Summary
@ liberty is a continuation of [Cheryl Chamblee] and [Tamara Kissane]'s unusual, collaborative format for creating live theater. Their experiences in high school band and drama at Duke gave birth to several innovative playwriting tools that set their work apart. They refer to the written form of the play interchangeably as a "script" or a "score." Because the language of their plays weaves in and out between monologues, dialogues and what might be called "hop-on-board-ologues," they layer the language on "score text" sheets similar to what an orchestra might use.
The gestation period for @ liberty was similar to their other plays: It began last summer with another of both hands' innovative tools-public readings called Right Now, This Minute, which are composed of a year's worth of jumbled bits and pieces of writing. Audience feedback lets them know when they've found resonant topics. Of Parent Project, a show from last year, Kissane says it "had over 100 contributors who really informed the [final] play." She goes on to say both hands "starts with everything except the story thread," and that in their many-month development process the play "goes from messy to dean [with] a lot of actor flair added."Some of their favorite readings in the past, like one Chamblee described as a "quirky, rhythmic counting piece that didn't have a story," had a striking audience response: "It's our single worst piece." On the other hand, Kissane says, "some things we didn't like very much, the people loved?See the full content of this document
Extract
Pursuing Happiness
The way Cheryl Chamblee rocks her head and stirs her hands in rehearsal, you might think she's conducting an orchestra.
Instead, her movements follow the rhythm of her actors' words as they echo and repeat, then rise in chorus and fall back into fertile silence. Chamblee, with ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
