Thursday, March 18, 2010

Young Playwrights Theater and New Writers Now


Photo by Liz Lynch


Back in February, I had the pleasure of participating in a staged reading of three student-written plays about the theme of gentrification in Columbia Heights. The event, which was part of Young Playwrights Theater's "New Writers Now" series, took place at the GALA Hispanic Theatre to a full audience of adults and students alike. Young Playwrights Theater has quickly become one of my favorite and most admired organizations, as I've had the opportunity to participate not only in their staged readings for the public, but in assisting students in the classroom through performance while their plays are still in the developing stages. I highly encourage anyone who has a love for theatre, or even just a love for education and helping young people speak their minds to contribute to this amazing non-profit organization.

Young Playwrights Theater just posted a video which includes clips of the performances and talkback of that night's event. You can check it out below:



To check out the Washington Post article about the evening's performance, click here.

-Vanessa
www.vanessastrickland.net

Friday, March 12, 2010

"Of Dice and Men" and adventures... and water?



Earlier this week, I completed a poster design for a play titled "Of Dice and Men," written by friend and fellow actor Cameron McNary. The play is having a staged reading at the PAX East convention in Boston, MA on March 27th. Tickets are needed to attend the convention, but the reading itself is free of charge.

The show is "a blisteringly funny and deeply affecting play about a group of 30-something Dungeons & Dragons players, and what happens when one of them enlists to go to Iraq." Cameron created Critical Threat Theatre, a company designed to show "great plays... about geeks." The founders of the company are Cameron McNary, his wife, Maureen McNary, and friend and fellow-producer-actor Tara Garwood, whom some of you may recognize as one of the founders of Molotov Theater.

This past weekend, the Frederick News Post reviewed my current show: "The Amazing Interactive Adventure" at Maryland Ensemble Theatre. If you haven't checked out the show yet, we have three more performances on Saturdays at 2pm: 3/13, 3/27, and 4/3 (no show on March 20th). A blurb about the show is also featured on the Frederick News Posts' "Go and Do" segment.

Coming up this week I'm tech-ing and performing in "Water Water Everywhere," a collaboration between the National Children's Museum and Discovery Theater. I previously worked with the National Children's Museum in summer 2008 for "The Truth About Bunny" at the National Harbor. "Water Water Everywhere" goes up March 18th and 19th at the National Museum of Natural History in the Sant Ocean Hall. There are three shows each day at 10:15am, 11:15am, and 12:15pm.

I'll also be doing makeup for a short film coming up next month. More news about that as it comes up!

Class-wise, I've been continuing my sessions at the Center for Movement Theatre since the end of February with Dody DiSanto's Neutral Mask Comprehensive 2 class. We're getting into some more nitty gritty aspects of Neutral Mask which is making every Tuesday night a pretty exciting time for me. There's nothing quite like coming off a long day of work and being able to "divest yourself" and work freely in movement.

That's about everything for the moment, catch you all next time!

-Vanessa
www.vanessastrickland.net