LISPA - Naropa Alumni

February 21, 2006 - March 19, 2006
George Street Playhouse
New Brunswick, NJ

The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh

directed by Will Frears

An exhilarating and viciously funny new comedy-drama about a fiction writer in a totalitarian state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories, and their similarities to a number of bizarre incidents occurring in his town...

With Yuval Boim*, Kayla Nicolle Bolger, Scott Ferrara*, Lena Kaminsky*, Robert Logan Kopp, Michael Mastro*, Loren Matilski, Daniel Oreskes*, Elizabeth Plevy, and Lee Sellars*

*Denotes members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

For show times, ticket information, and trailer go to: http://www.georgestplayhouse.org/calendar/events.php?nID

Dear All,

Please come and see my play. It's the dead of winter, the skies are bleak and grey, and an ideal time to sit through a swift hour on loneliness, depression and suicide.

The play takes place above the Old Red Lion pub (outside Angel tube turn left, cross straight over lights and pub few doors down on left), so within easy reach of a pint in which to drown sorrows, wallow in self pity and generally feel miserable.

That said, it would be lovely to see you.

Love tessax (Check links for details re. tickets etc)

http://www.tangramtheatre.co.uk/

http://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/

Anyone able to come this week, tickets only £8

Liza's Back, Yes the one and only... Liza Zapol has returned from the South Pole. We here at headquarters are still wondering what took the mistress of the NY stage so far south... We promise to keep you updated.

But in the mean-time, here's a NY Times review of a show she Co-Directed for the theatre company Elevator Repair Service:

February 11, 2006
THEATER REVIEW 'NO GREAT SOCIETY'

On the TV: Re-enacting Kerouac Interviews
By JASON ZINOMAN


"The only people for me are the mad ones," Jack Kerouac writes in "On the Road," "the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing."

He would have loved the Elevator Repair Service, the inspired avant-garde company whose new work, "No Great Society," is primarily composed of the transcribed text from two television interviews with Kerouac. Only a slightly cracked company would read the entirety of "The Great Gatsby" in a five-hour show, "Gatz." Or mount "The Bacchae" with puppets.

Under the careful guidance of John Collins, the director, their new show is a joy from start to finish, featuring excellent performances and the loose-limbed spirit of work born out of improvisation. The first half is a madcap re-enactment of a 1968 episode of William F. Buckley's "Firing Line," which showcases four otherworldly eccentrics (Mr. Buckley, Kerouac, Ed Sanders from the band the Fugs and an academic, Lewis Yablonsky) so different from one another that they don't seem to belong to the same species.

In his spot-on imitation of Mr. Buckley, Ben Williams captures every drawn-out vowel and self-satisfied smirk, while acting as the ringmaster of this circus. Sanders (Scott Shepherd), wearing yellow socks on his feet that match the floppy curls on his head, uses "freak" as a verb, and suggests that the Vietnam War is a conspiracy to attract more jeeps into Vietnam. Vin Knight's nasal-sounding professor has spent years studying youth culture, but can't seem to pronounce "commune."

Still, Kerouac (Susie Sokol), who in real life died of alcoholism a year after the Buckley broadcast, steals the show, drunkenly interrupting everyone and, despite Mr. Buckley's efforts, refusing to play the part of the grandfather of the Beats. "I believe in order, tenderness and piety," the eye-rolling Ms. Sokol says in a working-class accent.

Part 2 is loosely based on an appearance that Kerouac made on Steve Allen's variety show in 1959. After taking off his gray wig in front of the audience, Mr. Williams transforms into Mr. Allen, all smiles and show-biz charm. Kerouac looks uncomfortable, but this interview quickly departs from any realism and turns into something much moodier and almost dreamlike (Mr. Collins added the stark, affecting lighting). Ms. Sokol, a youthful-looking downtown fixture with pencil-thin legs and deadpan delivery, performs silly dances, riffs on passages from Kerouac and even speaks as herself. "Susie told me she was nervous before the show," Mr. Williams says. "Are you nervous now?" She says no.

Is this an homage to Kerouac's stream-of-consciousness style? Or a collection of small reminders that these are actors playing characters? Whatever the purpose, the Elevator Repair Service makes sure that there is nothing commonplace about its delightful show. Yawning is out of the question.

Elevator Repair Service's "No Great Society" continues through Feb. 18 at P.S. 122, 150 First Avenue at East Ninth Street; (212) 352-3101.

Hello pals!

I am teaching a workshop Thursdays, March-April called Body Performance/Physical Theatre :

Thursdays 9 March to 13 April 2006 - 7.00 to 9.00 PM

Click Here for more info, as well as other worskshops. I'd love to have you join me for this - and please forward to anyone you think might be interested!

Cheers and lotsa love,
Lazlo

A week ago masha and i finished a show about futuristic anti machine human insurgency, buckwheat and the story of the three little weazels and the owl (a template for why the weazels go pop), at the moment we are pondering our life and where to live it, chicago is glooming outside our walls and something is knawing on the inside of me asking to run. i will get pictures up in a week or so, it's good to hear your distant voices my friends.

Sandro

At the moment, I'm performing a show with my company, ACTIVE EYE. It's called Hard Lovin' Ever After, and it's an adaptation of an 18th century Japanese play by Chikamatsu, tricked out with cowboy Buddhist monks and beat-boxing. More information can be found at www.activeeye.org. We've also started a blog for the company recently: www.activeeye.blogspot.com.

In May, the Split Knuckle gang--Greg, Eva, Michael, Seth, Juan, and me--is heading to Argentina. We'll be re-working the Pearl and presenting it there, then taking it to Edinburgh in August. We've started a blog for that, too: www.splitknuckle.blogspot.com. Not really many posts yet, but more will happen as we gear up to go to Buenos Aires.

That's the brief news from New York!

Andrew

Liza in Antartica - More to follow.....

Happy New Year!

Here is what's going on with me.

I moved back to Boulder in July 2005, after going to a Christians in Theatre
Arts (CITA) conference and leading a workshop on physical theatre for other
theatre artists. I attended the Red Nose, and A Clowns Life workshops with
Giovanni in the fall, which was fantastic. It was so great to be in a
learning environment again, as well as to work with wonderful people like
Amy Russell (who joined the class for two weeks), Kelley, Liz, Lucia and
Mark from our class at LISPA, Darren and Maya from the year after us, Jeremy
from the program in Boulder the year before us, Elise whom many of you knew
from Paris, as well as many other new and wonderful people.

I have been growing in my interest in teaching, and so I began sending
applications to Universities in Lebanon... It will be a miracle if I get a
job since there are so few of that kind there, but I believe in miracles, so
I am trying anyway. That is really where I'd like to be heading and I am
planning to move to Lebanon in the fall rain or shine.

As I was working on my resume, and sending letters out, I realized that the
one crucial thing I am missing is experience teaching. So, God took care of
that for me. I got a phone call Dec 13th from Colorado Christian University
in Lakewood asking me to apply to teach theatre there starting in January. I
sent in an application, had an interview, and got the job. I begin teaching
on January 10th. It will just be one Theatre Appreciation class twice a
week. This is a great opportunity I was not expecting and I am really
excited about it. Ideally I'd like to teach performance, but you have to
start somewhere.

Other than that I am working on a couple projects. Liz, Mark, Lucia, Myself
and two others from our clown workshop (Bobby and Bill) are meeting weekly
to continue clowning. I have a new one-woman show in the works which is
about cultural identity. I was planning to perform that in March, but I am
postponing it because it is nowhere near ready. I am working on a project
with someone I met at the CITA conference last summer. There are a few other
things in the works, but they're not really ready to speak of.

So, that's me at the moment. I really enjoy hearing from everyone when I do.

Take care,

Noelle

This was orignally from November 2005

Hi Friends,

I am happy to report that my show, which has been in gestation for a couple of years, is up and running. Wigs. Pastry flour. Pink chiffon. Romance in the throes of disguise. If you are in San
Francisco -- come see it! If you are not in San Francisco -- tell people that are in San Francisco to come see it! It's also showing in January at SF's EXIT Theatre.

My very best,
Yuval
___________________________

mugwumpin's newest work
Symphony of Frogs
premieres at Traveling Jewish Theatre
ONLY 7 Performances!!

"Visually inspired...Wildly inventive" SF Weekly

Created and performed by Yuval Boim, Denmo Ibrahim, Laurel Keane,
Roman Kosins, Christopher W. White

November 4 and 13 at 7:00pm
November 6, 10, 11, 17 and 19 at 9:00pm

Part of FURY Factory Ensemble Theatre Festival
Traveling Jewish Theatre
470 Florida Street (btw 17th and Mariposa)
Tickets $10
1-866-GOT-FURY
www.foolsfury.org

Symphony of Frogs is a driving, visual mosaic – assembled, disassembled, reassembled and misassembled. Constance and Paul aren't doing so great. A homeless woman is dragging the desert through their living room. The bride's getaway car is lodged in their icebox. If only the crow and wolf-man could satiate baby with a bottle of E minor. Universes peel from their Venetian blinds and leave the couple lost and unrecognizable to each other. Nonetheless, they have been here before.

Click here for article in San Francisco Arts Monthly

Click here for featured listing in SF Weekly


mugwumpin is a company in residence at The EXIT Theatre
http://www.sffringe.org/mugwumpin/mugwumpin.html

O.k. So you want to know what's happening with me. Well, quite a lot so, where do I start . . .

I've taught a little over 3 weeks and I have next week off as the Commedia teacher(s) from Spain are coming in for the week. After that, I have two more weeks to teach and then I'm finished. I'll stay one more week and do Clown with the students as they have another clown teacher coming in from Spain (Paco), and then I fly back to London until I head to Poland in mid-April.

The teaching is going well and I'm using a lot of the improv stuff we did at LISPA our first year to introduce the students to this type of work. I think it's quite a good group and there is definitely talent, here. However, because I don't have that much time with them, I'm warp speeding ahead to build a base for them to before heading into character work. So, I started with Neutral Mask and took them into the elements, colors, music, words, architecture, and animals. The last thing we did yesterday was I had them be kids for the entire class in order to play as freely as possible before we started characters.

Anyway, they challenge me a lot because it's as if they want me to prove to them that this works.

What else . . . oh, yeah, the Olympics start tonight and I'm dog sitting for one of the students who lives in town (not with the rest of us in the villa). It's going to be great because I really want to see the opening ceremonies even if they are in Italian. And,it will be nice to be outside of the student's residence and be in a proper home for the weekend. This student has a triplex in Arezzo so I'm thrilled. There aren't many adults here so it's difficult but, still, I'm certainly not going to complain about being here. I think the school is very pleased with my work and how I deal with the students. A lot of the classes seem to naturally work well together and I think they're going to want me to come back in the Fall to teach. Cool with me!

Oh, and the most exciting thing . . . I attended a Master Class (singing) a couple of weeks ago which was held here through an org. in Florence. Kevin Crawford wanted me to work with the voice teacher who was teaching the class, Jill Feldman, as he knew I really wanted to work on my singing and get my voice back. I couldn't afford to pay for singing the class but I was able to watch. I was absolutely transformed with her technique and I spoke to her quite a bit that Saturday. I'm determined to work with Jill in the Fall when she's actually able to work w/me. She's way too busy right now, so . . . Can you believe it?

So, that's my news. I'll be back in London in March.

Love to you and yours!-
Mariko

To all LISPA Alumni

Watch this space to learn what your classmates are doing in the world. After leaving LISPA in your respective year, I'm sure, you like me, have wondered "What's going on?" So, I will be administering this blog and I need your help.

Send me anything you have about:
your current projects,
past projects since leaving LISPA,
reviews,
pictures,
casting notices for things you are producing/directing
job appointments
teaching appointments

To keep things relatively safe, I will not post my email on here but will send it personally to all the Alumni.

So, This is the first step. Second step is LET ME KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!

Darren