PlayLabs 2010

Looking Back, Thinking Forward

2010-10-26T10:32:00.002-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

So PlayLabs 2010 is over. I'm sad not to be returning to the Playwrights' Center every day, but so thankful for the beautiful, exhausting and restorative experience. It was wonderful to be a part of the engaging environment of new play development, to talk to the artists and audience members, to share drinks and stories and tips with people at varied points in their careers.

Looking back at the last two weeks, it's hard to pick a favorite PlayLabs experience. I shouldn't even try. I can tell you though that since my last posting, a number of exciting things happened. Saturday's readings, and panel on Staging American Identity went well. Each engaged its audience in different questions about their own experiences while presenting articulate ideas from the panelists, artists and their characters. Saturday night's party was a blast. It was a great opportunity for people to connect with other PlayLabers they hadn't met, or chat with familiar faces about how the festival had gone for them, while sampling the French Mad Scientist (the shot created specially for PlayLabs which was wonderfully light and tangy and served in test tubes). Sunday's final reading and fellow showcase were also engaging and did a good job of highlighting what we'll see from the Playwrights' Center in the next year.

PlayLabs was and will continue in the future to be a wonderful opportunity for theatre makers and audiences both, but so much of it is simply a concentrated version of what the Playwrights' Center does all year long. The opportunities for growth and conversation, the connections with artists and audiences, presented by PlayLabs continue into the rest of their season. If you missed out on this year's festival, get yourself to the Ruth Easton Series or any of the other readings presented this year. Like PlayLabs, the rest of the season continues to present works at different points in their development and to encourage conversation around the works. So, as sad as I am to be done working on PlayLabs, I'm excited about what the future brings, for the Playwrights' Center, for PlayLabs 2011, for Chimera, The Body of an American, Tar's Children and The Secret Lives of Doubles & The Invention of the Third Dimension, for all the artists that connected in the last two weeks. PlayLabs may be over, but what is to come is even more exciting.

Looking forward to the future,
Molly Budke

Get to know an intern: Molly Budke

2010-10-26T10:00:00.002-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

You've gotten to know Molly through her steady blog updates throughout the PlayLabs Festival, but who is this Social Media Intern, really? No worries -- we made her take the survey, too.

What is your role in PlayLabs 2010?
Social Media Intern.

Whis is your favorite memory from this past summer?
A week in NYC with my mom, seeing shows on Broadway, and Justin Long on the street twice!

What is your favorite late-night snack?
Ruffles sour cream & cheddar potato chips.

What is your favorite experience in the theater?
Choreographing instead of blocking a chunk of performance (I have no dance experience ... I like the new and terrifying).

What animal do you most relate to and why?
People have always associated me with the rabbit. Not sure why. I guess I eat a lot of lettuce.

What are you looking forward to in PlayLabs 2010?
Meeting new people, making connections, talking about theatre, watching new plays happen. So much!

Today at PlayLabs (including possibly the best photo I've taken yet)

2010-10-23T15:06:00.000-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE
The roar of PlayLabs continues. Today's craziness has begun so I'm going to keep this short. I just want to say that last night's reading of Dan O'Brien's Body of an American went wonderfully. Between last night and his first reading on Tuesday, Dan had time to really tighten his script and audience members who attended both evenings were excited about the changes they saw.

The first reading of today (Kira Obolensky's Secret Lives/Third Dimension) has just wrapped up, it's time to set up for the Staging American Identity panel which will be followed by a reading of Tar's Children and then the party! Today is packed full of new play goodness. (And a quick break to play video games, taken by Production Manager Ryan Ripley - pictured below)

See, we're all staying sane and relaxed in our own ways. Looking forward to seeing everyone out tonight!

A Change in the Air at the Playwrights' Center

2010-10-22T12:10:00.000-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Yesterday was a blast. Last night was the first with more than one event, and somewhere in the evening, PlayLabs went from feeling like the isolated development of four new works to feeling like a festival of new plays and empowered artists. The buzz of the last week and a half has turned into a roar.

Tar's Children and Chimera had their first readings last night. Both have grown so much since my first experiences with them. The characters of Tar's Children speak in an entirely different language than they did even three days ago, Chimera has refined its structure and plot points and decided which character's story is being told. Both have fallen into beautiful rhythms and developed complexities that really show what opportunities for growth PlayLabs gives to artists and their texts. Both, last night, were presented to receptive audiences who were so warm and supportive and vital to the continued evolution of the plays.

Maybe it was the chatter of the audience between the performances that reminded me this is a festival. Maybe it was the wine served or the extended length of time post-show conversations lasted. Maybe it was the huddle of a meeting in preparation for Saturday's party or the number of fist bumps passed between interns. Whatever it was, something clicked for me last night and reminded me that these last few days are going to be the best. I hope you get a chance to take part, to attend the second round of readings or the panel or showcase or party (did you know there's a mixologist creating a PlayLabs shot for tomorrow night?) because this festival has roared into a gorgeous celebration of new work and the people (artists and audiences alike) who make it happen.

The Dramaturgy of Design: new play development with a bit more than scripts and music stands

2010-10-22T11:31:00.003-05:00

POSTED BY JEREMY WILHELM, CHIMERA COLLABORATOR AND SET DESIGNER

We are several days in on the second workshop of Chimera,--as if this is something I've been working on for years with collaborators I've made several shows with already; this isn't the case, but feels like it ought to be.

Deborah Stein and Suli Holum have been ordering and re-ordering written material; Suli has been "performing proposals," not just talking about them: from different scene order to generative improv. Deborah is writing and re-ordering and shaping a kind of "monologue" as I write this. I'm constantly reeling from their intellectual prowess and positive energy. It is all about "yes ... and?"

We are designing on the go, fitting form to content and content to form in measured turns. There is a long history of this for me, coming from East European puppet design by way of Encho Avramov, a Bulgarian designer and early mentor, as well as the many projects I've made with Philadelphia-based theatre maker Thaddeus Phillips. Call it what you want: action design, transformational scenography, the true meaning of mise-en-scène; but it all hinges on the fact that you need to have the design elements in the room and play with them. Our Chimera is a shape shifter, and we are creating space to shift with this creature. The kitchen that is a lab that is a box of tricks that is a projection screen that is a series of portals to other worlds is also a theatre set. It is not a blank canvas; it is all the ideas about the thing and the thing itself at the same time.

Chimera moves directly into full production mode right after Playlabs, so this is the last week of playing with the mock set and dreaming of what it can do and what it needs to do. A week from today we start building the real thing, and then start working with it in conjunction with video, light, and sound. We are also just problem solving; we are moving everything as-is from the PWC to the Dot theatre at HERE in NYC.

With a day off to reflect (and make lists), I'm looking forward to our development toward a public showing. We are in the room with some great support folks who all contribute to our fluid process. And help move crap around.

Get to know an intern: Lindsey Cacich

2010-10-22T10:12:00.002-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

In addition to pitching in with workshops, box office, and many other tasks, Lindsey is the only PlayLabs intern to actually read in PlayLabs. She's handling stage directions for Suli Holum and Deborah Stein's Chimera, which, given Suli's fun tendency to interact with everyone in the theater space, keeps her on her feet. Lindsey's also a local actor; as she mentions, she took on Hippolyta in a great production of Midsummer I had the pleasure of seeing this summer.

What is your role in PlayLabs?
I am a Workshop Intern and will be working on Chimera specifically.

What is your favorite memory from this past summer?
Performing A Midsummer Night's Dream with Upright Egg in magical parks, with a playful company and many mosquitoes.

What is your favorite late-night snack?
I just started making my own cream cheese won tons. They’re fried and delicious and very naughty.

What is your favorite theater experience?
Seeing a Mary Zimmerman-directed show for the first time. It was poetic, balletic, visually stunning and changed the way I thought about theater.

What animal do you most relate to and why?
A lion, because I’m a Leo, duh.

What are you looking forward to for PlayLabs 2010?
I’ve become more and more interested in dramaturgy and supporting new work, so I am really looking forward to the rehearsals and script development process.

Changes in CHIMERA and SECRET LIVES/THIRD DIMENSION

2010-10-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Since the last time I sat in on a Chimera rehearsal, some big changes have been made. The play now has an ending, and co-creators Deborah Stein and Suli Holum have pinned down which character's story is being told (you'll have to attend a reading to find out which it is - no spoilers here).

A large amount of text has been created in the time Deborah and Suli have been working together, and now they are able to pick and choose sections and rearrange them to see what works where. Tonight, Chimera will have its first PlayLabs reading and Deborah and Suli will get a chance to see how an audience responds to the changes they've made and the way they've ordered the sections. Tonight's audience will also get a taste of the technical elements included in the script that help turn the set's kitchen into a lab, a magic show and so much more.

Suli Holum reads from the Chimera script

Designer Jeremy Wilhelm measures the set, planning for alterations

Interns Lindsey and Sam set up box office for The Invention of the
Third Dimension and The Secret Lives of Doubles

Yesterday was also the first reading of Kira Obolensky's The Invention of the Third Dimension and The Secret Lives of Doubles. It was interesting to hear how the audience responded to the pairing of the two one acts. Kira's scripts have seen major changes since the beginning of PlayLabs, so what was seen last night was especially exciting because much of what the actors were doing, they were doing for the second or third time and there was a raw, fresh feeling to what was witnessed. Make your reservations for Saturday afternoon if you want to see the next reading of Kira's plays!

First Reading of THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN (lots of pictures!)

2010-10-20T16:09:00.000-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

The PlayLabs readings started last night, with Dan O'Brien's The Body of an American marking the beginning of the festival's home stretch. The reading's audience responded well to the weighty moments as well as the comedy in the play and were enthusiastic about what they had seen as they left the theatre.

The Body of an American is a play that needs to be seen. Well, ok, let me rephrase: The Body of an American is a great example of why new plays need to be seen. The audience's reaction is not just important because the subject matter pertains to every American (though that's true too) but because it's a play based in the impact of images and the ability of two actors to play a wide range of characters including each other. It's a text that's complex on numerous levels and needs an audience to affirm that the complexities are supporting each other, which last night's audience did a great job of.

Because it is a play filled with projected images, it just wouldn't be fair for me not to include some photos for you. All the projected photographs were provided by Paul Watson or Google.

Actors Peter Hansen and Steven Epp read in front of a section of the title photograph

Epp and Hansen in front of a map of Princeton, where Dan O'Brien began writing The Body of an American

Hansen reads next to a photograph of Watson's parents

Epp next to a photograph of Paul Watson at work

Epp, as Watson, describes being lifted up by a mob

Epp and Hansen on either side of a Google image of the arctic where Dan O'Brien and Paul Watson met in person for the first time

Hansen reads, director Jeremy Cohen and dramaturg Wendy Weckwerth listen

Cohen gives direction to Hansen and Epp

SECRET LIVES/THIRD DIMENSION: Plays to live and shout and dance

2010-10-19T22:08:00.006-05:00

POSTED BY JEREMY B. COHEN

The office looks good. Milt doesn’t care about the office. My former husband, Milton, is a genius. I should warn you. He's a little crazy. But he has an idea that cannot be stopped.

--Kira Obolensky, The Invention of the Third Dimension

An exchange after a recent reading:

Delightful Audience Member (DAM): Excuse me, Jeremy, but I'm really confused right now and wondering if you can sort me out.

Me: Thanks so much for stopping me. I'm afraid I don't know your personal history, so I'm unsure I can be of assistance, but ... lay it on me.

DAM: There seem to be so many reasons that a playwright would want to workshop their new play, but which reason do you think is best? How do you choose?

Me: A wise question, young miss. Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) there are myriad reasons to develop new work, and much of it depends on the process the playwright needs to most authentically create the play. For some, it's a matter of hearing the play for the first time and writing anew. For others it's an opportunity to hear/watch how an audience responds to the play ... what's missing and what lands. And for still others, it's about a longer-term collaboration with a director and actors to help create a sense of physical life to the play -– you can generally learn loads more on your feet than sitting around a table. Is that at all helpful?

DAM: But what if you've got the problem of all three?

Me: Have I got the play reading for you!

And so it is with great excitement and embrace that I chose to include this pairing of plays by the tirelessly inventive Kira Obolensky ... and this conversation about love and appropriateness and ethics and chaos and finding true joy in our lives. While it can certainly be said to be true of all playwrights, Kira truly does create plays to live and shout and dance out loud on stage, and as a long-time affiliate of the Center, I am thrilled to help bring another new theatrical vision of hers into the world. As an audience member, I love it when a writer asks me to sit back and turn over any of my expectations of what I'm about to experience ... to open myself and let it pour in. And I'm excited to pop the cork for you all as we drink in the searing relationships of these profound new characters.

Photos from THE SECRET LIVES OF DOUBLES

2010-10-19T12:35:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Here are some photos from yesterday's rehearsal of The Secret Lives of Doubles. The rehearsal focused on this script and spent time examining each scene. I'm hoping to provide you with some video clips later in the day as well! Enjoy!

Actors Nathan Christopher and Pearce Bunting rehearse a restaurant scene at the beginning of The Secret Lives of Doubles

Actors Laura Esping and Birgit Huppuch rehearse a scene in a bar

Birgit, playing Lucia Hayward, and Nathan, playing Jack Hayward, argue about Jack's new suit, among other things

The two couples vacation together

Lucia and Jack Hayward discuss their future

Jack Hayward sings

TAR'S CHILDREN: Acts of Scorching Love

2010-10-18T23:00:00.004-05:00

POSTED BY JEREMY B. COHEN

"Stop acting like a 15-year-old girl on our first date with your legs crossed most of the night when you and I both know that by the end of the night I'm gonna eat you –- inside and out."

There are those moments when I'm reading a play, and the power of an image is completely stunning to me -– usually it stems from the way a writer has captured and redefined a new vision of humanity somehow, or the way a fresh vocabulary or depiction of a relationship can still open me right up.

It's a rare writer who can be that emotionally innovative, as we surely know now in 2010 that everyone's actions ultimately come either from a place of great love ... or great fear.

There's such a moment in Christina's play, where the audience has been brought so deeply into this severe world of desperation, this bitter fight for survival, that we can't imagine what will come next except more violence. Instead, there is a gesture of immense warmth and nurturing and intimacy. And I'm reminded that, even in periods of great disconnect and struggle, the best of all humans ultimately wants to survive ... and to connect deeply with another. That it's merely the details of our circumstances that enable or deprive us of that connection.

That acts of scorching love become ... revolutionary.

I'm also just over the moon to be bringing the auteur director, Marion McClinton, back to the Playwrights' Center with his guidance and helming of Christina's new play. His insight with writers such as Regina Taylor, Kia Corthron and of course August Wilson have helped to create some of the most important plays in the American canon. And that we have such a treasure right here in the Twin Cities is just extraordinary.

Finally, there are moments when I've been able to work with colleagues in theater and see such greatness in the way they support the vision of some gorgeous theatrical work. And I've had colleagues who are the creators themselves, and of course, each one is more stunning than the next in terms of telling stories in a completely new way. In Christina Ham, I get to have the best of both worlds ... in one ferocious and provocative artist.

... I’m excited to share that fierceness with you all!

Can Frozen Men Sing?

2010-10-18T12:35:00.003-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Yesterday's rehearsal of Tar's Children was a lot of the following:

Can you tell how hard they were working? I mean really, look at the concentration on the faces of dramaturg Raphael Martin, playwright Christina Ham and actors Christopher Carlson and Bruce Young.

Yesterday, you see, brought some big questions about the characters and their frozen environment.

My favorite of the questions was, "how many verses of a song can two very cold men sing," but there were also questions about the perception of time, the evolution of language and the emotional aspects of survival for two men who can plan their future only as far as their next breath. Questions about the tactics of a character who lived before the ice age versus one who only knows the cold led to two different readings of one scene and ideas for more to be tried today.

As fun as it is to watch a script get on its feet, the work that happens around a table can be engaging in a totally different way. Watching the playwright and actors focus on just the words and the questions around the text gave great insight into how the rules of Tar's Children's world are developing and engaging each other. Christina left the rehearsal with plans to cut the script down to a more focused, survival-based language and to engage with the markers in her script that connect our society to the world of the characters. I'm excited to report back in a few days how Christina has developed her script and evolved the language and relationship to time as the characters experience it.

Chimera's Design Elements (with photos!)

2010-10-17T12:52:00.004-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Yesterday I sat in on Chimera rehearsal with most of the other interns and just one of the many designers that has joined co-creators Deborah Stein and Suli Holum in collaborating on the one-woman show.

Because designers have been added to the team so early in the process, the four characters have a playground of a kitchen to explore, colorful costumes to play with, and images and sounds to echo and haunt them. Design elements incorporated alongside Deborah and Suli's creative processes have allowed the characters to live in a world that fits and challenges them. It's a thrilling process to watch, as each element propels the others forward, and it's a solid example of how PlayLabs molds itself to fit the needs of the artistic team. When you come to the readings you won't see four scripts with the same format at the same point in their development, you'll see four theatrical events incorporating different technical elements and engaging in varied conversations.

I've posted three photos from yesterday's rehearsal and as intriguing as I think they are on their own, they'll be especially interesting to compare to photos taken at a future rehearsal when more projection elements have been added.

Actress/co-creator Suli Holum reads from one version of the script

Suli reads in another costume

Writer/co-creator Deborah Stein explains projection aspects to be added

Get to know an intern: Rebekah Rentzel

2010-10-16T15:48:00.008-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER
Like her fellow interns, Rebekah Rentzel seems to enjoy being the motive force behind big things -- from interning Kira's workshop, to taking on pre-festival admin work at the Center, to portraying the wheels on a bus in It's Only Funny to us.

What is your role in PlayLabs?
Workshop Intern for Kira Obolensky’s The Invention of the Third Dimension and The Secret Lives of Doubles.

What is your favorite memory from this past summer?
Paying $5 for a street psychic to tell me things I already knew about myself.

What is your favorite late-night snack?
Cookies I’ve made.

What is your favorite theater experience?
Being the wheels of the bus in It's Only Funny to Us.

What animal do you most relate to and why?
My "spirit animal" can be the woods -- I’m big on redwood trees.

What are you looking forward to for PlayLabs 2010?
The chance to be steeped in two weeks of making fresh, new theater.

Chimera: See What Stares Back at You

2010-10-16T15:26:00.009-05:00

POSTED BY JEREMY B. COHEN

"You walk until you get to the train tracks and then you walk along the train tracks. You walk along past the lake to where the land is flat and filled with yellow grass, and then you walk down along the gray river and you cross the river and you keep walking over blue hills past old steel buildings and brown dirt until you come to a different city."

There is a divide, for all of us, at one point or another, where we come face-to-face with the dichotomous parts of ourselves. And when we get honest, truly deep-down-in-the-bone-marrow honest, and sit in that moment where we let our multiple truths exist, and we are forced to look at how to reconcile all those streamlets that run directly into the river of us ... in that moment that hovers between profound chaos and absolute stillness -- that is the screen-capture for me of where Deb and Suli's piece lives. Right at the crossroads. A very dangerous place to exist ... and of course, what more fertile place from which to create theater?

Mirroring that notion is the very genesis of this piece; based in a trust that exists between these two longtime collaborators, which can often elicit the most extraordinary work. Over the course of PlayLabs, and its subsequent Workhaus Collective production, Deb and Suli will work from the inside out on the piece. The script itself is a chimera. And so I invite you not only to this developmental moment at PlayLabs, but urge you to seize the opportunity for the Workhaus production so that you can become woven into the fabric of this piece as it's created. Watch as the piece turns in and out, and what new stories emerge.

Two extraordinary artists.

Two practitioners exploring the many constituencies of what comprises the decisions that women are asked to make throughout their lives.

A birth.

A death.

A rebirth.

I'm thrilled to invite you join me at the edge of that river ... to look deeper below ... and see what stares back at you.

Kickoff Party Photos

2010-10-16T13:41:00.004-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Finally some photos for your enjoyment! Here's a sampling of the fun had at the PlayLabs Kickoff party on Thursday night.

Playwrights Dan O'Brien, Deborah Stein, Kira Obolensky and Christina Ham, directors Jeremy Cohen and Hayley Finn and actress/collaborator Suli Holum toast PlayLabs before the official kickoff

Jeremy Cohen and Hayley Finn welcome more than 30 artists to the festival

Deborah Stein, intern Shante and box office manager Laura enjoy pizza and conversation

Swag bags wait for the artists

Suli Holum and Deborah Stein model the PlayLabs 2010 shirts

(fun, versatile and available for purchase at each event)

Staging and Images in THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN

2010-10-16T10:58:00.003-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

When I sat in on yesterday's rehearsal of Dan O'Brien's Body of an American I was privileged to see the work get to its feet - literally - for the first time at PlayLabs.

What's most interesting to me about Body of an American (other than it's subject matter) is that the play is at its core a conversation between two men. I find that conversations tend not to be inherently theatrical but this one simply is. The journey of the text shows how conversation becomes a relationship full of projections, pain, healing and growth. Director Jeremy Cohen's staging, with different chair/music stand stations for each section of the text is hugely helpful in defining the development of the relationship and it was very exciting to watch the formation of this staging begin yesterday.

I'm anxious to see how images are integrated with the performance in coming rehearsals and report back on how the visual helps develop the conversation further. I'm also excited to start posting some images of my own, starting later today!

Get to know an intern: Sam Ferree

2010-10-15T14:01:00.015-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

Sam Ferree has taken time off from traveling the world to join us for PlayLabs, where he's the Workshop Intern for Christina Ham's Tar's Children.

What is your role in PlayLabs?

In the most direct terms possible, just to be a useful asset to my artistic team.
What is your favorite memory from this past summer?
Seeing Bertold Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Or visiting the Royal Oak, a tiny pub just around the corner from the theater where they were playing Robert Johnson in the afternoon and "Danny Boy" in the evening (everyone sang along – no joke).

What is your favorite late-night snack? Currywurst, in Germany. Here, pizza, definitely.

What is your favorite theater experience? In high school when I played Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula and a fuse blew during my plot-point monologue. I spent the rest of the play improvising explanations for my character's frankly strange behavior.

What animal do you most relate to and why?
People tell me a fox. Personally, I'd prefer a sloth so I could counteract my family work ethic.

What are you looking forward to for PlayLabs 2010?
Participating in and seeing the shows. And the Industry Party (aren't we all?).

Just Another Day in the Cold

2010-10-15T13:50:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

Yesterday's read through was the first time Tar's Children had been read with actors, and playwright Christina Ham was excited to hear her words and characters coming to life. And a strange life it is they're coming into.

Christina describes her play, Tar's Children, as a "day in the life" of her cold and hungry characters. The sense of normalcy her characters experience in their violently frigid world makes their drama all the more horrifying to watch. The text is beautiful in its horror and after its first read through yesterday, strong responses were had all around the table. The actors were excited to explore questions about the savagery, brutality, desire, ritual and laws surrounding their characters and ready to examine how their characters interact with an unlisted character present in the script: the cold.

Stories of cold experiences were shared all around the table and it became quickly clear that freezing temperatures, whiteouts and frostbite are characteristics of a very real character on stage who raises the stakes for the rest. As the discussion continued, those around the table began to pull on their sweaters.

This will be an exciting play to watch as it grows. It provides a different take on the environmental themes so many artists are exploring and Christina presents deep, frighteningly real characters
to deal with the drama of a world with rules we have to hope we will never know.

Conversation after SECRET LIVES and THIRD DIMENSION's First Rehearsal

2010-10-14T12:12:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

One of the coolest things about being a part of PlayLabs is that everyone involved is a part of the development of a new work. I had to remind myself yesterday that no matter how exciting the festival energy, the connections made, the endless cups of coffee are, PlayLabs is about four scripts and the possibilities they hold for production and conversation.
PlayLabs is about the plays, and everything else is just an awesome part of the environment established by the development of new works.

Kira Obolensky's plays (written to be performed together) The Invention of the Third Dimension and The Secret Lives of Doubles speak clearly to the way in which new work development fosters an environment for connections, conversation and excitement.

The Invention of the Third Dimension and The Secret Lives of Doubles are, in terms of narrative, two plays about completely different things. The first deals with the film industry and the imagination of one man while the second is about politics and imagination on a national level. Each, though, echoes the themes of the other. Each deals with perception of reality, loneliness, manipulation. Each establishes a lens through which we can see a manipulated reality and in doing so, each makes us question our own perception of the other.

In The Invention of the Third Dimension, more exists on stage than exists in reality. Archie, the filmmaker, has trouble discerning 3D images from reality and converses with a woman none of the other characters acknowledge. In The Secret Lives of Doubles, the alterations on reality are more subtle and lie more in what is missing that what is there. Together, though, the two scripts begin a conversation that would be almost impossible not to continue when the reading has ended. These conversations, had in the rehearsal room (discussing which play performs first, how the mirrored characters relate to each other, how to cut ten pages out of one script) and afterwords (what is reality for us today, on an artistic, political or personal level?) are such a big part of the process of development and by being here or even by being a part of the conversation from afar, you are part of the development of new works. Does it get better than that?

Thoughts on the Beginning

2010-10-13T13:33:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

The Playwrights' Center is buzzing. Scripts are printing and the building is filled with a warm, quiet energy.
So far it's mostly staff and interns flitting around the building but the knowledge of all the people that will be coming through the doors in the coming weeks is very present. So many writers, collaborators and audience members will be coming together in the next twelve days. Even as I type the convergence is beginning. My fellow intern Rebekah is setting up the theatre for The Secret Lives of Doubles/The Invention of the Third Dimension which begins rehearsing in just 35 minutes.

There's this great sense of flexibility and possibility, a sense that anything can and will happen.

Now, I'm going to head up to sit in on the rehearsal so I can let you know what's happening from the inside of the first day. I've got a feeling it's going to be pretty wonderful.

A Welcome from the Intern Blogger

2010-10-12T18:03:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY MOLLY BUDKE

So you can’t make it to Minneapolis? Can’t make it to all the PlayLabs events? Want to know what’s going on inside the rehearsals? I’m here to be your eyes and ears for PlayLabs 2010.

Hi there. My name is Molly and I’m the PlayLabs 2010 Social Media Intern.

I’m a recent graduate of Augsburg College, a PWC veteran intern, an aspiring critic and a lover of new plays. My favorite activity is talking about theatre and I am thrilled to be spending the next two weeks observing PlayLabs, talking to artists, taking behind-the-scenes pictures and reporting it all back to you. Of course, I encourage you to attend as much of the festival as you can because I promise there is some very exciting stuff going on between the four diverse new works in development, the panel discussion and the showcases, but whether you make it to all the events or none, I promise to provide an in depth perspective on what’s going on. From the first rehearsal of The Secret Lives of Doubles/The Invention of the Third Dimension tomorrow, to the Jerome Showcase ending the festival on the 24th, I’ll keep you updated on the mood, the happenings, the ins and outs of the two weeks as I see and hear them.

The Body of an American: Pursuing the Vision

2010-10-08T22:29:00.021-05:00

POSTED BY JEREMY B. COHEN

"When I wake up my hand is like this, like a rat, with my nails digging into my palm. Sometimes I find scratch marks on my face. I can’t remember whole months of my life. It’s like I’m squinting through an incredibly dirty window, yet when I close my eyes I see certain dead bodies I’ve known with the clarity of a photograph."

From The Body of an American by Dan O'Brien

When Dan O'Brien received the McKnight Residency & Commission fellowship last season, he dove into creating this unflinching examination of how far artists will go to pursue their vision -- and leave a legacy of change behind.

But rather than approach the piece as a sort of biopic of the intense and enigmatic award-winning photographer Paul Watson, he forged a path of friendship with Paul, and utilized their relationship as the fulcrum for this provocative new theater piece. Reflecting the fracture of one's mind when living with the effects of PTSD, Dan opts for the two actors to play all of the roles, an action that nearly prohibits the audience from easily slipping out of the stories of these men, and concretely anchors them in the rhythm of the language, and the heart of the story.

If the plot of the script takes us around the world via a wars-eye-view, the writer challenges himself to express the whirlwind as a kind of madness itself -- not only in the text, but also seeping through the pores of the piece; haunting the minds of its characters as it continues to haunt us. As the characters recall their tales, images are projected onto the surface of the stage, which echo and dance along with the men and women who summon them. In the workshop during PlayLabs, Dan and I will be collaborating with projection designer Eamonn Farrell throughout the process to find those moments of perfect and paradoxical harmony: when stillness is the master of the stage, but moving images are designed to weave in and out of those oft-constipated breaths.

I spent four years creating a piece about the 23 year old photojournalist and humanitarian Dan Eldon, and about his love affair with East Africa. All of my work had to center around interviews with his friends, family and colleagues, as he was killed by an angry mob during the very attack in which Paul Watson snaps his award-winning photograph. But what Dan O'Brien has theatricalized is extraordinary, as Paul is still very much alive, and the consequences of living through such crisis become as much a part of the play as the stories themselves.

The play is incredibly funny and deeply revealing -- the two men standing quite naked right next to one another. I’m thrilled for it to launch PlayLabs this year, and to welcome Dan back to the Playwrights' Center with this stunning new work.

Christina Ham: What inspired TAR'S CHILDREN?

2010-10-07T15:30:00.005-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

From film to literature to history to winter in Minnesota, Christina Ham pulled a multitude of strands together to create an “eco-terror riff” set in a modern ice age.

Christina Ham: "It was several sources. One was watching John Carpenter's The Thing.

"Also, just living here [in Minneapolis], because I'm from Los Angeles and I had never been in snow before I moved here. And it really does become this man vs. nature thing when winter hits. You know, neighbors pitch in and help each other when your car's stuck in the snow, shoveling the sidewalk, brushing off the car every time you have to go outside, wearing layers and layers of clothing. And what happens when that's intensified?

"So that was part of it. Also, reading Sarah Kane’s Blasted was a huge influence in terms of dealing with a female in the room and how that influences the politics of what's going on in the room. Aspects of Waiting for Godot. And the Tar Baby story as well -- dealing with that was a heavy influence because I saw the female as this kind of tar baby who comes in and traps the men in this space.

"The Matchstick Girl, the Hans Christian Andersen short story, was another influence. In that short story, it's basically about a girl who’s dying in the snow outside, and the hallucinations that she has. and so part of it -- when the girl ends up coming into the space and almost kind of riffs on that whole perception of what the Matchstick Girl story is, and what does the feminine mean to him, and also the things that they desire the most as they end up inching closer toward potential death, how does that change the dynamics in the room?

"Then the Children's Blizzard, and the novel about that, about the school children's blizzard in South Dakota in the late 1800s, and how so many people died in the snow, and the idea that this whole community of children was almost wiped out. And the physical repercussions of that—how once that night ended, people had lost part of their ears, there was massive frostbite, amputations -- just imagining this community of people hobbling around because of this one night that happened.

"So it was a myriad of different things, piecing the information together and putting it into the pot, and this play kind of came out of all of that."

Get to know an intern: Timothy Otte

2010-10-07T15:06:00.006-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

Meet Timothy Otte, workshop intern for Dan O'Brien's The Body of an American. In addition to his intern prowess, Timothy knows the proper recipe for a PB&J (details matter, people) and enjoys animals with up to 8 legs.

What is your role in PlayLabs?

Workshop Intern on Body of an American.

What is your best memory from this past summer?

Meeting one of my favorite rappers, Astronautalis, and having him thank me "for giving a damn" and freestyling about the Tony Awards.

What is your favorite late night snack?

PB&J sandwich – grape jelly & crunchy peanut butter. Wheat bread.

What was your favorite experience in the theater?

Seeing Fiona Shaw perform T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" in London. (Shaw played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films.)

What animal do you most relate to and why?

People tell me I remind them of an otter. And I really love dogs. And I speak kindly to spiders. But screw centipedes. I hate those things.

What are you looking forward to for PlayLabs 2010?

Meeting a million artists and learning from everyone. Also, veggie platters.

Kira Obolensky: What inspired SECRET LIVES and THIRD DIMENSION?

2010-10-07T11:50:00.011-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

Kira Obolensky's pair of connected plays were sparked by politics and pop culture -- and the connection she saw between them. She told me how it all happened ...

"Oddly enough, the idea for both of them came at the same time. The first one -- I call it the first one because it's the first one I wrote, The Secret Lives of Doubles -- is about perception through the lens of politics. And it was directly inspired by a sort of huge frustration I was feeling at all of the media about the Tea Party. So it kind of takes that notion of 'what a government is supposed to be' to task, and asks a lot of questions about it.

"The second play, The Invention of the Third Dimension, is about the birth of 3-D film, and it looks specifically at the first film that was made in Hollywood with that technology. So the play is a speculation on perception also, but it’s through the lens of the film industry, and it asks a lot of questions about what happens when our image-making becomes too potent.

"I know that the Tea Party and three-dimensional film were in the air when I wrote the first drafts of these plays, which would have been last February. Avatar, and this sudden rebirth of three-dimensionality, made me begin to think, what is the history of 3-D film? And after that, there was a very interesting article in the New Yorker, so it must have been in the air somehow. But oddly enough, I had actually started the play and had done my own research.

"So I guess I'm going to give you a very unsatisfying answer and tell you they both came out of the ether. They were both in the news, both in my consciousness, and somehow I had the thought that they could go together."

Suli Holum and Deborah Stein: What inspired CHIMERA?

2010-10-07T10:00:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

Suli Holum and Deborah Stein were influential in each other’s formation as artists, so when they decided to reunite for a new project, they opted to challenge themselves: they chose a "fascinating" and "creepy" story and set out to build not just a new piece of theater, but an entirely new creative process. I spoke with Suli and Deborah about the genesis of Chimera.

Suli Holum: "Deborah and I went to college together, and we worked together in a company called Pig Iron, but that was quite a few years ago, and in the interim we both went off and did lots of interesting things. To me, it really felt like time to reconnect with Deborah and see what we could make. For me, the impulse was, I love this artist and this person, and I love just being in a creative space with her, and I started trying to dream up projects that we might want to do together."

Deborah Stein: "The feeling was mutual, about wanting to reconnect with an artist and a peer who had been formative in my 'growing up' as an artist. So Suli called me and pitched these three ideas, all of which were really, really great, and this was one of them. She had heard a story of a woman who had had this experience on Radio Lab on NPR. Of the three, it was instantly the least theatrical. The other ones were like, 'Oh, I totally know what the costume design for that would be; I know what that one looks like; I know what that one feels like." But with this one, I was like: that was a fascinating story, and it gets under my skin in a really creepy way, and I have no idea how to make a play about it. And the impossibility of that was part of what was exciting. Also, because of the specifics of the situation, it had to be a solo show, which was part of the idea -- you wanted to do a one-woman piece."

S.H.: "Yeah, for practical and personal reasons, I wanted to have a collaboration that was small in terms of the number of people, at least at the very beginning; that could start out as a conversation between the two of us. It actually has very quickly grown and now we have a whole team of designers and we have a composer and we have this extended family of awesome interns and young people who are really interested in that process and how we’re making it. It's really grown into a family, which is wonderful. But for months -- maybe even a year -- we were just sort of stewing in it, just the two of us, and it was really wonderful being able to take it step by step and gradually add people into the fold."

D.S.: "The process comes out of processes that we were a part of ten years ago, but also, there’s this thrilling and scary sense of making up something that we've never done before. Therefore at every juncture we have to be like, why are we doing this? How are we gonna do it? It sometimes feels like we're reinventing the wheel, but then it's great because it's our wheel, and it fits us perfectly. It's a really intensive process, and really intimate. It means that every step of the way, there’s a clarity to why we’re doing something, both in terms of what it is and the process through which we’re doing it. Nothing in the process is taken for granted."

Get to know an intern: Shanté Zenith

2010-10-06T23:28:00.000-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

They're smart. They're fast. They're very, very busy. They're the PlayLabs interns, and the festival can't happen without them. In this post, we introduce you to veteran Playwrights' Center intern Shanté Zenith ...
What is your role in PlayLabs?

Special Events Intern. I will be assisting with the showcases and panel discussion and making myself generally useful during PlayLabs.

What is your favorite memory of the past summer?

Spending a week in New York taking a workshop from Patsy Rodenburg and exploring the city. Intense, challenging, awesome!

What is your favorite late-night snack?

A cup of tea and a good book.

What was your favorite experience in the theater?

Watching my mentor, Steven Epp, in the final scene of his one-man play The House Can’t Stand -- a simple, beautiful moment when he sings to the audience … it reminded me of the unconditional generosity of theater.

What animal do you most relate to and why?

A seal, because of its deep, intense eyes and curiosity about the world.

What are you looking forward to for PlayLabs 2010?

Witnessing the evolution of these 4 plays and meeting many amazing creators of theater.

Dan O'Brien: What inspired THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN?

2010-10-04T17:47:00.001-05:00

POSTED BY TOM BORGER

Dan O'Brien started emailing back and forth with war journalist Paul Watson in 2007, not long after hearing Paul's story on the radio. But Dan says no play comes from one source alone. I spoke to Dan about what motivated him to write The Body of an American.

Dan O'Brien: "I love the scientific term 'overdetermined,' for something that is caused by many things at once. Most of my plays, I feel, are kind of overdetermined. They come from a lot of different places at the same time. So it ends up feeling kind of inevitable when I decide, Oh, I'm going to write this play for the next year or two or three. It doesn't feel so much like a choice, it just feels like something that's overdetermined, that happens to me.

"But often there's something that gets the ball rolling, and it's in the play, hearing that interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, on the publication of the Canadian edition of [Paul Watson's] book—he's actually Canadian; it was published in Canada first. I was just struck by the story, him saying that he literally felt haunted by the ghost of this American soldier who's being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, and this picture for which he is pretty well-known, and for which he won the Pulitzer Prize.

"But I was also struck by his voice, this sense of person, and I felt like the play would focus on that. That’s a way in which the play is still very psychological and internal. It's still very much about him, and to some degree me, and some of the bigger story, but his memoir and his life are so wide-ranging, to put that onstage doesn't feel like the right way to tell that story. That would probably make a better screenplay. But if we're going to delve into his personality and his psyche, the theater was the right place to do that."

For more info on Dan O’Brien, Paul Watson, and The Body of an American, check out the May 2010 issue of Dialogue.

Welcome!

2010-10-04T16:22:00.000-05:00

POSTED BY HAYLEY FINN

Welcome to the Playwrights' Center blog! We’re gearing up for the return of PlayLabs and we’re excited to be bringing it back in the fall—the height of the honeycrisp season!

I’m thrilled by the lineup of work and the artists participating in the festival. The plays being presented are all so distinct in style and tone.I’m also looking forward to the panel discussion, Staging American Identity. I read a lot of plays and I’ve noticed in the past few years that many plays are investigating themes around what it means to be a citizen, and I am curious to hear from Taylor Mac, Rhiana Yazzie, Kristin Marting, and Imed Labidi, all of whom connect with this topic for various reasons.

I think another highlight of the festival is the Fellow Showcase. We have some amazing writers in residence with us this year, and this is the first time that the Fellows will be part of the PlayLabs Festival.

And . . . who doesn’t like a good party? I’m hoping everyone comes out to celebrate with us on Saturday, October 23. It’s going to be a great chance to spend time with all the artists and raise a glass and welcome our new Producing Artistic Director, Jeremy Cohen.

Come join us and enjoy the blog!