Last night was the San Francisco Olympians Festival Opening Night Party! There was artwork, chit-chat, and lovely meatballs. I didn't get pictures of all of the beautiful faces from last night, if you want to see more of the fun from the party check out Collin Hussey's pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/colin.hussey/media_set?set=a.10151964403974378.1073741831.693034377&type=1.
But here are mine:
Above you see Christian Simonsen, Stuart Bousel, and Andrew Chung, giving the opening speech, along with a preview of each of the scripts. I really love how it's done, each playwright sends in three lines from their play and Stuart weaved them into his speech, and then just let them rip at the end. It was interesting to hear the common themes that popped up in the different plays. Stuart Bousel is the founder and artistic director of the festival, Christian has been a playwright in the past, and will be again in next year's festival, and Andrew Chung is a local actor who couldn't be involved in any of the readings because of landing a part in Troilus and Cressida at Impact Theatre running Nov 7–Dec 15, 2013.
And here's my fantastic director Claire Rice and me! Claire's full-length play Cassandra will be read on Friday November 15th, for more details on the reading, here's the facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/365916123543486/. I've read early versions of the script, and it's going to be a dark, violent, and compelling evening that you don't want to miss!
Here we have Marissa Skudlarek, Megan Cohen, and me again! This year Marissa is writing Tuecer, a short play, joining the evening of Greeks Bearing Gifts on Wednesday November 6th (facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/521596494587681/) and Laodike, also a short play, will be on the Trojan Women evening on Wednesday November 13th (facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1422260441325533/). I highly recommend the evenings of short plays, I've heard bits and pieces of them throughout the year and I think they will make for a diverse and engaging evening of theater! Also, Megan is performing her full-length one-woman show Totally Epic Odyssey based off of “The Brains” of the Trojan War, Odysseus. You'd be nuts, totally insane to miss this show. It's the day before mine, Friday November 8th, and find out more and RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/320914211383662/.
Here's actor Heather Kellogg and her boyfriend Will Baumann. Heather is acting in Claire Rice's Cassandra on Friday, November 15th.
Allison Page and me, the ladies in blue! Allison Page wrote one of the short plays for the golden apple, her play is called Golden Apples II, and it's Wednesday November 20th. Here's the facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/626554024056568/. And like the other short nights I talked about earlier, there's going to be something in them for everyone. AND, Allison's play is going to be a lot of fun, her take on the golden apple myth involves a game show!
Here we have Andrew Chung, Colin Johnson, Charles Lewis III, and Christian Simonsen. Colin has written and is directing Aeneas or Burden Of The Witless a full-length play that will be presented on Saturday November 17th (facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/376260959143152/). Colin is a super funny writer, and I am very excited to see his take on “the survivor.” And Charles has been busy writing the short play for Ajax Major, Punchy, it will join other shorts on the evening of Greek Bearing Gifts, Wednesday November 6th (https://www.facebook.com/events/521596494587681/), and he's also directing short play for The Tools on Wednesday, November 20th (https://www.facebook.com/events/626554024056568/), and some of the plays in the Greeks Bearing Gifts evening.
And here is lovely Megan Cohen again, with the master-mind behind it all Stuart Bousel! Stuart's full-length play The Horse or See Also All on Saturday, November 23rd, the final reading of the festival. Stuart's play to me seems the most epic and ambitious, I know I will be there to see this dark piece come to life and you should be as well! For more details, or to RSVP, check out the facebook event page here: http://www.sfolympians.com/?page_id=1304.
Here's Kat Engh, not involved with the festival, but fabulous none-the-less, Meg O'Conner, Allison Page, Claire Rice, and Annette Roman! I love this picture. Meg O'Conner has two short plays in The Tools on Wednesday, November 20th (https://www.facebook.com/events/626554024056568/), The Helmet, and The Shield. Annette Roman, wrote the one-act play Menelaus (facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/587477464622600/) which will be read along with Anthony Miller's one-act Agamemnon or The House Of Atreus Vol. 3: Agamemnon, being read on Thursday, November 7th. Both of these plays have sounded great in the snip-its I've heard so far, so again, make sure you're there!
And finally this is a lovely photo of Siobhan Doherty (an actor in the festival), Megan Briggs (also an actor in this year's festival), and me, with Allison Page achieving the best photo bomb ever.
I do hope you make it out to a lot of the shows! I couldn't get pictures of all of the artists involved, so there are a lot of other great plays that you shouldn't miss that I didn't mention! Be sure to visit the San Francisco Olympians scheduled for all the details: http://www.sfolympians.com/?p=1791. Click around on the names listed under the Trojan Requiem side-bar (on the right), for even more details. Basically be at all the shows, all the time. :)
And of course, Under The Gods’ Golden Cleats is JUST ONE WEEK AWAY! November 9th, 8pm at the Exit. I'll be posting pictures from rehearsals over the next week, and I hope, very much, to see you on Saturday!
Finally, if you're reading this on facebook, there are a ton of links and pictures you're missing out on, so click on through to my website…. Seriously, do it, this post took me forever.