Tag Archive for: Ed Herendeen

LIDLESS AT 2010 FESTIVAL

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“People should not be allowed to haunt other people”cries Bashir, the tortured former prisoner of Guantanamo Bay in LIDLESS, the new play by Frances Ya- Chu Cowhig. LIDLESS is receiving simultaneous World Premiers in England and in the United States at the Contemporary American Theater Festival.

The Yale Drama Series awarded its third annual David C. Horn Prize to LIDLESS. Dramatist and screenwriter David Hare, the judge of the Yale contest, selected Cowhig’s play out of 650 applicants. He writes: “LIDLESS was the clear winner, an extraordinary and original attempt to show the enduring strain on the victims of the U.S.’s deployment of torture at Guantanamo.”

 Here is a quote from David  Hare’s May 3rd 2010 column in the Guardian:

 ” Getting away from the campaign trail to catch a new play has a more lasting impact than anything offered by politicians…I have to declare an interest. For two years I was the judge of the Yale Drama Series, which offers a $10,000 prize and a reading at Yale to a hithero unpublished play. The most interesting aspect of this duty has been to realize how, at the grassroots, playwriting is so completely dominated by women…This vitality is not yet reflected in the repertory of major theatres. The parallel with contemporary politics is obvious. Structures are slow to recognize energy when it comes from below…It is not my job to review Ya-Chu Cowhig’s play LIDLESS. But I can say it is set in the US, sometime in the future. Acts of torture at Guantanamo have entered the American bloodstream and had unforeseen repercussions for years after. Because the action embodies the consequences of parents’ invasive behaviour on their own children, it makes a far more lasting impact than anything offered from politicians in this election on the subject of war or generational damage.”

Rehearsals for our 2010 Season begin on June 8th. We are in the pre-production phase. I have been communicating with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig via email. She is currently in China.

Ed Herendeen

eelwaxjesus 2010

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EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW a CATF World Premiere

EELWAX Jesus began as a simple collaboration of two actors improvising songs. Those actors Lee Sellars and Max Baker were from Opp, Alabama and London, England. They met doing a play in Skokie, Illinois in 1992. Lee Sellars has appeared in many CATF productions. He grew up amid the Southern-based rhythms of Country, while Max ran around the edge of the London punk scene in the mid-70’s. By 1986, however (and purely haphazardly), Lee was studying in London and Max moved to Durant Oklahoma. The cross-pollination of cultures would emerge years later in New York City.

During the late 90’s and early part of the 21st Century, Max and Lee created a plethora of songs in an ever-evolving musical style. This collaboration has given birth to a new alternative music/theater performance: THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW.

Max and Lee invited me to attend a concert Reading of their new musical last November. I was blown away by this work and offered to produce the World Premiere at The CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL in 2010. Pat McCorkle, CATF Casting Director and I have just completed casting this amazing new work. Robert Klingelhoefer, CATF Set Designer has been collaborating  with Max and Lee on the set design. We are beginning the pre-production work with Paul Black, CATF Lighting Designer; David Remedios,CATF Sound Designer and Patrick Wallace, CATF Technical Director.

Rehearsal for the 2010 rotating five play Repertory will begin on June 8th. We are all looking forward to giving birth to this exciting new work.

For a preview of some of the music go to www.eelwaxjesus.com . Please click and listen…then send me your comments.

Ed Herendeen

PRELIMINARY SKETCHES FOR INANA

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I want to share with you Robert Klingelhoefer’s preliminary sketches for the Set Design for INANA by Michele Lowe.

Ed Herendeen

PASSION FOR NEW WORK

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We are the CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL. We are the theater of today…the theater of the Now. We are producing five new American plays in rotating repertory that are present and immediate. This is who we are, what we are and how we will be remembered by future generations. We are responsible for helping to create the destiny of the American theater. We are paying attention to the world. We are listening to contemporary writers who are attuned to our world and whose stories help us define these tumultuous times.

The artists at the Contemporary American Theater Festival are united by their passion for new work. We are united by newness. We are united by this quote from American playwright Steven Dietz (CATF 2009):

“The theater is not about nostalgia. The theater is not a museum. Plays don’t hang on walls, oblivious to time. The theater is a rehearsal of the present moment.”

Great stories beg to be told. And true artists are compelled to tell them. Playwrights are the theater’s storytellers. Max Baker, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Jennifer Haley, Michele Lowe, J.T. Rogers and Lee Sellars are the storytellers of the 2010 Repertory. Their stories will broaden our minds, engage, provoke, inspire and ultimately connect us.

I have selected five new plays by these six artists… because they have written original stories that embody an independent spirit and a distinctive voice. They believe in the power of story. They believe in the power of sharing the most private of feelings in the most public of spaces–the theater. They are not afraid to confront pain and difference, conflict and joy, in the safe environment of the theater.

We all share a passionate belief that we can grow as a society only if we find the strength to confront and consider ideas and issues that may make us uncomfortable. We share the belief that a community without art has no voice, no memory of our stories and aspirations…a community without art is no community at all.

 I believe that making art…making theater…especially in this moment… is a form of social activism. It is a statement of belief in the power of community.

I have always believed that a contemporary theater must aggressively go to the edges of society and tell the stories that no one else will tell. To involve people at the deepest level…we need stories. Stories fulfill a profound human need to grasp the patterns of living–not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience. To do this we must engage our audience with the power of story. We must engage their emotions…AND…the key to their hearts is a story.

Please share your ideas and comments with me.

Ed Herendeen