Another Must See Play : "Eyes for Consuela" at Profile Theatre

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Another bit of cross pollination from writing, interpreting, theater.

"Eyes for Consuela," by Sam Shepard, opens next week at Profile Theatre. The directing and acting are excellent; the writing is solid. If you are Deaf or hard of hearing, there is an interpreted performance on Thursday, January 23rd; if you are hearing there are other dates you can attend as well.

If finances are something which holds you back from attending more theater, Profile probably has a discount program to take away that reason, too. Besides putting on some amazing plays, they are a part of several discounted ticket programs, starting with the Arts for All card ($5 tickets for SNAP beneficiaries), Chinook Book coupon, Under-30-Rush ($15), up to the still reasonably priced regular tickets at $30. This is good theater for a good price.

This is the first play for Profile in their new home; the first of the Sam Shepard season. Go. See it. And if you're there on January 23rd, you'll see me in my non-writing profession.

Profile Theatre
1515 SW Morrison, Portland, OR
presents

written by Sam Shepard

interpreted performance
Thursday, January 23rd at 7:30 pm

at Profile Theatre
Interpreters: Rich Hall and Dot Hearn

Tickets available online
or by calling the box office 503-242-0080

"Eyes for Consuela" SUMMARY: "Awoken from his dreams, Henry, an American with a quiet past, throws himself into the Mexican jungle chasing after shadows of regret. Entranced by adventure, music, and his own obsession, he finds himself in a game where the rules move to an unknown rhythm and the truth is in the eye of the beholder."

This play runs approximately 85 minutes with no intermission.
TICKET PRICES
Regular tickets are $30.

DISCOUNTED TICKETS are available through these options (you must call the Box Office):
- Chinook Book Coupon.
- Arts Card holders who participate in the Work for Art program.
- Arts for All: $5 tickets for SNAP cardholders (limit 2).
- 30-and-Under Rush: $15 (one hour before curtain at will call for every performance).
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"Enjoy" at CoHo Productions

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There are many excellent theatres in Portland. I am fortunate to be able to work with several well established companies who are putting on new and challenging and engaging productions. One of the productions I'm currently working on is "Enjoy."

I usually keep my performance interpreting posts and information over at the Performing Arts Interpreting Alliance, but "Enjoy" by Toshiki Okada at CoHo Productions also belongs here. This is a new play (it was written in 2006) and has rarely been performed in the United States; this is its West Coast premiere. It is definitely a play to see and not one you will see. It opens on January 17th and runs through February 8th.

"Enjoy" is well written and, although I have only seen a run through, from what I saw on Saturday, the direction and the acting are up to the task of the words on the page. Toshiki Okada has a theater company, chelfitsch, for which he writes and directs all of their productions. His productions include movement and sound in particular, non-standard ways. The director of the CoHo production, Michael Griggs, has incorporated that style into the play which opens later this month.

I will be interpreting the play with Steve Nail, for two performances: Friday 1/31 at 7:30 pm and Sunday 2/2 at 2:00 pm, which will be followed by a panel discussion. There are other special events in conjunction with this play, which you can read about by visiting the CoHo website (click on ENJOY).

If you have a little extra cash and would like to get a jump start on your charitable donations for 2014, there is an Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds for this production. You can read more about the CoHo Productions process as well as more about this play and the production on the Enjoy Indiegogo campaign website, which includes a short video about the production.

COHO PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
Enjoy 
By Toshiki Okada
English Translation by Aya Ogawa
Co-produced and Directed by Michael Griggs

In a Japanese manga café, nine underemployed “freeters” (part-time or temp workers) share their stories of break-ups, hook-ups, smelly free-loading customers, 30^thbirthday-induced terror, present depressions, past failures and future panics. This is the cry of Japan's Lost Decade Generation—those with the misfortune to have graduated while the economy crashed. A member of this generation himself, Okada captures the hyper-colloquial, chronically self-reflective language, and Ogawa translates into pitch-perfect absurdist hipster poetry.

Enjoy runs Thursday through Sunday each week from January 17, 2014 through February 8, 2014, at the CoHo Theatre, located at 2257 NW Raleigh Street in Portland, Oregon. (Interpreted performances on January 31st and February 2nd.)

Shows start at 7:30pm each Thursday through Saturday, with a Sunday matinee at 2pm. Tickets run $20–25 and are sold at a reduced rate of $15 for shows on Thrifty Thursdays.

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Diversify

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I've been working on the M- book for a few years. Which is the way of some books, I hear; some take longer to write than others. The truth is that this book didn't start as a book and I was against writing a memoir. I thought it was silly for someone who wasn't famous or hadn't done anything of significance to write a memoir. There had to be a reason to write the book and a bigger reason for someone to be willing to read the book.

I didn't qualify.

Then I started reading memoirs. I met memoirists who were young, who were "ordinary" in that they weren't famous. They had stories to tell and told them well and people listened and read them. And I listened - to my writing mentors and other authors and to myself. The stories started coming and I started writing them down. Sometimes the stories didn't come easily and sometimes they were rough and not ready for others to read. But, over time, the stories started coming together and I accepted that there was, just maybe, a memoir in all of those words.

I discovered that I was writing a memoir. Or an M-book as I call it. I'm not sure why I still balk at "memoir" but I do. I pull back from more writing; I get blocked; there are still gaps in the overall story; I write new pieces; I think I have something important to say and then I think I'm full of shit; I find a new angle or a significant new piece of information; I wonder if I'm writing it just for me or if anyone will be interested. Right now I'm hovering on the line of this book being for my personal healing/self-expression and that there is something in it worth sharing with others. I sometimes think the goal is just to write it and then see what to do with it. I have considered turning it into a novel.

In November I finished a very rough draft of a novel and I like it - NaNoWriMo Novel #6. It obviously needs much revision and rewriting and some parts need a lot of work. But it's worth working on and I want to do that.

For the past couple of months I've been writing poetry, as well. I took an online poetry writing workshop/"playshop" with Daphne Gottlieb and that sparked more poetry. And the poetry sparked some prose. Which sparked some poetry. And so it goes.

I've also been wanting to write a script. I spend time with theater and scripts and I've had ideas popping into my head about writing my own script. I've written a few short skits and have thought, off and on, about writing a full length play; or at least a one-act play.

I met with one of my writing friends on Friday and we talked about writing. Along with other things, but we spent a lot of time talking about writing. He suggested I write a script - a radio script. I think I will. It has a timeline. Yes, a short script will be one of my writing projects.

That same friend, several years ago, was the person who introduced me to idea of having three writing projects in process at a time. The topic came up again today and I realized that a script is the missing writing piece.

Recently I've had several writing project ideas and I'm taking notes. I won't run out of things to write for a while. It feels good to have my creativity flowing.

A Not-to-miss Event

If you're in the Portland, OR, area on August 15th, this is a not to be missed event. Unfortunately, I am already scheduled for work or I would defninitely be there.

This has been one of the highlights of my year for the last few years: The Richard Foreman Mini Festival, sponsored by Linda Austin of Performance Works Northwest.

There are two performances - mostly different, with one or two overlaps - that have been on separate nights. This year there are two performances on one date.

This event is great for writers, performers, musicians, visual artists, playwrights - anyone who likes creativity and performance. This mini-festival has it all and I love the premise.

A phenomenal lineup of venturesome theater, dance, video and literary artists from Portland have accepted PWNW's dare to put together a short performance piece in ten days based on text selected from the notebooks of avant-garde writer/director Richard Foreman.

At 12:01 am on August 5, the performers will be given the text plus a few simple restrictions; ten days later audiences will be amused, bemused, shocked, and/or enlightened by the performance, dance, video that overflow the Someday Lounge stage. This year's text---which the artists will have the freedom to cut, paste, rearrange, and add to from other sources---will be selected and the rules of engagement devised by Chris Piuma.

Richard Foreman's "notebooks," which he makes available for anyone to use, are available to peruse here:  http://ontological.com/RF/notebooks.html

Event: 8th Annual Richard Foreman Mini-Festival
Time: Sunday, August 15 at 5:00pm - 9:30pm
Where: Someday Lounge
Purchase Tickets: Brown Paper Tickets

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Fertile Ground: New Short Plays

A friend's new short plays are being presented this coming Friday, as a part of Fertile Ground. Unfortunately, I'm working; but I want to spread the word so you can go if you can. New plays! Wonderful.

WHEN: Friday, January 29 @ 12:30 noon
WHAT: PG2 Presents: The Work of Sven Bonnichsen, Amy Doherty and Marguerite Scott
WHERE: Gerding Theater at the Armory. 128 NW 11th Ave, Hothouse stage (on the mezzanine), Portland, Oregon
TICKETS: $5 - tickets available at the door

DESCRIPTION:
Portland Gallery Playwright’s Group presents a variety of short plays from Amy Doherty, Sven Bonnichsen and Marguerite Scott.

Sven gives us two offerings: The Buried Piano and The Astronaut and the Nude. In the first, a girl is reunited with a family friend while a massive party for her father’s election bid booms in the distance and a recently unearthed, antique piano rests near their feet. The second play is a metaphysical exploration of marriage, nakedness and the cosmos.

In Amy Doherty’s A Touch of Cleveland, we (along with the cardboard cutouts that look on) are party to a Laundromat encounter between two people, each awkward in their own way.

Marguerite Scott’s The Ugly Duckling demonstrates the opportunities that come (and go) with plastic surgery.

ABOUT THE “DOWN & DIRTY AT 12:30” LUNCHTIME READING SERIES
This breezy, casual box lunch reading series will have you spending your lunch hour at the Armory listening to short segments of plays-in-progress and sharing your reactions with the playwrights. Pre-made box lunches will be available through the Armory Café- no brown bag required!

For more: http://www.fertilegroundpdx.org/lunchtime_reading_series.html

ABOUT FERTILE GROUND
Fertile Ground 2010 is a 10-day arts festival that will be held January 22 through February 2 in Portland, Oregon. This city-wide festival is focused on new work in the Arts. It will feature up to 30 world premiere projects, staged readings and a myriad of other arts events from the Portland creative community. From fully staged world premieres in theatre, to ensemble and collaborative driven work, dance, comedy, visual art and film…this festival spans the spectrum of creative endeavor and seeds the next generation of creation through artist conversations, workshops, lunchtime readings and more.

For more: www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Willamette Writers Conference, Day#3

Zzzzz. Wha-at?

Yes, I overslept. Better said = I slept enough. I was at the conference 7:30 am - 5:15 pm yesterday. Okay, so the last hour or so was hanging out with Jenny in the bar, her with a margarita and me with a mojito with too much brown sugar in the bottom, talking about life and writing and what we've learned and seen and not learned so far at the conference. We both had decided to go to a workshop about Web 2.0, but it was immediately apparent it wasn't what either of us wanted, so we ditched it.

So I was at the conference site until 5:15. Then I went home and I was scheduled to walk six miles yesterday. It was the first official day of my new training schedule, which is focused on being ready to walk a half marathon on November 29th in Seattle. This week I had a session with the trainer and walked about 1.5 miles. I strained my IT bands last week at the relay (not surprising given the six miles constant downhill leg I had on 8/1; I wasn't upset about it, it just was! Others had far more issues than my screaming IT bands) and my chiropractor told me they needed rest so to take it easy and just do stretching. Which I did. And I thought I was ready for a walk yesterday because my hips and sides of thighs felt fine.

Wrong. After about 3/4 of a mile, where the ITbands originate started to cramp up, primarily on the right. So I stopped and did some stretching for that area and the supporting areas (I think - I did the best I could with my still developing knowledge of this). I continued walking and developed a little bit more of a hitch, so I did more stretching. And then I walked. At about 1 1/2 miles, I knew it was time to turn back. This is one of the tricky things for me, learning to notice before it's too late. Once I get out there, I have to get back. So I have to learn to understand what's going on before I don't have a choice about stopping or am stuck out somewhere in pain and have to walk back in spite of it, risking doing damage; or, I suppose, I could pay $20 to go that one mile home.

My six miles yesterday became three, and at only slightly above strolling speed. So I showered and changed to work clothes and worked from 8:30 pm until 1 am. (Actually 8:40 until 1, because there was construction just over a bridge that was not there the last time I drove it and I was late.)

Then I got home at 2:00 am because I had to get gas (remember that song, "running on empty"? - that was me). And then I finished up a revision to post for my online writing class. It was probably 3:00 or 3:30 when I went to bed.

So when the alarm went off at 6:45 am, there was no way I was getting up. Nor with the second alarm at 7:10. Nor the third backup alarm at 7:25. And not even the one at 7:45.

I missed what I'm sure was a great workshop on PON versus POV. I will try to find a good source for that information, but I really like the presenter, Charlotte Cook, and it would have been great. But my body refused and I needed to respect that I couldn't go another day on not enough sleep.

I will get there in time to attend one on editing. That one I really want and need. Then this afternoon I work two more workshops: one by the president of the Willamette Writers organization and a second one by Cynthia Whitcomb on subplot. She is also amazing. An amazing writer and an awesome presenter. I was fortunate to be working her "Playwriting 101" workshop yesterday.

So, time to guzzle down the coffee with soy milk, shower, and then put the wheels to the pavement - or however that saying goes. My brain is still a little foggy and definitely not enough sleep over these last three days. I do work, again, tonight. But I don't have to be anywhere until an hour befitting the time I get home.