7:30 p.m., April 17, 2014 at Pearl Studios NYC, 500 8th Avenue, 12th Floor, Room 1211
Truant's New Play Reading Series (April 17, 2014)
What's it about?
Just before dawn, childhood friends hitchhike to California's Mt. Shasta to join the collective New Age epiphany, "The Harmonic Convergence." For Oregon-raised Ruth and Darley, each facing recent soul-deflating crises, the pastoral gathering at a millennia-old Mecca offers healing vibes. Yet within minutes a wild card presents itself: Travis, a handsome Virginia divinity student turned nomadic photojournalist, arriving in a just-purchased '79 Ford pick-up after a mysterious sojourn in Minnesota. Will they prove troubled Travis's saviors, or something more complicated? As the golden day gives way to night, the trio proceeds to a remote alpine lake and beneath a starlit sky, three wounded lives turn the sharpest of corners.
Just before dawn, childhood friends hitchhike to California's Mt. Shasta to join the collective New Age epiphany, "The Harmonic Convergence." For Oregon-raised Ruth and Darley, each facing recent soul-deflating crises, the pastoral gathering at a millennia-old Mecca offers healing vibes. Yet within minutes a wild card presents itself: Travis, a handsome Virginia divinity student turned nomadic photojournalist, arriving in a just-purchased '79 Ford pick-up after a mysterious sojourn in Minnesota. Will they prove troubled Travis's saviors, or something more complicated? As the golden day gives way to night, the trio proceeds to a remote alpine lake and beneath a starlit sky, three wounded lives turn the sharpest of corners.
From the playwright ...Convergence began as an 18-minute, 2-character one-act about the cathartic 11th hour in a two-decade old friendship. After the spring 2013 reading at Truant Arts, the characters' intersecting issues and ambiguous resolution invited open-ended questions from the audience. What might happen on an intriguing journey that had only begun? These two were headed to a global event where they would encounter scores of other pilgrims with varying degrees of devotion to an ill-defined cause. The lively discussion suggested that the play performed might be the opening beat in a deeper story. On my ride home on the train that night it became clear: Whoever Ruth and Darley meet at Shasta could hold a mirror up to their dilemma, changing them and their relationship dynamic in profound ways. Half-way through the first draft it was equally clear: they must in turn significantly alter the trajectory of that third person. And so the resulting 90-minute play was born, and with the addition of the enigmatic Travis, a duet became a more challenging trio.
About the playwright ... Hal Corley: Hal has developed his plays with major regional theaters, and two, An Ounce of Prevention and Finding Donis Anne, have been widely performed (Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, the Walnut Street, and in NY, Atlanta, LA, Boston and Charlotte). Three scripts, Mama and Jack Carew, Easter Monday and ODD are published by Samuel French; and his Treed is published by Playscripts as one of Great Short Plays Volume 10 (2014). His short plays 1959 and Il Nido e Bello were Heideman Finalists and twenty-six of his one-acts have been produced in seventeen states and Canada in the past five years. He has three times been a semifinalist in the O’Neill Competition, including in 2013 for his new play Weak Trembles. |
From the director ...On Convergence: On December 21, 2012, the world was supposed to end, and I was was in a restaurant in Brooklyn with my girlfriend, pretending that our relationship had a future. The world didn't end, and the two of us continued to grind along for the next eight months, sincerely in love but hiding what we really needed. On August 17,1987, the world was supposed to enter a new era of peace and love, initiated by gathering at "power centers" such as the Harmonic Convergence on Mount Shasta. The characters of Hal's play went to Mount Shasta for the Convergence, with their own sincere love and hidden desires, urgently seeking healing. By directing this play, I love that I get to watch Ruth, Travis, and Darley make mistakes of everything. I get to laugh at things that otherwise hurt too much to acknowledge. Ultimately, I get to invite everyone to stop waiting for aliens, Jesus, Mayans, Prince Charming, or other gods to swoop in and fix their sex problems. If there is a new era to come, it's the one we create by daring to say what's happened in the past and what we want for the future.
About the director ... Michael Wilson: Michael directs Man Question, a company that develops and produces theatre and workshops to reinvent what it means to be a man (www.manquestion.org). Michael worked for three years as a freelance teaching artist and group facilitator in New York City; he is now Assistant Director of the CUNY SPS M.A. in Applied Theatre, where he earned his master's degree. Michael is excited to apply his skill and love for group process and matters of sex and gender to his first time directing a full-length piece of theatre. |
Meet the cast ...
Tim Eliot is the Artistic Director of Empirical Rogue and recently directed Nikolai Erdman’s farce Suicide!? He also recently played MacBeth in Shelter Theater Groups’ MacBeth, performed at the Church of Saint Teresa in the LES. He directed the cell’s summer production ofMuch Ado About Nothing, as well as the prior spring’s Romeo and Juliet with Empirical Rogue. New York: Hamlet (Empirical Rogue / the cell), Julius Caesar (Irondale), The Storm (Blessed Unrest), Men Go Down (Hotel Savant), Mad Forest (Columbia Stages), Red Beads (Mabou Mines), Rockberry (Jollyship the Whiz-Bang),Akropolis/Prototype (Andrew Ondrejcak. TV/Film: Boardwalk Empire,MacBeth 1.7, Zombie Musical, Orchestra of Exiles, The 3Bits, duder. Regional: The Real Thing (Northern Stage), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (American Repertory Theater), Cherry Docs (New Rep Theater), The Little Tragedies (Moscow Art Theater), Compleat Works of WS... (Nat'l Tour), Taming of the Shrew (Commonwealth Shakespeare). BA from Yale, MFA from ART/MXAT Institute at Harvard.
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Jessica Park is an NYC-based actor whose work spans regional theatre, from Buffalo (Studio Arena) to Germany (Wiesbaden State Theatre), experimental theatre (NYC Fringe, Tornspace Theatre) and community-based work in senior centers and classrooms. She is actor-writer-producer of sketch comedy group Hot Buffet's monthly live shows at the PIT and online videos. Favorite stage roles include: Stop Kiss (Callie), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Cecile) and The Devils (Sister Louise). She holds a B.A. in Theatre and an M.A. in Applied Theatre. Recent screen credits include: Coney Island Dreams, The Two Ravens, a music video by the bandPurmamarca, and the award-winning film Dissent, which screened at over 30 international film festivals. Upcoming work includes the web series Gigahoes and roles in two feature films. She is bilingual English-German and trains in Martial Arts. www.jessicakaypark.tumblr.com
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Christopher Kloko is blessed to have worked with Abingdon Theatre Co., American Globe Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Counts Media, Drilling Co., Leviathan Lab, AlphaNYC, Diverse City Theater, Manhattan Children’s Theatre , Milk Can Theatre, Michael Chekhov Theatre , Players Loft Theatre , MTB Studio, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, On the Square Productions and of course Truant Arts. TV/Film credits include Fugitive Chronicles, Carl(a), Elliott Loves, & Fighting Nirvana. Training: National Theater Institute.
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