Archive for August, 2012

The Time Is Now: We Want to Hear from You

Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to catch some of the great press we’ve received this week. American Theatre Magazine and Salon.com both did stories… and we’re pushing hard to keep the spotlight focused on our collective efforts.

This goal is two-fold: 1) We want to get more attention for the Festival in general–because we firmly believe in the impact the experience can have on the audience. We are dedicated to voter engagement, critical reflection and discourse, and the power of theatre to incite action and change. 2) We want everyone to know what you – each individual production or entity, each band of artists - are doing because there is great strength and infinite variety in who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Every story is important… and we’re hoping to find ways to share every single one of them through our various efforts and channels.

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Ithaca College… READY to join the Festival

When you go to their website, Ithaca College’s branding suggests that being “ready” is a big deal. This year, a band of theatre students is ready to mount 44 Plays for 44 Presidents on their second stage.

We’ve decided nothing will stop them, so they’re in.

I’ve always wanted to visit Ithaca, ever since an old friend of mine (who had been banished to my college for reasons I can’t remember) that it was amazing. Also…if the bumper stickers are correct, Ithaca is apparently gorges.

They’ve chosen Calvin Coolidge , a.k.a. Silent Call, as their contribution to the video project. While full disclosure forces me to admit that they picked him because he was their only choice, he does have some New York ties, however thin. He campaigned once for President Harding in New York during the first election in which women could vote. And he was also once the director of the New York Life Insurance Company.

We’re glad you’re ready to join us, Ithaca. We can’t wait to see you sing and play guitar!

What is Neo-Futurism?

As several productions being to ramp up, Jeff Mosser asked Andy Bayiates to help define Neo-Futurism. Enjoy!

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My favorite definition of Neo-Futurism is:

“You are who you are; you are where you are; you are doing what you are doing; the time is now.”

Before Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, (the biggest hit Neo-Futurist show) we’d often tell an audience, “We don’t play characters; we don’t ask you to suspend your disbelief; there’s no fourth wall.”

That’s all pretty accurate. It’s also mostly an impossible ideal.

Neo-Futurism is something you strive for as hard as you can, but you’ll never (or very rarely) achieve it because there’s something inherently false about any rehearsed moment.

I look at it this way: If you say to yourself, “How can this be as honest as possible?” you’re  on the right track. If you say to yourself, “We can pretend this is pee in a jar, no one will know,” then you’re on the wrong track. (Yes. There is real pee in Neo-Futurism.) (more…)

Tell Us Why You Vote

So a little while back I mentioned a project we were working on behind the scenes… which is now ready to be revealed and made loads better and more exciting by you!

We’ve created a new YouTube channel for a project aimed at getting people to vote this year. The project (and channel) is The “I” in Election – and the whole purpose of it is to hear why you, on a personal level, choose to vote.

A few Festival staff members have videos up already… and we’re throwing this out to you to ask for your help and participation in filling this baby to the brim.

Here’s how you can join in…

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Andy Thomas: Storyteller

Posted on: by Jeff 1 Comment

Andy Thomas is an American fine arts painter from Carthage, Missouri. His paintings have earned him the title of “Storyteller” as his pieces bring you into an adventure or narrative already in progress. We at the Plays for Presidents Festival, of course, are thoroughly engrossed in his political pieces including his latest, “Callin’ the Blue” (see below) and “Callin’ the Red.”

Andy Thomas' "Callin' the Blue" http://www.andythomas.com/

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Shop Talk: Movement and Dance in 44 Plays for 44 Presidents

Posted on: by genevra 2 Comments

One of the important aspects of tackling 44 Plays for 44 Presidents from the producing/directing side is to know that it was borne of The Neo-Futurist aesthetic and was heavily influenced by the structure and pacing of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.

Every writer was familiar with that medium, and we all understood at the outset that part of our writing challenge was to create 44 (at the time 43) distinct plays that were short yet complete. Individual pieces that could stand alone but were more powerful as a cohesive collection of snapshots that, strung together, created a powerful collage of presidential history in the U.S.

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Branding the Presidents

Meg Jannott decided to do 44 Brands for 44 Presidents as a project for herself, and in the zeitgeist of the election she’s gotten a lot of attention. The Festival decided to endorse her work with our own seal of approval. 

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Jeff Mosser: What inspired you?

 

Meg Jannott: I really just wanted to do something that wasn’t school driven or client driven. Something I could put some of my free time into which was also design. And I wanted something that still had parameters and guidelines around it. I couldn’t do a daily regimen, but something that comes in numbers — like a series. Then I just started brainstorming and came up with the presidents.

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ArtsCenter Out Reach

The ArtsCenter in North Carolina has a lot going on. Director of the ArtsCenter stage Jeri Lynn Schulke and Marketing Director Adam Graetz shed some light on it!

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Jeff Mosser: How long has ArtsCenter been around?

Jeri Lynn Schulke: Since ’74 – it’s kind of an establishment here. It started as one painting class – the art school was the first iteration, then I think theatre, then concerts. It began to grow organically. We offer everything from classes to concerts, national touring theater, and we present our own. And we provide after school programs — so theatre isn’t just one area of the ArtsCenter.

JM: How does 44 Plays fit into your programming?

JLS: I’ve only had this job for a little while, and I’m an actor by trade, so I’ve never felt like, “Oh I want to do this or that play.” So it was a learning curve for me. It was about 3-4 months ago that I realized the shows I was looking at were all similar — historical in some regard — and newer… I thought, “wow those are all based on history!” We’ve got a sophisticated and smart community. Canvas-tote bagging, NPR listeners. I think this will really target them. Plus, there’s comedy and across the board it’s for a broad audience. (more…)

Register Thyself

This week Rock the Vote shared important information about voter registration deadlines. Basically, the window for specific types of registration is closing in some states… so it’s important to consider the following:

Are you registered? (Are you sure?!)
Are you voting with an absentee ballot?
Have you recently changed your name, address, or party affiliation? 

Every state’s rules and regs are different, which means anyone planning to vote has got to track down the correct information for his or her area of the country. Luckily, the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is ready to help. Check out their fun, interactive map and learn not only what you need to know to vote, but also how to get involved at the polls.

And, of course, Rock the Vote has oodles of info as well. Check our their FAQs and marvel at the plethora of good info.

In the meantime, we want to share with you that we’re working on a top secret, voter-themed project we’ll be revealing soon—because the next step is getting all of you to participate. Stay tuned for more details… and get thee registered, my friends!