The Witches (performance)

In the cemetery.

The first week of Test Flight has closed. After over two years, my play The Witches has been seen by an audience, three nights of well-attended performances at Cleveland Public Theatre. 

I sat in the back with a clipboard taking notes, and also talking to people after. If you saw it and have any feedback, I would be grateful to receive it.

One thing I liked hearing about were the layers, the many story layers in the piece. I have been sweating the details that I could not see nor comprehend how it might all come together to be perceived by others.

“The interwoven threads of whose stories we believe, how complicit women may be in exploiting/blaming other women, and mixing stories of the distant past with up-to-the-moment storytelling technologies – pretty heady stuff which also made me chuckle repeatedly.” - fellow playwright

Much work on the script during the rehearsal process was in answering the question "why." Why does Moxie stay when she has been treated so poorly? Why does Rachael surrender her book when she wishes to remain anonymous?

Like Bradbury itself, these shirts are fictional.

Friday night, my son wanted to know why the women in 1692 turned against each other. Or, if not why, thn how -- under what circumstances. I thought that was clear. Maybe even to the actors it was clear. To the audience, perhaps it was not, and I can see how that might be the case. The fact that it was important to him means it is important to me.

He also offered that the rambling Baby Boomer monologue was on point. He didn't understand all of it, but it was definitely the kind of thing he thought someone that age might go on about. Saturday evening we had an older audience, and Marie's speech even got a hand.

Some nights they were all over the TikTok jokes, on others they hooted at all that great not-for-profit humor. I appeal to all ages.

The piece has rough edges, and I have pages of notes and these generous, critical responses which will help me continue to shape the script. Thankfully, it was a strong production, and people were taken by the characters and the story. I hope to revisit Bradbury soon.

The script for THE WITCHES is available to read at New Play Exchange.

The Witches (company)

Test Flight walks a line. Like the Big Box series that came before it (I was in Big Box four times) this is a single weekend of workshop performances. What is a workshop, the layperson may ask? The script is complete, but unfinished, and this is an opportunity to gauge its progress in front of an audience. There are certain professional expectations, but it is not a full production.

There should be design, and the actors should be well-accustomed to the material, at least that material that has not been pitched at them at the last minute. I’m not adding anything to the script for The Witches at this point, but even today I have taken things away.

Thankfully, I am working with a team of incredible artists, some for the first time, several with whom I have collaborated with more than once, and are good friends.

Adrionna Powell Lawrence as Keetchi

The piece is co-directed by Melissa T. Crum and Carrie Williams, who have worked with me at Great Lakes and who I have worked with on projects which have seen the light of day and those that have not. We have directed each other, acted together, and written together, and their work on this piece has delighted me utterly.

Another former Great Lakes colleague and one who has been an invaluable collaborator on so many projects – including and especially during the shutdown – is Chennelle Bryant-Harris. She was due to direct this piece when it was originally scheduled for two years ago, and I was so grateful she was available to perform as dramaturge.

The acting company is a tinderbox of performers who I have either worked with (Adrionna Powell Lawrence, yet a fourth former actor-teacher) or whose work I have enjoyed and admired through the years, including Bryce Evan Lewis, Jaime Bouvier and Juliette Regnier.

Here’s one thing we will not have: video projection. Adri plays a social media star in the model of Liza Koshy (yeah, I know – I started writing this years ago) and so there are meant to be YouTube videos and TikToks. In lieu of actual technology, the team has created some moments that get the point across with clarity and humor.

What we will have are a lot of mannequins, costumes, and shadow performance. Rehearsal was extremely rewarding, with song and humor, frank conversations about tone and a lot of useful suggestions for editing and revision.

And tonight we begin putting the final pieces together in the Levin at Cleveland Public Theatre! I’m really looking forward to seeing this all come together, even more so to how the audience will react this weekend. Maybe we will see you there!

To be continued.

Cleveland Public Theatre presents THE WITCHES as part of Test Flight, a showcase of new works, March 3, 4 & 5, 2022.

The Witches (inspiration)

Adrionna Powell Lawrence
Rehearsal for "The Witches"

Titles can be challenging. Usually I turn to song lyrics. Is that a bad thing? Not that I care.

Recently, I wrote a script titled No One Wants To Work Anymore. A meme from 2021, that phrase was the inspiration for the entire piece, so it makes sense.

The working title for The Witches was The Witches, inspired by Stacy Schiff’s epic history of the Salem Witch Panic of 1692. As I was considering a proper title, I remembered that I have already written one play titled The Vampyres and thought it would be symbolic to have another play named after a monster.

I know. Witches aren’t monsters. You take my meaning.

The Vampyres is an immature work. My first full-length play, it was meant to be a metaphor for the creative arena. It now feels to me like a study in toxic masculinity – it’s not about toxic masculinity, any more than the works of David Mamet are "about" toxic masculinity. They are the thing itself.

The Vampyres took place in a goth-themed coffee house (very 90s), The Witches in a witch-themed roadside attraction. Who knows, in a quarter century I may write a work about death and dying called The Ghosts or The Zombies.

My original intention was to write a piece about tourist traps (my wife and I love tourist traps) and also about my life in non-profit theater and education. The attraction in question, the fictional Bradbury Witch Dungeon (and Museum) aspires to a status of respectability as an historic, educational institution.

Bryce Evan Lewis
Rehearsal for "The Witches"

The family had a brief stay in Salem a few years ago, and I revisited a certain witch-themed attraction with our eldest, finding it to have changed somewhat since I visited with my wife a quarter century ago. I mean, it was mostly the same, except the docent, our guide, provided a great deal more context, which made the entire experience much less cheesy. Also, no one jumped out and said “boo” at us as they had in 1996. The place felt downright respectable.

Upon returning home, I wanted to call them, to see what I could learn about a place like that, how does it operate, how big is the staff, what are their hiring practices, were the changes I saw standard, or does it depend on who is conducting the tour?

The person I spoke to on the phone was not interested in speaking to me. I left a message, no one returned my call. I sent an email, and again received no response. So in writing my play, I just made stuff up. Sometimes you have to make stuff up.

To be continued.

Cleveland Public Theatre presents THE WITCHES as part of Test Flight, a showcase of new works, March 3, 4 & 5, 2022.

The Witches: Second First Reading

Melissa T. Crum, Director

Nearly two years ago, we gathered in a private room at Parnell’s downtown for the first read-through of my new script The Witches, in preparation for a workshop production at Cleveland Public Theatre that spring.

Wednesday night, we gathered on Zoom for the second first read-through of my new script The Witches, in preparation for a workshop production at Cleveland Public Theatre this spring.

During the intervening time, things have changed. And it would be impossible to move forward with the draft we had started with in early 2020. There were questions asked which I found easier to ignore back then.

Adrionna Powell Lawrence,
Actor

Then there is the reality of the pandemic. The play takes place in spring 2022. It’s not something that can be easily explained away. How are we going to deal with this moving forward?

The story of “witches” in colonial America is bound up in religion and gender. The story of America is bound up in race. I started by writing a comedy about roadside attractions, which became a story about the world of non-profit, and then about so many other things.

But at its heart, it is still a comedy about roadside attractions. And what makes one venue a tourist trap and another a museum? And why do we take the most horrific moments in human history and choose to make something entertaining or "fun" out of them?

Jaime Bouvier, Actor

I started writing this several years ago now (everything was several years ago now) and what is most exciting to me is the idea that the very first few scenes I wrote, the catalyst for everything that followed, are becoming less and less relevant. Those scenes may not even appear.

Cleveland Public Theatre presents a workshop production of "The Witches" as part of Test Flight, March 3, 4 & 5, 2022

On Procrastination

This is how I always point at Jeremy.

Saturday afternoon, I moderated a panel discussion at Cleveland Public Theatre called Considering the Source: Creating With Existing Material, presented by the Dramatists Guild as part of CPT’s annual Entry Point festival of new works.

Panelists included Nina Domingue, Eric Schmiedl, and Jeremy Paul, and we picked apart their creative process for (among other works) Nina’s The Absolutely Amazing True Adventures of Ms. Joan Southgate, Eric’s work adapting the novels of Kent Haruf, and Jeremy’s recent interactive production of Dante’s Inferno.

Nina Domingue

The panel itself went well. I felt a little stiff, but at least I was prepared, and providing equal time to each panelist, and between the four of us there was a wide variety of material to be discussed.

I had been invited to moderate this panel a few weeks ago, a few days before mother died. I said yes. I thought it was crazy, I was fairly certain her death would come very soon, did I have any business committing to an event I may need to cancel? Would I have time for this? Where would I be in my headspace in two weeks time? I said yes.

As it turned out, it was a good decision to have made. I would have regretted saying no. Ever since January 2017, when CPT first produced Entry Point, the weekend has been a creative oasis in the midst of a dark time.

That first year I acted in someone else’s work, my eleven year-old son attended and has strong, positive memories of the works he experienced there -- and he was there because the female-identified members of our family were in Washington, D.C., taking a stand for women’s rights. To paraphrase Emile M. Cioran, “A new play is a nation’s suicide, postponed.”

Shortly before the panel began this past Saturday, Molly Andrews-Hinders, CPT Artistic Associate, asked me how my Test Flight piece was coming along, which is to say my new script The Witches. Test Flight is in April, and rehearsals begin soon. It was a perfectly supportive question, we were catching up, it was not an inquisition. But for the briefest moment, I felt like the teacher had asked about my progress on a term paper that I had not yet started.

The truth is I haven’t written a word for The Witches since November. And I do not feel guilty about that. I had made a promise to myself to complete the first draft by the end of calendar 2019. Tragedy intervened, and I told myself to leave it on the shelf awhile or else I would go mad. It will be there when I am ready to return.

When I have two assignments looming it can be difficult to concentrate on either one. When I have three, I’ll just scroll Facebook for eight hours.

Sometimes I will procrastinate on the next thing due by writing the thing that is due later, which can be very helpful as when I finally do bear down on my immediate project, at least I know I’ve made headway into the next one.

This winter I have concentrated on the very next deadline, fully aware there was one final deadline to meet before I could think about spring. These included:

• The November Witches reading draft
• The production draft of Sherlock Holmes
• Scripts for the Christmas Carol writing contest
• The Sherlock Holmes teacher resource guide
• The grad school application
• Adapting three chapters of a children’s book
• The source material panel
• The eulogy for my mother

Cleveland Public Theatre (2022)

I have thought about my mother’s eulogy for months. Even before we knew she was dying. Yet by yesterday morning I had only jotted down a few phrases, and I woke with a hangover. I had one, painful morning to create a public declaration of who I believe my mother is. By 10 AM I was writing it. At 2:30 PM I was reading it. They tell me it was good.

Another deadline met, another promise kept.

UPDATE: Following a two year delay, "The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Ms. Joan Evelyn Southgate" written and performed by Nina Domingue and directed by Nathan Henry opened at Cleveland Public Theatre on Friday, April 21, 2022. 

Play a Day: Dividual (BONUS)

Dividual (2019)

dividual adj.
di·​vid·​u·​al | \ də̇ˈvijəwəl\
1 archaic : SEPARATE, DISTINCT
2 archaic : DIVISIBLE, DIVIDED
3 archaic : divided among or shared by a number
"the moon … her reign with thousand lesser lights dividual holds" — John Milton
Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Paul Manganello is a Detroit-born theater artist who first journeyed to Cleveland to join the company of the Great Lakes Theater "Classics On Tour" production of Jabberwocky. He auditioned with a piece from his own solo performance Zealous Whig, about Italian philosopher (and friend of Thomas Jefferson) Filippo Mazzei. I was immediately impressed by his witty writing and comic timing. His turn put me in mind of a young Robert Benigni.

Before rehearsals for Jabberwocky had really begun, he joined me for a visit to Cleveland Public Theatre's Dark Room where he presented part of a new piece he had been working on in front of an audience of supportive strangers, and even sang at the (permanently?) on-hiatus Reception. In short time he developed a fondness for the CLE, and saw in us the potential for hi native Detroit. He even posted on Faceboook about our revival, telling friend back home, "Cleveland can do it, why can't we?"

Zealous Whig (2011)

Last year Paul and his brother Jim as the team "Fratellanza" brought their performance The Judge to CPT's Test Flight series of new works. This was the first time I had an opportunity to see the breadth of physical comedy and elegant movement he brings to his original writing.

This weekend Paul, along with long-time collaborator, friend, and musician Michael Malis, have brought another new work to Test Flight, titled Dividual, and I was asked to provide a third eye to the proceedings (Paul called me a "Total Theatre Person," which I liked) witnessing what is truly a work-in-progress over the brief time they have in the Levin Theatre.

These are a few notes on the week so far.

Monday, April 8

Paul and Mike walked me through the piece, describing the set, the possible projections. Mike played samples of the score and other recordings and Paul read the text. The piece will be about thirty-five minutes long -- it is on a double-bill with Rich Stimac's Zoodiac.

The story concerns data mining, and in particular one fellow whose job that is. I was struck by the modern sense of alienation our phones serve us, in contradistinction to our desire to use these scrying mirrors to connect.

The Judge (2018)

There were moments where I hoped for clarity, and the three of us discussed how these might best be provided.

Tuesday, April 9

This evening I got to watch the first act, performed on stage with music. Stools, microphones, a rug, an array of electronic music producing devices. Also a bicycle helmet, which really pulled the picture together (you think I am being sarcastic, I am not.)

I had to imagine the lights, but the images were clearer, we began making up names for the protagonist's workplace. "The Hole" or "The Machine." Michael's soundscape lifted Paul's performance, and subtly provided voice to an unseen character.

Before I departed, leaving them to their work, we threw ideas around for a certain non-choreography and I was excited to know how that was going to look tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 10

The Jabberwocky (2017)

And like that, it's a show. The screen, lights, hat rack -- and an audience! Members of Zoodiac company were there to watch as Paul and Mike stumble through a technical ("stumbling" is a theater term, no one literally stumbled) and their response was very positive.

Both shows are putting final touches on the evening, we three had time to discuss voices, how best to distinguish between characters, but the lighting brought many elements of the narrative into sharp relief.

The isolation. The longing for connection. The grand bargain we have all struck trading our privacy for magic.

It is time for an audience. Will I see you there? Will we connect?


Cleveland Public Theatre presents "Dividual" as part of Test Flight, April 11, 12 & 13, 2019.

Play a Day: The Tongue That Tells Me So (BONUS)

Tonight I saw the premiere workshop performance of The Tongue That Tell Me So, written by Mariah Sage and Bruce Seymour, part of Cleveland Public Theatre's new Test Flight series of new works.

The Test Flight stage of their new works program is like the former "Big Box" program (2003-2016) in which a company receives a modest budget, a free hand, and the keys to the Levin Theatre for four technical rehearsal days and three performance nights.

It is an intense piece, and brief. Mariah also performs, in the character of Anne, a woman who is motivated and driven by her "mentor" - my word - another woman named Simone (Linda Manning). The story takes several significant shifts and my perception of what their relationship truly is changed and changed again. Even after the final curtain, it changed again.

Mariah and I worked together as actor-teachers for the Great Lakes Theater school residency program, my partnership with her in that program was a model for what I believe our work there is supposed to be. She left Cleveland after our year together, and though we have stayed in touch fifteen years is a long time, and I am glad we had time today to have lunch and I am so proud of her in this work. Go see it!

Cleveland Public Theatre presents The Tongue That Tells Me So through Saturday, April 15.

Play a Day: Salvage

George Brant

This morning I read Salvage by George Brant, whose work is available on New Play Exchange.

A full-length play but a swift read, an artful three-hander for women. There is an ethical dilemma involved, as writers all we see and hear and experience form the basis for our work, but how much of what defines us doesn't belong to us alone?

Or at what point do we say, you know what? Fuck it, I'm a writer. I'm writing this.

Anyway, there are consequences to absolutely everything, aren't there. So, you know. Fuck it.

Salvage will be produced at None Too Fragile in Akron next month and so I asked George if I could read the script. The piece was originally commissioned by Theater 4 in New Haven, a company co-founded by my friend Mariah Sage, and she and her husband Bruce Seymour have co-penned a new work, The Tongue That Tells Me So, which receives a workshop production this weekend at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Tonight I will be attending The Tongue That Tells Me So. Perhaps I will run into George there.