Dael Orlandersmith Rescheduled to May 1st!

Please note that Dael Orlandersmith, Obie-winning playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama, has rescheduled her appearances to Monday, May 1st (she was originally scheduled to appear March 20th).

Orlandersmith will deliver the annual Burian Lecture about her life in the theater and her powerful new play, “Until the Flood,” about explosive events and racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri. Her work frequently explores the struggles of African Americans in urbans settings, and life in the rough East Harlem neighborhood of her childhood. Cosponsored by the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment and UAlbany’s Theatre Program

May 1 (Monday):  The 21st Annual Burian Lecture— Dael Orlandersmith, award-winning playwright 

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

The Burian Lecture — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

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UAlbany Grad Stephen Guirgis Wins Pulitzer

Stephen Adly Guirgis, who graduated from the University at Albany in 1990 with a major in Theatre, is the 2015 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his new play "Between Riverside and Crazy."

The Pulitzer jury called the work, "a nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life and death."

Guirgis visited the New York State Writers Institute on April 12, 2010.

More about his visit here:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/guirgis_stephen10.html

An interview with Guirgis posted on the Institute's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFR2iMDmcFE

Guirgis studied theatre with NYS Writers Institute Fellow and UAlbany Professor W. Langdon Brown and with the late Jarka Burian of the Theatre Department who-- together with his wife Grayce Burian-- established and endowed the Institute's annual Burian Lecture on the art of the theatre.

More on the Burian Lecture here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/burian_lectures.html

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Our John Lahr Event in the Times Union

In case you missed it, Paul Grondahl writes about our wonderful event on Wednesday 10/1 with John Lahr in the Times Union:

Biographer John Lahr Dishes on Tennessee Williams at the Writers Institute

Tennessee Williams once drew a pie chart depicting how he divided his time: 90 percent working, 9 percent fighting against lunacy and 1 percent socializing with friends.

The former New Yorker chief drama critic, John Lahr, dissects the workaholic and celebrated playwright in a monumental new biography, "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh," a 784-page volume published on Sept. 22 by W.W. Norton.

It has received enthusiastic reviews. The Wall Street Journal called it "by far the best book ever written about America's greatest playwright" and literary insiders have already placed it on a list for National Book Award consideration.

More in the TU:   http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Biographer-John-Lahr-dishes-on-Tennessee-Williams-5797788.php

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Christopher Durang to Play Vanya

Broadway comedy king Christopher Durang, who visited us on March 10, will perform in a regional production of his 2013 Tony Award winning play.

From the New York Times:

The playwright Christopher Durang, who wrote “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” is set to star as Vanya in a coming production at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa., the producers announced. The comedy, which takes place in Bucks County and won a Tony last year for best play, is scheduled to run from July 17 to Aug. 10. Marilu Henner (“Taxi”) has been cast as Masha, a role played by Sigourney Weaver in the Off Broadway and Broadway productions. Vanya was originally played by David Hyde Pierce. The production is to be directed by Sheryl Kaller (“Mothers and Sons”).

More about Durang's Albany visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/durang_chris14.html

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A Play About August Strindberg's Daughter

Karin Smirnoff (pictured here) and her relationship with her overbearing father, August Strindberg (1849-1912), Swedish playwright and towering figure of world literature, are the subjects of a new play by theatre historian Eszter Szalczer. The play will be performed as a staged reading by seven accomplished local actors. Free and open to the public.

Dramatic Reading of the new play How It Really Happened with playwright Eszter Szalczer, followed by Q&A with playwright, director and cast

April 8 (Tuesday)
Dramatic Reading – 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Science Library 340, Uptown Campus

Directed by W. Langdon Brown, with cast members Janet Hurley Kimlicko, Steve Madore, Gary Maggio, Patrick McKenna, Barbara Richards, Eileen Schuyler and Don Paul Shannon

Whose story is the true story? How can one grasp control of the narratives of one’s own life? Working on her new book, writer Karin Smirnoff (1880-1973) struggles to come to terms with her past in an attempt to challenge the notorious stories of her overbearing father, the world-renowned author and dramatist August Strindberg.

Eszter Szalczer is a dramaturg, theatre historian, and scholar of modern drama. Her recent book August Strindberg (2010) focuses on the Swedish playwright as one of the most radical innovators of the modern stage. It was when working on her previous book, Writing Daughters: August Strindberg's Other Voices (Norvik Press 2008) that Eszter became interested in exploring the creative processes of writing, the role of memory, the fine line between fiction and non-fiction, and how the same story could be told differently from several different perspectives.

For more information contact the Writers Institute at 442-5620, or visit us online at www.albany.edu/writers-inst, or on our blog at nyswiblog.blogspot.com.  

Also, please sign up for regular  updates from our blog: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=WritersInstituteBlog&loc=en_US

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Our Poet Laureate of the Absurd-- Christopher Durang

Christopher Durang, who visits us on Monday 3/10, is crowned "Poet Laureate of the Absurd" in a New York Observer review of his 2009 play, Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.

"It’s very good news that Christopher Durang, our Poet Laureate of the Absurd, has written a smashing new play. Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them at the Public Theater is a black farce that’s essentially about, well, torture, and a peculiar brand of American paranoia and bigotry—and I haven’t had such fun at the theater since the recent revival of Mr. Durang’s fable about his own dysfunctional childhood, The Marriage of Bette and Boo."

More in the Observer:  http://observer.com/2009/04/im-tickled-by-torture-durang-deals-serious-comedy/

More about Durang's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/durang_chris14.html

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Carolyn Yalkut's New Play, "Everywoman"

You are invited to a staged reading of UAlbany Professor Carolyn Yalkut’s new play, “Everywoman,” on Thursday, April 3rd at 7:30 pm in the Performing Arts Center on the UAlbany Uptown Campus.

Should a woman’s life stop just because she’s giving birth? Time and space collide in WAM Theatre’s staged reading of Carolyn Yalkut’s one-act play that debates global as well as personal catastrophe in women’s lives everywhere. The classic quandary of being a woman is explored in this light-hearted, innovative and poignant tragicomedy that reaches across generations.

The play was developed during a fellowship and multiple residencies by the playwright at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, MA.

Professor Yalkut teaches numerous courses at UAlbany in association with the NYS Writers Institute Visiting Writers Series.

Advance tickets: $5 general public , $3 students, seniors & UAlbany faculty-staff Call (518) 442-3997 to reserve.

Day of show tickets: $8 general public , $6 students, seniors & UAlbany faculty-staff

More information:  http://www.albany.edu/pac/13-14_press_releases/everywoman.shtml

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Guirgis Talks About Philip Seymour Hoffman

Playwright and UAlbany alum Stephen Adly Guirgis talks about his close friend and artistic collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman during his visit to the Writers Institute in 2010.

A theater director as well as an actor, Hoffman directed five plays written by Guirgis for New York City's award-winning LAByrinth Theatre Company.

The Oscar-winning actor and upstate New York native died earlier this month of a drug overdose.

Watch the YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFR2iMDmcFE

More about Guirgis:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/guirgis_stephen10.html

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McEneny Wins Prestigious Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The son of Jack McEneny, retired New York State Assemblyman, notable local historian and friend
of the Writers Institute, has received an important playwriting award at Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

From a Times Union article by Amy Biancolli:

A play written and directed by John McEneny, son of the recently retired Albany state assemblyman, has won a prestigious Bobby Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The winning play: “The Island of Doctor Moreau,” an adaptation of the H.G. Wells tale of an island occupied by a madman and his half-human, half-animal monstrosities. It originated at Brooklyn’s Piper Theatre, where McEneny serves as artistic director, and includes an original score performed live by composer Lucas Syed.

More:  http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts/play-by-john-mceneny-the-younger-wins-award-at-edinburgh-fringe/29481/

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Broadway Star Colman Domingo's Visit

Colman Domingo received more than one standing ovation at UAlbany on Monday for his inspirational message to students and clips of his riveting performances, not to mention his pledges to revive the soon-to-be-cut UAlbany Theater Department.

Domingo talked about his inner city boyhood in West Philadelphia, his improbable success on stage and screen, his indefatigable pursuit of his personal goals as an actor and playwright, his role in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, and his friendship and close working relationship with beloved former UAlbany Theater faculty member Lisa Thompson, whom he called his "soul sister."

Domingo last visited the Institute in February 2007 to direct excerpts from Thompson's plays, prior to many of his recent triumphs.

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