We’re On the Air!
And we are on the air! Tune in and listen to my play, Mundy Tuesday Friday, on this podcast! It’s free and available now at these fine podcast websites: https://rss.com/podcasts/theatrical-shenanigans/… https://open.spotify.com/show/54qD1COB9WRnH4HMrq142H…
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0505ca3d-8b2e-46db-b487-5a63ea96f628/theatrical-shenanigans
https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087550385392
Mundy Tuesday Wednesday and Curtain Call
I’m looking forward to this. I hope you’ll tune in. So many of my friends on LI can’t get to a theater where my plays have been performed, so here’s a perfect way to experience one of them from the comfort of your own home. It’s free and the plays are archived in case you make it on the debut night.
My play, Mundy Tuesday Wednesday is presented as a radio play beginning Sunday, January 15 produced by Theatrical Shenanigans. Here’s a link: https://lnkd.in/gFNtXHJF
Mundy Tuesday Friday was a comedy play I wrote when I got back into theater. I had this idea for a play about this group of people and it just wouldn’t leave me. I wasn’t actively writing at the time, so to have this one idea just stay with me seemed important. It was if the jokes poured out of me. I wrote it. It seemed good to me and then I had to figure out what to do with it. That, friends, led me to discover the “joys” of submitting plays to theater groups all over the world.
I’m still doing it four years later, still writing plays and trying to get them produced. I’ve been fortunate to have had a few plays performed outright by theater companies here in the U.S., and recently, had one of my plays performed in the UK (Theatrical Shenanigans, who is producing this play, is also based in the UK. I may have to move). I’ve also had several Zoom productions, during the shut-down, and have had many staged readings.
Following this production, I am directing my play, Curtain Call, for The Drama Workshop’s Home Brew VI, here in Cincinnati (Cheviot, actually), Ohio. We open January 20. This is a play about the theater and actors, and I have a wonderful cast. It’s also very funny. Tickets are at thedramaworkshop.org and they will sell out, so plan accordingly. #theater #playwright #director
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My Play, Curtain Call, Will Be Produced
I’ll be directing my own play, Curtain Call, for The Drama Workshop’s Home Brew series January 20-22, in Cheviot, Ohio (Cincinnati metro).
Details are here: https://thedramaworkshop.org
Curtain Call is my tribute to Noel Coward and Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. During rehearsals for Design for Living in 1932, Noel wasn’t used to working with the perfectionists Lunts, who changed things liberally before opening night. I wanted to give my interpretations.
Curtain Call Gets Another Performance
My play, Curtain Call, about two actors who are quitting a show because their performance isn’t up to their high standards (ok, it’s really about the Lunts) will be part of the North Street Playhouse production on Nov 5 & 6, in VA. http://northstreetplayhouse.org #theater #Broadway
The Playhouse is located in Virginia, 34 Market Street, Onancock, VA 23417. I wish I could be there.
Look at some of my earlier posts nearby to read about Curtain Call. It’s very witty. It’s really about Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and Noel Coward.
Thoughts on “Curtain Call”
(My play, Curtain Call, a comedy about famous actors worrying about their performances, will be part of PlayZoomers evening of live, online theater, Friday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m., ET, and Saturday, October 23, at 9:30 p.m., ET. Tickets are on Eventbrite. Visit www.playzoomers.org for more info. I hope to “see” you there.)
Thoughts on “Curtain Call”
I posted on Facebook the fact that a play I have written called “Curtain Call” is being performed later in October. I mentioned that the play is about actors who are worried that their performances weren’t up to their usual standards.
That resulted in a friend of mine commenting that “Are people really interested in what actors think?”
Fair question. I never really thought of it that way. “Curtain Call” is what we call a “backstage” comedy, revealing the behind-the-scenes action. It’s a device that gives us the true motives of the actors performing in a play that are often far different than what they present on stage. Plenty of playwrights have used this backstage contrivance to advance their play, such as “The Royal Family” by Kaufman and Ferber, “Present Laughter” by Noel Coward, “Noises Off” by Michael Frayen, “A Chorus Line” by Hamlisch, Kleban, Kirkwood and Dante, “Kiss Me Kate” by the Spewacks and Cole Porter. Now perhaps I shouldn’t compare my play to those above, but the principle is the same. Audiences will care what actors think as long as it’s entertaining them.
Providing the entertainment in “Curtain Call” are three actors, two of them who are based on the true antics of perhaps the greatest acting team in American theater, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and the other is based on Noel Coward. They were perfectionists, constantly talking about their roles, day and night, and how to improve their characterizations. On the day before one of their long-running shows was about to close, Lynn mentioned to Alfred that she was going to change an inflection on how she delivered one of her lines to get a bigger laugh.
In “Curtain Call,” my character, Lydia Francis, ever the perfectionist, tells her husband, Allen Hart and the playwright, Neil Collins, just how Allen threw off her performance.
Lydia
It started in Act One.
Allen
Scene Five.
Neil
The lunch scene.
Lydia
Yes. Allen placed the glass on wrong side of the serving tray.
Allen
I don’t know what got into me. A total lack of concentration, I suppose.
Lydia
That concerned me.
Neil
Oh, it concerned you, did it?
Lydia
Yes. I saw it right away. Of course, I looked at Allen and saw the terror in his eyes. That threw me. I panicked as well and before I knew it, my head was moving back and forth as I delivered the lines.
Neil
Back and forth?
Lydia
Ever so slightly.
Allen
But it threw me off. I nearly forgot to serve the finger sandwiches at the proper time.
Neil
I don’t know how you ever recovered.
Allen
I didn’t. I was thinking about it for the rest of the play.
Hopefully, that answers the question “are we interested in what actors think”. We need to look at them as not just actors, but as characters about which we care and take an interest and laugh at their hard-driven perfectionism.
I hope many of you will “stop by” to see the play. I think you’ll enjoy it.
New Plays
In 2020, who knew what would happen? In January, Lily Blossoms, or Modern Subdivision Zoning in the Present Day was given a staged reading through the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative. Also, a monologue from Lily Blossoms was performed by Darkhorse Dramatists in Syracuse, New York.
The Sequel to Citizen Kane was given a reading in March 2020 by Miami (of Ohio) University’s Miami Writes program. And then everything shut down. As a director, I had six shows canceled, hopefully to be rescheduled. One play I was going to direct, Let’s Murder Marsha, has been rescheduled for 2022.
In October 2020, The Janus Circle was performed via Zoom by the Philadelphia Screenwriters performance group.
The Sequel to Citizen is scheduled for November 2020, performed via Zoom by New City Players in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Tonight’s the Night: My New Play is Performed
It all happens tonight! I hope to see you there.
Playwright Steven G. Martin says in a recommendation: “ Sophisticated humor — through wit, wordplay, and charm — infuse this light, one-act comedy set in 1950s New York. Hatfield clearly understands and enjoys the high-brow charm of shows of this period, and has created a group of characters — world wearing magazine writers, a misled wife, and a tortured editor — that fits right in. Stylish and enchanting. ”
PREMIERE OF LILY BLOSSOMS, OR MODERN SUBDIVISION ZONING IN THE PRESENT DAY, AT THE ARONOFF CENTER, JANUARY 14
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative New Voices series presents the premiere of Lily Blossoms, or Modern Subdivision Zoning in the Present Day by Greg Hatfield, in a staged reading, on Tuesday, January 14th, 2020, at 7:30 p.m., at the Fifth Third Bank Theater in the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut Street, in Downtown Cincinnati.
This sophisticated comedy is set in New York City in 1954. Lily Palmer and Theodore Barkley, the star writers for Manhattan magazine, are the very best of friends. Hating their present assignments, they decide to mix things up a bit to the consternation of their editor. Barkley has also been moonlighting as an actor and gets an offer from a movie studio in Hollywood. This could break up the team and his marriage.
Cincinnati community theater lovers will recognize this cast: Cathy Jo Judge, Darren Lee, Peggy Allen and Chris Bishop, as all are very familiar faces throughout the city, working consistently on plays and musicals with every theater company.
The playwright and director, Greg Hatfield, is no slouch, either. For years, he was a writer, actor and director in Dr. Browndog’s Moneytime, a theatrical comedy troupe in Cincinnati. His other plays have been performed by companies in Cincinnati, Kansas City, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.
Tickets are now on sale at https://www.cincinnatiarts.org/events/detail/cpi-ghost-girl or the Aronoff Box Office. Tickets are $10.00. There is another play, The Ghost Girl by Ariel Rodgers, also performed that night.
For more information, go to cincinnatiarts.org or cincyplaywrights.org.
PREMIERE OF LILY BLOSSOMS, OR MODERN SUBDIVISION ZONING IN THE PRESENT DAY, AT THE ARONOFF CENTER, JANUARY 14
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact
Greg Hatfield, greghatfield@yahoo.com
PREMIER OF LILY BLOSSOMS, OR MODERN SUBDIVISION ZONING IN THE PRESENT DAY, AT THE ARONOFF CENTER, JANUARY 14
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative New Voices series presents the premiere of Lily Blossoms, or Modern Subdivision Zoning in the Present Day by Greg Hatfield, in a staged reading, on Tuesday, January 14th, 2020, at 7:30 p.m., at the Fifth Third Bank Theater in the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut Street, in Downtown Cincinnati.
This sophisticated comedy is set in New York City in 1954. Lily Palmer and Theodore Barkley, the star writers for Manhattan magazine, are the very best of friends. Hating their present assignments, they decide to mix things up a bit to the consternation of their editor. Barkley has also been moonlighting as an actor and gets an offer from a movie studio in Hollywood. This could break up the team and his marriage.
Cincinnati community theater lovers will recognize this cast: Cathy Jo Judge, Darren Lee, Peggy Allen and Chris Bishop, as all are very familiar faces throughout the city, working consistently on plays and musicals with every theater company.
The playwright and director, Greg Hatfield, is no slouch, either. For years, he was a writer, actor and director in Dr. Browndog’s Monkeytime, a theatrical comedy troupe in Cincinnati. His other plays have been performed by companies in Cincinnati, Kansas City, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.
Tickets are now on sale at https://www.cincinnatiarts.org/events/detail/cpi-ghost-girl or the Aronoff Box Office. Tickets are $10.00. There is another play, The Ghost Girl by Ariel Rodgers, also performed that night.
For more information, go to cincinnatiarts.org, cincyplaywrights.org and greghatfield.com.
Modern Subdivision Zoning in the Present Day
My comedy monologue, Modern Subdivision Zoning in the Present Day, will be performed as part of “Tales from the Script Festival” from Darkhorse Dramatists, on November 1 and 2, at 8:00 p.m., at the Ti-Ahwaga Performing Arts Center, in Owega, New York.
Adam Ruff performs the monologue, directed by Cat Robinson.
Cincinnati audiences will get a chance to see it on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, when the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative presents my play, Lily Blossoms, or Modern Subdivision Zoning in the Present Day, at the Fifth Third Bank Theater in the Aronoff Center. More details on that to come.
Play Reading of The Great Stalinski
My play, The Great Stalinski, will be given a reading by the Pittsburgh New Works Reading Series, on Monday, November 5.
The Reading Series will be be held at Higher Voice Studios, 144 E Main St, Carnegie, PA 15106, at 7:00 p.m. Their website is https://pittsburghnewworks.org/reading-series/
The Great Stalinski was selected as a finalist for the Pittsburgh New Works Festival in 2018, but just didn’t make the final cut of 18 produced plays. Out of hundreds of submissions, my play and about 39 others were finalists. The Reading Series is taking the plays that didn’t make it and giving them a reading over the course of the winter with local actors.
Of course I’m thrilled to be included.
The Great Stalinski is a personal favorite of my plays, as it started what I call “The Cabot Trilogy.” Let me explain: The play is about the third generation of Cabot actors who are gathered together for the funeral the “World’s Greatest Shakespearean Actor,” Gregor Stalinski. Brothers Jack and Monty and sister Veronica Cabot were close to Stalinski (especially Veronica) and they meet up at Jack’s theater to travel together to the funeral. The Cabots are theater royalty and the play is really a fun piece about theater history and fame.
So after writing it, that got me to thinking about the other generations of Cabots and I wrote a play about Jack, Monty and Veronica’s parents called Three Sisters in Repertory. I love that play. The characters are great. We meet Charles Cabot, their father, and three sisters, Virginia, Eve and Roz Fleming. I’m guessing that one of them becomes their mother. Again, theater history is evident as scenes are played from Pygmalion, Hamlet and The Importance of Being Earnest.
So I had to write a play about the First Generation of Cabots and I wrote the first act of what would become The Cabots of Broadway, where we meet Kate and John Cabot, who start the whole family on a theatrical career.
Act Two is Three Sister in Repertory and Act Three is The Great Stalinski. I’m really proud of this play and have been sending it out religiously.
As always, my plays are on New Play Exchange. I’m sorry more of you can’t see or read the plays just yet, but I’m working on it. It’s hard work.
Greg Hatfield: Ruminations 