Hello, Hello, to all our loyal readers! Sorry for the delay in posting something new, but we have been busy, with upcoming events for the Law Theater Project!
I have some GREAT news! Our play, Justice Disordered, as produced by one of our collaborative theater groups, this past February, was well received!!! I gave a local critic a copy of the script, and he wrote a WONDERFUL Review, MOST complimentary about the Director, the Cast, and the Playwright!! I spoke with him at the intermission, between our play and the main event, Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, and he was very nice and interested in our Project.
The production, itself, went very well! The Cast came together, in timing, delivery, emotions, at the RIGHT moment! It went so well that I was MORE THAN thrilled! I sent a message of thanks and congratulations to the Director and Cast, even before I saw the Review (which I didn’t find for two weeks, because I got “the flu bug” two days after the performance and was out-of-action for almost two weeks). In my congrats note, though, I asked the Cast and Director, if they’d be up for it, IF I could find a way into the Page-to-Stage Festival, which happens at the Kennedy Center every year, held every Labor Day. A significant number of the Cast and the Director were most interested.
There is great competition to be invited to the Festival, and it has been a platform for other, beginning playwrights, casts, producers, directors, and theater companies. Last year, for example, more than FIFTY theater companies put on productions that ran the gamut of readings through fully rehearsed, costumed productions. It was worth trying, I believed, because, not only had our play done so well this time, but also I’d set as a goal for this year for the Project to put on a production in Page-to-Stage.
After some investigation, thanks to an insider/friend at the Kennedy Center, I found the name of the Director of the Page-to-Stage Festival. So, with the help of one of our great, Cast members, I drafted and sent an application to participate by producing Justice Disordered and two of my short plays. We received a rapid acceptance! Soooooo, we’ll be producing those three plays at the Festival at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts over Labor Day Weekend 2016, actual day, time, and venue, To Be Announced, as soon as we know from the Center!!!!!!!
Another event I shall be attending later this month is the Kennedy Center Arts Summit on 25 April! I’ll be representing our Project, as Executive Director, and hope to meet/network with fellow professionals with the overall theme of “Citizens and the Arts.” Sounds right up our Project’s “alley,” doesn’t it?! The Center is celebrating next year President Kennedy’s Hundredth Birthday. In addition to the Arts Summit, the Center is sponsoring a number of unique programs, such as the Irish Festival this summer and other commemorations. When I was a child, I remember President Kennedy, and all these programs will be a way, to recall him fondly and to dedicate ourselves and younger people to his ideals. I’ll report on the Arts Summit, in this space, After-Action!
Several weeks ago I also conferred with the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, at one of the universities, where I teach graduate students. She seemed receptive to the ideas of our Project, and I am hopeful that our Project will be going forward with planning for a 1- to 2-week, summer program, in 2017.
Besides my own play-writing, those are the things we have been pursuing! Please feel free to be in touch with us, if you want to be involved in any, some, or all of those initiatives! TTFN! Ciao!!!!"