So excited to begin rehearsals for THE MOST DANGEROUS HGHWAY IN THE WORLD. Directed by my friend Evren Odcikin, and produced by the wonderful people at Golden Thread.
This is the culmination of three years of development, and I could not be in better hands.
The play runs May 6th-May 29th at the Thick House. More info here.
Check out the press release in American Theater Magazine for Golden Thread’s 20th anniversary season, which I’m proud to be part of.
The season will start with the world premiere of Artigue’s The Most Dangerous Highway in the World(May 5–29). The play follows an 8-year-old Afghan boy who makes his living directing traffic on the highway connecting Jalalabad to Kabul. Artigue will be the first playwright produced on the Golden Thread mainstage who is not of Middle-Eastern descent. Golden Thread’s director of marketing and new plays Evren Odcikin will direct.
It’s official! I begin a year long writing fellowship with the great peeps at P73 in NYC.
Check out the press release here.
I’ll be heading out to the Playwrights Foundation in S.F. for a week long workshop in late February to develop my play THE MOST DANGEROUS HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD. The workshop is being co-produced by Golden Thread and Stanford University in anticipation of a production of the play running May 6-29th in S.F, directed by Evren Odcikin.
Readings will be Feb. 21st in S.F. and Feb. 22nd at Stanford, location and exact times to be announced.
Press release out today for the 2015 Emerging Writer Group‘s Spotlight Series of readings produced by the Public Theater. My play THE FORCINGS will be read April 13, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.
Description of THE FORCINGS…
Company man Ernie Ledezma is the public face of Exxon in Mexico. As his family gathers at his vacation home in coastal North Carolina, seventeen anti-fracking activists remain missing in Mexico. The truth behind their disappearance will set off a chain of events with shocking repercussions for Ernie and his entire family. A contemporary riff on Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, The Forcings depicts a tragedy of power, self-delusion and civilization barreling towards extinction.
Some pics from a recent trip to Veracruz to research my play THE FORCINGS.
I just returned from a week long retreat at SPACE on Ryder Farm with some of my colleagues from the Emerging Writers Group. I spent my hours digging my heels into my newest play, THE FORCINGS, which will be presented next spring at the Public Theater. Wonderful trees, food and company.
And at some point in life, usually when it’s too late, you start inquiring. First you think, “Who cares about roots? It’s not a big deal. I can transcend roots and culture.” But then, at a later point in life you think, “God, what else is there?
In fact, we cut out the most spectacular shots. Whenever a shot looked self-consciously beautiful or contrived, it didn’t survive the cut.
As far as I’m concerned, all you really need is a story, with two or three interesting characters, interestingly entangled in an interesting space. You also need some transcendent idea, emotion or urge to carry you through the whole process. The reason why you are doing it in the first place. Of course, in saying “all you need” are these things I’m being disingenuous. “These things” – the heart of your film – are actually the most difficult stuff to come up with. Much more difficult than churning out 90 pages of script.
Be that as it may, the sad truth is that you can’t get financing on 25 pages.
My play THE MOST DANGEROUS HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD, set along a treacherous highway in Afghanistan, is one of six scripts selected for the NNPN’s annual National Showcase of New Plays. The NNPN holds a unique and necessary place in the universe of new play development in this country. I’m honored to be a part.
About the Showcase: The National Showcase of New Plays is a traveling new-play festival that presents the country’s best unproduced plays in staged reading format to an intimate gathering of theater professionals. With artistic leadership from most of our 29 Core Member and 45 Associate Member Theaters in attendance, the Showcase creates a unique, invaluable opportunity for production-ready scripts to be heard by the people most willing to produce them. In addition to artistic and managing directors, we invite a group of 100 playwrights, literary managers, playwright agents, and other colleagues from around the country to network with us on behalf of the plays and playwrights we present. All scripts are read blind. The vast majority of the scripts read at the Showcase go on to professional productions within and outside the Network.
