FOXING Edinburgh, Scotland

During the month of August 2018, my short play, Foxing, played eight performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The play was part of London-based White Room Theatre's program Bite-Sized Plays, which annually brings a line-up of short plays to life at what is one of the world's most recognized and most attended theater festivals.

I have been wanting to participate in the Edinburgh Fringe since I first learned about it 20 years ago, so this was quite an exciting, humbling opportunity for me.

All, or nearly all, of the production's eight performances (which, as a morning performance, included a spread of strawberries and coffee) sold-out the175-seat  Pleasance Dome Theatre, meaning perhaps a thousand festival-goers from all over the world saw this play.

Huge thank yous to Claira Watson Parr for seeing this play in London and for making it happen so awesomely in Edinburgh.

Continued thank yous to all the people who have brought this play to life, including: Chris Totora and Deborah Bradshaw (who helped originate it); Errin Delperdang, Kelly Hasandras, and Olivia O'Hare (for their beautiful, fun work on this play in Austin,TX and Breitenbush, OR); Maryanne Olson (for the performances at the Brick Theatre in Brooklyn, NY); and Matt Maltby and Rafaella Marcus (for their excellent work on the London production with Pint Sized Plays).

Thank you, big hugs, and much love,

ROMERO

FOXING Mi Casa

On Saturday, February 10th, 2018, my collaborators and I presented Foxing again, this time in the cozy environs of Jason Phelps' living room in Austin, Texas, as part of FronteraFest's program, "Mi Casa es su Teatro"-- a one-day event that presents live performances in people's homes and in found spaces across the city.

It was fun and instructive to see the play again in such a unique, intimate space, and, as always, a joy to witness the work of performers Errin Delperdang, Kelly Hasandras, and Olivia O'Hare, who continue to elevate the play off the page.

 "Mi Casa es su Teatro" took place in multiple locations in the Travis Heights neighborhood in South Austin.

Big thank yous to Errin, Kelly, and Olivia for keeping the play alive, to FronteraFest for its gifts to the city of Austin in the form of lovely coming-together events, and to the rest of the participants and audience who communed together on Saturday.

Aaron (Errin Delperdang), Charlie (Kelly Hasandras), and Beatrice (Olivia O'Hare). Hyde Park Theatre; Austin, TX.  Photo by Kelly O'Hare.

And thank you to Jason Phelps and Margery Segal (and Tiger and Lazer) for sharing their home with us!

Continued thank yous to ScriptWorks for their support of the play, and to Cumberland County College, who originally provoked me to write it.

much love,

ROMERO

BIG IRON FIRES FronteraFest

On Friday, February 9th, 2018, my experimental theatre project, Big Iron Fires, will play at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, Texas, as part of the Short Fringe program of FronteraFest.

This is one way to describe the project:

"Gwen goes off-script so she can listen to you. Lost characters from a different play, a volunteer from the audience, a song, and a gun. We don't know everything that will happen."

In the time since I wrote this description, we've also added Country line-dancing, discovered even more layers and worlds, and kind of blown the lid off of my previous understanding of the play. 

Nina (Cristina Flores) and Gwen (Susan Myburgh) in Big Iron Fires.  Hyde Park Theatre: Austin, TX.  Photo by Mike Vernusky.

We are all very excited to share this work, and I am incredibly grateful to be working with this particular group of artists-- all of whom are talented, smart, generous, thoughtful, surprising, and have all been very brave in trying out some theatrically dangerous ideas.

Big thank yous to actors Susan Myburgh, Cristina Flores, and Brooks Laney; costume designer Stephanie Fisher; composer Mike Vernusky; and for help from Dan Caffrey.  Enormous thank yous to director Jess Shoemaker, whose idea it was to work on this play and who has stewarded a process that has been full of creative rewards and exciting moments of discovery and collaboration.  Thank you also to the University of Texas-Austin students who have participated in rehearsal, offering insights and productive questions.

And thank yous to the FronteraFest staff and crew, who are doing exhaustive work in making everything look and sound excellent, and for their grace and humor.

Continued thank yous to Gregory Johnson and Montana Repertory Theatre's "5 x 5 Playwriting Slam" project, for which this play was originally written.

much love,

ROMERO

FOXING FronteraFest

On Wednesday, January 31, 2018, my short play (with dancing), Foxing, will be unleashed on audiences at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, Texas, as part of the FronteraFest Short Fringe.

Olivia O'Hare as Beatrice, a fox who is also a human.  Photo by Kelly O'Hare.

Brought to life by performers/movement artists Errin Delperdang, Kelly Hasandras, and Olivia O'Hare, the play features strange exercises, dance numbers, and wild animals.  We are describing it like this:

They start with a dance then exhaust themselves further. They are led by a human who is also a fox named Beatrice. Aaron and Charlie drink water, do burpees, transform into wild animals, and unfold pieces of paper the fox keeps handing them, confronting the most difficult moment they can't bury.

Errin Delperdang ("Aaron"), Kelly Hasandras ("Charlie"), and Olivia O'Hare ("Beatrice").  Photo by Kelly O'Hare.

As always, it is a delight to work with these three artists and I have been moved by their creativity, imagination, intelligence, bravery, and generosity. They breathed into the words on the page, freeing them into the air, shaping them into dance.  They are all three as good as it gets.

Big thank yous also to the excellent staff and crew of FronteraFest, whose hard work is delivered gracefully and with unfailing support.  

Continued thank yous to Deborah Bradshaw and Chris Totora for inviting me to participate in Play in Day at Cumberland County College, and that project's participants for which this play was originally written.

 Errin Delperdang ("Aaron") and Kelly Hasandras ("Charlie"). Photo by Kelly O'Hare.

You can find more information about the performance, including tickets, here.

Best wishes as well to all the participants of FronteraFest, may your experience be magical and memorable.

much love,

ROMERO

BULLDOZERS at the Inge Festival

My experimental short play, Bulldozers, has been selected for the New Play Lab at the William Inge Theater Festival in May 2018.

An annual event held in Independence, Kansas, I look forward to the learning experience, to meeting more theater artists, and to getting to know a new place. This year's festival is honoring Carlyle Brown, whose work I admire and respect, and I feel very fortunate for the opportunity to celebrate and meet him.  And I am excited to learn more about my own strange, interactive, unpredictable play.

As for the play itself, Bulldozers was originally written as part of the 5 x 5 Play Slam curated by Gregory Johnson and Montana Repertory Theatre.  Bulldozers has never been presented (or even rehearsed!), and there is a lot to discover since most of the characters are played by audience members.  And there is wolf.

Big thank yous to the Inge Fest for selecting the play, and to Montana Rep for prompting me to write it.  Thank you also to Rand Higbee for his insights into the Inge Fest experience.

Much love,

ROMERO

DOOR TO BALLOON Selected for First Flight Festival/NYC

My full-length play, Door to Balloon, was selected to be presented at 2018 First Flight New Play Festival, produced by Boomerang Theatre Company in New York City.

HECK YEAH.

I have worked with the good folks at Boomerang before and look forward to returning to their company to further explore this experimental, wild play. I am encouraged by the response this play continues to provoke, and super interested to continue learning from it.

Big thank yous to Boomerang for selecting this work and to all the excellent collaborators in Austin, Texas, and at the Last Frontier Theater Conference for the many gifts you have brought to me and this play.

I am grateful for the continued opportunities to improve the play, to engage deeply with people through that process, and to continue to learn through acts of creativity.

The full list of Finalists and more information about the project HERE.

much love,

ROMERO

Rehearsing/Experimenting/Baking with the 787 Collective

On Thursday night, November 9, 2017, the 787 Collective will present a staged reading of 4 new plays by Austin playwrights Elizabeth Doss, Sarah Saltwick, Megan Tabaque, and me.

The presentation begins at 7:00 pm in the Hicks House at Austin Presbyterian Seminary.

The project is curated by Austin playwright Martha Lynn Coon as part of her community and congregation-building work through Austin Presbyterian Seminary. A kind of experiment, the event poses questions about how communities can engage in positive ways through acts of creativity.

photos by Annie McCain Engman

For this event, Coon supplied a list of ingredients that each playwright had to "bake" into a 10-minute play.  The ingredients included:

Salt
Light
Water
Revelation
a Weather phenomenon
a character's experience of life in their 20s
and a choice of three compelling passages from Ecclesiastes

Each writer had a week to complete the play.

All four of the plays are highly theatrical, a little bit wild, and express some fun surprises.  I am in much admiration of my fellow writers on this project.

Each play was rehearsed for roughly an hour, and is being brought to life through the great work by actors Katie Bender, Cristina Flores, Patrick Hill II, and Megan Todd.

For more information, you can visit the event's Eventbrite posting, or visit the Seminary website.

ROMERO