Archives: 2010-11 Season
A Kids' House
Monday, May 2, 2011 at 7:00pm
On Monday, May 2, FIRST MONDAYS welcomed playwright Margaret Hunt back to The Alcazar with a reading of A Kids' House, a tender comedy about three college students sharing a house while attending a Catholic women’s college just outside Chicago in the early '70s. It’s the age of protest, but their biggest issue is getting the landlord to turn up the heat and staying awake long enough to finish their reading assignments.
It’s “A Kids’ House,” as the title tells us, but the grown-up world is pushing in. One of the roommates has a serious health condition, another has a brother wounded in Vietnam. And there’s always the big “V.” A copy of “128 Sexual Positions” is circulating through the house, but just who’s reading it and whether their interest is academic or strategic is not always clear.
If you can remember a time when “to be or not to be” had sexual implications, you need to laugh and maybe cry a little in A Kids' House. The cast features Allison Bencar, Heather Farr, Eva Brettrager, Tim Keo, Bryan Heard, and Tim Stralka.
Margaret, whose play The Ravens Feed Us was one of the hits of our 2009/10 season, will be joining us from her home in Manhattan for the reading and discussion. Margaret’s work has been produced in New York, Chicago and Rome. Her comedy Think or Die about the legendary Severn Darden was a semi-finalist for this year’s O’Neill (National Playwrights Conference).
It’s “A Kids’ House,” as the title tells us, but the grown-up world is pushing in. One of the roommates has a serious health condition, another has a brother wounded in Vietnam. And there’s always the big “V.” A copy of “128 Sexual Positions” is circulating through the house, but just who’s reading it and whether their interest is academic or strategic is not always clear.
If you can remember a time when “to be or not to be” had sexual implications, you need to laugh and maybe cry a little in A Kids' House. The cast features Allison Bencar, Heather Farr, Eva Brettrager, Tim Keo, Bryan Heard, and Tim Stralka.
Margaret, whose play The Ravens Feed Us was one of the hits of our 2009/10 season, will be joining us from her home in Manhattan for the reading and discussion. Margaret’s work has been produced in New York, Chicago and Rome. Her comedy Think or Die about the legendary Severn Darden was a semi-finalist for this year’s O’Neill (National Playwrights Conference).
Writers Read: Dan Chaon
Monday, April 4, 2011 at 7:00pm
On Monday, April 4, FIRST MONDAYS welcomed a local hero to The Alcazar. Award-winning novelist Dan Chaon, whose most recent book Await Your Reply was named one of the ten best books of the year by Publisher's Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Janet Maslin of The New York Times, and Laura Miller of salon.com, lives in Cleveland Heights.
Dan is also the author of the short story collections Fitting Ends and Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the novel You Remind Me of Me. His fiction has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction, and he was the recipient of the 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Dan, who is the Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Oberlin, has ideas about the teaching of fiction that are almost as engaging as his books. "Narrative is a way of thinking about the world," he was quoted in the Oberlin Online News. "And it’s a complex way of thinking about the world," he assures us, "it’s valuable to be able to think in those terms, as well as scientific terms, or analytic terms or anything else."
Dan read something from his upcoming collection, Stay Awake, which is due out in Spring of 2012. He brought two of his senior creative writing students with him. Abbey Chung and Pat Bernhard, who have already garnered substantial resumes, who also read their work.
Dan is also the author of the short story collections Fitting Ends and Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the novel You Remind Me of Me. His fiction has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction, and he was the recipient of the 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Dan, who is the Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Oberlin, has ideas about the teaching of fiction that are almost as engaging as his books. "Narrative is a way of thinking about the world," he was quoted in the Oberlin Online News. "And it’s a complex way of thinking about the world," he assures us, "it’s valuable to be able to think in those terms, as well as scientific terms, or analytic terms or anything else."
Dan read something from his upcoming collection, Stay Awake, which is due out in Spring of 2012. He brought two of his senior creative writing students with him. Abbey Chung and Pat Bernhard, who have already garnered substantial resumes, who also read their work.
Always Greener
Monday, March 7, 2011 at 7:00pm
First Mondays asks whether it really is "Always Greener" on the other side of that marital fence at a reading of Dorothy Louise’s delightful comedy about two couples poised on the edge of indiscretion. Always Greener features Ursula Cataan, Jeff Grover, Jacqi Loewy and Tom Woodward in this story of what can happen on that wine-filled candle-lit night when you glance across the table and see love shining out of the wrong pair of eyes.
He’s a happily married man, has been, for years. She’s just beginning a new relationship. Everything’s going well, still she can’t help but wonder . . .
what it might be like . . . would be like. It’s only a thought, of course. How could it be anything else? They’re all such good friends until that night when shining-eyed wonder turns to desire. And what about their partners? The stakes are high. They’re not likely to take this lying down! Or are they? Things could get very dicey.
Dorothy Louise’s produced works include Cassatt at Playhouse 46 in New York; What You Will at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia; October Wedding at Playwrights’ Horizons in New York; and The Green Parrot (a revised Cassatt) at the Nexus Theater in Atlanta. She also wrote the 16 episodes of Center-City Soap, produced by the Philadelphia Company; and the 18 episodes of Starstuff, produced by WCAU-TV (CBS Philadelphia).
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, the Berrilla Kerr Foundation,
the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She is an active member of the Dramatists
Guild of America, Inc. Dorothy is based in the Bronx.
He’s a happily married man, has been, for years. She’s just beginning a new relationship. Everything’s going well, still she can’t help but wonder . . .
what it might be like . . . would be like. It’s only a thought, of course. How could it be anything else? They’re all such good friends until that night when shining-eyed wonder turns to desire. And what about their partners? The stakes are high. They’re not likely to take this lying down! Or are they? Things could get very dicey.
Dorothy Louise’s produced works include Cassatt at Playhouse 46 in New York; What You Will at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia; October Wedding at Playwrights’ Horizons in New York; and The Green Parrot (a revised Cassatt) at the Nexus Theater in Atlanta. She also wrote the 16 episodes of Center-City Soap, produced by the Philadelphia Company; and the 18 episodes of Starstuff, produced by WCAU-TV (CBS Philadelphia).
Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, the Berrilla Kerr Foundation,
the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She is an active member of the Dramatists
Guild of America, Inc. Dorothy is based in the Bronx.
Poets in Performance: Sarah Gridley and Per Aage Brandt
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 7:00pm
FIRST MONDAYS POETS IN PERFORMANCE series features Sarah Gridley on Monday, February 7 at 7 p.m. at The Alcazar. In addition to being a published poet and a 2010 Cuyahoga County Creative Workforce Fellow, Gridley is also an Assistant Professor of English and Poet in Residence at Case Western Reserve University. She will share the podium with fellow professor Per Aage Brandt who is both a published poet and an accomplished jazz musician. CWRU poets Margot Chervony, Jesse McGuiness, Lynda Montgomery and Megan Norr will add their own special talents to the mix.
Gridley’s two books, Green is the Orator (2010) and Weather Eye Open (2005) were published by the University of California Press as part of their New
California Poetry Series. Her work has also appeared in Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, jubilat, Kenyon Review Online, New American Poetry
and Slope. She holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Montana and served as a visiting professor in the Writer’s Workshop at the University of
Iowa before returning home to Cleveland.
Her work has been described as springing from “the sharpest of intellects and the tenderest of spirits, sonically superb and wildly engaging.” A poet
of the natural world, Gridley has an eye for images that harkens back to a time when nature was still viewed as a miracle, a conduit for connecting
with our deepest self. The Kenyon Review praised her “eyes-open, hands-out empiricism . . .recalling the world of naturalists in the time before Darwin’s great unifying theory.”
Per Aage Brandt is a Professor of Cognitive Science who leads a jazz quartet and produces LPs as well as books of poetry and scientific work. His latest
These Hands, was published by Host Publications, NY, in 2011. Brandt's work has been described as “ rich with humor and humanity. His poetry has a sense of playfulness and a sense of a personhood—someone behind the poem who doesn't take himself too seriously, even as he addresses profoundly serious subjects such as language, consciousness, and existence, mixing comedy with critique. In this exuberant and sharp-minded collection, Brandt re-sets the limits of language and creates a new kind of verse, prompting one Danish critic to remark that his work ‘bears more resemblance to a brainwave than a book of poems.’”
Gridley’s two books, Green is the Orator (2010) and Weather Eye Open (2005) were published by the University of California Press as part of their New
California Poetry Series. Her work has also appeared in Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, jubilat, Kenyon Review Online, New American Poetry
and Slope. She holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Montana and served as a visiting professor in the Writer’s Workshop at the University of
Iowa before returning home to Cleveland.
Her work has been described as springing from “the sharpest of intellects and the tenderest of spirits, sonically superb and wildly engaging.” A poet
of the natural world, Gridley has an eye for images that harkens back to a time when nature was still viewed as a miracle, a conduit for connecting
with our deepest self. The Kenyon Review praised her “eyes-open, hands-out empiricism . . .recalling the world of naturalists in the time before Darwin’s great unifying theory.”
Per Aage Brandt is a Professor of Cognitive Science who leads a jazz quartet and produces LPs as well as books of poetry and scientific work. His latest
These Hands, was published by Host Publications, NY, in 2011. Brandt's work has been described as “ rich with humor and humanity. His poetry has a sense of playfulness and a sense of a personhood—someone behind the poem who doesn't take himself too seriously, even as he addresses profoundly serious subjects such as language, consciousness, and existence, mixing comedy with critique. In this exuberant and sharp-minded collection, Brandt re-sets the limits of language and creates a new kind of verse, prompting one Danish critic to remark that his work ‘bears more resemblance to a brainwave than a book of poems.’”
Hedda
Monday, January 10, 2011 at 7:00pm
Revisit a classic on Monday, January 10 when FIRST MONDAYS presents a reading of HEDDA, a retelling of the Ibsen classic by Robert and Pamela
Noll.
If you know HEDDA . . .
You’ll want to be around when she makes her appearance as a woman of the 21st century in Robert and Pamela Noll’s retelling of the Ibsen classic.
FIRST MONDAYS invites you to a reading of HEDDA on Monday, January 10, at 7p.m. in The Alcazar.
Young Mrs. Tesman is just back from her honeymoon and Shaker Heights is holding its breath to see what she’ll do next. Will feminism alter her path
to destruction or will it give her the power to unleash real mayhem on all those who fall within her orbit?
How will George manage his headstrong wife with all the diversions of the modern world beckoning. And have you heard?! Gar Nugent is back in town
with a manuscript that’s bound to give poor George a run for his money. Guess he’s no longer a shoe-in for that prestigious chair.
Robert and Pamela Noll have revisioned a Hedda for the 21st century in their story of a strong-willed woman and the men who surround her. The cast features Laurel Johnson, Dana Hart, Joe Verciglio, Lauren B. Smith, Jeremy Kendall and Roni Berenson.
Revisit a classic on Monday, January 10 when FIRST MONDAYS presents a reading of HEDDA, a retelling of the Ibsen classic by Robert and Pamela
Noll.
If you know HEDDA . . .
You’ll want to be around when she makes her appearance as a woman of the 21st century in Robert and Pamela Noll’s retelling of the Ibsen classic.
FIRST MONDAYS invites you to a reading of HEDDA on Monday, January 10, at 7p.m. in The Alcazar.
Young Mrs. Tesman is just back from her honeymoon and Shaker Heights is holding its breath to see what she’ll do next. Will feminism alter her path
to destruction or will it give her the power to unleash real mayhem on all those who fall within her orbit?
How will George manage his headstrong wife with all the diversions of the modern world beckoning. And have you heard?! Gar Nugent is back in town
with a manuscript that’s bound to give poor George a run for his money. Guess he’s no longer a shoe-in for that prestigious chair.
Robert and Pamela Noll have revisioned a Hedda for the 21st century in their story of a strong-willed woman and the men who surround her. The cast features Laurel Johnson, Dana Hart, Joe Verciglio, Lauren B. Smith, Jeremy Kendall and Roni Berenson.
For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the American Dream Is Not Enough
Monday, December 6, 2010 at 7:00pm
First Mondays presents a reading of Michael Oatman’s gritty new urban drama.
Ntozake Shange’s Obie-award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Not Enuf has resurfaced as a movie
directed by Tyler Perry, but playwright Michael Oatman has something quite different in mind. His For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the American Dream Is Not Enough takes us into the heart of the Gangsta culture.
It’s a long way from East Cleveland to Solon. After years of struggle, Niko has put his gangsta past behind him. He’s a successful real estate developer now, a family man with a white wife and a three-year-old daughter. He’s sworn that nothing will ever pull him back into the hood until an old friend arrives to reawaken disturbing memories and settle some unfinished business.
Oatman is Playwright-in-Residence at Karamu House and a member of the Playwrights Unit at The Cleveland Play House. His comedy The Chittlin Thief was one of the highlights of First Monday’s 2009 season. Now he’s back with a soul searching piece that explores the debt a man owes to the past and what happens when it conflicts with what he owes to himself.
There are no easy answers in Oatman’s world but he raises questions that make us all look deeper into our own.
Ntozake Shange’s Obie-award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Not Enuf has resurfaced as a movie
directed by Tyler Perry, but playwright Michael Oatman has something quite different in mind. His For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the American Dream Is Not Enough takes us into the heart of the Gangsta culture.
It’s a long way from East Cleveland to Solon. After years of struggle, Niko has put his gangsta past behind him. He’s a successful real estate developer now, a family man with a white wife and a three-year-old daughter. He’s sworn that nothing will ever pull him back into the hood until an old friend arrives to reawaken disturbing memories and settle some unfinished business.
Oatman is Playwright-in-Residence at Karamu House and a member of the Playwrights Unit at The Cleveland Play House. His comedy The Chittlin Thief was one of the highlights of First Monday’s 2009 season. Now he’s back with a soul searching piece that explores the debt a man owes to the past and what happens when it conflicts with what he owes to himself.
There are no easy answers in Oatman’s world but he raises questions that make us all look deeper into our own.
Deep Cleveland: An Evening of Poetry and Music
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 7:00pm
An evening of poetry and music
Featuring Josh Gage, Mary Truzillo and Dianne Borsenik
Man Reading Poetryand clarinetist BILL MEYER
View pdf flyer.
Featuring Josh Gage, Mary Truzillo and Dianne Borsenik
Man Reading Poetryand clarinetist BILL MEYER
View pdf flyer.
Artemisia
Monday, October 4, 2010 at 7:00pm
The darling of the Medicis … the scandal of Rome!
Artemisia Gentileschi paints her way to fame and notoriety during the Italian Renaissance in Jean Seitter Cummins’s adaptation Artemisia.
Featuring Sally Groth, Michael Regnier, Nick Koesters, Courtney Nelson, Agnes Herrmann, Dana Hart, Paul Slima, Joe Verciglio and Tim Keo.
View pdf flyer.
Artemisia Gentileschi paints her way to fame and notoriety during the Italian Renaissance in Jean Seitter Cummins’s adaptation Artemisia.
Featuring Sally Groth, Michael Regnier, Nick Koesters, Courtney Nelson, Agnes Herrmann, Dana Hart, Paul Slima, Joe Verciglio and Tim Keo.
View pdf flyer.