Wily West Productions
Visit our Facebook page!
  • Home
  • Tickets
  • About Us
  • The Company
  • Submissions
  • Press Room
  • Auditions
  • Mailing List
  • Gallery
  • Past Productions
    • Season 2017
    • Season 2015
    • I Saw It 2015
    • Season 2014
    • Zero Hour 2015
    • Un-Hinged 2014
    • Drowning Kate 2014
    • 2013 Productions
    • 2012 Productions
    • 2011 Productions
    • 2010 Productions
    • 2009 Productions
    • 2008 Productions
  • Wily Westings Blog

Laylah Muran de Assereto shares her day...

10/24/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Laylah Muran de Assereto joined Wily West in 2009 as Executive Producer.  Since then the company has presented dozens of shows - all written by writers from the Bay Area. Laylah is a playwright herself and lately has been getting her work on stage.  Like most artists in the independent theatre movement Laylah balances a full time day job with a robust theatre life.  She shares with us a glimpse of her day in the life...
I’m pretty active on Facebook and Twitter, so people see the fun days all the time, where I’m surrounded by theatre people or family and having a good time. So I thought I’d give a more typical day in the life; the work day. 
Picture
9:30 AM

I’m really lucky because work is super close to home, so my commute only takes about 15 minutes. And when I get to work there’s some great views. This is
me after I parked, with a little bit of the bay behind me and a lot of sun in my eyes. 
7:30 AM 

Some days my calendar is a little daunting. Monday was about average. It started with a 7:30am meeting and ended at about 12:30 am. 
Picture
Picture
Even business colleagues don’t
really know what I do, but my
family and non-work friends are
really baffled by it. I spend a
large part of my day talking to
people about what they do and
then turning that into flow diagrams, then analyzing those flows to help find areas where things aren’t making sense. 


If I’m doing my job right, I can get people past the “my head hurts” phase of looking at this stuff, and start to see the validation that this thing they are doing that feels like it isn’t working really is complex and convoluted. 

And then we find ways to fix the problems and make it simpler.
Picture
Picture
12:30 PM 

At lunch I took care of a few items as follow-up for the production meeting we had on Sunday for Un-Hinged and Drowning Kate, which is going to be so much fun. Every day there are dozens of text conversations and emails. On the best days there’s texts from my close friends about nothing theatre related at all, in with all the business of running a theatre company. 
5:00 PM 

After work it was time for the PCSF Membership meeting and reception and oh yeah, a reading of my play UNDERNEATH THE ABOVE AND BELOW. 6:00 PM I met Jennifer at the Marriott bar for a glass of wine and some post 24-Hour Fest gabbing before we headed to the Shelton. 
Picture
Picture
7:00 PM 

The Membership meeting began with a lovely tribute to member Inbal Kashtan who passed away earlier this month. Elisa Stebbins read one of Inbal’s monologues and it was very touching. The Board gave us all an update on what’s happening and I stepped out to talk with my cast for a bit about the play and answer their questions. 

8:00 PM 

Then it was time for my reading! Leontyne Mbele-Mbong and Natasha Cachon were so good. I was very anxious and worried that the audience wasn’t  engaged, but the feedback session quickly disabused me of that concern. I was pleasantly surprised to hear so many things that people heard and saw in the piece and so much they want to see. So now I just need to get to those re-writes!
Picture
Picture
9:00 PM 

There was a reception to celebrate the start of PCSF’s season and their 35th year. There was wine, cupcakes, cookies, humus, veggies, crackers, and cheese and a lot of laughter, silly and thoughtful conversation and generally a bunch of theatre folks appreciating each other’s brains for a little while. 
Picture
10:45 PM 

Once at home I joined mom in the living room for some t.v. and a little more business. 


Picture
12:00 AM

Finally it was time for bed and a little

light reading (Dracula) and some music (Art Tatum) to ease me out of the day and be ready for the next one. 


0 Comments

Playwright Krista Knight talks to us about her process...

10/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Playwright Krista Knight
Tickets to Krista's Play!
Local playwright Krista Knight's work is being presented all over the country.  Krista has been in Residence at La Napoule Art Foundation, UCROSS, Yaddo, and MacDowell.  BA: Brown University. MA: Performance Studies from NYU. MFA Playwriting: UC San Diego. Page 73 Playwriting Fellow (2007). Shank Playwriting Fellow at the Vineyard Theatre (2011-2012). Member of Youngblood and New Georges JAM. Krista teaches playwriting, screenwriting, and digital storytelling at St. Mary’s College and SUNY Oswego.   She currently has a world premiere play running with Wily West  which closes October 24th.
Picture
Rick Homan as Glen in UN-HINGED by Krista Knight
What is your writing process?  Do you take notes and then write a play?  Do you outline?  Do you just start writing and see where it takes you?  What was the process of getting this play finished?

I like to make lists. I have a “Play Ideas” lists on my phone, in my notebook, in google docs, on my hand. If an idea is potent enough to appear cross platform, I might be onto something. It usually takes a prompt, an exercise, an upcoming reading date, the fear of disappointing someone I’ve promised material to, to actually start writing. I like deadlines, an excuse to test the waters. 

I begin with writing dialogue without character names—it’s faster because I use word instead of template software so I can have complete control over the topography—and I’m not sure who is saying what. I may not even be sure who exists in this world. I’m trying to locate the sound, the rhythm, the mundane things the characters might spare over while hiding the body, or coaching the soccer game, or working up the courage to confess undying love. 


Later I’ll outline. It will start with a bullet point list of scenes I’d like to see/would be excited to write. Eventually that coalesces and necessitates remaining movements/moments. 

Picture
Genevieve Perdue and Rick Homan
What principles of playwriting do you try to follow, or help you the most? 

Once an idea is on a roll, I find that my characters are generous with their time. I think of them pleasantly milling in the play’s ether—totally game for whatever may be asked of them—ready to jump into a scene and rile things up, cause a ruckus, perform a feat. 

I try to write what I would find exciting to see. Outside of that I don’t always follow the rules of the well made play, which can be awkward in my double identity as a playwriting professor who hammers home Aristotle’s poetics, and thus espouses that which she doesn’t always do. 

Picture
Genevieve Perdue and Rick Homan
Is there a writer or other artist that most influenced you as an artist?

Embarrassment at admitting this aside, I might say Andrew Lloyd Weber. He was my first introduction to theatre and was embedded at a time when I was outwardly obsessive and extremely impressionable. I probably listened to my tape cassette recording of Jesus Christ Superstar 3000 times. I rarely ever removed the sweatshirt. On more than one occasion, the Knight household had to stop what they were doing to find one of those two items. 

My mom also did an interesting thing. Growing up in Silicon Valley, trips to the theatre most often came in the form of the touring shows in a series at the Golden Gate called Best of Broadway. A few weeks before seeing the show, my mom would get the soundtrack and we’d listen over and over. I didn’t read many, if any, plays at a kid, but I became very familiar with the process of listening to music and lyrics and trying to imagine what I was seeing on stage, and the story that came between. 

What are your two favorite characters in all theatre and why?

Benno Blimpie and Dr. Frank N. Furter

What would you say you got the most from your graduate school experience in playwriting?

The fear and joy of feeling like UH OH writing a play means we’re going to CREATE something and who the hell knows what it’s going to look like and if it’s going to escape and raze townships or bring people to a greater understanding of humanity. 

Also the German nanobiologist Nicole Steinmetz, who is now a collaborator on the The Nanoman (www.thenanoman.org), taught me how to surf. 

Any personal aspects of this play that you are willing to share?  

My mom is incredibly charming, and a good, open listener, which means she is the recipient of some very disturbing anecdotes. 

I notice you write a lot about stream of consciousness and dreams.  What about the topic of the subconscious or dreams seems to draw you in as a writer?   

I love that theatre can manifest the imagined, and, depending on the rules of the play, force the characters to grapple with it. I like that theatre can make metaphor manifest. I like that theatre gives us two sides of a triangle and asks us to draw the third in order to see the shape. 

When you finish a play do you feel it is complete?

Mostly in the sense that I’ve gone as far as I can, and the lingering puzzles of this play will be jumping off points of the next project. 

What most excites you about seeing this play on stage?  

The final moments. The last page of the script is the repetition of a phrase. 

You now teach the art of playwriting - what is it you try to leave with your students?

I want my playwriting students to learn how to create live experiences across platforms—virtual and real—so that they can create scripts for the stage, digital web experiences, and high tech amusement park rides. 

We need to be bold in our definitions of what constitutes a "platform" or a "stage" from which we can edify and entertain an audience. 
0 Comments

From the journal of Cameron Galloway

10/16/2014

1 Comment

 
Buy Tickets to Cameron's Show
Picture
Cameron Galloway
Local writer/actress Cameron Galloway’s work has been featured in the Thursday Night Combo at the Exit, DivaFest, Divas Tell All, and Working Women's Festival.  Cameron is happy to be working with Wily West again as she performed in several roles in SHEHEREZADE 14 earlier this summer.  She was part of the original cast of Banana, Bag and Bodice's Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage at the Ashby Stage, and enjoys performing here and there as opportunities arise.  
She shares with us here her thoughts on the production of UN-HINGED.

NOTES FROM AN ACTOR'S JOURNAL:


Unhinged is a time bomb play, with a sprinkle of Albee and Williams and some dark humor for good measure.  When we do it right, I feel the tick tock of the timer attached to all that plastic dynamite stuffed in the crevices of the scenery, the walls, the gaps between the Exit’s floor’s wood planks.  There’s even a little hole in the floor of the Exit’s dressing room where Elaine (that’s the comic-tragic character I play) catches her high heel every night before she goes on.  I think there might be some gooey explosive tucked away in that ¾ inch hole too.

But all is well, my friend.  Don’t be frightened.  Relax and enjoy the play.  We’ll all turn our heads away when something real comes up . . . when that ticking comes into focus we’ll divert ourselves rightly.  And watch our lovely 1960s lawn grow. We’ll have a party.  We’ll buy white gloves.  Choose the proper color.  Move to the suburbs.  We’ll flirt with the handyman and make a scotch, a gin tonic, a clean well-done gin tonic in a glass that has perfect lines.

Well, true, you might feel like something’s terribly wrong.  You might feel like bolting.  You might, in a panic, start praying for clarity, if not a permanent way out.  You might feel like moving away from the suburbs or like taking a stand.  You might feel like screaming.

But you won’t.

Shhhh.  Shhhh.  Just sit and relax and enjoy the play.  Never mind that tick-tock.  Just put it out of your mind.  There now.  Let the way things have always been wash over you.  Don’t be frightened.  Just rest and relax and let it all wash over you.  Pay no mind, dear one.  Just pretend, like children do. 

Picture
Cameron Galloway and Rick Homan in UN-HINGED
1 Comment

Director and Set Designer Wesley Cayabyab talks about bringing two world premieres to the stage at the same time....

10/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Directing Scott Ragle
Picture
Building the set for NYMPH O' MANIA
Wesley has been working with Wily West since 2009.   He has worked in several capacities for the company: actor, set designer, technician, and last year as the director of the world premiere of LAWFULLY WEDDED in which he also had to take the lead role himself because our main actor had to drop out just two weeks before the show.   Wesley, along with his wife Quinn, is a major component to Wily West's artistic operations.  Wes took some time to talk to us about his latest experience directing and designing our two fall shows simultaneously.

What are methods for acting that you use in your directing?

I’ve a fair amount of training both on stage in front of audiences and in the safety of a studio among fellow students. I can never say that I employ one particular method for directing. As any other director may tell you: different casts and different plays require a different touch. These two plays have different voices, different rhythms and different ways of communicating. I do my best to hear those patterns, listen to their moods and adapt to bring out the best in these pieces.

Are there new methods/skills you are learning from directing two plays at once?  Do you think you will be a different actor after this experience?

Directing two plays at once, with actors crossing over plays as well, has really taught me how to pace my rehearsal process. I’m a pretty disciplined actor, I make every effort to show up to rehearsals focused, prepared to work and with a head full of lines. I like the pressure of a short rehearsal process, it keeps me focused and invested. With two of my cast members split between both shows and the added challenge of rehearsing both shows in the same time it takes to rehearse one, I’ve had to adjust to keep from burning them and myself out.


Picture
Wesley in his critically praised production of LAWFULLY WEDDED in 2013.
Picture
Wesley with Kat Bushnell in HOPE'S LAST CHANCE
Picture
Wes in a wig with Gabrielle Patacsil in ARRIVEDERCI ROMA
Picture
This fall's set BEFORE AND AFTER
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Colleen Egan and Scott Cox in Wesley's production of DROWNING KATE play now
Buy Tickets Drowning
Picture
Rick Homan in Wesley's production of UN-HINGED now playing
Buy Tickets to Un-Hinged
Picture
Wesley with his wife Producing Director Quinn Whitaker
A word from Wesley about independent theatre:

"Ladies, gentlemen, art is not an imitation of life, theatre is not an approximation of life, to me they are ways of life and part of my identity. Asking me to stop doing either one would be asking me if I have a preference for breathing or eating. None of us can create in a vacuum, no matter what medium we work in, we cannot stand alone. Whether we acknowledge it or not we need each other: for a fresh perspective, another set of capable hands, a sounding board, or for support. 

These two shows are the culmination of years of passionate writing from Krista Knight and Morgan Ludlow, months of preparation by myself and my valiant wife Quinn Cayabyab, weeks of coordination by Philip Goleman and Laylah Muran de Assereto and countless hours of impassioned, dedicated and unwavering commitment from 
Genevieve Perdue, Rick Homan, Cameron Galloway, Colleen Egan, Scott Cox, and Jason Jeremy.

I hope you join me in supporting this intrepid cast and crew, and support local theater. See you at the show!

Please support Wily West's "Fill the Gap" campaign so we can get through this season!  We are only $430 away from making our goal!"
DONATE!
How does your expertise as a technical director help or hinder your work as a director?

It does both. Being a technical director allows me to think about the technical details along with seeing the bigger picture of a production. Wearing multiple hats with a production gives you a reverence, respect and awareness of the active production team members that you’re working with but it also consumes time and energy. In any production time and energy are exhaustible commodities that require constant monitoring to ensure that there are enough of both to get the job done. With two shows in rep that pool of time and energy doesn’t multiply and can be depleted that much faster. Sometimes I get lost in the tech director role and miss things but that’s what my wife is there for, Quinn does her best as my wife and company producing director to ground me.

What has been your process directing these plays?  

Allow the piece to speak and “well done is doing a part not having the acting show.” The latter is from Jimmy Stewart. I try not to have too heavy a hand in directing pieces, if it’s on the page it’ll end up on the stage. Yes, there are moments that need a little massaging or need a little extra attention to help clarify things but I believe that my job is to open doors and allow for a safe place for discovery. I am the objective pair of ears and eyes that drink in the story that is unfolding before me, if anything gets in the way of the story I do what I need to remove the obstacle and allow the piece to speak.

Is there a connection between the two plays you want to capture?

Pain is a universal language. Yes there are varying degrees and complexity but the one phenomena that I wanted to focus on was the ability that it has to both separate and connect people at the same time.

Is there an actor or other director that most influenced you as an artist?

Gregory Wallace was one of my directors and instructed me ACT, I really need to give him the credit that he is due. I actually didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I worked with him in my early 20’s. It wasn’t so much the technique and the processes that were the most valuable resources that offered but rather the way that he imparted them. 

Martha Stookey will always be on my list of most influential as an artist: she was my grade school and high school theatre teacher. She was featured in TBA magazine for her contributions to the bay area theatre community, retired as the Artistic Director for the International High School (or French American International School for all of those “lifers” out there!), a SAG member, stage and screen actress, costume mistress, scenic painter, set designer, and lighting designer. She was my role model for theatre, my gateway into artistic expression. My work ethic and sensibilities have all been derived from Martha’s influence in some shape or form.

What most excites you about seeing these plays on stage?  What do you hope audiences will take from the play?

I love good storytelling and both of these plays do just that: tell a very good story. What excites me is when the story leaps off the page and really grabs the audience. I love seeing audience members have that “Aha!” moment and get really invested in the story that is unfolding before them. After a fashion I start watching my audience rather than watching the play that’s onstage. I enjoy seeing people being affected by art. I hope audiences come away from these plays with another perspective for some of the pain that they’ve endured in their life.
0 Comments

    Wily Westings
    Production Blog

    Our production blog features a dynamic blend of the the professional and the personal.  An original "web cocktail" infusing business and behind-the-scenes snap shots with first hand detail about the energy, commitment and perseverance to develop truly independent world premiere plays in San Francisco!

    Archives

    March 2019
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    31 Years Of Marriage
    Actors
    Alina Trowbridge
    Arsenic And Old Lace
    Boa
    Brady Brophy Hilton
    Brian Martin
    Bridgette Dutta Portman
    Cast
    Celebration
    Chekov
    Director
    Ella Zalon
    Ellen Chesnut
    Ensemble
    Executive Producer
    Gay Community
    Ghosts
    Halloween
    Ignacio Zulueta
    Janice Wright
    Jeffrey Orth
    Jennifer Lynne Roberts
    Jim Norrena
    Joan Crawford
    Kat Bushnell
    Kat Kneisel
    Kcbs
    Kirk Shimano
    Laylah Muran
    Lighting Designer
    Morgan Ludlow
    New Plays
    Philip Goleman
    Playwright
    Producing Director
    Quinn Whitaker
    Rod Mcfadden
    Ryan Hayes
    Scott Ragle
    Sheherezade
    Sketches
    Stuart Bousel
    Susan Jackson
    The Exorcist
    Un-Hinged
    Vonn Scott Bair
    Wesley Cayabyab
    Willy Loman
    Writer

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.