THE CUTTING BALL THEATER NEWSLETTER
September 28th, 2005 Volume 1, Issue 6

Contents:
1. Risk Is This… Experimental Plays Festival Oct. 14-29
2. National Free Theater Night Oct. 20
3. Backstage with Paige: An Interview With Playwright Robert Alexander
4. Opportunities to work with The Cutting Ball
5. Wish List

The Story:
My high school French teacher told us the story of a student who took the philosophy baccalaureate exam. The exam consisted of a single question “Define Risk.” This student answered the four hour exam in a single sentence: “Risk is this…” After much debate, his teachers gave him the highest mark possible.

The Festival:
I have always liked this story and that is why I decided to name our playwriting festival Risk is This . . . The Cutting Ball Experimental New Plays Festival. This year, we received over 200 scripts nationally and internationally from some of the most exciting up and coming playwrights today. We are still the only new play festival in the country asking solely for experimental plays.

The Plays:

The Girl Triptych Oct. 14 & 15 I am excited about presenting Janet Allard’s The Girl Triptych. While I was a directing student at the Yale School of Drama, there was an incredible buzz about a new playwriting student who was something of a prodigy. This was Janet Allard. When I first sat down and heard her linguistic pyrotechnics I was blown away. Now Allard has earned enormous success and is a playwright in residence at The Guthrie Theater.	Janet Allard Photo by Josh Foldy
Alien Motel 29: Secret Outtakes of the Ebony Lady Macbeth Oct. 20, 21, 22 Something wicked this way comes with Robert Alexander’s Alien Motel 29: Secret Outtakes of the Ebony Lady Macbeth. This is a playful and disturbing look at Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Alexander has created an African-American fantasia in space. Yes, this is a Macbeth set in the future. I am proud to be working on this sequel to Alexander’s wildly successful Preface to the Alien Garden, which received its premiere at Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island.	Robert Alexander Photo by David Conklin
the evolutionist’s club Oct. 28 & 29 Kevin Oakes will return to the festival with the evolutionist’s club. Oakes’ play The Vomit Talk of Ghosts premiered at The Cutting Ball and was just published in its entirety in Theatre Magazine with photos from our production. the evolutionist’s club is a mysterious play about three people living on the edge of the wilderness. It is a tightly written chamber play that is hilariously funny and intriguing.	Kevin Oakes Photo by Chris Focht

All staged readings are FREE and are followed by a talk-back with director and actors. Make reservations at www.cuttingball.com.

-Rob Melrose
Artistic Director

On and around October 20, 2005, over 85 theatres across the Bay Area will offer thousands of tickets to the public for FREE as part of “Free Night of Theater!” The Cutting Ball is proud to present a preview performance of Robert Alexander’s Alien Motel 29 as part of Theatre Bay Area and Theater Communications Group’s national event.

Please visit www.theatrebayarea.org for more information

When is the first time you ever wrote a play and what was it about?

As a student at Oberlin College I majored in English and minored in African American Studies and Creative Writing. Avery Brooks ran an experimental theater troop on campus and went to see most everything they did. I decided to write a play and it was called The Battle of Boogaloo. Strangely enough, it was very similar to Alien Motel in a couple of respects. First, it was set on an imaginary planet and it had a post apocalyptic setting. The survivors were fighting over a can opener. I showed it to some theater major friends of mine and they thought it was too strange to take seriously. There was a character named he said/she said in that play and that character came back in Alien Motel as well.

Alien Motel will be given a reading by The Cutting Ball in October. What is your favorite part of this play, the part that makes you smile when you think about it?

Lisa Body first enters the bar and everyone is kind of tripping on her. I love that part. She’s a weary road warrior and she’s just very tired. All she wants to do is sit down and have a drink but the people in the bar can’t leave her alone. I love that the audience can’t help but to feel the weight of everything on her shoulders, that they feel what she’s been running from and how exhausted she is.

I also love Lisa Body’s riff/speech at end of first scene. It’s part jazz and part rap. Lisa Body is a character who showed up in a short story written circa 1990. She was also in a play of mine that was produced at Trinity Rep in 2003.

What play is brewing around in your mind right now? Can you describe the skeleton of what it's about?

I’m wrestling with ideas about a man similar to myself trying to reconnect with his daughter. There are certainly elements of a missing father in Alien Motel. But, I’m trying not to make it autobiographical. I’ve written fiction about father/daughter relationships. I have a grown son who is now a father and I might want to write something that reflects what it’s like to be a grandparent but again, I don’t want to make it autobiographical. I’m waiting for something to burst out of me. Right now, I’m just taking things in, experiences and perceptions. When something is ready, it will burst out and the sponge will wring itself out.

We will be hosting auditions in October for The Maids by Jean Genet and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World by Suzan-Lori Parks. Please visit www.cuttingball.com/audition.php for more information.

The Cutting Ball Theater relies on donations from individuals to continue producing the high-quality, energetic work on which we pride ourselves. Like most performing arts organizations, the majority of donated funds come from individual theater-lovers, not government agencies or corporate foundations. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit: http://cuttingball.com/donate.php.

We are also seeking the following in-kind donations:

• White Paper
• Photo Paper
• HP Ink cartridges for HP Officejet 4215
• Large plastic storage bins

For more exciting Cutting Ball information, please visit www.cuttingball.com .

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