Basking in the love-glow,  we selected plays for Sheherezade and finalized our directors for the show in December.  In January we had a table reading and finalized the cast.  SHEHEREZADE 14 will run in June and features short works from Jennifer Roberts, Terry Anderson, Madeline Puccioni, Madeleine Butler, Steve Koppman,Vonn Scott Bair, and Jim Norrena.  I am really excited about the selections this year with some interesting and captivating material that will be funny and devastating, sweet and poignant.  (I'll blog about that in April). Wes Cayabyab  who has been in the last five Sheherezade's is switching to a Director's role with Amy Crumpacker who joins us for the first time. While Jason Jeremy, who used to be a regular player in Sheherezade back in the day, is returning to acting in the show.   The cast also includes Philip Goleman coming off a string of roles with Ross Valley Players - including ARMS AND THE MAN playing now, Catherine Ludtke - who is busy being amazing in Custom Made's TOP GIRLS, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong who has been garnering audience and critical raves in African American Shakespeare Co's MEDEA, which closes this weekend.  Also joining the cast are Rick Homan who composed and played music in our production of Patricia Milton's BELIEVERS in 2012,Cameron Galloway who you can see at DivaFest's DIVAS TELL ALL, and Gareth Tidball who will be here for her summer break from New York University's theatre program.

We also kicked off our collaborative writing project for what became SUPERHEROES where 8 playwrights - The Playmaker's League - wrote as many short plays as they could in 6 weeks around a facilitated central theme.   Jennifer Lynne Roberts served as Head Writer and provided weekly inspiration and sub-topics for the writers. This creative storm resulted in 114 scripts, which were narrowed down to just 29 for a hilarious marathon reading back in February.  In February we also did private readings of all of the plays for the season, finalized the Superheroes line-up (11 plays between 1 and 10 minutes each), and casting for the show.  We have Alicia Coombes and Chelsey Little directing plays by Bridgette Dutta Portman, Jennifer Lynne Roberts, Karl Shackne, Laylah Muran de Assereto (moi),  Morgan Ludlow, Patricia Milton, Rod McFadden, and Susan Jackson and live music written and performed by Kat Downs from local band Sit Kitty Sit (whose band was at SXSW this March).  We are thrilled to have performers Barrett Courtney (with his SF debut), Brian Flegel (most recently in PCSFs 24 Hour Fest, and a frequent player with Pear Avenue's reading series), Dan Wilson (of Radio Star Improv), Jenna May (recently returning to the Bay Area from Seattle), and Karen Offereins (most recently of Custom Made's THE PAIN AND THE ITCH and returning to us from last year's SHEHEREZADE 13) and actor Shelley Lynn Johnson completes the cast. I can't wait to see them take on our superheroes; their woes, predicaments, and foes.  Look for the trading cards!

We are *this* close to finishing up the casting for Stuart Bousel's EVERYBODY HERE SAYS HELLO! which will be directed by Rik Lopes and will run in rep with SUPERHEROES in July/August.  The short list is pretty impressive and exciting for this multilayered character piece.  

We recently finished casting our fall shows running in October, and also in rep, with Krista Knight's UN-HINGED and Morgan Ludlow's DROWNING KATE and will both be directed by Wesley Cayabyab.  These two shows will share some cast members and like the whole season, includes a fantastic group of actors.   UN-HINGED will feature Rick Homan, Cameron Galloway, Genevieve Purdue Smith, and Scott Cox.  

DROWNING KATE will feature Colleen Egan, Scott Cox, and Genevieve Purdue Smith.

Quinn Cayabyab and Ellen Chesnut along with our directors have been conjuring magical and amazing design concepts for all of the shows, which will feature some pretty cool things that will be dynamic and interesting to see up on stage.

We've also been taking the opportunity before we are ensconced in rehearsals to go to shows!  Associate artist Kat Kneisel is performing with the multi-talentedDiana Brown in COLLECTED STORIES for Expressions Productions.  This play about mentorship, storytelling, trust, betrayal, literary success, and loss is well worth seeing.  We are especially proud of Kat's terrific portrayal of the mentee who outgrows her mentor with heartbreaking emotional fall out.  Quinn Cayabyab, myself and friends caught the show on Sunday March 23rd and Jennifer Roberts along with Jim Norrena, Patricia Milton, and Bridgette Dutta Portman caught the show Friday March 28th.

Jason and I went to see Cutting Ball's RISK IS THIS series closer EX MACHINA on Saturday the 29th.   And various company members have theatre dates to see TOP GIRLS, MEDEA, RAT GIRL,  ARMS AND THE MAN, THE CRUCIBLE, DIVAS TELL ALL and more!  

The company is also looking forward to going to the gala in May to support Morgan Ludlow and Ryan Hayes for their Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominations for last summer's GORGEOUS HUSSY!

Say hi when you see us around and have a great spring!

Laylah Muran
Executive Producer
Wily West Productions

What most excites you about this production?

It is truly exciting to be in a biographically based play about a recognizable, popular icon. It's even more exciting to think the door is open for us to intimately revisit the figure of Joan Crawford in a new work and freely converse with her, share a drink, and not just slip into some old Hollywood nostalgia and leave it at that.  The hierarchy of celebrity is played with in Gorgeous Hussy and, I think, deflated- so, what we're left with are very real people who come into contact with one another and are deeply affected and changed by that experience.  That's where I connect with plays as an actor and as an audience member.

What is the greatest challenge you face with this show?

For me, it's challenging finding the right tone of authenticity when playing the character of a person who is playing  the character of a person who happens to be someone who was very much alive. When Roy puts on the Joan make-up and attempts to speak from her point of view, he's actually pretty good at it. But, Roy is a reporter, not a drag queen.  He doesn't have experience with dressing up in a wig, being fabulous, and putting on a show. So, trying to really feel and understand the awkwardness and freedom of doing drag for the first time, and to not just be a cliche, is challenging. 

What kind of research are you doing to prepare?

I'm continuing to see as many Joan Crawford films as possible, which can be challenging to actually get a hold of. Watching old interviews and seeing clips of scenes and montages of scenes people have created on YouTube has been lots of fun. Also, reading the book, Conversations With Joan Crawford, is finding where all the meat is at. 

What have been some of your favorite previous roles (or productions you have been involved with)? 

I've created and continue to develop a solo performance, adapted from the poems of Walt Whitman called Boys Together Clinging. It's a theatrical, character driven show where I embody Whitman and attempt to tell a story and create a sense of magic and intrigue using his words only. It's  highly interactive with the audience and hopefully not at all what people would expect to see when watching a bunch of old poems being performed. 
I've been acting in San Francisco for nearly 15 years now and have been blessed to work with so many diversely talented artists and have landed some pretty awesome acting roles. 
This is my 3rd show with Wily West Productions. 
I have worked in several independent films and a few commercials over the years. I think film acting is, at it's core, the same as the stage; however, the stillness and subtly that is required, as well as hitting your mark, can be very different and can seem unnatural at first; especially, when you've grown up in the theater and aren't necessarily a subtle person. Joan Crawford was never in the theater as an actor - only as a dancer. So, hopefully some of my experiences behind the camera will inform my performance with Gorgeous Hussy. 

Since this play is about our public and private selves or personas - what parts of you as an artist are very public and what are some more private or personal interests that you would be willing to share?  

It's  difficult, for me, to find the line between a public self and private self. I'm sure it has a lot to do with social media and the fact that we're all now following and being followed by the new paparazzi...each other. Also, coming out of the closet many years ago, really stripped me of having a hidden self that is unavailable or off the table for discussion and display. At the same time, I think that things like reality tv and celebrity are very scary and I know I would never want my life and choices paraded about and dissected by the public eye.  So, really I think it's about putting your self into your art and that  is where the human heart lays bear.  Can we attempt to make privacy sacred while at the same time move though life undisguised?

What do you hope audiences will take from this production?

No more wire hangers.  As a kid, I was never into the old Hollywood movies, and as a child of the 70's and 80's, Mommie Dearest, was where I received my Joan Crawford education.  It's a really great movie that I adore and love to watch again and again. I hope, though, that through our production, younger audience members and those unfamiliar and familiar with Crawford will take a away a deep sense of a talented, fierce, giving, complex, and  contradictory soul that walked among us. I'll never look at her again in the same way after working on this production. I hope our audiences will be happily surprised and elevated by the Joan Crawford they discover with us here. 

RYAN HAYES has been acting in San Francisco for 15 years. Gorgeous Hussy is Ryan's 3rd play with Wily West Productions, along with Ruth and the Sea and Madrid's Bow. Most recently, he has performed with Dark Porch Theater in their productions of "StormStressLenz" and "The Tutor," which made it all the way to Phoenix. Last summer, he performed as Antonio in The Merchant of Venice with Custom Made Theater. Ryan is a founding member of No Nude Men and has acted in multiple productions with them, includingThe Monk, Hamlet, Love's Labor's Lost, and Love Egos Alternative Rock, to name a few. He created a solo show, Boys Together Clinging, based upon the poetry of Walt Whitman. He can also be found in a number of films and commercials. Acting is Ryan's passion, and he hopes you enjoy the show...