the picture.

Susan Arnold gave Big 8 a swagger and an attitude, and Holly-Marie Carlson's Shedevil was a sexy manipulator. Gabe Nagy played the one-eyed cat who suffered great humiliation as he was shot, kicked and roughed up. Nagy, big and scary, took the abuse with a certain amount of eloquence (his pratfalls are balletic), which, frankly, had little place on that stage.

You'll laugh at 'Flaming Guns,' even as you roll your eyes at the clichés, the horror, the shaky story line.

And, we're willing to bet, laughter is about all Jane Martin had in mind when she penciled this script.

Review

'Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage'

• By: Jane Martin.

• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre.

• Director: Steve Anderson.

• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 1:30 p.m. Sundays through March 14.

• Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.

• Tickets: Thursday performances $15; Friday and Saturday $18 when purchased online; otherwise, $20. Student rush tickets are $12 cash 15 minutes before curtain, if seats are available. Must have ID.

• Reservations/ information: www.beowulfalley.org or 882-0555.

• Running time: About 2 hours, including intermission.

Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

The Cowboy Way, indeed | Theatre review

The Cowboy Way, indeed | Theatre review

Theatre review

The Cowboy Way, indeed

Beowulf Alley's "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage"

Posted Mar 2, 2010

Dave Irwin TucsonSentinel.com

While the 85th La Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo was celebrating cowboy culture, down the road Beowulf Alley Theatre was lampooning the ethos of the cowboy way.

'Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage' is a mixed breed. Mixing genres is a way for authors to create something new, especially for overworked forms.

'Flaming Guns' melds two unlikely B-grade movie genres: the cowboy films of the 30s and 40s, exemplified by William Boyd’s Hopalong Cassidy and 60’s horror flicks, like “Blood Feast” and “Homicidal.”

As a result, the production is a loveable, over-the-top whirlwind that includes rodeo cowboy studs, a one-eyed Ukrainian biker, a witchy cougarish cowgirl who exchanges sex for her healing touch, a pregnant Goth grrrl and a lisping, castrato law enforcement officer.


Arnold, Long, Gonzales and Nagy in 'Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage'
Scott Griessel/Creatista

And did I mention there’s a gleefully gruesome on-stage dismemberment of a corpse, complete with flailing chitlins? At that point, who really cares about plot?

Nonetheless, the synopsis is this. Middle-aged cowgirl 'Big 8' has a gift for healing. Her latest project, RobBob, a top all-around cowboy with a bum hip, is a nice enough guy with nothing upstairs.

Big 8’s sister, Shirl, lives with Deputy Sheriff Baxter Blue and works at the local slaughterhouse. Deputy Blue has literally lost his balls and Shirl routinely declines his monthly marriage proposals, dreaming of greater sexual satisfaction.

Enter in the dead of night: the tattooed, spike-haired Shedevil, claiming she is married to, and pregnant by, Big 8’s absentee adult son, Lucifier. She’s also hiding from Black Dog, a bulky maniac biker from whom she unwisely stole drug money.

When Black Dog arrives, as he inevitably would, RobBob shoots him, only to find he was unarmed, a violation of the cowboy code of fairness. But — bad guys like Black Dog can’t be killed that easily — it takes multiple attempts to commit this homicide, creating a gloriously gore-drenched set.

The script by Jane Martin, who may or may not be a real person, though she is credited with several award-winning plays, is wacky and rich with odd tangents, such as RobBob’s arcane knowledge of the films of Gabby Hayes, Shedevil’s chronic lying in the midst of traditional cowboy values and Big 8’s anguish at aging ('Don’t ever call me 'ma'am.''). This is the kind of offbeat romp that is fun to watch, and probably even more fun to write or be in.

Actress and sometime Beowulf director Susan Arnold anchors the competent cast as Big 8. She brings a Susan Sarandon gravitas to the role (think 'Bull Durham'): ramrod straight, tough and near-all-knowing, except with regards to her own life.

Kudos to UA student Lucas Gonzales as RobBob for the courage to run around the stage in a jockstrap and gunbelt, though sitting on the corn flakes had to hurt. Holly-Marie Carlson, a recent UA grad, makes her Shedevil character both daunting and vulnerable and also has to spend considerable stage-time in just underwear. Bodybuilder Gabe Nagy doesn’t get many lines, but he does get to break down doors and die multiple times.

Rounding out the cast are Kirsten Long as Shirl, Benjamin C. Dygert as Baxter and in a near cameo, young Jake Chapman as Memphis Donnie Pride, who proves to Big 8 in the end that God does indeed reward the righteous.

If you don’t mind a little stage-blood in your comedy, “Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage” is an entertaining cartoonish send-up of cowboy hero stereotypes."

Quirks of Comedy | Review | Tucson Weekly

Quirks of Comedy | Review | Tucson Weekly


Downtown at Beowulf Alley Theatre, there's a whole different kind of comedic adventure on display.

Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage, by Jane Martin (which many think is a pseudonym), pulls together an odd assortment of folks in a story that feels like a cross between The Lone Ranger, Friday the 13th and Silence of the Lambs. It's actually a very inventive combination that manages to make us laugh— sometimes uncomfortably—and gasp with surprise and horror.

On a ranch facing foreclosure in Wyoming, the plucky Big 8 (Susan Arnold) is a former rodeo wonder who has been forced into retirement. She now reluctantly—and questionably—calls herself a healer and takes in injured rodeo cowboys for her special style of rehabilitation. Her current subject—er, patient—is RobBob (Lucas Gonzales), a sweet young thing exuding innocence and fascination with cowboy lore and its clear division of good guys and bad.

Appearing as a thunderstorm booms forebodingly is a young, punked-out woman who identifies herself as Shedevil (Holly-Marie Carlson). She is prone to Tourette syndrome-like outbursts and claims that Big 8's son has not only knocked her up, but has stolen thousands of dollars from her. She also claims that she's being chased by her current boyfriend, a Harley-riding Ukrainian prone to fits of violence.

Shedevil's presence sets off a sequence of events which would shock and amaze even the really, really bad guys of the old Wild West. Shoot, that was a time of storybook innocence compared to this.

Beowulf Alley's production, under Steve Anderson's direction, is solid, although on opening night, it didn't quite have the energy and rhythm needed to make it zing, especially in the first act. By the second act, the players pretty much found their stride.

The set by Joel Charles is very handsome, and the other technical elements—and there are some demanding ones—are quite well executed.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

FLAMING GUNS OF THE PURPLE SAGE' GET FIRED UP


FRONT PAGE: 'FLAMING GUNS OF THE PURPLE SAGE' GET FIRED UP
by Chuck Graham
TucsonStage.com

"FLAMING GUNS OF THE PURPLE SAGE" GET FIRED UP


If you think the ideal cowboy breakfast is bacon, eggs and a beer, then “Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage” is your kind of theater. This satire of Hollywood westerns and horror movies, written for the stage by Jane Martin, opened Saturday, Feb. 27, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.


Jane Martin is the pen name for a playwright generally believed to be Jon Jory (the son of Hollywood actor Victor Jory), famous in his own right as the retired artistic director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky.


What we know for sure, “Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage” is full of vivid descriptions combining the outrageous with the unexpected. Most outrageous is the tattoo-covered, multi-pierced, pink-and-black-haired Shedevil (Holly-Marie Carlson), so blatantly sexual and totally perverse she makes promiscuity seem like an entry level position. Shedevil is on the run from Black Dog (Gabe Nagy), an Ukranian sociopath evil enough to intimidate any lesser murderers blocking the path to his next victim.


Black Dog is heading their way fast, all smoke and speed on his big Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Unfortunately, Shedevil is leading Black Dog directly to the isolated ranch house of Big 8 (Susan Arnold), a larger-than-life figure with a mouth to match.


Big 8 is a rodeo world champion who got forced out of the business when beauty on the rodeo float became more important than actual talent in the rodeo ring. She’s none too happy about that, either.


Rooming at Big 8’s modest spread is RobBob (Lucas Gonzales), an injured rodeo rider whose life is dedicated to upholding the Code of the West. He’s also studied up on every cowboy movie ever made and knows all the best lines by heart.


Big 8, it seems, likes to rehabilitate injured bronc busters like RobBob. Adding assistance as required is more down-to-earth Shirl (Kirsten Long), Big 8’s sister, who has a day job hacking up cows and such at a local packing plant.


Horror movie satire is thrown into the mix, upping the ante on the action and spilling blood all over the stage as everyone gets more outrageous. Anxiety ratchets up rapidly when Shedevil keeps insisting Black Dog is getting closer. By intermission the actors are throwing bags of groceries at each other for emphasis. All of it leads up to Black Dog’s explosive entrance.


Coming on in Act Two is Benjamin C. Dygert as Baxter the local law enforcement officer. The comedy becomes more slap-stick, the dialogue less outrageous. Predicting the ending isn’t too difficult, either, so help yourself.


Steve Anderson as director puts the emphasis on speed in keeping all this accelerating. It takes some careful listening to get the humor in the lines as all these wacky characters never stop shouting, ducking and weaving around an elaborate cowboy kitchen designed by Joel Charles.


“Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage” continues Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays 1:30 p.m., to March 14 at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are: $20 general admission at the door and by phone, 882-0555; $18 online at www.beowulfalley.org