I've been away, living the jet-setting life of walking hundreds of kilometers and not washing clothes in search of spiritual enlightenment or whatever, and that's a shame really. It's a shame because it deprived y'all of the timely release of a fantastic conversation I had with friend of the podcast, Catherine Rodriguez and Gavin Witt. Catherine is a dramaturgical dynamo whose time as a fellow with Center Stage is rapidly approaching its end and she is always incredible to talk to, especially if you've seen Troll 2 (available now on Amazon Prime, so why haven't you, I mean really?). But don't take my word for it, you can find her at several of the remaining Dramaturgy Open Office Hours happening this summer. You can find the full schedule down below (alright, here). Catherine also managed to convince Center Stage Associate Artistic Director and Director of Dramaturgy Gavin Witt to join our little chat and it was such a blast. We got to talking about art, dramaturgy, challenging plays, fun, creative programs that Center Stage is a part of (like Write-Right Now - the City Paper write up) and Toast Bars. Please check those out, I know that I will be doing that, stat. We actually got to rap a bit about Chuck Mee's play, The Glory of the World as well, the mindbender of a piece that Les Waters directed for Humana Festival this year, which was a nice bow on my visit to that festival.
There is a Play Lab for Carey Perloff's Waiting for the Flood at Center Stage on Monday, June 29th at 7 PM (of course, there will be a Toast Bar, so please RSVP). And I can't forget those Dramaturgy Open Office Hours (Facebook and some deets), which are June 24th with Annalisa Dias at Redline from 4 PM to 7 PM, July 1st (with Gavin!) again at Redline from 4 PM - 7 PM, and July 8th with LaRonika Thomas (the LMDA rep for the region) at Dooby's. Check out Jeremy Stoller's work on #OpenDramaturgy in New York and perhaps how you can be a franchisee as well. Hooray to LMDA for the grant that let's Catherine give her guest an honorium for their awesome time. I will be joining them at some point because Penn Quarter is my DC work home (what up, Sydney Harman Hall!) and you should as well.