What She Means

What She Means by Rebecca Tourino
Sunday, May 16th 7pm
The Barrow Group Theater
The Garret Studio
312 West 36th Street (at 8th Avenue)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

Although my grandmother is still living she is, to me, already gone. I don’t really see her anymore; looking at her, there’s hardly a trace left of the woman I knew. Alzheimer’s disease has taken her, and with her, a wealth of tenderness, a volume of knowledge, a hundred impressions of my younger self. Growing up, she was both my memory and my mirror. What do you do when your mirror breaks?


As an artist, my work had always smoothly reflected me just as my grandmother had. I knew who I was and what I had to say, but mostly because she'd always been there. After losing her I forgot, for a time, how to write. It was disorienting. Maybe I became as confused as she was. I couldn’t make sense of anything. I couldn’t make sense. I wrote the play for her.

I’m a mother now, trying to balance professional and creative aspirations with the most challenging full-time gig I’ve ever known: the care of my two-year-old son. My grandmother always made it look easy. I’m learning, of course, that of the many adjectives one could use to describe the parenting of young ones, “easy” is not one of them.


What She Means is about memory, childhood, grief, and the bewildering process of creation. It's also the first of my plays that I've acted in, and, as such, it's become personal in a way that's new to me. The main character is a writer trying to write a play about someone important to her. Five adult actors play children helping to tell her story. Writing the play, I found myself asking far more questions than I answered. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because the story is personal? Maybe because it deals so directly with feeling small and powerless in the face of a big loss? Or maybe simply because I was immersed in transcribing the voices of five kids? Anyone spending extended time with children, of course, had better get comfortable with questions quickly.



How do you tell a sad story? What if nobody cares?

How can you make a gaggle of ten-year-olds do what you want?

Is it even possible to form words from a place of mute grief?

And what's that cabbage doing onstage, anyway?




Some losses are almost too big to handle, even if you're a grownup. I'm not sure I've come to terms with my real-life loss yet. By the end of What She Means, my counterpart has managed to strip artifice from art to reveal a few hard-won personal truths. The most straightforward conclusion I can draw from my own work, this time, is that I think my grandmother would like watching it. For me, most days, that's almost enough.



(Images, above, by Lorretta Lux)



Rebecca Tourino is a teaching theater artist living in Brooklyn. She’s written two other full-length plays: The Naked Eye Planets, awarded the Coyote REP Moon Award and produced at the American Theater of Actors in New York and Quickening, produced in Los Angeles by Lucid by Proxy and in New York by the Albertine Theater Company. As an actor, Rebecca’s credits include PCPA Theaterfest, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Cabaret Theater, Rogue Music Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the East Bay Actor’s Collective, among other regional credits. She’s also happily nudging her way into the directing area, working most recently with Coyote REP and Invisible, LLC. BA, UC Berkeley; MFA, UC Irvine; Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts.www.whatshemeansblog.com

The New Play Development Program is our commitment to nurturing the original work of our company's playwrights. This intensive, ten-month program provides a structured series of workshops culminating in our May Works-in-Development Series, a public presentation of readings.

Questions My Mother Can't Answer

QUESTIONS MY MOTHER CAN'T ANSWER by Andrea Cabab

Sunday May 10th 7pm Bruce Mitchell Room
ART/NY
520 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor
(between 36th and 37th Streets)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

I got the idea to write "Questions My Mother Can't Answer" (a working title by the way) after one of the performances of my last solo show, "You Got Questions? I Got Answers!" That piece was a documentary theater collage derived from the interviews I conducted with 8 New Yorkers about when they feel the most isolated and when they feel the most connected. A friend of mine brought her mother to the show. Her mom commented to me that I interviewed people of all different races, genders, & ethnicities, but I had no one in my play that represented her generation, the voice of women in their early 60's. I felt a little guilty I hadn't included anyone of that age. And then I felt a little curious.

Then I started finding friendships, lots of friendships, with women around my mom's age. My husband thought it funny that while my peers were going out for drinks until the wee hours, I was making dinner dates with 60-something year old women I met on the subway! I started to wonder what it was these friendships were giving me that perhaps my relationship with my mother did not. So I started asking for interviews. And unlike with my first piece, every women I asked said yes! There was absolutely no shame in their stories...they were pleased to be able to tell me about the moment they found out they were pregnant, about the fall of their first marriage, and a few things they wouldn't tell their own daughters.
So not only was I gaining the benefit of delving into the lives of these highly fascinating and highly flawed women, they were finding release in the telling of stories, that in some cases, they had never told anyone before. And they had never told anyone before because no one had ever asked.

I tell people when I work in this way, I start from a curiosity and follow my nose until a play presents itself to me. I titled this one before I knew what the heck it was going to be about. So when I interviewed my mom, I was shocked at and grateful for the answers I got. I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying that.

Andrea Caban is an actor, writer, producer, and teacher. She last appeared in Craig Wright's The Pavilion in the role of the narrator and 17+ other roles at Boise Contemporary Theater. Andrea received the 2008 New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for her documentary-based play You Got Questions? I Got Answers! Her play also earned Outstanding Short Script & Outstanding Performance Art Production nominations. Regional and New York credits include productions at The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Long Wharf Theater, New World Stages, HERE Arts Center, GAle GAtes et al, and The Hayworth Theater in LA. BA: University of South Florida. MFA: University of California, Irvine. www.andreacaban.com

The New Play Development Program is our commitment to nurturing the original work of our company's playwrights. This intensive, ten-month program provides a structured series of workshops culminating in our May Works-in-Development Series, a public presentation of readings.

RATED 'M' FOR MATURE

Coyote REP is very excited about the work we are showcasing in or Works-in-Development Series at ART/NY and The Barrow Group Theater. We asked our company playwrights to share more about the pieces they are featuring for the month long May event.

RATED M FOR MATURE by Greg Ayers
Sunday May 9th 7pm Bruce Mitchell Room
ART/NY
520 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor
(between 36th and 37th Streets)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)


Let me make one thing clear: I love video games. I always have. I can still spend an entire weekend playing any one of the Final Fantasy games. Videogames will always occupy a special place in my heart because I grew up on them. Some of my earlier memories include playing Jungle Hunt and Joust on the Atari 2600. Back when I was in elementary school, owning a specific game could be viewed as a status symbol. I remember being the first of my friends to own Super Mario Bros 2. I suddenly had people begging, yes, begging me to let them come over and play the game. And, I admit, I may have taken advantage of my new position of power by demanding that everyone share their fruit rollups with me in exchange for 10 minutes of game play. So what if I was drunk with power? I was ten. And I was having fun. And for me, that’s what videogames are all about: having fun. Entertainment. But somewhere along the way, for some people, videogames have become a serious addiction. That’s not so fun.

I suppose there are a few reasons I decided to write Rated M for Mature. The first being, I had recently read an article about a teenage boy who shot both his parents in the head because they’d taken away his favorite videogame. And then, a while later, I heard about a couple in China who were so wrapped up in creating a second life for themselves in an online game that they neglected to feed their newborn baby, which ended up starving to death. Clearly, these are two example of love for videogames gone wrong.

Another reason I was inspired to write this play is because I find teenagers to be some of the most fascinating and exciting people out there. I can vividly recall the pain that shaped my teenage years. The pressure. The bullying. The frustration. The anger. But I’m now at an age where, although I can still empathize with the plight of teenagers, I also feel a tinge of fear whenever I see a group of them

on a subway platform. I feel disconnected from them. And at times, I feel intimidated. I mean, do they really need to talk that loud? Really??

Rated M for Mature is a play about all of the above. The confusion and disconnect some parents feel towards their children. The pain and frustrations of being a teenager. And the need to escape life by immersing one’s self into an online fantasy world.

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Greg Ayers co-wrote and starred in John and Greg's High School Reunion, which premiered at last year's New York International Fringe Festival. As an actor, some of his favorite credits include Small Tragedy at the Aurora Theater, HOLES at the Orpheum Theater, and The Lion in Winter at PCPA Theaterfest. Greg is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts

The New Play Development Program is our commitment to nurturing the original work of our company's playwrights. This intensive, ten-month program provides a structured series of workshops culminating in our May Works-in-Development Series, a public presentation of readings

WORKS-IN-DEVELOPMENT SERIES MAY 2010!

Coyote REP Presents its inaugural
Works-in-Development Series
May 9th-May 24th, 2010 ART/NY and The Barrow Group Theater

You are invited to support the works of Coyote REP's up and coming playwrights by attending this month long festival of new work! We have always been a company that supports work from within our ranks. But in 2009 we began specifically encouraging our members to write plays for development by the company. The goal is to learn the process of developing a piece of theatre as a company from its beginning ideas all the way through to a full Coyote REP sound or stage production.

We ask that you come out and witness the seeds of this process, offer feedback and lend your own support to these promising writers!

*Talkbacks to follow each reading.

Rated 'M' for Mature
By Greg Ayers
Directed by Paul Dobie

Sunday May 9th 7pm
ART/NY Bruce Mitchell Room
520 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor
(between 36th and 37th Streets)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

Eric, a lonely sixteen year old, is addicted to living vicariously through his avatar in an expansive online video game. But when he starts to neglect his real life, his computer is taken away. How far will he and his friends go to get it back?
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Questions My Mother Can't Answer
By writer/performer Andrea Caban


Monday May 10th 7pm
ART/NY Bruce Mitchell Room
520 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor
(between 36th and 37th Streets)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

Questions My Mother Can't Answer by writer/performer Andrea Caban, is a documentary-based collage of the true mythologies of women from her mother's generation and her search to fill in the blanks of her own mythology. Andrea navigates through the stories of 8 women as they reflect on growing up in the 50's, getting pregnant in the 60's, raising children, having sex, finding happiness & becoming characters in a play.

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What She Means
By Rebecca Tourino
Directed by Michael Lluberes

Sunday, May 16th 7pm
The Barrow Group Theater
The Garret Studio
312 West 36th Street (at 8th Avenue)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

A writer in the very act of writing a play, five children trying to take over the story, and the mysterious old woman they all love. Battles of will. Games of tag. Existential crises. Inexplicable cabbages. What She Means is about memory, childhood, grief, and the bewildering process of creation.

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a rhyme for the UNDERground
by chandra thomas
Directed by Tia Hodge

Monday May 17th 7pm
The Barrow Group Theater
The Studio Theater
312 West 36th Street (at 8th Avenue)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

“a rhyme for the UNDERground," in a sentence, is not your mother’s solo show! This new work follows chandra, a social researcher, as she interviews people from all over the world as they travel on the New York City subway. While she thinks her interviewees are there to help her with her book, she quickly discovers they are really there to save her from the precipice. Actor/writer chandra thomas journeys through 17¼ characters in her humorous and moving play infused with poetry, songs, spoken word and dance.
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The New Normal
By Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Directed by Isaac Byrne

Monday May 24th 7pm
ART/NY Bruce Mitchell Room
520 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor
(between 36th and 37th Streets)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

Anna is a spontaneous and fun-loving 32-year-old; a hot mama with a new baby, new family and a new life in Seattle. Just as her new life is kicking into high gear she is handed a diagnosis of Breast Cancer that changes her plans. This is a story of survival. This is a story of humor. This is the story of a family fighting with this disease…and it’s also the story of survivors feeling each others breasts at cocktail parties…This is The New Normal.
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You are invited to attend the talkbacks following each reading.

To reserve seats, email info@coyoterep.org with the following information:
Subject: Reservations
Name:
Email:
Phone Number:
Desired Reading(s):
Desired Number of Tickets:
($5 Suggested Donation at the Door)

*Seating is limited so make your reservation early!

The New Play Development Program is our commitment to nurturing the original work of our company's playwrights. This intensive, ten-month program provides a structured series of workshops culminating in our May Works-in-Development Series, a public presentation of readings.