Amazing Grace

Tonight was a night I will never forget. I got to see amazing actors perform my lines as they auditioned for my play. All the months of writing, rewriting, stress, and worry suddenly became this glorious experience. I wish I had more words but right now I don't. But I will say this: I am going to bed happy for the first time in a long time.

Open Auditions for "The Life of Leo Wool"

Open auditions for staged reading of "The Life of Leo Wool," a new play by Nina Alvarez. 

Directed by Sandi Henschel. Performed at Writers & Books as part of Rochester's first Fringe Fest.

Performance Dates @ Writers & Books:

Saturday 9/22 6:00 p.m.

Saturday 9/23 11:00 a.m.

AUDITIONS

• Auditions will be done is a large group.
• Everyone should arrive and be ready to begin at 7 pm.
• Actors should bring a head shot and resume.
• Bring a 1 minute monologue to READ. PLEASE do not memorize.
• After you've done your monologue, we will ask you to do a cold reading with another auditioner.

   

CHARACTER LIST

Leo Wool: ALREADY CAST

Maura Wool: The spirit of Leo’s dead wife.

Nadine: A student at Yale. Leo's protege. 

Julian Campbell: A Brooklyn-based African-American novelist.

Judith: A feminist literary theorist and professor at Yale.

Narrator

REHEARSALS

8/18 - First read-through @ Sandi's in Brockport

After the first read-thru on 8/18, we won't rehearse again until Mid-September.

About Sandi Henschel, Director of "The Life of Leo Wool"

S. J. [Sandi] Henschel is a New York City-trained actress, director and writer. Her performance credits include major roles in productions ranging from off-Broadway to regional theatre. She has worked with most of Rochester’s theatre companies, either onstage or backstage and was the Associate Director to SUNY Brockport’s Summer Arts Festival for several years, directing such shows as A CHORUS LINE and 42nd STREET. A resident director for TYKEs [Theatre Young Kids Enjoy], she is also a co-founder of the Rochester Fringe Play Reading Series performing at Blackfriars Theatre. The series is dedicated to bringing Rochester audiences new and exciting plays that might not receive a full production.


Her poetry [as Sandi Piccione] has appeared in such literary journals as THE OHIO REVIEW, THE AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, THE SOUTH FLORIDA REVIEW, and many others. She is the author of two chapbooks, AFTER A LONG TIME WAITING and POLAR SUN, and has written several short plays, including the book and lyrics for a children’s musical, GOTTA DANCE! For 6 years she served as editor to the English Record, the journal of the New York State English Council and she is currently a Contributing Editor to AUDIOFILE Magazine. She hosts a weekly program for WXXI’s Reachout Radio, a service for the blind and visually impaired.

Meeting with Sandi Henschel, the Director

Sandi Henschel (director) and Nina Alvarez (playwright)

I met with Sandi today to go over the current script, make some changes, and plan the audition invitation. And the synchronicity of our tastes got me thinking to how this whole thing started.

When I wrote "The Life of Leo Wool," it was October 2011. I sat on my front porch, inspired by the vision of my friend Jack Simel on stage at MuCCC the night before. His character was sitting at a writing desk and I suddenly saw Jack playing an aging, distinguished writer.

I didn't know why the image moved me, but eight hours later I had a one-act play about a writer looking back on his life. I revised and revised, then showed it to Jack. Because I'd written it with him as my muse, and because he is a great guy, he agreed to play the lead role. Not only that, but he got his long-time friend Sandi Henschel, a local director with an incredible theater resume, to be my director.

As a poet, playwright, and former English teacher, Sandi resonated with the literary themes of "Leo." And I have asked the universe for just that: someone who would understand my play.

Having Sandi on my side has been an incredible boon. I am leaning so much about what it takes to actually put on a production, add drama and movement to a play that is very intellectual, and how to make the most of the time and resources we have. You have no idea how much of a disaster this could have been without the help of these people who actually know what they are doing.

Learn more about Sandi.

"They have not been moved by literature..."

I wrote last week about the general "I like what I like" philosophy of assessing art. In the academy, it isn't much different. The qualifiers might not come down to enjoyment, but being offended that anyone might announcing themselves as the arbiter of taste. As the creator of standards.

These people who have been most offended by the Western canon and its standards are cheekily labeled by Bloom as The School of Resentment. 


"They have not been moved by literature," he says in a 1991 interview with The Paris Review. "Many of them are my former students and I know them well. They are now gender and power freaks."


Harold Bloom, as he has often said in interviews, does not create followers. But he has sparked great love by some powerful voices in the field of criticism. Some of the most outspoken ones women: Camille Paglia, Marjorie Perloff and his arguments can be seen laced in theirs. 

"We can't really ask literature, or the representatives of a literary culture, to save society. Literature is not an instrument of social change or an instrument of social reform. It is more a mode of human sensations and impressions which do not reduce very well to social rules or forms."

I was trained in the study of literary theory. I have a master's degree in it. But when I left the academy 10 years ago, I found that what I still read, I read to keep my spirit alive. And to do that, I have to approach a text as sacred, whole, mystical. 


And what I hear in Bloom's interviews makes sense to me. But I can still see the value in theory. So I write this play to work out the dialectic for myself. And hopefully to give my audience both sides to ponder. 

What do you think?

It's the People Who Like You Who Really Make It Happen

Daniel Herd (Writers & Books) and Nina Alvarez ("The Life of Leo Wool")

One of the coolest things about my Fringe experience is being able to liaise professionally with my honey. Daniel Herd is Writers & Books' Fringe liaison, my show is being performed at Writers & Books. So I get to do things like call him up at 11 o' clock at night and ask if Fringe offers comped tickets. Or suddenly, while having a beer, demand to know if I can rent an extra half hour of loading/unloading time. He puts up with me.

It's become so clear to me that community theater gets put on because of friendships as much as anything else. Because people who like each other want to see each other succeed. I'm learning a lot about what it really means to be "grassroots."

Rochester Fringe Fest Kicks Off Ticket Sales with a Press Conference

Walking into the dark of The Little Theater this morning was like walking backstage at a Cirque du Soleil. The air was ripe with buzz and that sense of dancers and clowns, comedians and drag queens, all waiting to perform. A couple of them actually did as part of the press conference. I'm sure there will be video in some of the local news coverage and I'll paste some here.


The First Rochester Fringe Festival press conference attendees were introduced to the creative, hard-working board of Fringe Fest as well as First Niagara, who is sponsoring the event. Erica Fee, who appears to be one of the most hard-working gals in Rochester, and a sampling of the 120 productions that will be shown in one tiny little week from September 19-23, 2012, including Patton Oswalt, Project Bandaloop, and the Harlem Gospel Choir.

I am so proud of Rochester for being cutting edge enough to host a Fringe Fest and so proud that my play "The Life of Leo Wool" is going to be a part of it.

Tickets are are now OFFICIALLY on sale! Tickets to "The Life of Leo Wool" are $10 and can be purchased online here:

If you prefer to pay by phone, you can go here: http://rochesterfringe.com/audiences/tickets/