Filed under: TheatreNow! Artists | Tags: Cate Cammarata, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, TheatreNow! Artists
TheatreNow! Intern Cate Cammarata has created a comprehensive list of leading universities with women’s studies and theatre departments. I will use her research shortly to promote the program as an oral history series. Cate is a second-year MFA candidate at SUNY – Stony Brook, and writes reviews for www.nytheatre.com.
Filed under: Season One, Yvette Heyliger, Yvonne Farrow | Tags: African-American Theatre, Producer, Yvette Heyliger, Yvonne Farrow
| Here is a message from Yvette and Yvonne, partners at Twinbiz, and the subjects of TheatreNow! Season One, Episode Seven, describing their experience receiving a national award for their producing work. These groundbreaking and multitalented artists have been recognized for their innovation.
From Yvette and Yvonne:On August 1, 2011, with 25+ productions under our belt, Yvette and I received the first ever National Black Theatre Festival ‘Emerging Producer’ Awardin its 22 year history. It was amazing being in the company of, and honored alongside, the best of the best African American producers, performers, designers, playwrights, directors, philanthropists, humanitarians, living legends and stars of stage and screen. For our colleagues, friends, family and patrons unable to attend, we’d like to share our acceptance speeches and express our love and gratitude to YOU for all your support over the years. Yvonne & Yvette |
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Yvonne’s Acceptance Speech
 Thank you, Mrs. Hamlin, co-directors, the board, staff, volunteers and supporters of the National Black Theatre Festval.If necessity is the mother of invention, then producing is her second born.
Producing for Twinbiz first began out of necessity – Yvette and I getting our works done by any means necessary – and grew into a craft we love and are empowered by.
To artists everywhere, I say: Don’t sit around praying to God, hoping someone will produce your work. Spirit can only do for you what it can do thorough you. With God as your ‘silent’ partner, know that you are equipped and well able.
I’d especially like to thank my partner and twin sister, Yvette Heyliger, without whom Twinbiz would not exist; my husband, Larry Farrow (aka Piano Man Productions), who has supported many of our projects both financially and through his music; my mentor, Steve Duncan, a television writer/producer and creator of the hit show, Tour of Duty, who taught me the craft of screen writing, pitching and the art of the deal; publicist and producer, the late Gay Iris Parker who believed in our first major production, Homegirl, which became our first prouction here at the NBTF.
And finally to Larry Leon Hamlin, who over the years, would pick up the phone to call me in LA just to say hi, chat about the industry, or check in with how Twinbiz was doing. Life is spirit. Spirit is eternal. Thank you, Mr. Hamlin.
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Yvette’s Acceptance Speech
Women playwrights receive less than 20% of production opportunities in the American Theatre nationwide. Women playwrights of color receive even less than half of that, somewhere around 7% and as low as 1%.So what to do? The answer to that question is what makes the Emerging Producer Award so important.In 2001 Yvonne and I were the new kids on the block. Larry Leon gave a woman playwright, yours truly, and two women producers a shot on his national stage alongside well-established theatre companies, not once but four times!Thank you to Larry Leon for making this day possible; to Lawrence Evans who introduced Twinbiz to the festival; to Sylvia, Mable and Gerry for ensuring this great legacy continues for future generations of producers and theatre artists. Thank you to Voza Rivers and Woodie King, Jr. who have provided Twinbiz with advice on producing over the years; to my sister and partner Yvonne, her husband Larry, and my husband Donald.And finally, thank you to fellow honoree, Samm-Art Williams who encouraged me to write my first play and started me on this journey.
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About the NBTF’s Emerging Producer Award
The National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF), founded by the late Larry Leon Hamlin, has been held biennially since 1989. The event attracts thousands of national and international patrons, theatre professionals and scholars to Winston-Salem. Approximately 35 companies are selected to perform during the week for a total of over 100 performances.
The NBTF Emerging Producer Award was created to celebrate the achievements of rising theatrical producers, to encourage their continued growth in the industry, and to bring about the awareness of the need to both reach back to acknowledge those independent producers who have been in the trenches presenting work “by any means necessary,” as well as to inspire and raise-up new producers of color. This award ensures the health, longevity and future of Black Theatre, work for its theatre artists, and the continued inclusion of black plays in the canon of American Theatre. For more information visit www.nbtf.org.
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Filed under: Paule Constable, Season Two | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, Lighting Designer, NYC Theatre, Tony Award Winner, UK Theatre
On Saturday, I recorded a wonderful TheatreNow! segment with Paule Constable, a lighting designer whose interview will comprise Episode Three of Season Two.
Paule is now lighting three shows at the Metropolitan Opera – new productions of DON GIOVANNI and ANNA BOLENA, and a revivial of Philip Glass’s SATYAGRAHA. She discusses her experience working at the Met, her preparation for her collaboration on WAR HORSE, for which she won the 2011 Tony (R) Award for Best Lighting for a Play, and she gives us a primer on the properties and creative uses of light.
I am now preparing the transcript and will post it shortly. After editing, the podcast will follow.
Please check back shortly to hear this wonderful interview, or subscribe to my blog and the podcast and transcript will come to your inbox!
All the Best!
Filed under: Laura Maria Censabella, Season Two, TheatreNow! Artists | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Columbia University School of the Arts, Dramaturg, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Hamilton Dramaturgy, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, Italian-American literature, Laura Maria Censabella, NYC Theatre, Playwright, Romulus Linney
Laura Maria Censabella is a playwright, screenwriter, television writer and professor. She speaks about her Italian-American upbringing, her studies at Yale, and the way she “gives voice to the voiceless”.
(Season Two, Episode Two, Recorded February, 2011)
Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! Interview with Laura Maria Censabella
Please enjoy the interview!
Read the transcript for the Interview here.
