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Promotion for Stealin' Home |
While Diane Stiles was talking recently about the upcoming
season at the All Stars Project’s performing arts and learning
center on 42nd Street, she reflected on the “community bridge”
mural that graces an entire wall in the center’s lobby. Diane,
the managing director of the off-Broadway Castillo Theatre,
pointed out the mix of donors, volunteers and community activists
— young and old, black, white, Asian and Latino —
pictured in the mural. “That wonderful and diverse mix of
people that form a ‘human bridge’ in the mural is emblematic
of the All Stars’ mission,” said Stiles, “to build bridges
between the people throughout the diverse communities of the
New York metropolitan area.”
“One of the things that is unique about Castillo is that
it has grown up side-by-side with the All Stars Talent Show
Network (ASTSN), and the performances created there by New
York City’s youth. As a production house, the All Stars Project
[the parent non-profit that sponsors both Castillo and the
ASTSN] produces really varied performances in (and for) our
diverse communities; that’s what we mean by Theatre for the
Whole City. And our new 42nd Street theatre complex serves
as a hub. It connects thousands of young community artists
to New York City culture.”
About the upcoming season, Stiles said, “Our first season
on 42nd Street featured artistic director, Fred Newman’s directing
while the upcoming (2004-2005) season, features Newman as
a playwright and director.
“Stealin’ Home, our first production, is, in my opinion,
one of Fred’s most beautifully written plays,” continues Stiles.
“Stealin’ Home is a structurally fascinating piece.
It poetically explores sexuality, baseball, and icons. As with
all of Newman’s plays, it tackles a philosophical issue, in
this case the gap between who we are and how others
see us. That gap exists not only for the famous, but for
all of us. The cast of fresh, young actors, all of whom are
new to the Castillo stage, portray three characters: Sojourner,
who represents/personifies the African-American community and
reappears throughout the play in different guises, Jackie Robinson,
and his friend and teammate, PeeWee. Stealin’ Home
opens Castillo’s second 42nd Street season October 8.”
In the spring, Castillo presents Revising Germany,
under the direction of Gabrielle L. Kurlander. In this play
Newman looks at the life of the great German playwright, Bertolt
Brecht, and his intimate relations with several women. It is
a montage of performed conversations with songs and dance featuring
the character of Brecht, who is the second most produced playwright
in the world (second only to Shakespeare). Brecht has been a
controversial figure for a number of years and the play engages
some of these controversies head-on, including his “sell-out”
of progressive politics and the fact that some of his best-known
plays may actually have been penned by several women with whom
he was close.
The origins of The Therapy Plays: Newman’s Postmodern Follies,
can be traced to 1996 when Fred was first asked to give a talk
at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.
The subject of the talk was to be: ‘Critical Psychology: Working
on new ways of helping people.’ However, rather than write a
talk, Fred chose to write a short play. In fact, the play would
become the first of six short plays that have been written for
and performed at as many APA meetings over the years. Along
the way, such deep thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka, Karl
Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Jesus Christ have made appearances
as characters in these plays. Using these plays as raw material,
Fred and Castillo’s dramaturg Dan Friedman, have created a ‘postmodern
Vaudevillian review.’ A lot of the history of the 20th century
will be covered in this play/review allowing many of the heavy
hitters of the time to make their debut on 42nd Street!
In addition, sprinkled throughout the Castillo season, will
be more performances of This is Your Ridiculous Life!
Word is out and the show is becoming an underground sensation!
By the end of the summer just ended, over a thousand people
had attended the improv comedy show.
Youth Onstage!, which just had its inaugural season, has four
productions on deck for 2004-05. It will present an All Stars
Hip-Hop Cabaret, in conjunction with the All Stars Talent
Show Network in the fall and spring, an experimental workshop
in October and Robin Hood: A Political Romance opens
at the end of February.
“This Cabaret is very hard hitting!” says Antoine Joyce,
co-director, with Dan Friedman of Hip-Hop Cabaret [a
co-production of Youth Onstage! and the All Stars Talent Show
Network]. Opening September 10, the new Hip-Hop Cabaret
consists of three acts returning from last season’s first hit
Cabaret including: the poet Squeak; the dance group
Fully Loaded and rapper Charlie Biggs. The new acts are all
alumni of the ASTSN, including the rap group The Dead; the long-time
All Stars sensation, Dance Factory; singer Aron Lewis and Big
Will (who often emcees at All Stars Talent Shows), who will
perform a monologue from Fred Newman’s 1993 play, Billie
& Malcolm: A Demonstration. “With terrorism and the elections
in the air and poverty increasing at home, many of these pieces
will be very political,” reported Cabaret co-director,
Joyce. “At the same time, it will be a lot of fun. We’ll be
doing lots of things to get crowd participation going and hope
to have people dancing in their seats!” There will be five Cabaret
performances, September 10, 11 and the following three Fridays.
Beginning on October 29, Youth Onstage! (YO!) will present
an experimental workshop that YO!’s artistic director Dan
Friedman is creating with ten young performers. “The cast
consists of dedicated young actors who have something to say
and are willing to take risks to say it,” says Friedman. “Be
prepared to experience an engaging pastiche of performance
styles and philosophical musings.”
In February YO! will present its third production of the
season, Robin Hood: A Political Romance, written
by Friedman. “This is a version of the story that undercuts
the typical romanticizing of Robin Hood and puts the hard
political issues inherent in the legend center stage,” the
author says.
Five Points Presents, a consortium of community theatres and
artists, opens its second season at the All Stars 42nd Street
center February 4 with Day of Reckoning, by a young
African-American playwright, Melody Cooper. This historical
drama tells the true story of Lucy and Albert Parsons, an interracial
couple of American anarchists who campaigned for worker’s rights
in the 19th Century. Recently the play won a playwriting award
at the annual conference of the Association for Theater in Higher
Education.
BACK TO SCHOOL: If you are not a friend, relative or neighbor of one of the young people participating in the All Stars Talent Show Network process, you can sign up for Back-to-School and get in on one of the hottest shows in town! Back-to-School is the event that brings the All Stars’ adult community to see (and support) the young people in action at the ASTSN’s auditions, workshops and talent shows.
According to Christina DiChiara, Program Director, Back-to-School
“is one of our most exciting performances!” The young hosts,
all recruits from the Development School for Youth, meet the
Back-to- School audience at the All Stars center on 42nd Street.
Audience members are given tours of the center as well as a
brief introduction both to the center’s programs and to the
young hosts. Then everyone climbs on a chartered bus to go “back-to-school”
— wherever that day’s event is taking place. The Back-to-
School audience is invited to mingle with the local community
and during the course of the event is given the opportunity
to stand up and take a bow to show their support for all the
hard work that the young people put into these exciting shows.
After seeing several acts, everyone gets on the bus to ride
back to the All Stars on 42nd Street.
Attending a Back-to-School trip is the best way to see the All
Stars’ Theater for the Whole City at work all around town while
showing your support for New York City’s young people. “It’s
the best ticket in town!” The next Back-to-School trip is Saturday,
October 16. For information, contact Christina DiChiara at 212-941-9400
ext. 326.
AROUND THE COUNTRY: As the ASTSN’s new National
Producer, Antoine Joyce is particularly well placed to comment
on performance activities of All Stars branches around the country.
“The national work is going great,” according to Joyce. Recently
both Pam Lewis and Antoine visited Boston to lead an All Stars
workshop — with Pam organizing the adults and Antoine leading
a youth workshop with 20 young people. Atlanta recently held
a one-day event consisting of auditions, workshop and talent
show. Oakland California is in its 6th cycle and will be holding
its second annual fundraiser October 6. (Note: for more reports
on All Stars’ regional operations and affiliates, see the front
page of this eNewsletter).
If you would like to order tickets for a play or get more information
about any of the events mentioned in this article, please call
the All Stars box office at 212-941-1234. Or visit the box office
in person at 543 West 42nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.
Box office hours are: 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday
and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. You can also
order tickets online at www.theatermania.com
or www.castillo.org.
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