Tony- and Emmy-nominated director and award-winning playwright Moises Kaufman returns to Georgetown University to workshop his a
Part of Arena Stage partnership, events serve as prelude to extensive spring Tenn Cent Fest at Georgetown celebrating the Williams centennial, and New York premiere of Kaufman’s “One Arm” adaptation
Washington, D.C. — Georgetown University Theater and Performances Studies Program in partnership with Arena Stage and in association with Tectonic Theater Project and The New Group presents a staged reading and developmental workshop of One Arm, adapted and directed by Moises Kaufman (33 Variations, I Am My Own Wife, The Laramie Project). The events will be held on Sat., Dec. 18, 2010 at 8 p.m. and Sun., Dec. 19, 2010 at 7 p.m. in the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Gonda Theatre, located on Georgetown University’s main campus. Kaufman’s play 33 Variations was workshopped at Georgetown in the fall of 2006 before its acclaimed runs at Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse and then on Broadway.
This workshop of Kaufman’s adaptation of Williams’ sexually charged potboiler One Arm (which premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater in December 2004), is in advance of its New York premiere in May 2011, produced by The New Group and Tectonic Theater Project. Kaufman also plans to return to Georgetown in the Spring as a participant in Williams’ Centennial Weekend Festivities (March 24–27).
Written in 1946 at the same time Williams was working on The Glass Menagerie, the short story One Arm about a male prostitute who is arrested for murder was adapted as a screenplay in the 1960s, but never made into a movie. The Chicago Tribune called Kaufman’s workshop production of the piece “A fascinating excavation… For Williams aficionados, ‘One Arm’ is required theatergoing.”
Cast for the Georgetown workshop includes Billy Finn (Folger Theatre: Hamlet; Shakespeare Theatre Company: King Lear), Rick Foucheux (Helen Hayes Award for Edmond at Source Theatre Company); Kimberly Gilbert (Woolly Mammoth and Taffety Punk company member); Georgetown alumnus Michael Mitchell (COL ’10); Lee Ordeman (Scena Theatre: The War of the Worlds); and others.
The Dec. 18-19 One Arm workshops are FREE, but ticketed. You can reserve online at http://performingarts.georgetown.edu. Georgetown University’s main campus is located at 3700 O St. NW, in Washington, D.C.
Throughout the spring of 2011, the Davis Performing Arts Center and the Theater and Performance Studies Program at Georgetown University, in partnership with the American Studies Program and Arena Stage, host the Tenn Cent Fest, an expansive celebration of the indelible legacy of work of American master Tennessee Williams on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Including the fully staged productions of The Glass Menagerie and Suddenly, Last Summer, the festival also features readings and workshops of work by Williams, and additional contributions from those whom he has influenced and those who have influenced him. Material will be drawn from the celebrated plays and the obscure and overlooked ones, as well as from short stories, memoirs, letters, essays, screenplays, biographies, parodies, poetry, and musical treatments.
On the Centennial Weekend (March 24–27), a diverse array of many of the world’s leading writers, directors, scholars, and thinkers converge with Georgetown students and members of the campus and DC communities for a major public celebration. Participants include Edward Albee, Christopher Durang, Michael Kahn, Target Margin Theater, and many more. The weekend will feature three days of wall-to-wall events, kicking off with American Studies’ annual Richardson Lecture, featuring Award-winning playwright and American master Edward Albee who will share his perspective on the work and influence of Tennessee Williams, woven in with performances from leading actors from DC and beyond, and continuing with performances, public talks, discussions, readings, a state-of-the-art multimedia exhibit, and much more. Visit http://performingarts.georgetown.edu for updates on Festival programs and guest artists.
The Festival is produced in partnership with Georgetown’s American Studies Program and generously supported by C74. The Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership is made possible thanks to the generosity of Andrew R. Ammerman and the family of H. Max and Josephine F. Ammerman.
Moisés Kaufman is a Tony and Emmy nominated director and award-winning playwright. His plays Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and The Laramie Project have been among the most performed plays in America over the last decade. Mr. Kaufman also directed the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play I Am My Own Wife, earning him an Obie award for his direction as well as Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel nominations. Other recent credits include: 33 Variations (La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage); Macbeth with Liev Schreiber (Public Theater); Lady Windermere’s Fan (Williamstown Theater Festival); This Is How It Goes (Donmar Warehouse); One Arm by Tennessee Williams (Steppenwolf Theater Company); and Master Class with Rita Moreno (Berkeley Repertory Theater). As a writer/ director: Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Joe Callaway Award, GLAAD Media Award); The Laramie Project (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk noms, GLAAD Media Award). Mr. Kaufman also directed the film adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO, which was the opening night selection at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and won the National Board of Review Award, the Humanitas Prize and a Special Mention for Best First Film at the Berlin Film Festival. The film also earned Mr. Kaufman two Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer. He is the Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is a national center dedicated to the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Managing Director Edgar Dobie, Arena Stage is the largest company in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. Arena Stage produces huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute. Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 200,000.
The Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program integrates creative and critical inquiry, emphasizing artistic excellence, interdisciplinary learning, socially engaged performance, and the spirit of collaboration. With a dynamic major in Theater and Performance Studies, the Program features a nationally recognized faculty, including leading scholar/artists, and many of the region’s leading professional theater practitioners. One of the country’s only undergraduate programs in Theater and Performance Studies, this fast-growing program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge student production seasons.
Last season, The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director) presented the critically acclaimed, extended run of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger featuring Matthew Broderick, the sold-out revival of Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind directed by Ethan Hawke, and the world premiere of the new musical The Kid, directed by Scott Elliott. Other recent productions include Ian Bruce’s Groundswell, Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra, Ayub Khan-Din’s Rafta, Rafta…, Jonathan Marc Sherman’s Things We Want, Jay Presson Allen’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Bernard Weinraub’s The Accomplices. Additional standouts include David Rabe’s Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh’s Two Thousand Years, Abigail’s Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn’s The Fever and Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonergan’s This is Our Youth and Kevin Elyot’s Mouth to Mouth and My Night With Reg. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q).
Tectonic Theater Project is an award-winning company whose plays have been performed around the world. The company is dedicated to developing innovative works that explore theatrical language and form, fostering an artistic dialogue with our audiences on the social, political and human issues that affect us all. In service to this goal, Tectonic supports readings, workshops, and full theatrical productions, as well as training for students around the country in our play-making techniques. Tectonic Theater Project was founded in 1991 by Moisés Kaufman and Jeffrey LaHoste. Tectonic refers to the art and science of structure and was chosen to emphasize the company’s interest in construction– how things are made, and how they might be made differently. Its groundbreaking plays, The Laramie Project, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, and I am My Own Wife, have sparked national discourse about their subjects and have inspired artists and audiences worldwide.
Georgetown Contact: Laura Mertens
lmm236@georgetown.edu, 202-687-6933
Arena Stage Contact: Julia Suszynski
press@arenastage.org, 202-600-4056