Filed under: Anne Hamilton, Catherine Filloux, Claire Lautier, Fractured Atlas, Fran Tarr, Jennifer Tipton, Judith Malina, Kamilah Forbes, Kate Valk, Kristin Marting, Laura Maria Censabella, Margo Jefferson, Maria Alexandria Beech, Murielle Borst Tarrant, Paule Constable, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Rae Smith, Ruth Margraff, Season One, Season Three, Season Two, TheatreNow! Artists, Valentina Fratti, Yvette Heyliger, Yvonne Farrow | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Hamilton Dramaturgy, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com
2013 was a year in which I worked on building TheatreNow!’s platform.
We have expanded internationally as well as in the U.S., and now have Representatives for many areas:
US Representative: Cate Cammarata
Asia Representative: Walter Byongsok Chon
UK Representative: Natalie Pandya
South America Representative: Thais Flaitt
Young Audience Development Representative: Danica Rodriguez
In April, Natalie, a recent Oxford University graduate (St. Catherine’s College), corresponded with leading UK universities and conservatories about the podcast, laying the groundwork for greater dissemination there. Natalie now works for the BBC.
During the summer, Danica, a rising senior at the prestigious Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School in Manhattan, created a proposal for introducing the podcast to young adults and theatre aficionados.
In December, I invited Thais Flaitt, a recent M.A. graduate of the University of Nebraska Omaha, to serve as our South America representative. A native of Brazil, Thais is a skilled scholar, director, and translator.
Several hundred people have listened to the audio postings on the Soundcloud site. In addition, the TheatreNow! blog (https://theatrenow.wordpress.com) drew visitors from 57 countries, and the top podcasts viewed were with Paule Constable and Jennifer Tipton, lighting designers.
The TheatreNow! website (http://hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com) continues to attract many visitors. Helaine’s design and archiving expertise show off the podcasts well.
2014 will bring an expansion of the program, and a posting of new podcasts, including Maria Alexandria Beech, Murielle Borst Tarrant, and Judith Malina, to complete Season Three.
Thank you for all your support and I am looking forward to expanding the program in 2014.
Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Filed under: Anne Hamilton, Maria Alexandria Beech, Season Three | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Hamilton Dramaturgy, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, Maria Alexandria Beech, New work, NYC, NYC Theatre, Playwright, Season Three, Theatre, TheatreNow! Artists
Congratulations to Maria Alexandria Beech, whose new play HOMEBODIES will be read tomorrow in New York City. Alex was a guest on Season Three of TheatreNow! You can read a transcript of the interview at http://hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com/season-three/maria-alexandria-beech/
You’re invited to a reading of
HOMEBODIES
By Alex Beech
Directed by Michelle Bossy
The cast includes Socorro Santiago, Florencia Lozano, Cathy Curtin, Omar Koury, and Jorge Cordova
Primary Stages Studio, 307 W 38th St, #1510
Sunday, April 28th, 3pm
It’s a sort of farce. About upstairs/downstairs neighbors in a brownstone.
To rsvp, write readings@primarystages.org
Filed under: Maria Alexandria Beech, Season One, TheatreNow! Artists | Tags: Adaptations, Anne Hamilton, Columbia University School of the Arts, Hamilton Dramaturgy, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com, Maria Alexandria Beech, Maria Irene Fornes, Musicals, NYU, Season One, Women Theatre Artists
Profile of Maria Alexandria Beech
By Anne M. Hamilton, MFA
Maria Alexandria Beech is a playwright and librettist living in New York. She has written over fifteen full-length plays, several as a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages Theatre, which co-produced her play LITTLE MONSTERS at Brandeis Theatre Company. Her full-length musical titled CLASS, with Karl Michael Johnson, was presented in a reading in May, 2012 at NYU.
AH: Alex, I know that you hold an MFA from Columbia University. Now you have a second, this time from NYU.
MB: It’s in musical theatre writing. It is a true honor. One would think that writing a musical and writing a play are similar processes, but in fact they’re not. They each require their own craft and their own knowledge base.
AH: What is CLASS about?
MB: It’s based on a play that I wrote in the writers group at Primary Stages, about a girl who is struggling with alcoholism and she signs up for a summer school class in New Orleans in 1987. And so this girl walks into the situation, and the professor has recently learned that she doesn’t have much longer to live.
It was a real challenge to adapt as a musical, in the sense that it is very much a play as it exists. It was an homage not only to a professor that I had, who was dying of cancer and who had to face students who wanted to use her illness against her, but it was an homage to professors and teachers I had had growing up.
AH: Tell us about your reading at NYU.
One of the things that I learned is that musical theatre is still very much about that well-made musical, that traditional structure of the well-made musical, and the opening number and the closing number. One of my goals is to still honor that tradition, but kind of also do other things and explore more. [I’d like to] not look at the book or the dialogue just as a bridge between the songs. I think the songs could be little kind of poems that stand alone.
Anne Hamilton has 22 years of experience in the professional theatre in NYC, across the nation, and internationally. She is available for script consultations and career advising through hamiltonlit@hotmail.com. Season Three of Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! launched with an interview with Kate Valk, a leading actress with The Wooster Group.
Download the interview here: BCWJ Profile of Maria Alexandria Beech by Anne Hamilton
Filed under: Anne Hamilton, Maria Alexandria Beech, Season Three, TheatreNow! Artists | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Columbia University School of the Arts, Hamilton Dramaturgy, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com, Librettist, Lyricist, Maria Alexandria Beech, Maria Irene Fornes, NYC Theatre, Playwright, Season Three, TheatreNow! Artists
Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! is a podcast series featuring some of the most exciting women artists working in the theatre today. Anne Hamilton is the producer and host. You may listen to the podcasts and read the transcripts at http://hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com
(Season 3, Episode 4, Recorded July 10, 2012)
Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! Interview with Maria Alexandria Beech
Maria Alexandria Beech is a playwright and librettist living in New York. She has written over fifteen full-length plays, several as a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages Theatre, which co-produced her play LITTLE MONSTERS at Brandeis Theatre Company. Her full-length musical titled CLASS, with Karl Michael Johnson, was presented in a reading in May, 2012 at NYU.
Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Filed under: Anne Hamilton, Jennifer Tipton, Judith Malina, Kamilah Forbes, Kate Valk, Kristin Marting, Margo Jefferson, Maria Alexandria Beech, Murielle Borst Tarrant, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Rae Smith, Season One, Season Three, Season Two, TheatreNow! Artists, Yvette Heyliger, Yvonne Farrow | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Gender Parity, Hamilton Dramaturgy, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com, League of Professional Theatre Women, Season One, Season Three, Season Two, TheatreNow! Artists, Women Theatre Artists
Many thanks to AMERICAN THEATRE magazine (October 2012 – Theatre Communications Group) for publishing a 2-page article on TheatreNow! Margot Melcon wrote an informative and thorough piece on TheatreNow!’s origins, and place in the contemporary gender parity movement.
Download the article here: AMERICAN THEATRE article on TheatreNow! by Margot Melcon (October 2012)
“There’s been a lot of discussion over the past few years about women’s voices being underrepresented in the theatre—there aren’t enough female playwrights being produced, not enough women in executive positions in regional theatres, not enough female directors or roles for female actors. And not enough women speak out as informed, educated, experienced and qualified representatives in the field. Though there has been a flood of discussion about gender disparity, talking doesn’t always lead to action.
But Anne Hamilton isn’t just talking. In response to the acknowledged under-representation that leads to so much frustration, the New York City–based freelance dramaturg, script consultant and playwright has offered up a solution…”
http://hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com
Filed under: Judith Malina, Kate Valk, Margo Jefferson, Maria Alexandria Beech, Murielle Borst Tarrant, Rae Smith, Season Three | Tags: Anne Hamilton, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!, Judith Malina, Kate Valk, Margo Jefferson, Maria Alexandria Beech, Murielle Borst Tarrant, Rae Smith, Season Three, TheatreNow! Artists, Women Theatre Artists
http://hamiltondramaturgystheatrenow.com
Announcing Season Three, coming soon:
Kate Valk, Actress, The Wooster Group
Rae Smith, Set and Costume Designer
Margo Jefferson, Theatre and Cultural Critic
Maria Alexandria Beech, Playwright, Bookwriter and Lyricist
Murielle Borst Tarrant, Playwright, Director and Producer
Judith Malina, Co-Founder, The Living Theatre
Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.