Ashland, Ore.--Alison Carey, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's director of American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, and Artistic Director Bill Rauch announced today the first theater artists to be commissioned for the 37-play, 10-year History Cycle, the largest commissioning and production project in the Festival's 73-year history.
The artists are Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza), David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Robert Schenkkan, Naomi Wallace, and the collaborative team of Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone.
"American Revolutions has been greeted with keen interest from historians, playwrights, and OSF audiences since its inception," said Rauch. "We are overjoyed by the brilliance and the passion for the project that these artists bring to the United States History Cycle."
"I can't imagine a better group to start painting this theatrical portrait of our nation's past," said Carey.
The plays of American Revolutions will look at moments of change in America's past, helping to establish a shared understanding of our national identity and illuminate the best paths for our nation's future.
Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone will collaborate on a piece that mingles the personal and the political in examining the loss Mr. Moscone felt after the murder of his father, George Moscone, the Mayor of San Francisco. Against the backdrop of 1970s San Francisco--the most progressive political and social period in that city's history--the piece will explore the attempt, through memory, to assemble a relationship with a man, and a time, long gone and almost forgotten.
"We are following the inspiration and insight of the artists in all aspects of the project. We are enormously moved by Jonathan and Tony's desire to look at this intimate and powerful story," said Carey. "We look forward to learning what stories the other artists will be exploring as the project unfolds."
American Revolutions, inspired by the scale and scope of Shakespeare's history cycle of plays, will bring together more than 100 artists, historians and institutions from around the country. Up to 37 new plays are slated to result in up to 15 full productions at OSF between 2010 and 2019. Every work commissioned, even if it does not receive a full production, will be presented to OSF audiences through workshops or readings. OSF hopes to mount the Cycle's first full production on one of its stages in 2010, coinciding with OSF's 75th anniversary.
History-based play cycles are also being planned by Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare & Company. "We are incredibly happy to be part of this national movement to use theater to examine our national past," said Rauch.
The launch of American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle has been made possible through grants from The Collins Foundation and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Both grants are for three years: 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Cycle director Alison Carey is co-founder with Bill Rauch of Cornerstone Theater Company, which works with diverse American communities. As Cornerstone's resident playwright, she wrote more than 25 of the company's productions for stages across the country.
BIOGRAPHIES
CULTURE CLASH: Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza are the creators, playwrights and performers behind Culture Clash. Founded in 1984 in San Francisco's Mission District, Culture Clash has become the most prominent Chicano/Latino performance troupe in the country with work ranging from sketch comedy to an adaptation of Aristophanes, to the full length play Chavez Ravine, to co-writing Frank Loesser's long lost musical Señor Discretion Himself based on a story by the legendary Bud Schulberg. Culture Clash has made an impact with site-specific theater, weaving personal narratives culled from interviews into an ongoing dramatic tapestry. Theater companies in Miami, San Diego, New York, Houston, Boston and San Francisco, have commissioned Culture Clash to create performance pieces specifically for their cities. Their work gives immediate dramatic voice and expression to people in a certain time and place. It is theater of the moment, written and performed first for the people and communities on which it is based, and secondly for a broader audience. Culture Clash uses "performance collage" to bring history, geography, "urban excavation," "forensic poetry" and storytelling together in a contemporary, movable theater narrative through a Chicano point of view--what Guillermo Gomez-Pena describes as "reverse anthropology." Their work has been produced by the nation's leading theaters, including Mark Taper Forum, Lincoln Center Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, South Coast Repertory and Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. Culture Clash has also toured and lectured at major universities and colleges including Syracuse University, Yale University, Stanford University, and universities and state colleges of California. Their videos, short films and art exhibits have been shown at The Smithsonian; The Whitney Museum of American Art; Sundance Film Festival; The San Juan, Puerto Rico Film and Video Festival; The Art Institute of Boston; Palm Springs Film Festival; and The Los Angeles Film Festival, among others. Culture Clash has published two books of compilations for TCG Books: Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy and Culture Clash in AmeriCCa. Their third book will be published later this year: Oh Wild West: Culture Clash's California Plays which will include, Chavez Ravine, Zorro in Hell, and Water & Power solely written by Richard Montoya.
DAVID HENRY HWANG was awarded the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and John Gassner Awards for his Broadway debut, M. ButterflyM/i>, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. For his play Golden Child, he received a 1998 Tony nomination and a 1997 OBIE Award. His new book for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song earned him his third Tony nomination in 2003. His newest play, Yellow Face, which premiered at the The Mark Taper Forum and The Public Theater, won a 2008 OBIE Award for Playwriting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He co-authored the book for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, which ran almost five years on Broadway, and was the bookwriter of Disney's Tarzan, with songs by Phil Collins. Other plays include FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (Drama Desk Nomination), Family Devotions (Drama Desk Nomination) The Sound of a Voice and Bondage. His opera libretti include three works by composer Philip Glass, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (International Tour), The Voyage (Metropolitan Opera), and The Sound of a Voice (American Repertory Theatre) as well as Bright Sheng's The Silver River (Lincoln Center Festival), Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards) and Unsuk Chin's Alice In Wonderland (Munich's Bavarian State Opera; 2007 Opernwelt World Premiere of the Year). Upcoming stage productions include Howard Shore's The Fly for Paris Théâtre du Châtelet and Los Angeles Opera, and Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, a new musical with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, to be directed by Bartlett Sher. Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and co-wrote the song "Solo" with composer/performer Prince. He serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, and was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee for the Arts and the Humanities.
JONATHAN MOSCONE is in his ninth season as Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theater where his credits include Man and Superman, As You Like It, Hamlet: Blood in the Brain (in collaboration with Intersection for the Arts+Campo Santo), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Importance of Being Earnest, Julius Caesar, The Seagull, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. His work at Cal Shakes has earned him Bay Area Critics Circle and Dean Goodman Choice Awards for Best Direction and Production, and his productions of Man and Superman, Nicholas Nickleby, Ghosts (Berkeley Rep), Twelfth Night, and The Seagull were all named among the ten best productions by San Francisco Chronicle and other area newspapers. His regional credits include Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theater, Dallas Theatre Center, Goodspeed Musicals, Triangle Opera, Portland Stage Company, and Magic Theatre. He is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award for Directing, a Drama League Directors Project Fellowship, and currently serves on the board of LoveLife Foundation in Oakland, and on the advisory board of Redwood High School in Oakland. He has also served as a grant review panelist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Theater Communications Group, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Upcoming projects include Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband for Cal Shakes, Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice for Milwaukee Rep, and the world premiere of Richard Nelson's How Shakespeare Won the West for Huntington Theatre.
LYNN NOTTAGE is the author of Intimate Apparel, which was produced in New York at the Roundabout Theatre Company after its world premiere production at Center Stage and South Coast Rep. The play received numerous awards, including the 2004 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Best Play award, the John Gassner Award, the American Theatre Critics/Steinberg 2004 New Play Award and the 2004 Francesca Primus Award. It has gone on to receive dozens of productions around the country. Her next play, Fabulation, or the Education of Undine, was first produced by Playwrights Horizons and recently received a highly-acclaimed production at the Tricycle Theatre in London. Her other plays include Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Porknockers and Poof! Her plays have been produced and developed at theatres throughout the country, including the Alliance Theatre, Second Stage, the Vineyard, Freedom Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, the Intiman, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Yale Rep and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, among many others. Her film credits include Side Streets (Merchant Ivory Productions), directed by Tony Gerber and an official selection at the Venice and Sundance Film Festivals; and she is currently writing an adaptation of Edwidge Danticat's novel The Dew Breaker for HBO Films. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious 2004 PEN/Laura Pels Award for literary excellence, the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant Award, the 2005 Guggenheim grant for playwriting, and fellowships from Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists and the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she is a member of the Artists Advisory Board. Ms. Nottage is an alumna of New Dramatists and a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she is currently a visiting lecturer. She is currently under commission to write plays for the Royal National Theatre, the Goodman, the Wilma, Center Stage, South Coast Rep and the Roundabout. She lives in Brooklyn.
SUZAN-LORI PARKS: Named one of Time magazine's 100 Innovators for the Next New Wave, Suzan-Lori Parks is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog and is a MacArthur Genius Award recipient, among her many other honors. In 2007 her project 365 Plays/365 Days was produced in more than 700 theaters worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theater history. Her other plays include In the Blood (2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Venus (1996 OBIE Award), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 OBIE Award for Best New American Play), and The America Play. Her first feature-length screenplay was Girl 6 written for Spike Lee. Shes also written screenplays for Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, and adapted Zora Neale Hurston's classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God which starred Halle Berry and premiered on ABC's Oprah Winfrey Presents. Parks was co-author of the screenplay for The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington. Parks well-reviewed first novel Getting Mother's Body (Random House, 2003) is set in the west Texas of her youth and follows the scrappy Beede family as they embark on a riotous road trip in hopes of recovering a fortune of jewels rumored to be buried with a long-dead relative. She is the author of Ray Charles Live!, a musical based on the life of Ray Charles that premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse. Suzan-Lori Parks will direct the Broadway revival of August Wilson's Fences in 2009.
ROBERT SCHENKKAN: Robert is the author of The Kentucky Cycle, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has written nine other full-length plays: By The Waters of Babylon (LA premiere at the Geffen Theatre in Fall, 08), Lewis and Clark Reach The Euphrates, The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune, The Devil And Daniel Webster, Handler, Heaven on Earth, Tachinoki, Final Passages, and The Dream Thief. He has a collection of one-act plays, Conversations with the Spanish Lady and other plays. He has also received a Tony nomination, Outer Critics Circle nomination, an LA Critics Best Play Award, the Julie Harris/Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award, the PEN WEST Award, and the Best of the Fringe (Edinburgh Festival). He has received grants from New York CAPS, Vogelstein Foundation, Arthur Foundation, and the Fund for New American Plays. Robert is the co-author of the film The Quiet American. His television credits include Crazy Horse (TNT), Spartacus (USA) and the mini-series The Andromeda Strain (A&E), and The Pacific (Spielberg/Hanks/HBO). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, PEN America, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Friar Society, and is an alumnus of New Dramatists. He is married to the writer Maria Dahvana Headley, and lives in Seattle with his two children, Sarah and Joshua.
TONY TACCONE is in his tenth year as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, where he has staged more than 35 shows, including the world premieres of Continental Divide, The Convict's Return, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, The First 100 Years, Geni(us), Ravenshead and Virgin Molly. He commissioned Tony Kushner's renowned Angels in America, co-directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum and has collaborated with Kushner on six projects. Their latest piece featured designs by beloved children's author Maurice Sendak Brundibar debuted at Berkeley Rep and then traveled to Yale Rep and the New Victory Theatre in New York City. Taccone recently made his Broadway debut with Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, which was universally lauded by the critics. He also staged the shows record-breaking off-Broadway run, workshopped it for Broadway at Berkeley Rep and directed Jones previous hit, Surface Transit. In 2004, his production of David Edgar's Continental Divide transferred to the Barbican in London after playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep and England's Birmingham Rep. Taccone frequently works in Ashland, where he has also directed Coriolanus, Othello, Pentecost and the American premiere of Seamus Heaney's The Cure at Troy. His other regional credits include noted theatres such as Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep and San Francisco's Eureka Theatre, where he served six years as artistic director before coming to Berkeley Rep. Taccone has served on the faculty of U.C. Berkeley, sat on the board of Theatre Communications Group and acted as a regional representative for the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
NAOMI WALLACE's major plays include Things of Dry Hours, One Flea Spare, The Trestle of Pope Lick Creek, In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, The War Boys, The Inland Sea and Birdy (an adaptation for the stage of William Wharton's novel). Wallace's work has been produced internationally and has been awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, the Kesselring Prize, the Mobil Prize, an NEA grant, a Kentucky Arts Council Grant, a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant, and an Obie Award for best play. Wallace is also a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, the grant popularly known as the genius award. Her plays are published in Great Britain by Faber and Faber, and in the US by Broadway Play Publishing. A collection of her plays, In the Heart of America, is published by TCG. Her book of poetry, To Dance a Stony Field, is published in the United Kingdom by Peterloo Poets. She is also a member of The Playwrights' Center. Her award-winning film, Lawn Dogs, was produced by Duncan Kenworthy. She was born in Kentucky, and presently lives in North Yorkshire, England.
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