Reading of Leitmotif by Victoria Stewart, with (l-r) Stephen Stout, Nancy McDoniel, Erica Sullivan and Rebecka Jones

Beinecke Library, repository of a Gutenberg Bible

(l-r) Asher Richelli, Liz Jones and Nicole Fix

At the end of tonight’s presentations, Ken jokingly said that The Search for Love and Kill the Keepers make the perfect double-bill.  Nothing could be farther from the truth. Seriously, these plays could not be any more different. But that’s what has made this residency so exciting – it’s been amazing to watch these playwrights shape and work on such different pieces The evening of presentations started off with Ken’s The Search for Love. We all sat around a table in the rehearsal room that the folks from Leitmotif have been working in all week, while Ken read his one-man play about Norman Morrison. Within the first 20 minutes of his solo, though, the piece took an unexpected and surprising turn – and became about fatherhood. The switch was/is not jarring or forced. Even though the play still is in its early draft, the transition from the discussion of the Quaker who lit himself on fire outside of McNamara’s office to Ken’s first year as a father is kind of wonderful and amazing.  

After a quick dinner break, we reconvened in the studio that Mia and Dan have been rehearsing in to watch a presentation of Kill the Keepers. Mia and Dan turned off the lights in the rehearsal studio; then, their four actors walked gingerly into the room with flashlights and suitcases and, from their suitcases, took out puppets. The play takes its inspiration from Maeterlinck’s Pelleas and Melisande; in it, Dan and Mia play with form and language. There’s an opening speech about a young boy sinking to the bottom of the ocean that is gripping (terrifying and sad)  – and displays the lyricism and storytelling acumen that is so striking about Dan L’s other plays.  (I have to say: Dan’s a fearless storyteller and wordsmith.  I love that he twists and wrangles with form and does it very un-self-consciously.) We ended the evening at the Anchor, Jodie Foster’s favorite haunt in New Haven (supposedly, when she was a Yale undergrad, she used to hang out downstairs outside of the women’s bathroom.)

Tory (skeptically): Because she wouldn’t otherwise have been able to pick up chicks…?

The Great New York City Flood of 2007 hit New Haven today.  It’s been raining all day.  At one point, the temperature dropped into the mid-50s.  I had to run out of a coffee shop this afternoon to buy a sweatshirt, because I was freezing.  Gore really is a modern-day Cassandra. Liz and I met with Krista to discuss the rest of her fellowship year and Filling.  It sounds like K— is really beefing up Filling.  I can’t wait to read the next draft.  She also showed me the outline for her newest new play.  The play’s tentatively titled Teen Flush.  It’s typical K– : wildly imaginative, absurd and deeply deeply sad.  All these desperate teens.  I don’t want to say anything else about it, except that the premise so madcap – it’s almost Mel Brooks (with a good dose of John Hughes). This evening, Liz and I took the group to a Bru Bar, a pizza restaurant near our apartments.  While the pizza isn’t nearly as good as the pizza at Pepe’s or Sally’s, Bru Bar still has some pretty darn tasty pies.  They sat us in a room that was sort of Williamsburg-hip (with exposed brick, pipes and a DJ platform that could’ve been a set piece from Metrolopolis – the perfect space for 1001).  Ken debriefed us on his one-man play The Search for Love; he’s going to be reading the play after Leitmotif and Kill the Keepers finish rehearsal tomorrow afternoon.  We talked for a while about one-person plays and bounced around titles (Swimming to Cambodia, Allan Benett’s Talking Heads, Sheri Wilner’s play at Humana this past year).  Throughout, Liz took photographs (Dan L–  commented that all the photos from this year’s residency are going to be of us drinking and eating.).  Then, Drew held court with a story that could have been his own solo show.  Apparently, he’d been talking to Nancy about Nancy’s experience on the set of United 93 and then launched into a tale that involved 27 blood blisters (!) on his fingers, a 24-hour flight to Greece and endless taxicab ride from the airport in Athens to see his then-girlfriend.  It (his storytelling) was pretty masterful.   

Sounds like today was a productive workday for all.  The actors for Dan and Mia’s piece drove down from Providence to work on Kill the Keepers; they’re going to be in the play when Perishable Theatre presents a full production at the end of August.  (Krista and I are going to try to drive up to see it and a few other pieces that I think are playing in rep.)  Ken and Krista once again spent the day in the library; they headed off to Sterling at 8:30 AM.  I’m so impressed – although their early-morning writing sessions in the library remind me of getting up early to go to the library during finals week.  When we met up with K+K at dinner, they were in some kind of Writer’s Trance.  We tried to revive them at dinner with pitchers of sangria and Mexican food and toasted Tory who just learned that she received the the Francesca Primus Award for her play Hard-Ball.  The award is given out once a year to a play by an emerging female playwright; clearly, they have very good taste. We later joined Mia, Dan and two of their actors at Sullivan’s, a pub that used to be called “Cavenaugh’s” and that used to be a favorite Yale School of Drama hangout.  (Because their rehearsal ran late, Mia and Dan missed out on the sangria.)  I was hoping to bring the gang to Mory’s tonight but it’s open only for lunch during the summer – and I can’t bring myself to have a cup of grain alcohol in the afternoon.

It seems that we’re missing the Great New York City Flood of 2007. I heard that no subways were working this morning. We’re all very happy to be in New Haven. Leitmotif had its meet-and-greet and first read-through today.  A terrific group has agreed to help Tory with the script – Nancy McDonial (who came all the way from NYC to work on Leitmotif), Rebecka Jones (who lives near New Haven), Stephen Stout (who also lives near New Haven) and Erica Sullivan (who is going to be a second-year acting student at the Yale School of Drama in the fall).  Drew reported that the read-through was very successful.  (Drew keeps making fun of me because I keep asking him if Tory seemed happy.)  Ken and Krista spent the day holed up in Sterling Library to do some research and to write, while Dan and Mia worked on the script for Kill the Keepers.  Krista mentioned that she found some offensive tract called Mexifornia by some Stanford professor; the tract (is it a book?  an essay?) blames Mexican immigrants for the socioeconomic decline of California.  K’s been doing some research on the “immigrant experience” for her play Filling – and she apparently emailed Mr. Mexifornia to ask him some questions about his views. In the evening, Liz and I met the group at the Yale Summer Cabaret to see The Bacchae.  Liz stage managed a number of plays at the Cabaret when she was an undergrad; she waxed nostalgic throughout the evening.  The production was more Godspell than The Bacchae.  Still, The play began in the Cabaret and then moved outdoors.  There was lots of climbing on scaffolds and pouring of wine.  Pretty impressed by one particular actor – very charming, easy demeanor.  And, while we enjoyed the play, we all collectively wished that there had been more skin.  It’s a grad school production of The Bacchae, for crying outloud.  There was honey and lots of wine – but where was the nudity?  

We’re in New Haven.  Liz and I spent most of the day dealing with logistics. But they’re all here: (in no particular order) Tory Stewart, Ken Weitzman, Mia Rovegno, Jack McDowell, Drew Barr, Krista Knight, Dan LeFranc and Nancy McDoniel. The playwrights spent the afternoon getting settled in. Ken Weitzman (who flew in from Atlanta) and our fellow Krista met with Jen Kiger of the Yale School of Drama to discuss their plays. Mia Rovegno and Dan LeFranc unloaded the props (They have puppets!) from their car and arranged them very neatly in their rehearsal studio. Tory locked herself in her apartment to work on Leitmotif for tomorrow’s meet-and-greet and read-through with the actors. New Haven parking is expensive. In fact, New Haven is expensive. A slice at Naples Pizza is $1.75 – I pay $1.50 at Sal & Carmine’s on the Upper Westside. Maybe the guys at Naples could tell that I was coming in from New York and jacked up the price. But the Doodle (which, after Louis’ Lunch, has the best burgers in the world) still serves hamburgers for $2.75. There’s no better deal. Liz and I had two hamburgers each before heading over to a coffee shop to catch up on e-mail. We met up at 6:30 to head over for dinner at Bangkok Gardens, my favorite Thai restaurant. I can’t really think of any Thai restaurant in New York City that compares to Bangkok Gardens. No Manhattan restaurant offers tastier massaman curry. At dinner, Tory explained that she decided to become a playwright after working for a number of years as a stage manager. Apparently, she wrote a play while she was stage managing some Peter Sellars’ piece and then, on a whim, applied to grad school. I’m not doing the story justice. I’m always interested to find out what draws people from one career to another. I love those types of stories.