The House of Ash

I'm debuting 2 new radio plays in COTE's 2010-2011 Season Kick-off called "Radio COTE" on October 6th, "Live from Pod 305" and "Standing in Front of 9/11 Waiting for the End of the World", a collaboration with my creative partner, Robert A.K. Gonyo. It's going to be a fun night filled with some of COTE's favorite performers and playwrights. Check out the info below and meet the cast here, http://www.theateronline.com/PB.xzc?PK=25817.

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Co-Op Theatre East presents:

Radio COTE
New Radio Plays on Current Events
(with a Revisionist Twist)

Written by
Jacob Dickerman, Robert A. K. Gonyo*, Ashley Marinaccio* and Mariah MacCarthy

Directed by
Andi Cohen, Robert A.K. Gonyo, Veronique Ory and Katherine Sommer

Featuring
Hannah Rose Barfoot*, Kerrie Bond*, Mike Callahan*, Tyrus Cucavac*, Theresa Christine*, Jacob Dickerman, Jessica Greer Morris, Tony De Meglio,Robert Gonyo*, Alex Herrald*, Ashley Marinaccio*, Lauren McCullough, Todd Meredith, Michael Rehse, Anna Savant*, Lynn Spencer*, Laurence Waltman, Ruis Woertendyke

* member of the COTE Ensemble

Admission is free but there is a suggested donation of $5. All donations collected at the door will go to the Stefanos Tsigrimanis Memorial Fund established at NYU’s Department of Performance Studies, to sponsor future projects by departmental students that embody the spirit of Stefanos’s own work. Contact Laura Elena Fortes at the Department of Performance Studies at LF65@nyu.edu for any questions regarding the fund.

About the Plays

Live from Pod 305
Written by Ashley Marinaccio and Directed by Andi Cohen
Featuring Anna Savant, Ashley Marinaccio and Jacob Dickerman
At the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, two pod mates discuss the concepts of revisionism and escape through a nightly grassroots radio broadcast from Pod 305.

Bachelor/Bachelorette
Written by Mariah MacCarthy and Directed by Katherine Sommer
Featuring Hannah Rose Barfoot, Lauren McCullough, Theresa Christine,
and Tyrus Cucavac
On the eve of her wedding at her bachelorette party, Dani is torn between an androgynous stranger and a call from her future wife.

Conference
Written and Directed by Robert A. K. Gonyo
Featuring Kerrie Bond, Mike Callahan, Alex Herrald and Todd Meredith
In the midst of delicate negotiations for a new health-care bill, a seasoned Congressman learns that his re-election campaign just got alot more complicated— voting has been made mandatory. Over a conference call, he & his campaign staff strategize through this turn of events, and weigh the costs of winning on Election Day.

Unus Populus Fidens (A Nation Without Fear/A Confident Nation)
Written by Jacob Dickerman and Directed by Véronique Ory
Featuring Lynn Spencer, Laurence Waltman, Jessica Greer Morris, Ruis Woertendyke, Michael Rehse and Tony De Meglio
In the wake of alterations to the Texas Social Studies curriculum, the US of A realizes the freedom that can be had when we subjugate our reason to our desires.

Standing In Front of 9/11 Waiting for the End of the World
Written by Ashley Marinaccio and Robert A.K. Gonyo
Performed by Ashley Marinaccio and Robert A.K. Gonyo
Toby and Rachel are professional disaster tour guides in need of some quick cash. While standing in front of the World Trade Center site they attempt to create a business plan that will demolish the competition of the surrounding street vendors and 9/11 memorabilia peddlers.

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About Co-Op Theatre East
Founded in April of 2008, Co-Op Theatre East (COTE) believes in the power of art to foster a dialogue for social change. COTE provides an entertaining performance forum in which to ask evocative, challenging questions of artists and audiences on our way to creating collaborative answers. www.cooptheatreeast.org

About the COTE Ensemble
The COTE Ensemble are the resident artists of Co-Op Theatre East. The company membership exists to develop and expand both the performance technique and social consciousness of the individual artist, provide a supportive and safe atmosphere to create new work, and present new theatre that challenges the stories being told in dominant culture.

One of my favorite things to do at my mom's house is look through old stuff - paperwork, journals, artwork, etc. Today I came across my favorite discoveries- a collection of plays, short stories and a "novel" I wrote in high school. There's a lot of fanfiction (X-Files, ER, Xena: Warrior Princess and Touched by an Angel), some Beowulfian type story involving Richard Simmons, Janet Reno and Anna Nicole Smith and a 85 page novel I wrote about a news network.

The best though... Around age 7 or 8 I wrote several plays involving Sonic the Hedgehog, "Sonic the Hedgehog Goes to the Moon" and "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", which was pretty epic. It involves Sonic falling in love and saving the world with his friends "The Freedom Fighters". Of course, I wrote the role of Sonic for myself. The entire cast list was comprised of neighborhood friends, cousins and American Girl dolls. I remember rehearsals (we never actually got to put on the show) that involved using the garage door as our curtain. You will see below, that I had written that into the stage directions.

"The Weather Channel Play" is about the meteorologists at the Weather Channel. (A little back story - I was obsessed with the weather and watching TWC from about age 8-12. While most girls were fantasizing about being Belle in Beauty and the Beast, I was obsessed with becoming a storm chaser and out running tornadoes in the mid west). Anyway, I recall being convinced that if I did a good job writing and directing this play, the people from TWC would show up at my house, see it and relocate me to Atlanta where I could have my own weather show and "travel around the country to chase tornadoes" (that exact quote is from my journal).

I also have "Fran Fine Goes to Australia" (about "The Nanny"). It's self explanatory. Fran goes to Australia with Mr. Sheffield and "the gang". She gets into trouble snorkeling the great barrier reef.

All of these plays are dance musicals. They involve some element of singing and choreography (that apparently I did because I have all the choreography written out in back of the script). Enjoy some excerpts:

Excerpt from "Sonic the Hedgehog Goes to the Moon" (age 7 or 8)

Scene 1
(Sonic and Sally walking through the Knothole Forest)
Sally: I really don't think this is a good idea.
Sonic: Come on, Sal. If we don't we will get roboticized.
Sally: I don't get it, how blasting to the moon is going to help.
Sonic: I told you one, I told you twice and I won't tell you again. We are doing this so we don't get roboticized.
Sally: And for something else Soney Boy...
Sonic: Don't call me Soney boy. Yeah, I know. It's to destroy that big machine.
Sally: But Sonic, if that machinbe distroyes (sic) everything, Knothole will not exist and chances are, neither will we.
(Dr. Robotnick and Robot enter. Sonic and Sally duck (sic) in a bush)
Robotnick: Report bot brain.
Robot: Yes sir. The distroyer (sic) reports ninedy (sic) percent of Robotropolos is affected, sir.
Robotnick: Excellent!!!!!!! Come on, let's go eat.
(They leave)
Sonic: Well, you see Sal.
Sally: See what?
Sonic: I don't know. All I know is were (sic) going to blast to the moon.

Excerpt of "The Weather Channel Play" (age 9) Scene1
Angelica: Girls, girls. Every good meteorologist knows that you do not scroll the red screen to the place with the good weather. You scroll it to the place with the severe weather.
Amy and Abigail: We're sorry. We will never do it again.
(They run off)
Jessica: Why don't you give them a break.
Diane: We don't have time. We're on in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.... we're on!
(Garage door closes. All action now in front of garage)
Diane: Hi, my name is Diane McFeely
Nicole: My name is Nicole Vanswazie. Today we are going to talk about severe weather.
Diane: Remember, any severe thunderstorms can produce tornadoes.
Stacy: You should always have a safety plan just in case.
Jessica: If for some reason you are in an open field, take cover by lying in a ditch or a low place.
Amy: Abigail, what exactly is a tornado?
Amy: A tornado is a funnel shaped cloud extending downward from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud.
Diane: Now, we will have our storm chasers show you how they chase storms.
Everyone: WOW!
(Everyone dances to the song "Grease Lightening")