Llamas on the Attack!

One night before rehearsal, my friend Cotton Wright made the mistake of telling me that her sister had witnessed attack llamas, that is llamas who act like guard dogs at various properties in the southwest.  This image of half of a pushmepullyou behaving like Jimmy Carter's attack rabbit has stayed with me. 
In the November 10th issue of the New Yorker, Alec Wilkinson wrote a feature called "Modern Farmer, and the Back to the Land Movement," in which he interviewed the former (as of yesterday) editor of Modern Farmer magazine (who knew there was such a thing?), An Marie Gardner, and a farmer, David Munson, Jr.  Munson had a few things to say about his llamas, which he keeps to guard his goats:  "Llamas don't like dogs, they don't like coyotes, they don't really like people-  they put up with them because they bring them food.  Some are more protective than others.  Mine were raised [on his farm north of Dallas] as pet llamas, I think, and they just didn't go after the bad guys.  They would walk ff and leave the goats.  The predators often kill for fun.  You have all these goats that are torn up ... It's a combat situation... I replaced the llamas with guard dogs."
   

The Return of the Skull Beneath the Skin

"The Skull Beneath the Skin" is back by popular demand next weekend-  Saturday, March 15 at 5:30 and 7PM at 440 Gallery, 440 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  Admission is free.  It features Cotton Wright and Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, pictured above,  as Bertha Roentgen and Dr. Wilhelm Roentgen, the man who discovered xrays and won the first Nobel Prize in Physics. 

The play is written by me, directed by Christie Clark and the costume design is by the illustrious Meganne George.  It's being produced by Ellen Chuse, as part of her solo show of drawings and paintings, Finding the Root.

Photo by Tom Bovo.

The Skull Beneath the Skin

(Photo credit:  Wikipedia)

Tom Bovo has a solo photography show, Genius Loci, at 440 Gallery (440 Sixth Avenue, near Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn).  He commissioned me to write a play for it. 

Genius Loci is photographs of leaves.  After looking at the photographs, I decided that some of them reminded me of x-rays.  So I have written a ten minute play about Wilhelm Roentgen, the discoverer of the x-ray.  It's called "The Skull Beneath the Skin," and it's directed by Christie Marie Clark.  Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum plays Roentgen, and Cotton Wright plays his long-suffering wife, Bertha.  The costumes are by Meganne George.

Performances are Saturday, November 16 at the gallery at 4:40 and 6 PM.  Admission is free.  Wine and seltzer provided.

My New Best Imaginary Friend, Calvert Vaux

Since mid-May, I've been busy researching and writing a play about Frederick Law Olmsted.  It's a commission from Open Source Gallery to accompany the opening of their new installation, We Know Not Exactly Where or How, an Olmsted-inspired park put in the gallery itself. 

Here are the guys themselves.  The play is called "Olmsted in Autumn."  The wonderful Tamara Fisch is directing, Mitchell Stout plays Olmsted, Michael Raimondi plays Vaux, and Cotton Wright plays Charlotte Olmsted (his stepdaughter) and Charlotte Olmsted (his mother). Costume design by Sidney Shannon.

It will be performed August 24 and 27 at 7:30 and 8:30 PM at Open Source Gallery, 306 17^th Street, Park Slope.   Admission is free. 

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were the landscape architects of Central Park, Prospect Park and Niagara Falls, among many other spaces. 

Olmsted in Autumn looks at Olmsted near the end of his life.  Because of his advancing senility, he has ceased working and his family has committed him to the McLean Hospital.  He is visited by three ghosts with whom he has unfinished business:  first, his stepdaughter/niece Charlotte, who’s incarcerated in a different Massachusetts mental hospital; next, his longtime partner Calvert Vaux, who drowned himself in Gravesend Bay two years earlier; and finally, his mother Charlotte, who died from an overdose of laudanum when Olmsted was a child.  

This is Anne Phelan and Dramahound’s fifth production at Open Source; previous plays include Brooklyn Lighthouse; Deconstruction (featuring Cotton Wright); Mi Tigre, My Lover (directed by Tamara Fisch, featuring Cotton Wright, costume design by Sidney Shannon); and a reading of The Tiger Play (directed by Tamara Fisch, featuring Michael Raimondi).

Open Source Gallery is a 501(c)3 owned and curated by Gary Baldwin and Monika Wuhrer.  Directions:  To reach Open Source, take the R train to Prospect Avenue.  306 17^th Street, near Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn NY.  646.279.3969

open-source-gallery.org

The Tiger Play

Ever since we closed "Mi Tigre, My Lover" at the end of June at Open Source Gallery, I have been doing two things: researching the full-length version, and hunting for money to produce it.
The new character in the play (now called "The Tiger Play"; Tom said to me at one point, "You know it's 'The Tiger Play.'" And there's nothing Spanish about it, so the title just seemed weird) is Louis Roth, Mabel's second or third husband. He was a Hungarian farm boy obsessed with the U.S., and his parents allowed him to come here at the age of 13.
Today, I finished reading his autobiography, Forty Years of Jungle Killers, at the Science & Business Library in the basement of the old B. Altman's building. And I have no more excuses left to not write.

The Last of the Photos

Photo #11: The couple with a whip.
Photo #12: The end of the play.
Photo #13: Tamer and tiger at rest.

More Photos

Photo #6: Rajah contemplates life without Stark.
Photo #7: Jacob and Tamara brainstorming.
Photo #8: Stark and Rajah at a standoff.
Photo #9: Stark contemplates her tiger, in front of the art installation (evoking a circus tent).
Photo #10: The dangerous dance that ends the play.
All photos copyright 2011 by Tom Bovo.

The Photos Have Arrived!

Here are the best of the production photos that Tom Bovo took during the dress rehearsal of "Mi Tigre, My Lover" at Open Source Gallery,back in June. Tom shoot over 200, he narrowed it down and then I chose my favorite 13.
Photo #1: Mabel Stark, Cotton Wright, has just told Rajah, Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, she got a job offer from Chipperfield's Circus in England, and he can't come with her.
Photo #2: Stark has crossed Rajah, and he doesn't like it.
Photo #3: Stark and Rajah, as he looks for new places on her back to put a scar from his claws.
Photo #4: Tiger tamer Mabel Stark, in a moment of contemplation.
Photo #5: Director Tamara Fisch resets the pedestal (actually, a borrowed piano stool) as Jacob asks a question and Cotton looks on.

Mi Tigre, My Lover

June 25th - July 9th, 2011
at 306 17th St. (between 5th and 6th Ave), South Slope, Brooklyn

Opening Reception: June 25th, 7-10PM
Play by Dramahound Productions: June 25th, 7:30 PM and 8:30 PM

Open Source is proud to announce its first show in our new space. Mi Tigre, My Lover, is a multi-media installation by Naoe Suzuki, originating from a series of Naoe’s paintings, with the related play by Anne Phelan of Dramahound Productions. Phelan’s play, of the same name as Suzuki’s paintings, was inspired by the paintings and uses them as a backdrop for her production. This is the third play at Open Source Gallery by Dramahound Productions and we are very excited to host the fusion of painting and live theater by these two talented artists.

Suzuki’s paintings were inspired by “The Final Confession of Mabel Stark” by Robert Hough, a novel based on a true story of a renowned female tiger trainer in the early 1900s, the golden age of the circus.

Mabel’s life was certainly a tumultuous one. In 1909, Hough writes, she joined the circus as a sideshow dancer, leaving her short career as a nurse. She then married a rich man from Texas only to leave him a few months later to join the Cosmopolitan Amusement Company as a cooch dancer. It was not long before she had her own cat act, with a pair of both lions and tigers, with the Al G. Barnes Circus.

By the early twenties, Mabel’s wrestling tiger act became the best-known cat act in the American Circus. In the novel she also raised a tiger cub into adulthood–her favorite tiger, Rajah. She bottled-fed Rajah and let him sleep with her in her bed. Although having been mauled several times during her career, Mabel kept returning to the tigers’ cage time and time again.

In her artist’s statement Suzuki states:
“It was this ‘love affairs’ aspect of her relationships with tigers that fascinated me, as well as her wild career and private life. In Mi Tigre, My Lover, there’s a complex play of love/power relationship between a woman and her tiger. Obsession, control, submission, passion, tension and love filled the space between them.”

Mabel Stark committed suicide on April 21, 1968. According to a show-business newspaper, she died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-nine. Having always lied about her age, Hough says, Mabel’s true age at the time of her death was actually unknown.

Despite having five husbands and surviving many severe maulings by her tigers, Mabel seemed to have preferred her tigers over her men. Mabel’s relationships with both tigers and men were no doubt complex, and it is this idiosyncrasy of Mabel’s life that fascinates Suzuki.

Dramahound Productions is thrilled to produce the first play in Open Source Gallery’s new space entitled My Tiger, My Lover, written by Anne Phelan as inspired by Naoe Suzuki’s paintings. The cast includes Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah the tiger, both featured in last year’s “Deconstruction.” It will be directed by Tamara Fisch, with costumes by Sidney Shannon. Jacob has graciously volunteered to choreograph the whip violence, so we hope it will be a feast for both your eyes and ears.

The play My Tiger, My Lover will be presented on June 25th at 7:30 PM and 8:30 PM as part of the reception for Naoe Suzuki. Admission is free.
***

Open Source Gallery
306 17th St. Brooklyn, NY 11215

HOURS
Wed/Thurs: 11am-3pm; Sat 3pm-7pm
Map

opensoucegallery.com
info [at] open-source-gallery.org
(646) 279-3969; (718) 207-9235
©2011 Open Source | 257 17th street | Brooklyn, NY 11215 |

The Family Shakespeare

Last night I saw The Family Shakespeare by David Stallings, directed by Antonio Minino. It's about the children of Thomas Bowdler. We never see the parents, but we know them by their offspring. The rakish eldest brother (a wonderful, fearless Eric C. Bailey), the chronically ill and tart-tongued eldest sister (pitch-perfect Corey Tasmania), the emotionally blocked younger brother (a disappointing Jason Emmanuel- there's so much more to that role he has not found) and the youngest daughter, who clings to her childhood as long as she can, because she can grasp no alternative (Henrietta, played by Cotton Wright). The adult children are set off by the servants and their social equals (Sarah Chaney, Alexandra Cohen-Spiegler,Dianna Martin, Peter B. Schmitz and Frankie Seratch).
It is a interesting play that examines parental responsibilities, the role of women, imagination in our lives. Mr. Stallings is a writer with no easy answers, and I always appreciate that. I wish that he'd cut ten minutes out of the second act, but that's my only objection. The play is an ideal vehicle for Ms. Wright's talents. She carries the play on her capable shoulders, and the audience knows it's in for an engaging night of theatre. She is, by turns, luminous, distraught, childlike (never childish), and sensual. I think it's one of the best performances I've ever seen her give.
There's a link above to the nytheatre.com review. Tickets are still available, and it runs until the 30th. It was a Pick of the Week in last week's issue of TONY.
Pictured are: Corey Tasmania, Cotton Wright & Eric C. Bailey. Photo by Jonathan Dozier-Ezell.

Did You Hear the One About the Carp Who Hailed the Taxi? Part Two

So we teched the play last night in the gallery itself. Since I last wrote, through the efforts of Mr. Grigolia-Rosenbaum, we have acquired a costume designer. And not just any costume designer, but the lovely and talented Sidney Shannon, who I assisted at the Milk Can Theatre six or seven years ago.
The opposite photo is by Tom Bovo, which captures Jacob in Sidney's giant carp head, Cotton in her NY taxi driver costume, and the photo of Tom's that the play is based on hung on the wall behind them. Melanie thought that was the best place to situate the actors in the space, and it looks really great.
The above photo is mine (the blurry one), but it does grab the actors' faces.
So, come to 440 Gallery (440 Sixth Ave., near 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn) tomorrow for shows at 7:30 and 8:30, as part of Tom Bovo's My New York. Of course the R train isn't running this weekend, but you can take the N to 4th Avenue/Ninth Street. There will be wine and snacks and admission is free. Link to the gallery above.

Did You Hear the One About the Carp Who Hailed the Taxi?

My boyfriend is a photographer. For years, I have been staring at this photograph of his, trying to figure out what these fish are up to with the taxi. He is having his first solo show since college, which opens Thursday night at 440 Gallery, 440 Sixth Avenue near 9th Street in Brooklyn. There's an opening party, 6-9 and it's free.
Take the R to 4th Avenue/9th Street, or the F to 7th Avenue.
When Tom got the dates for his show, he told me he wanted to commission me to write a play about a photograph in the show. I actually did have a difficult time deciding. I was all set to write about mannequins in a window (440 Gallery has some lovely bowed windows to put actors in), but I decided on the fish. The photograph is untitled, which kind of makes me crazy- playwrights don't do that).
I started writing in October, and last week we assembled our merry band for the first rehearsal: Melanie Sutherland is directing, Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum plays Karl Carp and the lovely Cotton Wright is Mo Avakian the taxi driver. Jacob and Cotton and I have worked together a lot; Melanie and I worked on "7 Sins in 60 Minutes." I was trying to count how many plays of mine Jacob had worked on- I think he's acted in six, directed one and then been in a bunch of readings. Cotton was in "Kansas Faust" and "Deconstruction," and many readings.
We froze the script yesterday, so now I just have to worry about props and the program. More photos to come.

Deconstruction- II

My play at Open Source Gallery came off very well. All the comments that I heard were positive (director Nicole A. Watson said so as well). Here are the photos that I took to commemorate it. The young man is Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum; the blonde woman is Cotton Wright; and the dark-haired woman is Parker Leventer. Great work from all of them!

Deconstruction

I have been blog-quiet lately, because I'm in rehearsal, and finished rewriting yesterday. Monika Wuhrer and Gary Baldwin, the founds of the Open Source Gallery, were kind enough to commission me (we like commissions!) to write a place based on a painting of Rachel Youens' (Construction I, as pictured) for the opening reception of her solo show, Cornucopias. The play will be performed in the gallery on Saturday, April 10th at 7:30 and 8:30. It should run about 20 minutes.
Nicole A. Watson is directing. We have known each other for a few years, and talked about working together, and I'm pleased that now we are finally able to. Nicole is a joy to work with, and loves history as much as I do (which would be a lot). She's brought in Parker Leventer to play Emma, who's on my list of actors I want to work with more. The lovely Cotton Wright is playing Trudy (I do believe she can play anything), and the always challenging (in the best possible sense) Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum is playing Max. These three characters are thrown together in the aftermath of World War III, in a much destroyed U.S. city on a river.
Admission is free, and there should be wine.

Another Reading

The benefits of my La Mama Umbria sojourn continue. This coming week, there will be two nights of readings from work by many of the La Mama Umbria '08 playwrights. The readings are at 7 at the Galleria (not on 4th Street); Six East First Street, between Second Avenue and the Bowery, on Wed., Feb. 18 and Thurs., Feb. 19. The readings are free. My play, “The Benders,” features wonderful actors Cotton Wright, Michael Mattie and Elizabeth Munn. The other playwrights are Raquel Almazan, Siobhan Antonioli, MT Cozzola, Marco Calvani (all the way from Rome), Barbara Jwanouskos, Carlos Matos, and Mark Clayton-Southers.
The readings will be juxtaposed with an installation about "CATS!"
The photos are of "CATS!" and the view of La Mama Umbria from the olive grove.