new Plays now - Columbia Stages

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New Plays Now
2012
Columbia University School of the Arts
THEATRE ARTS
Allow me to introduce eleven bold, brave playwrights
challenging what it is to make theatre in this new century
both in terms of who and what they write about and
the form they choose to write it in.
Don’t look for one kind of play, but a collection of plays as
diverse as New York itself. And don’t look for one kind
of playwright. Think of them as an international collective
that’s been meeting up at Columbia these past few
years bashing out work driven by passion rather than seeking to conform to easy definition. They are as diverse as
this list of their mentors, chosen by this year’s playwrights
individually, including: David Auburn, Leslie Ayvazian,
Lee Breuer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, David Grimm, Tina Howe,
Lisa Kron, David Lindsay-Abaire, and Craig Lucas.
We hope you’ll see the work of these artists premiering
this spring at the Annex at New York Theatre Workshop
(East 4th Street Theatre).
Chuck Mee, Head of Playwriting
Columbia University School of the Arts
ii
CONTENTS
2Simone Marie Martelle, Damaged (April 4–7)
3
Kyoung H. Park, Tala (April 8–10)
4Marine Sialelli, Looking for Beethoven (April 11–15)
5Tatiana Rivera, Finding Damascus (April 12–15)
6
Danny Mitarotondo, Orchestra (April 13–17)
7
David Rosar Stearns, Conversations in the Mermaid Café (April 18–22)
8
Julia May Jonas, Lake Coordination (April 19–22)
9Samantha Chanse, Marian Jean (April 20–24)
10
Caroline Prugh, Betwixt Them Made (April 25–28)
11Lila Feinberg, Vertebrae (April 26–28)
12Naïma Kristel Phillips, Birthday Triage (March 7–10)
13Festival Calendar
Columbia University School of the Arts presents an
annual festival of new plays by emerging artists from
the MFA Theatre Arts Program. Taught by a faculty
of internationally renowned creators, practitioners,
producers, and scholars, the program provides students
with the foundation for a career in professional
theatre, with programs in acting, directing, playwriting,
dramaturgy, stage management, and theatre management and producing. Presented annually, these
productions are a laboratory for students’ dramatic
experimentation and a glimpse—for theatre-goers—
of what’s next.
New Plays Now is made possible with the generous
donations of:
The Howard Stein New Play Fund
The Edward John Noble Foundation
The Katherine and Gilbert Miller Fund
Columbia Stages is the producing arm of the
Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at
Columbia University School of the Arts.
Unless otherwise noted, performances are held at
4th Street Theatre
83 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
All performances are free and open to the public.
You may make reservations for all events at
www.columbiastages.org.
All photos by Jörg Meyer
1
Simone Marie Martelle
Simone loves animals, reading about international
affairs, learning to cook and daydreaming about
traveling. She loves to write plays, movies, books and
articles about the world. As a challenge, she tries
to find a way to incorporate animals, food and her
hometowns in every play she writes.
Damaged
By Simone Marie Martelle — Mentored by David Lindsay-Abaire
Fine wine, finger foods, and silly
affairs: this is what occupies the lives
of Richard and Kathy as they entertain
friends for their own self-interests.
Meanwhile upstairs, a secret will
fester and grow, threatening to leave
nothing left but stale appetizers.
Wednesday, April 4 at 2:30pm
Thursday, April 5 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 7 at 7:30pm
2
New Plays Now
Writer, director, and journalist, Simone Marie Martelle
grew up in Toulouse, France, received her BSc. in
International Relations from the London School of
Economics. Other work: The Three Bears (SF Fringe
Fest; Kitchen Dog Finalist; Manhattan Rep),
Pro Patria Mori (Manhattan Rep), Adieu My Sunshine
(Outstanding Play Award - Curan Rep; Hovey
Players Summer Shorts), Runs in the Family (FinalistMinnesota Short Play Fest 2010), Fugue for the
Condemned (Columbia Schapiro), Kill (Kennedy
Center Nominee 2009), Not Figs (13th Street Rep),
The Big Carrot, Café Americain and Leaving Wadena.
Memberships: Dramatist Guild (Student), The
Playwright Center & TCG (Individual Member).
Simone has interned at The New Group, TCG, WOR
710 NewsTalk Radio, Condé Nast Traveler magazine
and Bon Appétit. She currently works as a Staff Writer
& Theatre Columnist at Inside New York and writes
the blog, The Outside Observer (www.the-outsideobserver.com). After finishing her MFA at Columbia,
Simone will spend the upcoming year getting her
second masters in Journalism. For more info about her,
visit www.simonemartelle.com.
Kyoung H. Park
Kyoung was born and raised in Santiago, Chile and
moved to New York in 2000. The War on Terror and
9/11 led him to write political plays; he is currently
expanding his artistic discipline to include writing
multi-cultural dialogue and directing interdisciplinary
collaborations for the theatre.
Tala
Written and Directed by Kyoung H. Park — Mentored by Lee Breuer
Rafael, Natalia, and Daniel are three
actors rehearsing Tala, a play about
Kyoung, a playwright struggling
to direct his play about Pepe and Lupe,
two Chilean lovers who are out on a
date, in the middle of a desert in
the island of Chiloé. Tala is an absurd
tragicomedy—a surreal collage
of satirical sketches based on Samuel
Beckett’s works and letters; poems
written by Chilean poets Pablo Neruda
and Gabriela Mistral; and autobiographical monologues.
Sunday, April 8 at 7:30 pm
Monday, April 9 at 2:30 pm
Tuesday, April 10 at 7:30 pm
Kyoung H. Park is author of Sex and Hunger (Access
Theater), disOriented (Theatre C, Princess Grace
Special Projects Grant), Walkabout Yeolha (Columbia
Stages), Heartbreak/India (Soho Theatre attachment),
The Diamond Trade (La MaMa Moves!), and many
short plays including Mina (upcoming publication
in Seven Contemporary Korean Plays from the Korean
Diaspora in the Americas, Duke Univ. Press). His plays
have been presented Off/Off-Broadway by EST, Vital
Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre, Diverse City, 2G, and the
Royal Court Theatre in London. A UNESCO-Aschberg
Laureate, Kyoung has received the Edward Albee,
Global Arts Village, and Theater of the Oppressed
fellowships as well as grants from the Arvon, GK foundation, and Vermont Studio Center, and he is currently
a Dean’s Fellow at Columbia University School of
the Arts. He is a member of the Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab,
EST’s Youngblood, and Soho Theater’s Hub, and
he holds a BFA in dramatic writing from NYU and an
MA in peace and global governance from Kyung Hee
University in Korea. Visit www.kyounghpark.com for
more information.
The Mabou Mines Studio at PS 122
150 First Avenue at East 9th Street
Reservations: [email protected]
www.columbiastages.org
3
Marine Sialelli
Size shoe is 8.5. Hates cheese. Recently discovered
the work of Haruki Murakami and wonders
how she could ever live without it. Thinks Jiri Kylian
is a genius. Thinks Black Swan is abominable.
Misses the creativity of the Ballet Russes very, very
much. Really is the worst person to talk about herself.
Looking for Beethoven
By Marine Sialelli — Mentored by Leslie Ayvazian
Hi there. People, I presume?
You’re people, right? Hi.
So. What’s going on in this play?
Excellent question.
This is the center of the labyrinth.
Ergo, the center of all things.
You know, where God is supposed
to be. But, unfortunately for us,
God’s not here. So we’re going after
the next best thing.
Wednesday April 11 at 2:30pm
Thursday April 12 at 7:30pm
Sunday April 15 at 7:30pm
4
New Plays Now
Coming from one of those small French villages nobody
has ever heard of, Marine Sialelli is a playwright, dancer
and choreographer who cannot seem to be able to do
just one thing at a time. Recent credits include Ease on
Down with Hinton Battle at Manhattan Movement &
Arts Center in New York City, and Night Robbery with
RebelYard Theatre Collective in Philadelphia.
Tatiana Rivera
If I’m not lost in my art, then I’ll never find my way.
Finding Damascus
By Tatiana Rivera — Mentored by Craig Lucas
An attempt to figure out when the
hell I broke up with Jesus and
whether or not that decision was
for the best.
The single greatest cause of atheism
in the world today is Christians,
who acknowledge Jesus with their lips,
then walk out the door, and deny
Him by their lifestyle. That is what an
unbelieving world simply finds
unbelievable.
—Brennan Manning
Tatiana Rivera is a sculptor, painter, singer, crafter,
actor, and playwright. Plays include: Both. Sides. Now, or
buttermilk pancakes (Schapiro Studio 2010); But What
Are You Really Saying?, or The Boob Play (13th Street
Rep); Mother Nature (Schapiro Studio); Current Events
B*tch: The Musical! (Schapiro Theater) with David
Rosar Stearns; and The Brain Plays: a series of five highly
important topics. Acting credits include: Cabaret, Once
Upon a Mattress; Urinetown; Underground Broadway;
Soldado Razo; Plaza Suite. Artist credits include: puppet
construction for Eleven (Schapiro Theater); and paper
and mosaic work for Birthday Triage (Horace Mann
Theater). She holds a BA in theatre from the University
of California, San Diego.
Sunday, April 15 at 2:30pm
5
Danny Mitarotondo
Danny was born in a crummy New Jersey town.
As a kid, the American Dream was a real thing, not a
concept. He wanted to be like Teddy Roosevelt.
As soon as he could, he ran to New York to manifest
destiny - like Teddy.
Nine years strong, Danny is a New Yorker. He still
believes in the American Dream. It’s just becoming a
different America with a different dream. He hopes.
Orchestra
By Danny Mitarotondo — Mentored by David Wiener
Orchestra is the story of the birth,
death, and afterbirth of an orchestra of
musicians and their conductor. Part
Two, performed this April, is the play’s
haunting conclusion: the final live
interview with the broken-down conductor at the end of life, reconstructing
hope. The entirety of Orchestra will
be performed this June.
Friday, April 13 at 7:30pm
Tuesday April 17 at 2:30pm
6
New Plays Now
Danny Mitarotondo is the founder and former artistic
director of The Common Tongue, Inc. (TCT). Together
with Edward Albee he produced and directed a reanalysis of Albee’s All Over at the Linda Gross Theater
starring Marian Seldes and Kathleen Butler. Danny has
also produced world-premiere plays by Lucy Thurber
and Wendy Macleod at the Ars Nova Building, a
play by award-winning writer Tom Cudworth at the
Elephant in Los Angeles, as well as his own play What
The Sparrow Said (dir. Jenna Worsham) in the New York
International Fringe Festival. The original one-act of
Sparrow was produced in Hanoi last summer and will
be produced again in Romania this spring (dir. Shannon
Fillion). Danny’s plays have been produced and developed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Ars
Nova Building, Theater for the New City, and Teatro
Circulo. Danny is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice
Voicework®, an Edward F. Albee Writing Fellow, a
Byrdcliffe artist in residence, and a graduate of the
Atlantic Acting School and New York University. He is
grateful to everyone who has believed in, supported,
and collaborated with him—especially, mom.
David Rosar Stearns
I am inspired by music, finding the stories inside the
lyrics. I love all forms of theatre, but don’t always
attend; I believe you have to be truly self oriented to be
a writer. In my life I have had to write to survive and I
survived because I write.
Conversations in the Mermaid Café
By David Rosar Stearns — Mentored by David Grimm
Ben returns to his late mother’s café
to settle her modest estate, but things
aren’t as simple as he thought they’d
be. He comes to learn that the past
is not always what we saw it as and
the future path we think is the right
one is not always the best for us.
David Rosar Stearns, originally from Buffalo, received
his Bachelors in theatre from the University of Buffalo
after which he moved to New York City. He worked for
several years in all forms of theatre from directing
to acting. Some of the companies he had the privilege
of working with include Theater Breaking through
Barriers, The Living Theater, The Bull, New Georges and
the 13th Street Repertory Company. After graduation
his plans include starting a nonprofit theatre company
for physically and financially challenged children.
Sunday April 22 at 7:30pm
7
Julia May Jonas
I am interested in creating a unique idiom of theatre
that is insightful and enthralling.
I am interested in how one comes to impose order
on her personal universe now that faith is not a
mandate, but a choice.
I try to make the work I want to see.
Lake Coordination
By Julia May Jonas — Mentored by Tina Howe
When Linda offers shelter to homeless,
hideous Annabelle, she fails to realize
how the act will disrupt her retirement, her family, and her conceptions
of herself as a kind, giving person. A
play about the effects of the economy,
the search for authenticity, strip clubs,
book clubs, push-ups, and burqas,
Lake Coordination examines the limits
of compassion and asks, what is it
we need from those whom we help?
Sunday, April 22 at 2:30pm
8
New Plays Now
Julia May Jonas has shown plays at venues throughout
New York including the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator,
PS 122, La MaMa, HERE Arts Center, Galapagos,
BRIC, The Bushwick Starr, and University Settlement.
Her solo show, Take Heart, the tragic tale of a child liar
and her downfall, premiered at PS 122 in 2008. Her play
For Artists Only premiered at the Ontological Hysteric
Theater in 2009; it was called “Highbrow/Brilliant”
by New York magazine and was a Backstage “Critics
Pick.” Other full-length plays include No One is Excused
from the Trouble of Living, The Penitent Hours, and
Ugly Thing. Her short play Empire Today was published in The Brooklyn Review in 2009, and The Hanoi
International Theater Society in Vietnam recently
performed her one-act Somewhere in the Middle with
Reciprocal Interest. Her 2007 play, School Days, was a
semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award and she was
recently named a finalist for the 2011-12 Clubbed Thumb
Biennial Commission. She is the artistic director of the
company Nellie Tinder, which she founded
in 2005 (www.nellietinder.org). With Nellie Tinder,
her deconstructed musical, Evelyn, premiered at the
Bushwick Starr in February of 2012. At Columbia,
she is a recipient of the Liberace Scholarship and the
Theatre Arts Fellowship.
Samantha Chanse
I’m drawn to the gray areas, contradictions, and
under-esteemed spaces and people. I make theatre
to explore, question, and connect with these underrepresented worlds.
Marian Jean
By Samantha Chanse — Mentored by Lisa Kron
Benji Zhang is seeking refuge from
her professional and personal failures
on the green pastures of her grandmother’s retired dairy farm. But can
she find any peace when mysterious
events arrive around the anniversary
of a childhood friend’s suicide?
And why does it seem like the cows
keep staring at her? Marian Jean is
a play that questions what we believe,
and how or why we continue.
Friday, April 20 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, April 24 at 2:30pm
Samantha Chanse’s plays and performances have been
presented with Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, Ma-Yi Theatre
Company, Second Generation, FringeNYC, The Marsh,
PlayGround in Residence at Berkeley Repertory
Theater, Bowery Poetry Club, Kearny Street Workshop,
Bindlestiff Studio, and other nonprofit art spaces &
dimly-lit bars. A member playwright of the Ma-Yi
Writers Lab, she is the recipient of an Individual Artist
Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission,
an Artist In Motion residency from Footloose/Shotwell
Studio, and an Emerging Artists Residency from
Tofte Lake Center. She wrote and performed in two
short films, Terra Cotta and Asian American Jesus, which
have screened at film festivals nationally and internationally. Sam also teaches undergraduate writing at
Columbia University, co-runs a bicoastal multidisciplinary artist salon called Laundry Party, and hosts an
irregular podcast on WHFR.org. She served for a number of years as the artistic director of San Franciscobased arts nonprofit Kearny Street Workshop, and as
co-director of Locus Arts. Her first solo play, Lydia’s
Funeral Video, is forthcoming from Kaya Press. For more
information, please visit www.samanthachanse.com.
9
Caroline Prugh
Caroline’s tastes are eclectic, from Broadway to BAM.
To her a successful collaboration is one where
everyone (including the playwright) strives to keep the
interests of the play above all else. And remembers
the audience.
Betwixt Them Made
By Caroline Prugh — Mentored by David Auburn
Summer 2011. Harrison Towers,
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Two couples; one straight, one lesbian;
early-mid thirties, no kids…yet. Driven
by the desire to cook the perfect
dinner and figure out life’s next chapter, Betwixt Them Made is a play
about marriage and the boundaries of
friendships, both new and old.
10
New Plays Now
Caroline Prugh is a playwright and songwriter. Plays
include The Story About Penelope and Steven that
Veronica Told, estate, At Daybreak, Highway Blue, Clear
Cold Place, Night at the Big Chief Motel as well as
the one acts Go Back, Terminal, Wonder Full, Motel
Blue and Western Blue; and the dance/theatre pieces
FAuLT LiNES and Evyproo’s Barbie-Q. Her short play
Good Christian Wife was adapted for film by director
Min Ding (Columbia University). Her work has been
produced and/or developed in New York by Rattlestick
Playwrights Theater, Royal Family Productions,
Babel Theater Company, La MaMa Etc., Vital Theater,
Captiva Arts, Random Access Theater, and Manhattan
Shakespeare Project; regionally by Theater Offensive
(Boston); and internationally by Nous Theater
Productions (The Netherlands). Highway Blue was
commissioned by Manhattan Shakespeare Project
after a one-act version won their 2010 Emerging
Female Playwrights Festival. Her play Night at the Big
Chief Motel was a semi-finalist for both the 2010
O’Neill Theater Conference and the Lark Playwrights’
Week. A graduate of Amherst College, before
attending Columbia, she worked eleven years at Stuart
Thompson Productions.
Lila Feinberg
It is the rocky topography of human relationships that
intrigues Lila Feinberg. Many of her dark comedies
are inspired by her changing address: an all-girl’s dorm;
the room of a deceased teen; and presently, hospital
housing for surgical residents. Her plays are like maps,
finding the point where love, language, and locality
intersect.
Vertebrae
By Lila Feinberg — Mentored by Craig Lucas
When a group of former medical
school friends reunite during Hurricane
Irene weekend, the premature death
of one of their classmates is brought
into question. The search for answers
forces each of them to examine the
choices they’ve made, in the operating
room and in the bedroom. Vertebrae
takes a darkly comic look at commitment—in the face of engagement
rings and Rx pads—when one mistake
can have catastrophic results.
Thursday April 26 at 2:30pm
Friday April 27 at 7:30pm
Lila Feinberg is a playwright, screenwriter, and actress.
Last summer, her commissioned play Night Float
premiered at Playwrights Horizon’s Peter J. Sharp
Theater, a process that was featured in the Wall Street
Journal and the documentary Medicine As a Relational
Act. Recent readings include: Monkey Bowl (Manhattan
Theater Club studio); Heirloom (“Audience Award”
at the Emerging Female Playwrights Voices Fest); Burnt
Orange (Miller Theatre); The Stone Fidelity (mentored
by Joe Kraemer and Julia Jordan); and an upcoming
piece in The Flea’s Serials. An excerpt from her
play Perched (Cherry Lane Studio) was published in
the anthology What We Brought Back. She is last year’s
recipient of the Gatsby Charitable Fund Grant and
the Interdisciplinary Arts Council Grant. Currently,
she is developing an adaptation for a film production
company in LA, and a TV pilot. As an actress, she
studied with the Moscow Art Theater, and performed
new work at Primary Stages, Cherry Lane, 92nd St Y,
and Symphony Space. She graduated summa cum
laude from Barnard College.
11
Naïma Kristel Phillips
To Naïma, theatre is about shaking the ground, making
vibrations and being awed. It’s about portraying human
existence, with equality among cultures, ethnicities
and faiths. It’s about our sufferings and rejoicings,
fantasies and fears. It’s about our need to be together…
brief moments that last forever.
Birthday Triage
By Naïma Kristel Phillips — Directed by Simón Adinia Hanukai
Presented in March as part of this
year’s festival of directing theses,
Birthday Triage is an interactive, multimedia performance in which the
audience accompanies four characters
on their personal journeys as their
birthday worlds collapse and unveil
their mythological dna. Four plays
weave in and out of each other like dna
strands as audience members
glimpse into the shattered pieces of
the characters’ lives.
March 7–10, 2012
Horace Mann Theatre
Broadway between 120th and 121st streets
12
New Plays Now
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Naïma Kristel
Phillips studied classical ballet before training as a
performance artist at the Centre International des Arts
de la Scène. She then moved to Paris for two years
to practice voice performance and choreographic
theatre with Enrique Pardo, Linda Wise, and the late
Elizabeth Mayer at Pantheatre ACTS and the Roy Hart
International Centre (Cévennes, France). Her playwriting credits include a main-stage production of her
full-length Night Spell (Nextfest, Edmonton, Alberta)
and My Artichoke Heart, a devised play (Dream Up
Festival, Theater for the New City). Projects at
Columbia include an anti-reading, installation of Time
Suites: Camille and Rodin, and workshop presentations
of 6 Variations in a Single Flutter, Murder of the Oak/
Reed and a reading of There Hangs the Knife. Naïma is
currently writing a play for young audiences commissioned by the Black Theatre Workshop (Montreal,
Quebec). She is a recipient of the 2010 Gloria MitchellAleong Award and the Shubert Presidential Fellowship.
Naïma is grateful to all those who made it possible for
her to be here and feels honored to have been
surrounded by such a thriving community of artists.
Festival Calendar
Week 1
1 Sunday
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
8 Sunday
15 Sunday
22 Sunday
7:30pm
Tala*, Park, p.3
2:30pm
Finding Damascus, Rivera, p.5
2:30pm
Lake Coordination, Jonas, p.8
7:30pm
Looking for Beethoven,
Sialelli, p.4
7:30pm
Conversations in the Mermaid
Café, Stearns, p.7
16 Monday
23 Monday
2 Monday
9 Monday
Kick-Off Celebration
Information at
arts.columbia.edu/theatre
2:30pm
Tala*, Park, p.3
3 Tuesday
10 Tuesday
17 Tuesday
24 Tuesday
2:30pm
Tala*, Park, p.3
2:30pm
Orchestra, Mitarotondo, p.6
2:30pm
Marian Jean, Chanse, p.9
4 Wednesday
11 Wednesday
18 Wednesday
25 Wednesday
2:30pm
Damaged, Martelle, p.2
2:30pm
Sialelli, p.4
2:30pm
Café, Stearns, p.7
2:30pm
Betwixt Them Made,
Prugh, p.10
5 Thursday
12 Thursday
19 Thursday
26 Thursday
7:30pm
2:30pm
Finding Damascus, Rivera, p.5
2:30pm
2:30pm
Vertebrae, Feinberg, p.11
7:30pm
Sialelli, p.4
7:30pm
Café, Stearns, p.7
7:30pm
Betwixt Them Made,
Prugh, p.10
13 Friday
20 Friday
27 Friday
7:30pm
Orchestra, Mitarotondo, p.6
7:30pm
7:30pm
7 Saturday
14 Saturday
21 Saturday
28 Saturday
7:30pm
2:30pm
Orchestra, Mitarotondo p.6
2:30pm
2:30pm
7:30pm
Finding Damascus, Rivera p.5
7:30pm
7:30pm
Betwixt Them Made,
Prugh, p.10
6 Friday
Unless otherwise noted, performances are held at 4th Street
Theatre, 83 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003.
*Please note that performances of Tala are held at
PS 122; see page 3 for details.
All performances are free and open to the public.
You may make reservations for all events at
www.columbiastages.org.
13
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School of the Arts Theatre Arts Program
2960 Broadway, MC 1807
New York, New York 10027
14
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