Tuesday, December 14, 2010

BELIZE'S PLACE Rehearsal Photos, Day One

Currently directing BELIZE'S PLACE by Tav Keyinde, I am working with an exceptionally creative and brave ensemble of actors who are blowing this play up.


Belize (Jerry Rudasill) cuts up meat (Jim Jackson) with a cleaver. While a cigar (Jake Blouch) hides in the corner.

In development of the play, and in preparation to share this work with a small audience at The Painted Bride Art Center on Wednesday, December 15th, the actors and I (and dramaturgs Wally Zialcita and Jason Tremblay) are attempting to learn the play by rehearsing it (rather than by reading it).

Our goals include staging as many of the impossible moments of the play we can, to see how the play can move most theatrically through space, and to see what kind of wild creativity the play inspires.

So far we are learning a lot, and I, for one, am having an incredibly fun time witnessing the deeply powerful imagination of this ensemble.


Belize (Jerry Rudasill), Rollergirl (Samantha Tower) and a Cigar (Jake Blouch)



Dubkid (Mary Tuomanen) gets a horrible idea (Jerry Rudasill, Jake Blouch, and Jim Jackson)


To see more of this work, please join us at the Painted Bride Art Center (230 Vine Street; Philadelphia PA) on Wednesday, December 15th at 7:30 pm.

rock on,

ROMERO

Friday, November 19, 2010

Romero Plays (in photos from) Alaska

On October 8th and 9th (2010), Three Wise Moose and TBA Theatre staged two of my works, Under My Coat is the Truth and New Orleans, in the frozen tundra of Anchorage, Alaska.

Brett Gillam as "The Trumpeter" in New Orleans

Unable to make the performance, the good folks of Three Wise Moose and TBA Theatre generously sent me some lovely photos from the production, Don't Blink One-Page Play Marathon, which gives me an idea of some of the nice work they did with the plays.

All photos taken by Jamie Lang Photography (thank you, Jamie!).

Jaron Carlson and Billy Worthy in Under My Coat is the Truth


Billy Worthy and Jaron Carlson (Under My Coat is the Truth),
directed by Ryan Buen



Brett Gillam in New Orleans, directed by Erin Dagon Mitchell


Big thank yous to all the artists who worked on this project and to Dawson Moore for asking me to send the Moose some of my work to consider for production.

rock on,

ROMERO

Friday, October 15, 2010

Statement of Disaster

In celebration of my recent selection as one of three playwrights chosen for the inaugural PDC/Plays and Players Playwriting Residency, I'm posting the statement of purpose I wrote for my original application.

I re-post it here also to become my reminder and watchdog for those days when I don't live up to my own pronouncements.

Big thank yous to the selection committee of Wally Zialcita, Daniel Student, and Rebecca Wright for their trust, and to Philadelphia Dramatists Center and Plays & Players Theater for offering their vision and the opportunity to grow.

===========================================

PDC Playwright-in-Residence at Plays & Players

Statement of Purpose

Greg Romero

My goal is to ignite an explosion of possibility for at least the next 100 years.


To explain—I ask:


What is more exciting than a disaster on stage?


I don’t know, so my plan is to continue to create the possibility for them, knowing that disaster is often a doorway to the profound.


And maybe the disaster becomes more interesting if we remove (take the stage away) or re-move (shift where our idea of the stage is) it? Is the disaster is more glorious if the audience participates? How many languages does a good disaster consume? How is this danger theatrical? And how can I make these disasters go from the live event into your bones?


And is this a play?


These are only a few of the questions that haunt me.


For the past ten years I have worked tirelessly as a playwright, creating live works that explore memory, imagination, pain, dreams, rites of passage, transformation, transportation, and the flawed and fascinating guts and souls of human beings. My characters are troubled, resilient, scarred, searching, trapped, tied to chairs, historical icons, lovers, killers, magicians, ghosts, beauty queens, animals, musicians, children, time travelers, dreamers—all bravely taking on impossible, necessary journeys. They speak to each other through time, dimension, ocean waves, black holes, gesture, lines in their bodies, holes in their chests, silences, holograms, and their deepest regrets. I have created work performed in theaters, elevators, porches, warehouses, loft apartments, punk stages, museums, sidewalks, hotels, basement crawl spaces, and public bathrooms in New York, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Louisville, as well as in Toronto and Zurich.


I have worked many times with electronic music composer Mike Vernusky on live performance projects including The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting (with choreographer Ray Eliot Schwarz, 2004), The Eulogy Project (with opera-trained performer Jorge Sermini, 2005), Radio Ghosts (2008), and, currently, The Babel Project, in a form we are calling “electro-theater”, a performance limbus between written text, recorded electronic sound, and live performance.


My work has been honored as a finalist for the Heideman Award, a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award, and a nomination for the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theater Artist in Philadelphia. In 2008, I was selected as the first-ever Resident Writer for ArtsEdge, a year-long residency created by The Kelly Writers House and the University of Pennsylvania.


However, I have now reached a place in my creative development where I’m trying to further explode the framework of what I call a play, and to create something that more deeply blurs the boundaries between what is real and what is make-believe, what is performance and what is experience, what is a gift, and what is the point. I am searching the flashpoint for the most dynamic, most powerful, deepest- cutting performance vessel for humans to connect to one another and to themselves—or, to borrow from Zeami, I want to create live events that help us all awaken the flower.


For these reasons, I am applying to be the PDC Playwright-in-Residence at Plays & Players.


Specifically, these two stated gifts offer me seeds for the fire:


· The providing of a safe space for experimentation


· The focus of this program is artist development, not the development of an individual work.


It is through these offerings that I intend to continue to explore the ideas of performance as gift-exchange, the depth of expression without using words, the impression and intimacy of memory (individual and shared), the complexities within the creative use of space and place, the volume of a gunshot, the limits of transformation, a further (and with your help, an assisted) self-education into artists I am inspired by (Meyerhold, Artaud, Grotowksi, Foreman, Oliveros, Bausch, Wilson) and deeper exploration into forms I am seduced by but not completely familiar with (Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku, Kathakali, and the Circus).


Specifically, I would use the 13-month residency to continue work on at least three boundary-stretching projects already in-progress (The Babel Project: a collaboration with an electronic music composer exploring language through the real-time construction of a present-day Tower of Babel made up of words, quarry stones, gestures, and lost memories; Tugboat Headache: a non-narrative about a Mermaid’s journey through loss, bodily voids, and 10,000 flying arrows while traveling up The Traum River; and the on-going development of Material v. Memory: a site-specific performance experience in which audience walks through a gauntlet of perishable writing events, each of which is non-replicable, intentionally ephemeral, and disappears while being viewed) all while exploring things I love but don’t fully understand, risking everything all the time, as well as beginning work on whatever new obsessions consume my listening process.


In short, I expect to use the next year (and beyond) having as much fun as possible creating the most exciting live projects imaginable, all while deepening my skills, understanding, awareness, and sensitivities as an artist. It is my hope that I will be able to have fun listening, growing and creating with you.


=====================================

ROMERO

Friday, October 08, 2010

Romero Plays Alaska

Two of my short works, Under My Coat is the Truth and New Orleans, go up in performance on October 8th and 9th in Anchorage, Alaska as part of TBA Theater and Three Wise Moose's annual project, The Don't Blink One-Page Play Marathon.

The only thing that would make this event even more awesome is if I had the means to travel there and party with the moose (wise or not), elk, caribou, and foxes of Anchorage.

Big thank yous to Dawson Moore for inviting me to send in my work, and for all the fun people who make Don't Blink an annual, fun event.

rock on,

ROMERO

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Transported

Last night I walked through:

A birthday memory on an airplane; an exhausting of Kelly Writers House; a shared memory of water, chalk, and bodies; an offering of grapes; a continual search for family and trains; a stranger picking up a cougar; a dream-filled trolley with the best martinis on the beach; a message written in pennies/wishes, stolen from a bridge; a cigarette-filled rant full of gods; a candle-lit dance in the gravel and under the stars; and a message written in sand, leading to wine underneath my feet.

Thank you, Material v. Memory artists, for transporting me.

And thank you for those of you who took the journey with me.

I hope we can all travel again together.

sincerely,

ROMERO

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Material v. Memory

Which is more real?

Me and 13 other artists challenge this question by creating 11 short events/experiences that are, by purpose, completely ephemeral, non-replicable, and unique to the group of people who live through them on Tuesday, September 28th.

There will be no material residue of this experience, only our individual and collective memory of it.


Is memory located in your brain? In your muscles?
Inside of place? Inside of an event?



Will we remember it?

Is memory stronger than material? Does memory become material?

And what do artists create when confronted with these questions?

The full details from co-producers Kelly Writers House and Philadelphia Dramatists Center:

______________________________________________________

MATERIAL V. MEMORY
a walk through 11 perishable events

with GREG ROMERO

Tuesday, September 28, at 6:34 PM in the Arts Café
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk
No registration required - this event is free & open to the public

_______________________________________________________

Organized by playwright and former ArtsEdge Resident, GREG ROMERO, MATERIAL V. MEMORY is a guided walk through eleven perishable writing events, each designed to be experienced by a unique traveling audience for three to five minutes, and then to disappear forever. Site-specific, un-replicable projects created by playwrights, poets, dancers, architects, fiction writers, designers, musicians, and performance artists explore questions of space, place, birth, loss, and our infinite/intimate relationship with memory.

Creative Artists include:

MIKE AGRESTA
BRIGHT LIGHT THEATRE COMPANY
BIDISHA DASGUPTA
PAULA DIEHL
NICOLE GARMAN
BRIAN GRACE-DUFF and WALLY ZIALCITA
CLIFFORD HALL
SHANE HANSON and ALICIA RODRIGUEZ
GREG ROMERO
JEFFREY A. STANLEY
MICHELLE TARANSKY

------------------------------------------------

Big thank yous to the wonderful group of artists collaborating on this project, The Kelly Writers House, and Philadelphia Dramatists Center.

rock on,

ROMERO

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

tokafi Article on Vernusky/Romero collaboration

International music journal (based in Munster, Germany) tokafi serves up some awesome coverage and contemplation about the work me and electronic music composer Mike Vernusky are collaborating on.

Album cover for Mike Vernusky's Music for Film and Electro-Theatre

Slammin.

You can read the article by Tobias Fischer by going HERE.

Big thank yous to tokafi for the words, and for all the awesome people who worked on "Dallas" and "Under My Coat is the Truth" with me and Mike.

rock on,

ROMERO

Monday, September 13, 2010

Someone Stabs Me While I Explore Space

Earlier this year The Kelly Writers House invited me to participate in the annual "Seven-Up" project, in which seven "experts" gather to discuss/question/explore a common topic. In 2010, the topic was "SPACE", and I posed the question "what is a performance space?".

The video below captures my 7-minute attempt, which, if you listen closely enough, you can hear the people heckling me.



Is this a performance space?

Big thank yous to Jessica Lowenthal and the Kelly Writers House for continuing to offer such a lively, fun community to participate in, to the six other space experts (including Kate Watson-Wallace), and to the friends (Megan Slater, Rachel Gluck, Tyler Woods, and Kate Raines) who came to heckle and stab me.

rock on,

ROMERO

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Vernusky/Romero Collaboration on CD

My long-time collaborator and friend Mike Vernusky has just released a new CD, Music for Film and Electro-Theatre, in which lives a couple of projects he and I worked on together.

Within the 9-track recording are two works, "Dallas" and "Under My Coat is the Truth", which Mike and I created together using my text and his sounds. These two projects are part of the body of work we're exploring together under the umbrella, "electro-theatre".

Like all of Mike's work, the entire recording is mind-blowing, space-changing, imaginative and virtuosic. It's a pleasure to work with this guy and I'm totally proud of the recordings we did for this specific project.

You can listen to some of the work here, as well as snag a copy or two if you love it (CD or MP3).

(Mike was also generous enough to give away copies to audience of our most recent public collaboration, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard).

Big thank yous to Quiet Design for making this happen, and to the actors (Jeffrey Carlson, Elena DeAngelis, Cody Kirk, Michael Kranes, T. Lynn Mikeska) who worked with me and Mike, bringing the work to life.

rock on,

ROMERO

Thursday, August 19, 2010

GOODB(EYE) IN THE SKY: A Re-Post

As Audacity Theatre Lab tools together Episode 3 of their EYE IN THE SKY PROJECT: an innovative experiment in epistolary radio drama, they are re-posting Episode 2, which presents work from myself, Daniel Talbott, and Erin Courtney.


You can go HERE to listen to Daniel, Erin, and my responses to this challenge:

"For one week in the middle of the summer a giant eye appears in the sky over the city. At the end of seven days it disappears as suddenly as it had originally materialized..."

Big thank yous to Artistic Director Brad McEntire for continuing to involve me in ATL's fun projects, and to actors Jeffrey Schmidt and Lydia Mackay for bring my piece, GOODB(EYE), to life via the Internet airwaves.

rock on,

ROMERO

Thursday, August 05, 2010

LULLABY at The Rotunda

We don't know yet what will happen.

But on Sunday, August 15th, a talented group of collaborators and I will share our discoveries on our experiment with my play, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard.

We welcome folks to join us at 7pm at The Rotunda (40th and Walnut) to work on the project with us.

postcard design from world premiere production, City Attic Theatre (NYC)

Some of you may already have seen or read (or worked on!) the play before, but this project aspires to be a new experience as I am working with long-time collaborator (and electronic music composer) Mike Vernusky to explode/explore this piece even further.

In short, we are removing one of the play's characters (The Narrator) and replacing them with a recorded composition, created by Vernusky specifically for this project. We are attempting to get at the heart of this work by removing words and replacing them with sound.

The actors now, in addition to the play's original demands and restrictions (the characters are stuck in chairs for the entire play), will be working with the added challenge of playing within and against a wildly imaginative recorded electronic score, compelling us all to listen more closely than ever.

It is kind of an impossible task and we have no idea if this will work.

But the question excites us, and we have a team of ACE-talented folks who are up for the challenge, digging deep and finding gold.

Our event at the Rotunda is our continued exploration with additional questions (how does this piece work in a performance space? With an audience? With production elements?), and we look forward to discovering/breathing in the piece together.

I look forward to it and I hope you do too.

........................................................

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
script by Greg Romero
music by Mike Vernusky
directed by Ken Kaissar
performed by Kevin Meehan and Megan Slater

Sunday, August 15th, 7:00 pm
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St
Philadelphia PA 19104

Admission: Pay What You Want

.......................................................

Big thank yous to the awesomely talented artists working with me (both in the present moment and in the moments leading up to this one) and the folks who have made this particular workshop possible.

Thank you Gina Renzi, Drexel University (Nick Anselmo, Nan Gilbert, Mark Andrews, Beng Lin Yeo), Jodi Alonzo, Laurence Becker, Hugh Craig, Betsy Currie, Josh Emmons, Jackie Goldfinger, Chris Herdt and Nicola Grissom, Jenny Kokai, Taylor Maddux, Christiana Molldrem, Abby Pudlewski, Dustin Puryear, Don Slater, and Angela Turner.

rock on,

ROMERO

Monday, August 02, 2010

Breathing Fire Full-Time

Beginning September 1st, 2010, I begin a year-long assignment as "Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater" at Drexel University.

NICE!

Me and Mario will be hangin' out on a full-time basis

This is a temporary promotion from my previous assignment as Adjunct Faculty at Drexel (and other universities in the area) and I look forward to the new challenges and rewards of being a full-time college professor.

During the upcoming Fall, Winter, and Spring terms (Drexel uses the quarter system), I will continue teaching a rotation of courses in "Theatrical Experience", "Theater History (I & II)", and "Dramatic Analysis", and will also lead and organize the "Director's Lab" as well as lead the course "Let's Go!" (whose goals are to bring students to Philadelphia-area theater productions/live events).

My previous year teaching at Drexel was a good one as I like my teaching partners and I like the students. After getting to know the faculty and student community, I was hoping to become more involved with the school, and the universe heard me.

I look forward to continuing to find my creative abilities as a teacher, to continue developing my listening skills, and to continue learning how my teaching and artistic projects continue feeding each other.

And I definitely look forward to getting to know the students better, and how we can help each other break it open.

Big thank yous to Cecilia Fitzgibbon and Nick Anselmo for believing in me enough to bring me into the fold, full-time, and to the students for making the job so much fun.

Go Dragons!!

ROMERO

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Interview on REP Radio

On July 17, 2010, the good folks of REP Radio interviewed me as part of their series "Inside the Writer's Mind". The interview was a lot of fun to do and I'm happy with how well it captures the personality of my work.


We talked about why I was wearing a mask, the strange live event/gift-exchanges I am creating, what it's like to be locked in a pharmaceutical clinic, why I give people toilets for their birthday, how I'm trying to re-create the rite of passage between life and death, and why I juggle ice cream at Reading Terminal Market.

Lots of fun names come up in conversation-- thank you for giving me stuff to talk about: Megan Slater, Andy Merkel, Lucy Walters, Andrew Beal, Sarah Bowden, Christiana Molldrem, The Rotunda, Chris Morse, Working Man's Clothes Productions, Audacity Theatre Lab, Austin Texas, Nicole Garman, and my Mom (and many others).

Big thank yous to Represented Theater Company, and to the intrepid Todd Holtsberry and Krissy Scatton for taking the time to get to know me.

You can access REP Radio's achives here, click on episode 107 ("Greg Romero") to check it out.

rock on,

ROMERO

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Awesome Creative Team for LULLABY Workshop

In the ongoing spirit of experimentation and collaboration, Mike Vernusky and I are set to engage in an August 2010 (in Philadelphia) workshop exploring the collision of my play, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard, with Vernusky's electronic music composition.

Postcard from World Premiere Production in NYC (City Attic Theatre, 2007).

This project attempts to remove one of the play's characters (The Narrator) by replacing them with Mike's music, composed specifically for this work. We have no idea if the experiment will fly, though the early dreaming Mike and I have done has us really excited and it will be a fun learning journey no matter what.

We enter this process with a lot of exciting questions and have assembled a talented group of artists to break it all open. We will work together for roughly 15-20 hours in early-mid August, including an open rehearsal/work-in-progress sharing (more details to be announced soon).

Joining us/contributing to/exploding this project are director Ken Kaissar and performers Megan Slater and Kevin Meehan. I am beyond excited to be working with such a talented group of artists and totally can't wait to get in the rehearsal room with these people.

I have worked with Ken on multiple projects (Dallas, Thirty-Three) and his direction has always been sensitive, imaginative, fun, and highly smart.

Megan Slater and Kevin Meehan are two of my favorite actors in Philadelphia and will, no doubt, bring a lot of their intelligence, brave risks, creativity, and humor to the process.

(OMG this will be awesome!)

HUGE thank yous to the generous friends (Laurence Becker, Hugh Craig, Betsy Currie, Jackie Goldfinger, Chris Herdt and Nicola Grissom, Jenny Kokai, Taylor Maddux, Christiana Molldrem, Dustin Puryear, Don Slater, and Angela Turner) for making this workshop possible by flying Mike Vernusky to Philadelphia.

Big thank yous as well to Drexel University (Mark Andrews, Nick Anselmo, Nan Gilbert and Beng Lin Yeo) for their continued support of my creative work.

And of course-- big thank yous to the collaborative team for their commitment and enthusiasm. I look forward to the discoveries ahead.

................................................................................

The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard
script by Greg Romero
music by Mike Vernusky
director: Ken Kaissar
performers: Kevin Meehan and Megan Slater

.................................................................................

-- ROMERO

Monday, June 21, 2010

FATHER to be Published

Father Goes to the Aquarium on Monday and the Arcade on Thursday, will be published (as a short story) by The Brighton Post, a literary/arts zine from Brighton, Massachusetts.

Originally presented as part of the live performance THIRTY-THREE (if you were in attendance for this March 2010 event, you received a copy of this story as a gift), the piece will be part of The Brighton Post's inaugural issue exploring "Pandemonium", to be published in July, 2010.

Big thank yous to GerRee Hinshaw, who originally provided the title as one of the challenges for the THIRTY-THREE project, and to Violette Carb for just being Violette.


=======
ROMERO

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

7-UP on SPACE at the Kelly Writers House

I am obsessed with space. I write plays and create live events BECAUSE of their unique use of space. My students call themselves "the Space Cadets". And I am obsessed with space.


It is a great honor, therefore, to participate in a Kelly Writers House event that explores "SPACE" through 7 different perspectives from 7 different experts on the subject.

As one of the 7 experts, I will have 7 minutes to explore the subject. And it will be cosmic.

HOLY MOLY.

Below is the information.

.....................................


Friends,

Personal space, the space bar, astronomy, astrology, choreography, outer space, inner space, virtual space, space music, architecture, urban sprawl, and Sun Ra: it's 7-UP ON SPACE!

Please join us for musings by Arkestra Aficionado GRACE AMBROSE (C'11), experimental cosmologist MARK DEVLIN, trickster philosopher THOMSON GUSTER (C'10), computer whiz CHRIS MUSTAZZA, playwright GREG ROMERO, architect HARRIS STEINBERG, and choreographer KATE WATSON-WALLACE, who will each speak (sing, demonstrate, what have you) for seven minutes about SPACE.

Come occupy our space, eat some space food, and join in the discussion!

Excitedly yours,
WH Staff
________________________________________________________________________

The Kelly Writers House presents:

7-UP ON SPACE

Featuring:
GRACE AMBROSE (C'11)
MARK DEVLIN
THOMSON GUSTER (C'10)
CHRIS MUSTAZZA
GREG ROMERO
HARRIS STEINBERG
and KATE WATSON-WALLACE

Monday, April 19, at 6:00 PM in the Arts Café
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk
No registration required. Program is free and open to the public.

Event page on Facebook.
________________________________________________________________________

The 7-Up series is an annual program for which we invite seven guests to speak for seven minutes each about a topic. Each speaker gives their insight on some aspect of the chosen theme; interesting interpretations and musings always result! For information on past 7-up events visit http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/programs/7-up/.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Thank you for THIRTY-THREE

I am thrilled to write that the performance of THIRTY-THREE on Monday night, March 22nd, was a wonderful experience.


"Thirty-Three Man". Photo by Tom Gattone.

An enthusiastic audience of about 30 showed up and all seemed to have a really fun time. I am very happy with how well the show came together-- with how unique an experience we created, with how much fun it was, and with how creatively we all engaged each other. I love that we created something that was more of an event than it was a play.

Having not performed much at all in the last ten years, I was incredibly nervous, but it helped considerably to see so many friendly faces show up at the theater. From what I could tell, everyone showed up anticipating a good time, and that helped us all a whole lot.

As for the performance-- there are things I wish I could have done better, but I am extremely proud of what we shared on Monday night. I feel certain that we gave the audience a totally fun evening that was unique and memorable.

And once the show ended-- no one left. The audience stayed at the Rotunda for some time, continuing to commune with each other, to enjoy the food (the show provides both Moo Shoo Pork and Moonpies) and to enjoy the experience. This, to me, is what I always hope for-- for the performance to continue even after it's over.

This communion was made possible by the extraordinary work done by collaborators Ken Kaissar (director), Clifford Hall (sound design), Nicole Garman (projection design), Megan Slater (recorded voice), and Mike Vernusky (music composition). Everyone truly did outstanding, creative, imaginative work. And well all had so much fun!

Big thank yous to the collaborative team, to Gina Renzi and the Rotunda, to Drexel University, to all the awesome people who showed up Monday night, and to all the Awesome People whose gifts made this event possible.

rock on,

ROMERO

Friday, March 19, 2010

Collaborative Team in Rehearsal for THIRTY-THREE

Greg Romero (as "Thirty-Three Man") and Director Ken Kaissar (photo by Tom Gattone)

As we gear up for our March 22nd presentation at The Rotunda, Wednesday's rehearsal of THIRTY-THREE brought in almost the entire (awesome) collaborative team for this project.

Director Ken Kaissar and I welcomed the rest of the team to the rehearsal space (big thank yous to Drexel University!) for a productive and fun evening. Photographer Tom Gattone was also present, documenting the rehearsal for us.

Seen here is Megan Slater (The :nv:s:ble Play, Hysteria) working with sound designer Clifford Hall (Noises Off, The Seagull) on the pieces "A Dream About Pear Trees" and "A Peacock at My Parent's House".






Megan Slater (as "The Peacock Lady") and Sound Designer Clifford Hall (photo by Tom Gattone)













Also at rehearsal was Projection/Visual Designer Nicole Garman, seen in the photo below, as we worked on the opening piece "Thirty-Three Man". Ken, Nicole, and I also continued working on "Benoit Spills the Gay" and explored various ways to perform "Father Goes to the Aquarium on Monday and the Arcade on Thursday". We also continued our ongoing brainstorm, continuing to ask questions about the overall design of the production, how the pieces fit together, and how to make this as interesting, dynamic, and memorable a performance as possible.

Greg Romero (as "Thirty-Three Man") and Projection Designer Nicole Garman (photo by Tom Gattone).

We are all very excited by the challenges of this unique event, and we all look forward to the continued work and the eventual sharing of it with an audience.

.........................................................

The Collaborative Team:

Nicole Garman (projection designer) is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where she studied architecture and creative writing. She was also a member of the Varsity rowing team and gives a fantastic, well-informed tour of the Penn campus.

Clifford Hall (sound designer/composer/violist) While attending Peabody back in the late 90s, my comp teacher told me to learn the violin so I don't write too ridiculous things for the instrument. My rebellious streak took to the viola. Meanwhile, composition took me to the theater (The Seagull, Tartuffe, Noises Off, HMS Pinafore, Ragtime). When not writing music, it's all teaching orchestra to the Youth of America. Up on the horizon: staging and recording my one act musical "That is Life!" (you can learn more about me at my website: www.thesoundword.com)

Ken Kaissar (director) just directed Noises Off at the Tri-County Performing Arts Center. His work has been seen mostly in New York City where he directed in the Culture Project’s Women’s Center Stage Festival and at the Epiphany Theatre Company where he directed a new production of A Doll House. He is also a playwright and his adaptation of The Canterbury Tales was commissioned by Columbia University in 2008. Ken holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University .

Greg Romero (playwright/performer) has seen his works performed in New York, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, New Orleans, Louisville, and in elevators, porches, warehouses, loft apartments, punk stages, living rooms, museums, hotels, sidewalks, basements, gardens, and in the bathrooms of Actors' Theater of Louisville. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas and was the first-ever Resident Writer for the ArtsEdge Artist Residency. He currently teaches at Drexel University.

Megan Slater (performer) has worked with Azuka Theatre, Flashpoint Theatre Company, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Simpatico Theatre Project, The Wilma Theater, and most recently Philadelphia Theatre Workshop.

Mike Vernusky (additional music composition) is a composer, performer, and sound artist. He writes music for concertized, theatrical, and filmic environments, primarily through the use of electronic media and live performance. Vernusky won the Grand Prize in Music for the Digital Art Awards in Tokyo and holds degrees from The University of Texas and Mercyhurst College. His music is published on MIT Press, Capstone, Spectrum Press, and Quiet Design.

..................................................

Greg Romero and Ken Kaissar (photo by Tom Gattone)

For more information about THIRTY-THREE, you can visit here or here. You can also find us on Facebook.

We hope to see you on March 22nd!!

sincerely,

ROMERO

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

THIRTY-THREE at The Rotunda

THIRTY-THREE
Conceived and Performed by Greg Romero
Directed by Ken Kaissar

Created and Inspired by:
Alexandra Bassett, Ilana Brownstein, Hugh Craig, GerRee Hinshaw, Kate Houlihan, Deven MacNair, Nancy Mouton and Chester Forest, Dustin Puryear, Greg Romero, Sean Schneyer, Hank Schwemmer, Don Slater, Heidi Taylor, Angela Turner, and Jeff Williams

Additional Gifts by:
Jodi Alonzo; The Burn Ward Theater Company; Deena Gerson; Wanda, Doyle, and Kristi Reeves; and Pat and Johnie Romero

......................................................

WHEN: Monday, March 22nd, 2010; 7:33 PM

WHERE: The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St
Philadelphia PA

ADMISSION: Bring a gift!

.......................................................

Last year I asked every person I knew to give me three dollars. I was trying to create a "patron collective" in an effort to give myself continued time to work on a number of artistic projects.

I have been incredibly moved by the response.

As a return gift, everyone who offered their generosity has their name archived inside the creative works I created last fall. For all time.

The full list of Awesome People is found here:

And for people who were especially generous, I promised I would create and perform something, anything, just for them.

And that's what THIRTY-THREE is (it's also how old I am).

It is a gift-exchange, a theatrical promise kept, a dare, a rite of passage, a live performance inspired and created by friends originating from a place of generosity and challenge and a sense of fun.

And it will be performed by me, even though I haven't performed much at all in the past ten years.

At THIRTY-THREE you will see: a wrestler, a thanksgiving dinner, an affair with a turkey, Hideki Matsui, Mou Shou Pork, birth, death, dreams, pear trees, Moonpies, phone calls with love on the other end, a multi-gender prostitute, a ghost, a peacock, an alien, and my mom.

You will see some of the most personal writing I've done since The Most Beautiful Lullaby You've Ever Heard.

And this all scares me to death (in a good way).

I look forward to sharing this experience with you, and ask that you bring the gift of your attendance, as well as a gift for me, Ken, or The Rotunda.

We promise to give you many gifts in return.

Big thank yous to all the gift-givers, to Gina Renzi and The Rotunda, and to Ken Kaissar for his direction.

Sincerely,

Greg Romero
THIRTY-THREE

p.s. if you plan to attend, you can RSVP here.

Friday, February 19, 2010

DANDELION MOMMA Plays at the Painted Bride

On Wednesday, February 17th, my play DANDELION MOMMA was staged at The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia as part of their on-going new play development series, "The Bridal Salon".

The play was staged by Anthony Kamani, a stranger to me before the event started, who quickly became a wonderful new collaborator. Kamani enlarged the play, skillfully seeing both my vision of these worlds as well as bringing his own to the party. Anthony introduced me to lovely new actors I've never worked with before, brought in a live cello player to accompany the reading, and generally brought a whole lot of fun, enthusiasm, and good energy to the play. This staging expressed the play with added dimension, new rhythms, and gravitas (embodied beautifully by actress Meryl L. Brown as "Augustine").

The Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia PA

As with all these opportunities to step inside my writing, I learned a lot from being able to see the play brought to life for a moment. Of this particular process, I experienced a wider sense of possibility for these characters, some new discoveries, and a renewed passion for the play.

It was my hope that the Bridal Salon process would convince me to continue believing in this play, and to continue to seek opportunity for sharing it with a larger audience.

Big thank yous to the Painted Bride, LaNeshe Miller, Anthony Kamani, Meryl L. Brown, Carly Bodnar, Khalil Munir, Izzy Forte, Emma Berry, and Monica McIntyre for bringing life to the play, and to the friends in attendance who shared the moment with us.

rock on,

ROMERO

Sunday, January 24, 2010

ZOMBIE HEART SALAD SANDWICH at The Shubin Theatre

My short play, ZOMBIE HEART SALAD SANDWICH, will play at Philadelphia's Shubin Theatre on Tuesday, February 9th.

Selected to be part of "Primary Stages", a developmental program produced by Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC), the staged reading will be directed by PDC Executive Director Wally Zialcita and performed by Mark W. Robson and Megan Slater.

I am thrilled to step inside this play again, and look forward to the challenges and discoveries ahead of us. Big thank yous to PDC for its continued support of local playwrights, and to my awesome, fun collaborators on this project.

rock on,

ROMERO


UPDATE: Feb 9, 2010: Due to weather conditions (a blizzard!) this project has been postponed to a date to be announced.