Great experience with “Flower”

Posted on by

Yesterday, my play “A Flower of the Field” closed at Tyler Civic Theatre Center in Tyler, TX.

I was very blessed to be able to travel and see two performances of the show, as well as meet the directors, the cast, the set designer, and the Managing Director of Tyler Civic Theatre Center.

I can truly say that visiting TCTC was one of the more enjoyable experiences in my time doing theater and I left extremely impressed by the great job everyone did on the show.

I have already written about my happiness with TCTC’s production, but some kind theatregoer left this lovely post on Facebook under a post by the theater reminding people of the closing performance of the play on Sunday:

This is a unique and riveting show! 

Imagine getting on an amusement park ride with no other knowledge than “Bubonic Plague.” Your little train cart immediately moves into darkness and the vaguely anticipated historical themes — I’m picturing a warped “It’s A Small World” — but THEN the ride begins a clackety-clack climb that makes your palms sweat, as you realize the floor is about to drop and you’re in for way more twists and turns than you expected. 

The script is interesting and well-written. 

The directing is spot-on. 

And every actor delivers a strong, engaging performance. 

As a brand new play with a short run, this one might be easy to miss; but, trust me… DON’T!

Comments like that that really push you forward – as a playwright, as an actor, as a director, as anyone involved in the world of theater.

I also thoroughly enjoyed my talkback sessions while I was in Tyler, getting a chance to chat with the audience and with the actors in the play.

I’ll be forever grateful for TCTC giving ”A Flower of the Field” its first set of wings and I look forward to when it can grace the stage again!

Another great show at TCTC!

Posted on by

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing another performance of my drama “A Flower of the Field” performed at Tyler Civic Theatre Center.

I also had the pleasure of conducting another talkback with the audience following the performance and hearing their very valuable feedback.

During this experience, I confess I had an experience I have not had previously in theater, sitting in the audience as the play was concluding and the very last line was spoken and the lights fell – and somewhere in the darkness, though I don’t know where, I heard a woman say under her breath… “AWESOME.”

I must say, this is also my view of the great work done by Tyler Civic Theatre Center and the wonderful cast and crew who made my play come to life.

There are so many people to thank…

  • David Dickerson – for his marvelous directing and deft use of the stage
  • Kevin Willis – for playing the lead role of John Clyn with so much inner strength and humanity
  • Aletha Nelligran – for playing the nefarious Alice Kyteler with such understated evilness
  • Bryan Michels – for changing type to play a villain with such priestly, well-adorned aplomb
  • Heather Hufterson – for playing Mathias O’More with such sing-song Irish smarminess
  • Georgi Dumas – for learning her role in a little under two weeks (!) and yet acting her part with such fervor and feeling
  • Kevin Phillips – for bring a shadow to life! (you have to read the play to understand this)

Again, I can’t begin to express how impressed I have been with the work by David and the cast, for a piece that is rather difficult to perform.

I have left the experience with awareness of where I need to tweak the play, but also confidence that this is a piece that truly has wings.

Great show last night at TCTC!

Posted on by

Last night, I had the great pleasure of seeing my drama “A Flower of the Field” come alive for the first time at the Rogers Theatre at Tyler Civic Theatre Center in Tyler, TX!

“A Flower of the Field” won the People’s Choice Award in Tyler Civic Theatre Center’s 2022 new play contest after an excerpted reading was done of the piece last July and the audience voted it the show (out of five others) that they most wanted to see produced.

I must say, I was extremely impressed with the great work done by TCTC’s production of “A Flower of the Field” – everything from the deft directing by David Dickerson to the extremely talented cast of actors and actresses to the marvelous synergy of lights, sound, and set that created such a gothic atmosphere around the play and encapsulated its eerie, mysterious, threatening feel.

Additionally, I must give a shoutout to Tyler Civic Theatre Center for such a great theater complex (they have two theaters, both in-the-round) and such a vibrant artistic community in Tyler, TX (including extensive educational outreach to the surrounding community) and really see them as a perfect representation of how the future of theater is increasingly in the community, with all the talents that communities offer.

Lastly, I would be amiss not to point out that I learned Tyler Civic Theatre Center is the oldest continuously operating theater-in-the-round in North America – an undervalued way of producing plays.

I will be around in Tyler, Texas for the Saturday evening show, as well.

Tickets now on sale!

Posted on by

I’m thrilled to say that tickets are now on sale for my play “A Flower of the Field” at Tyler Civic Theatre Center this May!

My play won the People’s Choice Award in TCTC’s 2022 new play festival, where the audience voted it the winner from among five other finalists.

You can purchase tickets online at https://bit.ly/3KjF2bG or by calling the Box Office at 903-592-0561 during normal business hours (Monday-Friday 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm).

The show runs for one weekend only:

  • Thursday May 4, 2023 7:30pm
  • Friday May 5, 2023 7:30pm
  • Saturday May 6, 2023 7:30pm
  • Sunday May 7, 2023 2:30pm

Congratulations to the cast!

Posted on by

I want to extend my congratulations to the cast of my upcoming play “A Flower of the Field”, which is premiering at Tyler Civic Theatre Center on May 4th!

The play will run from May 4th-May 7th and will be directed by David Dickerson, with whom I have had the pleasure of chatting about the piece.

The cast is as follows:

  • John Clyn — Kevin Willis
  • Richard Ledrede — Bryan Michels
  • Mathias O’More — Heath Huffstetter
  • Alice Kyteler — Aletha Nelligan
  • Basilia de Meath — Mallory Hallmark
  • Shadow Friar (Male Voice) — Kevin Phillips

Tickets for the event will go on-sale to the general public starting April 6th!

Throwback Thursday – “Fifteen Men” at Elitch Gardens

Posted on by

For this Throwback Thursday, I will focus less on a play and more on a place – namely, the Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre – where I had the pleasure of seeing my play “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” being given a staged reading way back in 2015.

While I will discourse more on “Fifteen Men” some other time, I will simply say that it was the first “real” play that I wrote and has always had a special place in my heart – and while the play was recognized in many contests and festivals over the years, I must say that the staged reading it was given by the Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre was one of the most memorable.

Located in Denver, Colorado, “the Elitch Theatre has been a vital part of Colorado’s cultural landscape since its inception in 1891” – including being home to the oldest summer stock theater in the country and hosting the screening of Colorado’s first moving picture in 1896 – and to that (fitting) end, it has had many notable performers grace its stage, including Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Grace Kelly, and Edward G. Robinson.

After many years of decrepitude and dormancy, the Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre was renovated and scheduled for a big reopening in the summer of 2015 – and to celebrate the theater’s rebirth, the theater association sponsored a new play contest where six new plays would be given staged readings in the theater’s awe-inspiring rotunda – and needless to say, to my delight, “Fifteen Men” was one of the plays chosen to be so honored.

Thrilled by the invitation, I traveled to Denver in August, 2015 and was absolutely mesmerized by the unique beauty of the theater (see the photos below) – and not only was impressed with the caliber of the acting (especially for a staged reading), but had the great pleasure of meeting the director of the play, Bev Newcomb-Madden, who sadly died a few years later and whose husband sent me a very kind note about how much his wife enjoyed directing the piece and how much it meant to her.

I won’t say much further, other than leave you with some of the wonderful pictures I took of the Elitch Theatre during my time there…

Throwback Thursday – “Shadows of Men”

Posted on by

For this Throwback Thursday, I will highlight my play “Shadows of Men” – one of those plays where I can’t help but wondering why it has never been produced, especially after seeing it read and seeing how much it resonated with audiences.

Among my repertoire of straight plays, “Shadows of Men” ranks “number three” – the third play I wrote, after “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” and “Harriman-Baines” – and one which I have always personally enjoyed, encompassing, as it does, the theme of the dignity of the human individual and how that dignity is often threatened by abstractions and ideology.

Way back in 2020 or so, I initially encountered the story of John Dos Passos in Civil War Spain in the book “Intellectuals” by the British historian Paul Johnson – where Joh Dos Passos, who came to Spain to participate in a propaganda film in favor of the leftist Spanish Republic, ended up becoming obsessed by the fact that his dear friend, José Robes, had gone missing – ultimately discovering that Robles was executed by Spanish Republican forces, who were heavily backed by Stalin and the Soviet Communist Party. (John Dos Passos ended up writing extensively about his experience, which turned him away from leftism, until he ended life as a traditional conservative.)

Over the years, I have had relatively little traction with “Shadows” – and indeed, the play has only been read twice… never actually produced… which I hope will soon change.

The first staged reading was part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival in 2016, where the play was read at Fells Point Corner Theatre and directed by the great Barry Feinstein.

The second staged reading was by Arts Forth Worth in Texas, where the play was presented by the group Altered Shakespeare as part of Arts Forth Worth’s 2021 new play festival.

“Shadows” is one of those plays that I’m still striving to see produced, because I know that it works and that it carries an important (and eerily relevant) message for the modern ear.

You can catch the reading of the play at Arts Forth Worth below: