As the recently appointed Vice-Chair of Maieutic Theatre Works-MTWorks I’m honored to be (just a small) part of the very talented team that brings The National NewBorn Festival to life.

Please join me tonight for the first in the series of free readings dealing with such hot topics as: immigration, sexuality, war and freedom.

**Resident Reading**

THE REEDUCATION OF ARIZONA

by MTWorks Artistic Director David Stallings

directed by MTWorks Resident Director Cristina Alicea

A satirical comedy that dissects the trickled down effect of Gov. Jan Brewer’s immigration bill in Arizona.

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Thursday, February 3rd at 8:30pm
The Aronow Theater (First Floor)

SKIN AND BONE

by Jacqueline Goldfinger (Pennsylvania)

directed by Dev Bondarin

A cannibalistic dark comedy about aging, set in a cozy B&B in the South.

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• The 2012 National Newborn Festival Is Almost Here!
• The National Newborn Festival: Celebrating Emerging Playwrights In Style
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• Ever Seen A “NewBorn” Play? (Part 1)

The National Newborn Festival has become, over the last four years, one of the premiere playwriting festivals in the country for emerging playwrights. A flagship program created and produced by MTWorks, an ever-growing, non-profit theatre company, Newborn allows playwrights to have a work never produced in New York be read in a festival setting.

Free and open to the public, this year’s festival is being sponsored by The City College of New York’s Psychology Club & Department and begins Thursday, February 3rd, and runs through Sunday, February 6th. This year we are showcasing the works of Duncan Pflaster, Rich Rubin, Marilynn Barner Anselmi, Riti Sachdeva, and Jacqueline Goldfinger.

David Stallings

The festival will kick off the first night with the reading of The ReEducation of Arizona by MTWorks’ Artistic Director and resident playwright David Stallings, and end the final evening with the Audience Favorite Award ceremony and a raffle, as well as an extra reading of the winning play. For 2011, in addition to the Audience Favorite Award which is selected by those who attend the readings, the MTWorks Board of Directors is presenting the first annual Excellence in Playwriting Award, to be announced prior to the festival.

I have directed a reading in the last two Newborn Festivals, and will be acting in this year’s, so I’m very excited about this brainchild that MTWorks has created…one that encourages playwrights, directors, and actors to come together and celebrate the artistic process. I asked the playwrights to talk a little bit about their work and their thoughts on said process.

How did you come to hear about The Newborn Festival?

Duncan Pflaster

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) I’ve been a fan of MTWorks for some time now, and when I saw they were accepting applications for the festival, I jumped to send in my script.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) Spotted the posting on the nyc playwrights website, probably around this time last year.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) The NewBorn Festival and MTWorks was one of many companies I discovered during my desperate internet searches for possible artistic avenues.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) A call in the Fund for Women Artists e-newsletter.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) My play, “Slip/Shot,” was in the Festival last year, and it was a fantastic experience. MTWorks also produced my drama, “The Oath,” in 2009.

Describe your play in one sentence.

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) A woman spurned in her affairs of the heart sets herself up as empress of an island where no love is allowed, only sex; all is orgies and sensual pleasure till her ex-lover comes in disguise to try to win her back.

Rich Rubin

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) A very raunchy comedy with an underpinning of great sadness.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) After the death of their son, two women attempt to find healing and acceptance in the home of their Southern family.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) In war, it is a fine line between madness and courage.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) Skin & Bone is a dark comedy about two little old ladies who detest aging because they can’t do the things they love anymore – like eating people.

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) The ReEducation of Arizona opens a discussion about the trickle down effect of politicians and media upon the smaller families in our country.

What makes your work, this play in particular, stand out from the rest?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) It’s a romantic comedy in the tradition of Marivaux and Shakespeare that doesn’t shy away from modern expressions of sexuality.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) I’m not sure that is does. I’m hoping that audiences will find Costa Rehab irreverent and off-kilter and at times even outrageous, but I suspect that description applies to just about everything in the festival.

Marilynn Anselmi

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) Maybe my willingness to portray raw grief as honestly as I’m capable.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) The woman-centerdness of the tone, the action, the impetus. The emotional urgency of compassion and determination.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) I think Skin & Bone is the only comedy in the Festival this year, and the only one that utilizes the more traditional elements of Southern Gothic storytelling (a la William Faulkner, Kate Chopin, etc…).

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) As I am the only writer that has read all of the plays (lucky me), I believe that each play uniquely shows the aesthetic of MTWorks!  I think with this play, the recent events in Arizona have made it more timely now than when it was written.

Whose work do you admire and find to be an inspiration to you as a writer?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) Charles Ludlam is the top (especially for this play); his combining traditional theatrical forms with comedy and sexuality has always been an inspiration.  Also love Israel Horovitz, Christopher Durang, Theresa Rebeck, Eric Overmyer, Paul Rudnick, Tony Kushner, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Tom Robbins…. and more and more…

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) The list goes on and on, and includes August Wilson, Martin McDonagh, Lee Blessing and Annie Baker. I’m also a big fan of Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Nottage, Tracy Letts and Rebecca Gilman. It might be easier to ask me to list the playwrights whose work I don’t admire.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) Douglas Wright, Marsha Norman, Margaret Edson and, certainly, Harper Lee.

Riti Sachdeva

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) So many – Audre Lorde, Nilo Cruz, Malcom X, Deepa Mehtha, Natacha Atlas, Mother Nature.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) Recently, I’ve been inspired by the work of Martin McDonagh, Enda Walsh, and Leo Butler.

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) I always go back to Shakespeare and Shaw when I am lost.

What do you hope the audience will walk away with after this reading?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) I hope they have a good time.  I hope my words touch their hearts and their erogenous zones.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) A few laughs … and at least a subliminal sense of the tragic absurdity of war.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) At least a glimpse at a real life, shared experience, and the germination of healing.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) To think about how each one of us has an opportunity and responsibility to stand up for the “other”.

Jacquelyn Goldfinger

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) I hope they’ll walk away having laughed a lot, and it might provoke some thought about what it means to age in America’s youth culture.

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) I always hope that the piece was entertaining first.  And then my goal is to open a discussion.  It is easy to say that because we are New Yorkers, the nonsense going on in Arizona with their offensive Immigration bill and laughable paroling of minority studies in schools does not affect us.  But it does.  And these measures are persecuting Americans who are most vulnerable.  In this play, I give facts that seem ridiculous and fiction that, while comic, has a darker undertone.

What other projects do you have lined up for 2011?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) I’ll be doing my experimental play Six Silences in Three Movements in March as part of Manhattan Rep’s 2011 WinterFest; most likely doing something in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity this Summer (though not confirmed yet); and I’ve just been commissioned to write my first screenplay, so that’s a new adventure.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) Assisted Living, a pretty mainstream comedy-drama about a family dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, will have a second production (in Oregon) this spring. I recently finished a full-length about the disintegration of Arthur Miller’s marriage to Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits, and I’m currently working on another full-length about a primatologist with a complicated love-life.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) More mad attempts to get my work out there (wherever that is).

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) My MFA thesis show La Fea: A FlamenChoreoMyth, bringing together two of my great  passions: theatre and flamenco. Produced by University of New Mexico, directed by Ricky Martinez of New Theatre, Miami.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) My dark comedy, the terrible girls, is world premiering at Azuka Theatre Company in Philadelphia and being published by Playscripts this spring. You can read more about my work online: www.jacquelinegoldfinger.com

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) I have The Family Shakespeare here in NYC with MTWorks in April.  So I am excited for that!

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The 2011 National Newborn Festival will be held at The City College of New York, North Academic Center (NAC), 138th St at Amsterdam Avenue. The admission is free but you do need to reserve your seats as the space is limited. For a complete schedule and reservation information visit www.MTWorks.org.

Next week we’ll have a chance to talk to the directors of these readings to find out what their thoughts are on the plays that have been selected for the festival. In the meantime . . . I think the following video will also whet your appetite.

Related Posts:

• The 2012 National Newborn Festival Is Almost Here!
• MTWorks National NewBorn Festival Kicks Off Tonight
• Ever Seen A “NewBorn” Play? (Part 1)
• Delving Into DARK WATER With Diánna Martin
• The Empress of Sex (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)

Developed 3 years ago, The National NewBorn Festival is the flagship program of a non-profit theater company very dear to me, Maieutic Theatre Works; or as we like to call it MTWorks – that way we don’t have to get into the whole “Maieutic is pronounced /meɪˈjuːtɪks/”.

New plays that have yet to receive a New York production are read in a festival setting and free to the general public from Thursday, January 21st through Sunday, January 24th. This year we are showcasing new plays by Barrie Kreinik, Jacqueline Goldfinger, Carol Carpenter, Gwydion Suilebhan and Cody Daigle.

The audience also gets to pick and vote for the recipient of the Audience Favorite Award. The winner receives a second reading on Sunday night after the resident reading of A Song for St. Michael’s by one of the NewBorn creators and Artistic Director of MTWorks, David Stallings.

What I appreciate about festivals is the networking opportunities it creates for dramatists, actors, directors and companies.  This week I asked all 6 dramatists some questions about their work and inspirations.

AM-How did you hear about NewBorn?

(Barrie Kreinik – A Thousand Shapes) I’m an MTWorks company actor and my first performance with the company was in NewBorn 2008, so I’ve already had some experience with the Festival.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Slip/Shot) I read about the NewBorn online two years ago, and submitted my play The Oath. MTWorks liked The Oath so much that they produced it in 2009! It was an incredible experience! Slip/Shot is my first new play since The Oath and the fab MTWorks company offered to include it in the NewBorn Festival.

(Carol Carpenter – Good Lonely People) I read about artistic director David Stallings’ work in an article or blurb online. When I realized we were graduates of the same college, I decided to reach out to him.

(Gwydion Suilebhan – Faithkiller) I’m almost too embarrassed to admit this… but I found it on Facebook.

(Cody Daigle – A Home Across The Ocean) MTWorks produced my play Providence in 2008, and the experience was fantastic. When I finished the new show, I sent it to them, eager for a chance to work with them again.

AM-Describe your play in one sentence:

(Barrie Kreinik – A Thousand Shapes) Three women at an American university face the consequences of crossing boundaries and discover the shape-shifting nature of love.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Slip/Shot) It’s about people trying to make sense of a situation that simply makes no sense and, in doing so, create “truths” that may or may not be very truthful.

(Carol Carpenter – Good Lonely People) Election night 2008 transforms a family in a small conservative town.

(Gwydion Suilebhan – Faithkiller) The exploits of an atheist superhero in a 1940s New York radio studio, a run-down apartment in present-day Los Angeles, and a not-too-distant theocratic future: what do the stories we tell reveal about the things we believe?

(Cody Daigle – A Home Across The Ocean) A 13-year old foster child and a poet from London help a family and a gay couple face loss and redefine itself.

(David Stallings – A Song For St. Michael’s) A young boy is taught how to grieve within the cold rules of his structured community.

AM-What makes your work stand out from the rest?

(Barrie Kreinik – A Thousand Shapes) The play’s subject matter twists familiar tropes.  The issue of teacher-student relationships has been addressed in other plays, but what happens when the teacher and student are both female?  It’s about relationships and feelings that defy labels, where everything happens under the surface, where the characters are afraid to address what’s really going on — where they aren’t sure what’s really going on.  There’s a lot of language, a lot of quoting other people, but also a lot of unspoken communication.  I don’t know if this makes it stand out from everything else per se, but these are some characteristics of the piece.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Slip/Shot) My plays have been described as “Southern gothic” so I think that makes my work different from the others.

(Carol Carpenter – Good Lonely People) My work is grounded in the people and places of the American Southwest. There, I explore the tension between oppositional ideologies and cultures: between progress and tradition, urban and rural, professional and working class, religious and secular. My journey as a writer is to find beauty and value in those I judge, to uncover paradox and hypocrisies within myself through the insights of characters I would deplore in real life, and to harmonize conflict through humor and reconciliation.

(Gwydion Suilebhan – Faithkiller) My work is very post-modern: multi-racial and multi-generational casts, interwoven narratives and meta-narratives, and a variety of media juxtaposed for a Twitter generation of theatergoers.

(Cody Daigle – A Home Across The Ocean) Ah, the dreaded “sell-yourself” moment. I think my work stands out because it’s quiet, simple, but the emotions are big. I’m very interested in the poetry of who we are in private, with the people we’re closest to, and I think that comes through in the work.

(David Stallings – A Song for St. Michael’s) It is the second piece in a trilogy about a town in Texas and the dysfunctional traditions passed down through generations based in stubbornness and ignorance.  Those who have seen the development of Barrier Island will enjoy seeing a different and equally entertaining part of the community.

AM-Whose work do you admire – who inspires you?

(Barrie Kreinik – A Thousand Shapes) Caryl Churchill, Tom Stoppard, Diana Son, Joanna Murray-Smith, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Wendy Wasserstein… to name a few.  This play in particular was influenced by the works of Virginia Woolf.  And I’m also inspired by Shakespeare — his incredibly rich language and raw emotionality.  His use of language.  I’m fascinated by language.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Slip/Shot) I’m a huge fan of early 20th Century Southern literature – Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, and Carson McCullers come to mind.

(Carol Carpenter – Good Lonely People) Sam Shepard, Horton Foote, Leila Buck.

(Gwydion Suilebhan – Faithkiller) I’m inspired by playwrights who look beyond their own lives for inspiration… who use their plays to ask broad, penetrating questions about being human in the modern world.  David Hare, August Wilson, and Sarah Kane come to mind — diverse stylistically, but all of them big.

(Cody Daigle – A Home Across The Ocean) Tony Kushner, because of his incredible gift with language. Christopher Shinn, Sarah Ruhl, Melissa James Gibson, Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally.

(David Stallings -  A Home Across The Ocean) Shakespeare’s.  His universality and specificity are a paradox that few have been able to reinvent.

AM-What do you hope the audience will walk away with after this reading?

(Barrie Kreinik – A Thousand Shapes) I hope they walk away in deep discussion with each other!  I’d love to inspire conversation, dialogue, examination.  They might wonder about the ambiguity of relationships, about our need to name things, to label them.  Hopefully they’ll wonder about what the characters do after the play ends.  Whatever happens, I hope they’re thinking.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Slip/Shot) I hope that the audience will laugh a lot, cry a little, and walk away thinking a little bit about how they tell their own stories and create their own personal “truths.”

(Carol Carpenter – Good Lonely People) Respect for uneducated, uncultured, underprivileged working class white folks.

(Gwydion Suilebhan – Faithkiller) A glimpse, perhaps, of a way to get out of the ideological complexity and deep emotion underlying the religious culture clashes that have paralyzed American life for at least a century… and (I would be remiss in not adding) a very strong desire to buy a ticket to a full production of the play.

(Cody Daigle – A Home Across The Ocean) I hope they walk away feeling as though they watched something that felt deeply true, something funny, something moving, something real.

(David Stallings – A Song for St. Michael’s) My favorite reaction from an audience is a gasp!

AM-What other projects do you have lined up in 2010?

(Barrie Kreinik – A Thousand Shapes) I’m still in the process of lining up specific projects, but I’ve got ongoing work as a voice-over artist, singer, and dialect coach, and I’m working on a couple of new play ideas.  I put on a lot of hats!

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Slip/Shot) So far, I have a world premiere of my commissioned adaptation of Little Women in San Diego and a production of my dark comedy the terrible girls in Philadelphia. My short play, His Last Fight, will also be published in the anthology “Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2010″ by Smith and Kraus.

(Carol Carpenter – Good Lonely People) Good Lonely People is in the final running for the High Desert Play Development Series at Southwest Repertory Theatre. I am currently conducting research for a new book whose near-impossible goal is to convince working class conservatives that their economic interests are not being served by their party.

(Gwydion Suilebhan – Faithkiller) My play The Constellation will be running in DC this winter, and I’ll be workshopping a new play called Reals this spring… more importantly, though, I’ll be having my first child — which is the greatest project I can imagine!

(Cody Daigle – A Home Across The Ocean) I’m working on two new plays – a play about architecture, real estate and theater (seriously!) called The Lasting and a relationship comedy called Cuddleman.

(David Stallings – A Song for St. Michael’s) Barrier Island with MTWorks opening April 30th and A Daughter of Israel with BOO-Arts in the fall.

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The 2010 National NewBorn Festival takes place at The Asya Geisberg Studio (526 West 26th Street, No 1017. Between 10th and 11th Ave). The admission is free but you do need to reserve your seats as the space is limited. For a complete schedule and reservation information visit www.MTWorks.org.

Next week we will bring you an interview with the directors involved in the festival, including our very own contributor Diánna Martin.  I leave you with a short conversation with one of the many writers that have inspired the dramatists participating in NewBorn, Tony Kushner.

Related Posts:

• The National Newborn Festival: Celebrating Emerging Playwrights In Style
• Ever Seen A “NewBorn” Play? (Part 2)
• Delving Into DARK WATER With Diánna Martin
• The 2012 National Newborn Festival Is Almost Here!
• MTWorks National NewBorn Festival Kicks Off Tonight

Take The Oath

Take a preacher looking for a flock, a flock looking for a preacher, one “Good” sister, one “Bad” sister, a snooty churchwoman trying to bring down a house of cards and a housekeeper who’d give Alice a run for her money, set it all in the dry, hot Dust Bowl of Depression-Era Florida and you’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of Jacqueline Goldfinger’s magnificent The Oath, directed by Cristina Alicea and currently running at The Arclight Theater till May 10th.

Before the play even starts, sound designer Martha Goode and scenic designer Blair Mielnik do an amazing job of settling you into the time period as well as the underlying good ole Christian spirit by playing songs like I’ll Fly Away while you get to study the beautifully detailed and marvelously evocative set design which gets it perfect, right down to the old icebox and wooden framed forced perspective hallway.

Set Design for The Oath

When we first meet the wild-child Cebe Tate (Louise Flory) she’s still in her dress from the night before, doing what amounts to an early morning walk of shame if this girl had any shame; (as she proclaims to Deck [Dianna Martin], the family housekeeper that while she hasn’t been to bed yet, “I been in somebody’s bed …”) and itching to tell her older sister Ophelia (Sarah Chaney) about the “Birmingham Boy”, Joshua (Anthony Crep) who’s been preaching around town.  From the looks of it, these three woman have been avoiding the sad truth that the wonderful Reverend Tate who has “abandoned the pettiness of everyday life” but “does not wish to abandon his flock” is really propped up in the back room, barely clinging to life.

While Cebe goes tearing around town, messing with the wrong boys, drinking till all hours of the night, and dragging the good Tate name through the mud, Ofah stays inside, speaking for her father, tending to church duties, and trying to keep Mrs. Lecroix’s (Robin Madel) snooping nose far away from the mysterious back bedroom.  As wife of the man who runs the church board, Mrs. Lecroix has been using every opportunity to try and drive the sisters out of the house (paid for by the church) and into the streets.  Which is why Joshua is such a blessing to them all; if Ofah can convince him to take over her father’s flock, while keeping his mouth shut about everything else, she could save the family’s reputation, their shelter, and their existence.  As these four become entwined in the story their layers are stripped away … Cebe isn’t the one-note town whore she’d have us believe she is, and Ofah isn’t the stoic, conniving dictator she presents herself as either.  Eventually everyone’s secret, including Deck’s comes to light, and we see how far each person will go to protect their own personal Oath.

Joshua preaches to the congregation

Director Cristina Alicea does an amazing job bringing Jaqueline Goldfinger’s soulful characters to life; her use of the audience as congregation members is particularly effective.  When Joshua addresses the dark theatre and preaches he is so impassioned that when he spoke “Grasp your neighbor’s hand … and feel their life in your hands and your life in theirs, of one body and one blood” it was all I could do to not reach out and grab my own husband’s hand, so caught up in his preaching was I (and, from what I could tell, the rest of the audience).

There is a similar moment echoed later in the play, when Cebe addresses the audience, but her sermon is much more personal, and much more heartbreaking; for all her attitude she’s desperately trying to find out who she is and what she’s meant to do.  She is not so much speaking God’s word as questioning everyone’s interpretation of it.  Unlike her sister Ofah, who works with the church, Cebe works with the ministry … she gets right down in there into the lives of the people, going to where they are, living their lives as they do, speaking their language.  Very much like the archetypal hooker-with-the-heart-of-gold, we come to see that under all that flirting, giggling and fawning Cebe understands her father’s work perhaps more than her sister does.  Similarly, under Ophelia’s straight posture, cool gaze and pinched smile there is a need to just set it all down for a moment and be human.  And between these two woman, Deck and Joshua play the fulcrum, always balancing these two out so that the message doesn’t get lost in the business of it all.

Eventually they all do get it right, or as right as circumstance will allow them to … not so much a happy ending as a satisfying one where those who were on the wrong path find the right one, those who took a detour from the path get back on it, and those praying for rain finally understand that, like all things, it will come when the time is right.

THE OATH – running till May 10th at the ArcLight Theatre (152 West 71st Street New York, NY 10023)

Ticket Price: $18.00; $15.00 Students & Seniors For tickets call: 212-352-3101 or click here.

Related Posts:

• MTWorks National NewBorn Festival Kicks Off Tonight
• The National Newborn Festival: Celebrating Emerging Playwrights In Style
• Ever Seen A “NewBorn” Play? (Part 1)
• Jumping Into The Fringe with Daniel McCoy (Fringe Festival 2009)
• Delving Into DARK WATER With Diánna Martin