Playwright

"SPOTLIGHT ON" SCREENWRITER TZILA LEVY

Who is Tzila Levy?

I am a screenwriter and playwright, 34 years old, born and raised in Israel. In December 2012 my wife ‘imported’ me to New York and since then I’ve been adjusting to my immigrant status.

In Hebrew my name means “One who gives shelter.” I am named after my late grandmother, a holocaust survivor who suffered the horrors of WWII, a time when many were desperately seeking shelter. More than all, I hope that in some way I’m embodying the meaning of my birth name.

What are you currently working on?

I’m trying to raise money for my play “The Second Invasion of King George III,” a site-specific play to take place at Governors Island. The play begins with the resurrection of King George III, who returns to America in order to liberate its people from the flawed and faltering contemporary regime. Liberation, however, is not peacefully achieved. The King’s army takes the audience as prisoners of war and over the course of this hour-long military operation the audience members are forced to endure the physical and psychological realities of war.

I’m also writing a play commissioned by an Israeli director. It’s inspired by the latest Israeli government decision to change the portrait on the money bills to those of the greatest Hebrew poets. This decision is very ironic, since the current Israeli government is the most capitalistic government Israel has ever known, and those poets were extreme socialists. This irony gives me the opportunity to discuss on stage the gap between money and ideals, materialism and spiritualism. The discussion is facilitated by examining the poets’ works as well as their motives.

What honors have you received for your filmmaking?

“The Israeli Cinema Testimonial Database” a project I produced for several years, received The Art of Cinema Award, from the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport.

I was the winner of the Tel-Aviv University pitching contest in 2007, and was a finalist at the 2007 Tel-Aviv International Student Film Festival Screenplays Contest.

Who are the filmmakers you admire?

Christopher Nolan. He is a master at the craft of storytelling. All good stories are riddles, but the challenge is to present your audience with a riddle they hadn’t encountered yet. Nolan does this brilliantly.

I also admire the many anonymous screenwriters of the major film studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age, who gave us “Casablanca”, “Singing in The Rain”, “The Wizard of Oz” and so many other great films. These unknown screenwriters were employees of a complex industry; many times they wrote only a single draft and had no further influence on the final script. But in a miraculous way, this system worked and created some of the best movies known to this day.

Who or what is your greatest inspiration and why?

It is hard for me to choose one that is the greatest; I find that in different periods of life I have different inspirations. Throughout my film studies I was very inspired by the movie “Hedwig and The Angry Inch”, by John Cameron Mitchell. It had the perfect combination of great music, humor, sensitivity, clever storytelling and directing, but more than all boldness. It gave me the courage to set free crazy ideas I had and write them down. Until this day, my best pieces of writing are those in which I dare to be bold.

The current piece of work that inspires me is the show “Sleep No More.” As with this work, I wish to create a theatre that constitutes an experience for its audience, which is beyond the text and the dramatic principals. I still don’t have a thorough answer for how it’s done, but I’m exploring it and it fascinates me.

What have you learned from screenwriting that also applies to life in general?

Every change in life requires a metaphoric death in order to rebirth as a changed person; every protagonist in every story goes through this cycle. Once I realized this, it became easier for me to go through changes in life. I try to see difficulties not as a downhill slope, but rather as an episode in a cycle of change, in which I grieve for what I have lost, yet I anticipate the resurrection that follows.

What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?

I have two ideas for television series, one for a sitcom, and the other for a dark drama. I hope that I could have at least one of them produced.
Write a monodrama about ‘The Jehoash Inscription’ (an archeological artifact, that is allegedly the first and only proof for the existence of the first Jewish Temple, but until this day it’s considered a controversial mystery, one which even the court couldn’t decide whether it’s genuine or not).
Before I studied screenwriting, I studied sociology. Whenever I edit my scripts I’m astonished at how many sociological theories can be implemented to the dramatic structure and improve the script. I would love to explore this further, maybe even write a book on the subject.
Establish a LGBTQ youth writing workshop. I wish I had such a group when I was a teenager, where I could express my feelings without being afraid of what others might think. I would love to provide such a safe writing environment for other youth.
Become a mother.

What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?

It wasn’t exactly a gift; it was a rented VHS cassette of “The Sound of Music” that my parents brought home when I was six. That is when I fell in love with the cinema, the character of Maria, the voice of Julie Andrews, the music and the landscapes of Salzburg sucked me into a fantasy world. I realized how exciting the cinematic experience could be and I looked for it everywhere. Looking back, that was when I started to develop my artistic taste

"SPOTLIGHT ON" PLAYWRIGHT/DIRECTOR/ACTOR DON CREEDON

Who is Don Creedon?

Due to recent overexposure to mystical readings (and Flan O’Brien), Don Creedon is beginning to suspect that he only exists as a product of his own imagination. That imagination currently tells him he is a playwright, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer, originally from Dublin, Ireland and now living and working in New York. His plays include The Lobby, Celtic Tiger Me Arse, Shackled, Divine Intervention, Dry Rot, and Guy Walks Into a Bar (winner Audience Award for Best Play 1^st Irish Festival 2010). Imagined screenplays include A Very Married Man, Mir Friends, and Work of God. He also seems to have directed numerous other plays and is the president/founding member of Poor Mouth Theatre Company, which appears to be based in An Béal Bocht Café in Riverdale, the Bronx.

Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?

A reading of a new rewrite of my first play The Lobby, an Irish comedy farce. This reading will be public, not just in my own head. I think. Date and venue TBD.

Guy Walks Into a Bar - with Bill Rutkoski and Walter Michael Deforest, written and directed by Don Creedon — **Guy Walks Into a Bar – with Bill Rutkoski and Walter Michael Deforest, written and directed by Don Creedon**

What is your favorite dramatic work/s?

The Misanthrope, Noises Off, Loot, Juno and the Paycock, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Much Ado About Nothing, To Be or Not to Be, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Father Ted, Nurse Jackie, Arrested Development, Fawlty Towers, any Laurel & Hardy.

Who are the playwrights (and writers) you most admire?

Molière, David Ives, Christopher Durang, Joe Orton, Caryl Churchill, Beckett, Pinter, Martin McDonagh, Flan O’Brien, Jennifer Egan, Joseph Heller, Dave Eggers, Salinger, PG Wodehouse, Roddy Doyle. Oh…and Shakespeare (esp. the comedies).

Who is your greatest inspiration and why?

Bob Dylan, for his timeless imagery, unique mode of expression, continuing relevance, complete disregard for public opinion, his “never-ending tour”, and the relentless pursuit of his vision. I consider him today’s Shakespeare.

Shackled - with Katherine O'Sullivan, Andy Fitzpatrick and Bronagh Harmon, written and directed by Don Creedon — **Shackled – with Katherine O’Sullivan, Andy Fitzpatrick and Bronagh Harmon, written and directed by Don Creedon**

What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?

Have my latest full-length plays The Lobby and Dry Rot produced outside of my head.
Adapt my screenplay Work of God for the stage.
Rewrite the play Spudmunchers (with Colin Broderick).
Continue to produce new, original work at Poor Mouth Theatre Company—keeping the Bronx safe for theatre!
Achieve nirvana.

If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?

A one-man show with me in it.
A two-man show with me playing both parts.
A three-man show with me playing all three parts.
I think you get the drift.

Boys Swam Before Me - at Poor Mouth Theatre Company, written by Seamus Scanlon, directed by Don Creedon, featuring Katherine O'Sullivan and Paul Nugent — **Boys Swam Before Me – at Poor Mouth Theatre Company, written by Seamus Scanlon, directed by Don Creedon, featuring Katherine O’Sullivan and Paul Nugent**

What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?

An A for an English essay in secondary school. (In Ireland, A’s for anything are quite rare—they don’t like to over-encourage!). Before that, I didn’t know I had a “voice”.

Don Creedon Facebook Page

Poor Mouth Theatre Company Facebook Page

Poor Mouth Theatre Company Website

"SPOTLIGHT ON" PLAYWRIGHT KATE McLEOD

Who is Kate McLeod?

I grew up in a small town in southeastern Massachusetts and lost my father, who I adored, at age nine. Post loss-of-parent, I spent considerable energy rebelling against my catholic/catholic boarding school life—shortening my uniform skirt to unacceptable lengths, smoking, running away from school, and drinking beer. My other extra curricular activity involved being on stage whenever there was something dramatic or musical happening. Oh, yes, and I learned stuff. I’m always trying to learn—that’s what so great about being a journalist. You’re always finding out new things or looking at something from a new angle. I saw New York when I was about 10. It was the proverbial love at first sight. So I grew up—up to a point. I took a few wrong turns and finally got to New York and I’m not leaving. Then, I did what I thought I couldn’t do—I became a writer.

What are you working on at the moment?

A revision of a play I wrote last fall. The play features two teenage girls who are best friends. Their relationship falls apart over their changing beliefs.

And a revision of a musical I wrote entitled, “I Heart My Car.” I’m working with a fantastic composer, Rob Hartmann.

Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?

I just had a reading of my play Ice Floes or don’t stay, please go, no wait . . . on May 11th at the Hudson Opera House in Hudson, NY. I will be having a reading of Darwin Day—the new play––but probably not until the fall.

And I’ll be letting members know about The First––and possibly only––Bacon Theatre Festival. More later.

Who are the playwrights, past and present, you admire?

There are many. Certainly Samuel Beckett has been a big influence. Tom Stoppard’s plays have always made me think. I love his ideas and constructions. When I went to see the revival of Awake and Sing on Broadway a few years ago Clifford Odets’ work really astonished me. I went because “his plays were historically important.” But what I experienced was the work of a master of our craft who led me to feel deeply for his characters. Recently I loved the production of Golden Boy. Others: Edward Albee, John Guare, Tony Kushner. The Bard. David Ives. David Lindsay-Abaire. Playwright, Arthur Giron, who has mentored me from the start. I love Annie Baker’s dialogue and the way she fills silence and understands how people talk about their personal disappointments. She draws us in so that her characters problems directly connect to our own. I recently read a great book by Frank Gilroy, “How to Write for Love and/or Money.” Gilroy is a terrific playwright (The Subject Was Roses) but this book is something I’ll read again and again. Just the way he lays it down on the page.

What are your three (more if you like) all-time favorite plays?

For different reasons and in no particular order:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Top Dog Underdog

Private Lives

Auntie Mame

Arcadia

Waiting for Godot

Glengarry Glen Ross

August Osage County

Noises Off

One Man, Two Guvnors

El Grande de Coca-Cola

Richard III

That’s 11. I’ll stop.

Who/what is your greatest inspiration and why?

John Kennedy when I was a kid because of the how he brought people together in pursuit idealism—ask not, etc. He asked us to work for a better world. I was committed.

For the past 27 years, my husband, Jerry Flint, who died in 2010. He was a great journalist, iconoclast, wonderful writer, and a fearless, relentless reporter and later, columnist. And he believed in me. That gave me the courage to keep working towards becoming a better writer. He was a wonderful editor—read all my stories when I’d finished them and gave me feedback. He taught me so much about writing. I miss him. When Jerry died I founded a scholarship/internship in his name. It was fully endowed within eight months and I have now three scholars who have been awarded the scholarship from the Overseas Press Club Foundation.

Name five things you’d like to do or accomplish in the next five years.

1. Get the musical produced.

2. Write one full-length play a year. So let’s see, that five new full lengths by 2018? Hold me to it.

3. Launch a program I created called “What’s Your Story,” a week-long theatre workshop for disadvantaged kids. It aims to tap their creativity to, not only tell their stories, but to help them understand that the stories are an important part of the fabric of our society. We’ll do exercises and write in dramatic form. It culminates in a performance brunch open to friends and families. I hope to pay them each $50. I’m doing the first one in July at the Hudson Opera House and then I want to create a guide and give it away to interested communities around the country.

4. Learn how to sing. I’ve always sung, but I’m learning how to use the instrument now.

5. Get the 1961 VW Bug I bought, running. I’m going to take it apart and put it back together. And I’m thinking of turning the project into a reality show. Seriously.

If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?

1. Okay, fantasy land? I’d like to work with Peter Brook and his group and improvise an entire play. (He’s 88 and lives in France so this is a dream.) I’d love to do the same with Mac Wellman. And he lives in Brooklyn! I get to have puppets, a live orchestra, and as many actors as I want.

2. I’m always imagining these big conceptual art projects in my head. One day, maybe I’ll build one.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I don’t think of time as spare (as in extra). Occasionally, I try to sit down and just sit down. It never works out because I invariably come up with an idea. Or I’m reading or writing. I love to cook and put great, interesting, different people together over a good meal. It’s an act of love and it is very satisfying to create conversation and good energy. Aside: My rhubarb pie just won second place in a Rhubarb Fest!

Some of my colleagues at Artists Without Walls know that my day job is being an auto writer. You can—and should—join my blog Girl Driver USA. People who don’t care anything about cars say that they enjoy reading it. You don’t have to read it. Just join—become a follower. I need the followers. Also, the Overseas Press Club Foundation

Kate McLeod at Facebook

Kate McLeod at Twitter

"SPOTLIGHT ON" GUENEVERE DONOHUE

Who is Guenevere Donohue?

Still figuring that one out. So far I’m an actor, playwright, singer, director & visual artist from the Bronx. I spent half my youth growing up in the lower Hudson valley, Beacon and Poughkeepsie NY.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m acting in, Passing Through, a new six character play by Tristan Grigsby, which is also my NYC directing debut. It’s exciting watching the incredible actors we have take my ideas and make them into their own, make them work so beautifully. This production is a gift, poetic, kind, funny and challenging. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m learning a lot. Constant work on singing keeps me busy as well.

Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?

Yes, Passing Through is running at Theatre for the New City through April 28th

What is your favorite theatrical work?

Favorite? Ehh, that’s not a fair question for the moving mind. However…

In the 1990’s I saw, Le Cirque Invisible, a conceptual mini-circus comprised of three persons. They created amazing stage images, acrobatics, and clowning. They had a beautiful family-troop connection, (Exponential Ensemble) Victoria Chaplin, her husband Jean-Baptiste Thierrée, and when I saw it, their son James Thierrée. Such imagination and beauty I had never seen on stage. It changed me, the way a masterwork of painting can change you. James Thierrée is now doing his own original work, and that is thrilling as well.

Who are the actors and playwrights you admire?

The film director John Sayles is top of my admiration list. He is a true independent voice.

I could list hundreds of actors. It’s really hard work to be good at this. I admire the ones that keep going deeper, who strive to make the acting seamless and invisible.

I’ll name a few:

David Strathairn is incredible. Micheal Chumpsty is my vocal inspiration for stage. Raul Julia, John Hurt, Pacino, Peter O’Toole, Gena Rowlands, Yves Montand, Jay O. Sanders, Bill Irwin, Fritz Weaver, Peter Faulk, Shirley Knight, Judy Dench, Austin Pendleton, Ben Kingsley, Meryl Streep, James Dean…but these you recognize.

I have even more admiration for all the unknown actors really struggling in Downtown Theatres rushing from day jobs to make curtain, those that spend every waking hour working to make it better, get it right, go deeper. If that fine stew of actors did not exist the ones that rise to the top could never become so good.

I admire Playwrights who challenge the audience to think, and think again.

Samual Beckett, Tennesse Williams, O’Neill, Shakespeare, Joanna Glass, Valclav Havel, Lanford Wilson, Horton Foote, Marie Irene Fornes, Athol Fugard, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sam Shepard, Edward Albee, Enda Walsh, Tom Stoppard, Pinter… oh, there are too many, and not enough.

Who is your greatest inspiration and why?

Pete Seeger. I met him, and began singing with his Beacon Sloop Club Singers, when I was 10 years old. He is tough as nails, committed to his ideals and a great musician. Very few people in this world stand by their principles no matter what comes at them. Pete always walks the walk. He never just talks the talk, as you hear many do these days. He also has a very rare and genuine kindness. Miriam Makeba’s up there in my book too.

What are the top five things you would like to do with your life?

Sail across the Atlantic Ocean in a not too large boat.
Travel around North America on horseback.
Live in a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking region) in Western Ireland for at least a year, so that I can be immersed in, and learn more of, the language. Simultaneously write an Irish/English bilingual comic screenplay.
The most important show I’ve written, Killer is My Name, has yet to hit the boards in NYC and that is utmost on my Artistic list.
Also, I would like to see extreme north before it melts. I would love to be invited on an Arctic expedition with Cape Farewell, like my friend Cynthia Hopkins did. She made a great show about it.

If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?

Found and sing lead in a band that blends Celt, American-Trad, Jazz, Blues, and Folk Rock with what people call an Alternative sensibility.

What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in you art?

I have to go with the most recent. Tristan Grigsby gave me his play, Passing Through, to direct. His own work put in my hands. That level of trust has been a great challenge to keep honoring each day. The play is unusual, somehow in your face and sweet at the same time. I love doing.

Ticket information for Passing Through

Guenevere Donohue Facebook Page

Artists Without Walls

ARTISTS WITHOUT WALLS' "SPOTLIGHT ON" BRENDAN CONNELLAN

Who is Brendan Connellan?

In the last four years Brendan has started to think of himself as a writer. Though he used to tell stories all over downtown, it only dawned on him later that he could and should write some plays. “I’d die for dialogue. I love it,” he said. The first time actors read aloud my lines, I was almost hiding behind the couch but I got over that pretty quickly. Then it became exciting. I’d hear things I’d want to fix right away and would be itching to write the follow up. I want to do this till I die.”

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m remounting a play called Pompa Pompa! It’s funny but it’s also very sad. It’s about survival and what each of us do to hang on. That tends not to be pretty. Perhaps it’s an Irish thing to blend the funny with the sad. You have to lull the audience into thinking one thing then slit their throat with another. That makes it sound like a hit-and-run. Part blood, part laughter.

Do you have upcoming events you would like people to attend?

Pompa Pompa!, April 9-13^th, 2013 at Theatre Row on 42^nd St, between 9^th and 10^th.

Seven performances – Tues at 7, Wed-Sat at 8 and matinees on Wed, Sat at 2.

I am also directing and producing the show.

As an extra bonus, AWOW’s Niamh Hyland and Moley O’Suilleabhain are among the cast and will knock people’s socks off. They’re a treat and a half.

What are the top five things on your bucket list that you want to do?

1) I’d like to get lost in a jungle in Asia, just to see how I’d cope. But I probably wouldn’t so that would take care of the bucket there and then.

2) I’d like to read a thousand more books but I did a quick calculation and figured out that, at best, I might get to devour just 700. That made me quite sad.

3) I’d like to feel more of a connection with the ocean and the moon and not be so caught up in the concrete corridors that hem us in if we let them.

4) So many ships crashed in the high waves around Cape Horn. I’d like to feel those winds. I have always loved wind, the wilder, the better.

5) I’d like to actually travel around Ireland properly. It’s pathetic that I never really get to go much further than the outskirts of Dublin whenever I am there.

What is your favorite place in the world to visit and why?

Paris. Death feels so near. Anywhere that jolts you out of torpor is a wonder. Life feels so very short there.

Who is your greatest inspiration and why?

My family. We’re all completely different but we’d do anything for each other.

What picture do you love to stare at and why?

Any El Greco. The way that the colours wobble and throb feel so futuristic. He couldn’t get anybody to pay any heed to him in Rome or Madrid so hid himself away in Toledo, threw out the rule book, ripped out the pages and painted the way he wanted to. Standing ovation every time.

If you could dream about trying out something you haven’t tried out in the arts yet, what would?

I’d like to set a poem to music and force myself to sing it without any backing music, without any place to hide. Flowers sometimes grow in the mud.

What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art.

A lifetime ago, an English teacher gave us back our essays, calling out the grades one by one. I didn’t hear my name being called and was a little concerned. Then, he started raving about the last one. My eyes were bulging when I realized it was mine. I was 15. I was good at Maths. It had never dawned on me that I might actually be good at writing. It wasn’t really talked about at home. Maths got you jobs. Reading was for the holidays. Now, writing is my biggest pleasure in life.

Brendan Connellan on Twitter

Brendan Connellan Facebook Page

www.artistswithoutwalls.com

MARTHA PINSON, AWoW MEMBER, TO DIRECT SCORCESE PRODUCTION "TOMORROW"

As befits the modesty of the multi-talented Martha Pinson, she recently wrote at the tag end of an email, “Not much else new. Oh, by the way, I’m making my big-screen directorial debut on a film called, Tomorrow. Scorcese is the executive producer.”

“You’re doing a film with Scorcese, Martha? Right, not much new!”

But it’s really not surprising. In addition to her directorial skills Martha is an accomplished playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker. She has written a number of off Broadway plays in addition to several award winning shorts. Of one, Don’t Nobody Love The Game More Than Me, director Sidney Lumet said, ” I’ve just looked at Don’t Nobody….It’s wonderful. It’s so tender and funny and deeply touching, and because of the passions of the people in the movie, it’s somehow very romantic….It should be seen!”

Tender is a word that also can be used to describe Martha’s writing style. A number of months ago I read a touching tribute to a woman Martha loved and admired, her grandmother. It is an exquisite piece of writing meant to be savored and read slowly. Grandmother from Dublin, Ireland

I asked Martha to comment about her latest success. As always, she deflected her well earn praise onto another, “I am extremely grateful for the support of Martin Scorsese, a great filmmaker and a great man who I have had the honor to work with.”

I’m guessing he feels similarly, Martha. Brava, Lady!

Set in London, the movie is set to shoot this year. For more on Martha’s directorial debut: Martin Scorcese Executive Producing Martha Pinson’s Directorial Debut

Website: MarthaPinson.com