Springing into Production
This has been a busy and creatively satisfying spring, and as I settle into the sultry summertime, I am energized by all I have accomplished and all that is to come! I continue to take things slow, focusing on full-length work over short plays and submissions. It feels like a season to recharge and find things that excite me so I can chase the stories I really want to tell… which is precisely what has led me to all of the wonderful opportunities and productions I’ve enjoyed recently!
they have become the forest presented by the Roving Peregrine Theatre Company
Foremost, I made a triumphant return to the forest this may! My friends at The Roving Peregrine Theatre Company in Shepherdstown, WV, produced a stunning staged workshop of they have become the forest. I traveled down in person and got to spend a stunning weekend living in this story, showing up to every performance with a notebook in hand!
While the previous workshop was text focused, this workshop was about theatricality. We played with original music, movement dramaturgy, puppetry, and framing. It really brought this “campfire story” to life in a remarkable way, highlighting the multitude of creative possibilities for directors and creatives! I am falling ever more in love with this script by the day.
The workshop was directed by Heather Wallen. It featured original music by Ryan Perry and live foley by Christopher Leatherman. The cast featured Abigail Gaver as Sy and Riley Killian as Daphne.
Here are some more images from this truly stunning workshop:
Since the workshop, I’ve learned that they have become the forest was shortlisted for the Wild Imaginings Epiphanies Festival in Waco, TX. It was also short-listed for The Road Theatre’s Summer Playwrights Festival in Los Angeles, CA (which I am told is a very short list indeed). Getting a nod from such respected, mainstream organizations tells me I’m definitely on the right track with this one.
I’d love to schedule one more workshop to nail out some sequential and musical things before I make the draft publicly available. If you’re interested in working on this play, please be in touch! I’d love to frolic in the forest with more collaborators!
The Psychopomp presented by the Port Washington Play Troupe
Next, I got to experience another one of my very favorite things… a production close to home… and with a new-to-me theatre organization here on Long Island! The Port Washington Play Troupe presented a ten-minute new play festival with the theme “Past, Present, and Future.” My play The Psychopomp, about two ghost hunters in search of a local legend, was a natural fit. Despite this play’s quite robust production history, this was the first time I’ve seen it in person, and the performances were stunning! Although I sat front row center, it was so encouraging to see the entire audience leaning forward, rapt with focus and attention. You could have heard a pin drop!
The Psychopomp was directed by Pam Seiderman, and featured Hannah Mount as Christine and Sage Schiffer as Bethany. I definitely hope I get to work with these two local talents again - they really killed it!
Also this spring, my one-shot audio drama, reANIMA, was an official nominee for best drama and best ensemble cast at LA WEBFEST. I believe it’s still in consideration at some other festivals worldwide, which is very cool! When I submitted that script to my friends at Broken Arts Entertainment, I did NOT expect it to have such a long and…dare I say compelling… life! And I DEFINITELY could not have predicted what came next!
That’s right! Somehow, I wrote a ten-episode audio drama…in about two weeks? I am still not entirely sure how that’s possible. After crafting a pretty intense (to the tune of FIFTY PAGES) story bible, I had the structure I needed to get to work…and get to work I did!
CHOOSE THE BEAR is a radical queer revision of the Greek myth of Callisto…set in space. It’s an Aly Kantor project so, naturally, it breaks convention in some fun ways. It’s part future-forward battle cry and part intimate long-distance love story. It also features a delightful AI character who I inadvertently named after my cat.
I LOVE the two (human) main characters deeply, and I can’t believe this weird, hyperspecific thing I dreamed into existence gets to actually become a thing I can listen to and enjoy?! The team has already recorded at least three episodes, and production is ongoing. I can’t wait for you all to meet Callie and Diana and the whole fucked up Zenith Aerospace crew and lose your mind over these brilliant performances.
A little behind the scenes from Episode 2, featuring some actors and creatives!
The project is being produced by Broken Arts Entertainment. Executive producers include Joe Swenson, Jack Davis, and yours truly. The series is directed by Helen May (who, true Aly Kantor fans will know, also directed reANIMA), and will feature audio engineering by Bob Sawyer. The series will be led by Hannah Lee Defrates as Callie and Antonella Perez Ferrero as Diana. I will share more casting details and the like as we get closer to release.
Murdering Medea produced by The Black Swamp Players
And, at long last, the long awaited premier! Murdering Medea finally hit the stage with The Black Swamp Players in Bowling Green, OH. I am certain the Toledo metropolitan area (…is there a Toledo metropolitan area…?) will never again be the same.
Those who helped me develop early drafts of this play might remember me saying, “The logistical problems won’t matter because this is never getting produced” with an incredible amount of pessimistic confidence. I suppose there is nothing to do but eat my hat, since this play has had quite a life leading up to this moment! I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t get me arrested for treason under the current administration, but I’m proud of what it has become!
Murdering Medea was directed (including intimacy and fight direction) by Chloe Whiting Stevenson, assisted by Hunter Kazmierczak, and stage managed by Heath A. Diehl. It featured Louis Warner as Lucy, Jackie Cummins as Medea, and Trevor Walsh as AJ.
You can even check out some nice write-ups of the production if you wish:
Do note that the Black Swamp Players did NOT produce the most current version of the script. They decided to move forward with a slightly older draft for logistical reasons, so the version they produced will not be available for production ever again… so if ya missed it, ya missed it. You should have trusted the FOMO, Toledo!
However, if you’d like to produce the very shiny new and improved draft (now with 100% more autoerotic asphyxiation and true crime statistics), I’m hoping to make it available on NPX sometime in Q3 of 2025. If you’re interested in a perusal draft (of this or they have become the forest), you can always shoot me an email!
Production photos by Lorna Ziehm
In the meantime, I am waist-deep in the research phase of a new historical commission. I have been eat-sleep-Colonial America for the past few weeks, and will be connecting with a dramaturg in the next two weeks to figure out what sort of shape the play will take!
Until I started digging in, I didn’t realize how few plays there were about women in Colonial America…especially if you’re kind of over Abigail Adams (which I’m not - she’s super cool… but it’s someone else’s turn, lady).
I wish this was shaping up to be a more optimistic story, but the answer to “Why this play now?” is not just “because it’s the sesquicentennial.” It’s also because we’ve gone 250 years without a female leader, and our nation is currently being run by a sex criminal and convicted felon who hates women and queer people. The constitution didn’t help us then, and it isn’t helping us now. If Murdering Medea doesn’t get me arrested for treason, maybe this one will! Can’t wait!
Oh, and I mustn’t forget that my friends at The Rainy Day Artistic Collective once again hosted a wonderful monologue night! They reached out to me while I was away developing they have become the forest to see if I had a piece for their Pride Event “…But Make It Gayer.” The theme was ‘take a character from popular culture and make the queerness explicit.’ Of course, I used it as another opportunity to spread my “Laurie Laurence is a Trans Lesbian” agenda. I wrote The Best Man the day I got back from the trip. It was performed by Jack Seamus, who has worked on my plays in many, many different capacities over the years! As always, it was a great time!
Next up, I’m heading to New Jersey Rep in Long Branch, NJ, to present a reading of my old favorite, Occupied. I’ll be working with a team that produced a reading of the play a few years back, and they’ll all be reprising their roles! We’ll have a talkback afterwards. If you’re nearby, you can reserve tickets online now!
If you’re on Long Island, be on the lookout for a special presentation of These Gilded Souls at The Long Island Museum this Autumn! Details to follow! However, if you are a Gatsby fan, I believe they have a great Gatsby exhibit (ha - get it? Great Gatsby?) right now! Check it out!
Until then, I’ll be waiting to hear back about a few short lists, digging into research, and maybe even taking a summer playwriting course, which has been my tradition for several years running! I am in my quality over quantity era, baby!
OH! And hopefully writing! There are a few little productions coming up that I’ll probably talk about in my Q3 update! Until then, if you don’t hear from me… assume I’m either writing, weeping, or weeping while writing! Can’t wait!
Hot Blood Sundae at Pace University - Photo by Russ Rowland
