Hoodoo Love by Katori Hall Hoodoo Love is a mystical, mythic play exploring themes of African-American spirituality through long-held rituals and almost forgotten magic. Written in Black Mid-Southern dialect, this play follows the journey of Toulou, who escapes from the cotton fields in the Mississippi Delta to the Memphis streets in search of her dreams. Hall was a Cherry Lane Mentor Project 2006 Finalist with mentor Lynn Nottage, a semi-finalist in the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference 2006, and a 2005 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Lorraine Hansberry Award Winner.
Little Tales of Misogyny by Elizabeth Meriwether Meriwether explores the world of the infamous and controversial lesbian mystery writer, Patricia Highsmith. Little Tales of Misogyny is both an adaptation of Highsmith's book of short stories by the same name and an exploration of the life of a woman who wrote from the point of view of a misogynist. Meriwether is the author of Heddatron, produced by Les Freres Corbusier at H.E.R.E., and Nicky Goes South, directed by Shira Milikowsky at the New York Fringe. Her play The Mistakes Madeline Made was produced by Naked Angels in April and is set for production by Yale Repertory Theatre in November 2006.
The Walls by Rivendell Theatre Ensemble Commissioned by Rivendell Theater Ensemble in 2005, Chicago-based playwright Lisa Dillman, in collaboration with the Rivendell ensemble, creates a theatrical examination of women, madness and institutionalization throughout history. The award-winning Chicago-based Rivendell Theater Ensemble (Tara Mallen, Artistic Director) will premier the work as part of its 2007-2008 season.
A Slight Headache by Alyson Pou Pou tells the story of an unusual mother, who gives birth from her forehead, and her daughter, who struggles with independence despite the fact that she is inextricably joined to her mother by their hair. Set in the late-1800s of freak shows and salons, the story introduces a world where medical practice is not yet a science, and imagination and invention rule the day. Pou¹s work has been presented at PS122, Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, and the Downtown Performance Festival.
Stanley by Lisa D'Amour Stanley is a multi-media solo performance in which Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire serves as a launching point for a meditation on desire, power and regret as it plays out in the individual and the world at large. This work, a collaboration between Lisa D'Amour (Obie award-winner, Nita and Zita), Todd D'Amour, and videographer Tara Webb, was included in the HERE Resident Artists Program this season. It will be produced at HERE in November 2006.
Don't Stop by Molly Rice Rice explores adolescent sexual politics and the effects of social programming on sexual identity. In the play, Don Juan is re-born as an adolescent girl and must negotiate the sex rules of high school and her own complicated identity as she wields her charisma on a disinterested peer. Rice has worked with Clubbed Thumb, Rude Mechanicals, and the Hangar Theater. Jackson Gay (The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow) directs.
1000 Marias by Maria Cangiano This multi-media autobiographical performance piece explores identity, fragmentation and the search for a true self. It is the story of Maria's journey as an intellectual-cum-artist-cum freelance Spanish/Voice teacher (withoutlegal papers) surviving in New York City's cauldron of races, classes and cultures. Cangiano has performed dance at El Taller Latinoamericano, The New School, Bowery Poetry Club, Joe's Pub, Nuyorican Poets Café, and many others. She has sung with the Amato Opera, Vertical Opera Repertory, Teatro Signorelli in Cortona, Italy, and Regina Opera.
Writer-in Residence: Karen Hartman Hartman will be attending the ENVISION Retreat as a writer-in-residence to work on her new play Goliath, which is set in an Israeli Settlement on the verge of a pullout from Palestinian territory. It invokes the biblical tale of a youth defeating a giant to ask an urgent contemporary question: how can people of unequal power make peace? Hartman¹s other work includes Going Gone (world premiere at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 2004); Motherbone, an opera composed by Grahm Reynolds (Loewe Award for New Music Theater, Salvage Vanguard Theater); Gum (produced by Women¹s Project & Productions, Center Stage, Magic Theater, P73 Productions); Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in New York Fringe, Drama League, P73 Productions); Alice: Tales of a Curious Girl (from Lewis Carroll, music by Gina Leishman AT&T Onstage Award, Dallas Theater Center); Leah's Train (workshop at Long Wharf Theatre); and Blessings and Curses (San Diego¹s Tommy Award for Dance and Patte Award for Theater, with Malashock Dance).
