Even during the covid-19 pandemic, theater finds a way! Kudos to Phoenix Tears Productions for celebrating PRIDE in 2020. Here’s a link to my play! Enjoy!
"Leaving Cremona" opens this week!
My one-act play, “Leaving Cremona,” opens this week at the Analogio International Festival 2022!
Jozef (Nikos Vatikiotis) and Helena (Filippa Koutoupa), survivors of the holocaust and left with no home, struggle to figure out how to leave the displaced persons camp in Cremona in order to start a new life. Directed by Konstantina Nikolaidi. Translated by Smaro Kotsia.
A PRIOI Theatrical Productions: www.a-priori.gr
"Leaving Cremona" - what I learned from working with director Konstantina Nikolaidi
1. Director Konstantina Nikolaidi - founder of A PRIORI Theatrical Productions - makes it easy to collaborate from across the ocean by email! Our shared passion for doing theater permeates all and any boundaries. I’m also so fortunate that Konstantina is fluent in English.
2. Konstantina asked for my script interpretation. This is the first time I’ve been asked this question. It makes me wonder whether a playwright’s script interpretation is common practice in some countries. I haven’t come across it in the US. I’m reluctant to give my interpretation because I like complete freedom to be given to the director, actors, and designers to instill their interpretations - this is the phase where I let go the script and that the collaboration with other theater artists begins. So, instead, I provided Konstantina with my motivation for writing this play:
I can say what inspired me to write this play. I know a wonderful woman who has a very kind husband and three great daughters. When we met, her parents had already passed away. Her father, in particular, was very old when he had her and her brother. One year we had a holocaust memorial in Pittsburgh and she asked me to go with her. She said, "It suddenly occurred to me that my father had a whole family before he had us. His first family perished in the holocaust." She had never given it much thought. Her comment struck me: How did her father create a whole new family and spare them from the pain of his past? How did he manage to raise them as if they were his "only" family? In other words, my friend's family is so kind, funny, and well-adjusted that I would have never known her father had a family before this one. Many people I know who are children of holocaust survivors live with their parents' pain & anxiety and idiosyncracies.
I modeled Jozef and Helena as a couple who survived trauma and want to give a "healthy" family life to their children. I explored through them how they negotiated such a feat.
3. Directors interpret symbolism in the script - be it the characters’ names or objects in stories told within the story of the script. As a playwright, I need to keep the symbolism clear.
Filippa Koutoupa (Helena) and Nikos Vatikiotis (Jozef) star in “Leaving Cremona” at the Analogio International Festival 2022 in Athens, Greece.
4. Directors piece together characters’ motivations with various actions that happen in the play like a puzzle, so as a playwright I’ve got to keep checking back on what I wrote to ensure I keep the motivations clear.
5. Resources! While directors do their own research to understand the background and context of the script, it helps if I also provide some key resources I’ve used in my research for the play. I provide a page of props. I’ve decided now to also provide a page of a few key resources.
#analogio2022 #crossingborders #kambanellis #greekdrama
A PRIORI Theatrical Productions: www.a-priori.gr
"Leaving Cremona" - shortlisted for the Analogio Prize for Playwriting!
I’m thrilled that my one-act play, “Leaving Cremona,” is among the plays being produced this week at the Analogio International Festival 2022 in Athen, Greece! It’s included in a spectacular lineup of plays addressing the theme of Crossing Borders.
Text: Judy Meiksin
Translation: Smaro Kotsia
Direction: Konstantina Nikolaidou
Performers: Nikos Vatikiotis, Philippa Koutoupa
"Unravel" - After the 1st draft
The stage at Hot Metal Shorts! The 10-Minute Musicals, July 30, 2022
Once upon a time, I put together a 3D puzzle of a rocket that glowed in the dark. When we took the rocket into a dark closet to see the glow, we noticed missing pieces! The gaps had to be filled for the full effect!
Revising “Unravel” felt like piecing together a 3D puzzle. Here and there were missing blocks that needed to be filled.
After the first draft of book, lyrics, and music, the creators of “Unravel” received great feedback from the members of the Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh (MTAP); Jeanne Drennan, executive director of MTAP and producer of Hot Metal Shorts; Maureen McGranaghan, dramaturg; and Rob James, director and property designer of Hot Metal Shorts.
Here are 5 pieces of the puzzle that had to be filled:
Unravel: This term appeared as the title and in STARR’s last monologue just before her last song about the vaccine she invented that unravels the cold virus. To round off the 10-minute piece, someone suggested it should appear at the beginning of the musical, too. This made perfect sense as a metaphor for STARR herself who feels like she’s unraveling when she’s taken out of the lab (her comfort zone) and onto a public TV stage. Her “arc” is where she gets a hold of herself, no longer unraveling.
It’s about the work: To change up the chorus in this song, it was suggested that we vary the last two lines:
OK, SURE WHATEVER BILL, YOU’RE ACTING LIKE A JERK.
UGH FINE BE QUIET BILL, I HATE HIS LITTLE SMIRK
UH-HUNH, YES, WE GET IT BILL, YOUR LYING’S NOT A QUIRK
YIKES, STOP TALKING BILL, YOU ARE DRIVING US BESERK.
How HOST opens the show: I tend to go straight for “tension” so when the TV magazine show opens, STARR’s humility butts right up against the HOST’s assumptions. The dramaturg looked at what the HOST would do to open the TV show. The HOST would look for a way to first hook her audience. I agreed, and changed her opening lines.
Arc of other characters: We fixed STARR’s arc and MOM’s arc was already well-rounded. I neglected to see how BILL and HOST needed to be introduced into the show and how their full arcs would play out. So another tool I added to my revision process is to re-analyze the arc of each character separately.
Boosting the comedy: A final suggestion came from the director once the musical was in rehearsal. BILL needed more to fit in with his pompous personality. His self-introduction could be more over the top than already provided. I agreed. So we gave him a full name: “I’m William James Robert Theodore Burnt-Thistle the Third” This attitude works particularly well when juxtaposed against STARR’s personality: “Starr—you can just call me Starr.”
Seen at Hot Metal Shorts! July 30-31, 2022
Thank you to all who came to see the show!!!
Production of Hot Metal Shorts! July 30-31, 2022
Hot Metal Shorts! The 10-Minute Musicals was produced on July 30-31, 2022 by Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburghs at The Lillie Theatre in Pittsburgh!
“Unravel,” book by Judy Meiksin, lyrics by Dana Leahy, and music by Angela Thompson.
Edie & I dress up for Opening Night!
A selfie at The Lillie Theatre!
Angela Thompson, music composer, “Unravel”
Nandita Mahesh as STARR, “Unravel”
Cynthia Dougherty, MOM, “Unravel”
Becki Toth, HOST, “Unravel”
Rob James, Director, Property Designer, HOT METAL SHORTS
Maureen McGranaghan, dramaturg, “Unravel”
Jeanne Drennan, PRODUCER!!! HOT METAL SHORTS
Not shown: Dana Leahy, lyrics, “Unravel” and A.J. Prestogeorge, BILL, “Unravel”
covid-19: Did a reading for City Theatre - In Their Own Voices!
At the end of last year, I made a commitment to say “Yes” to every theater opportunity I saw in 2020. Then COVID-19 hit, and anything we say “yes” to has to be done in a new way to ensure social distancing. One of the results of this commitment was the opp to participate in Pittsburgh’s City Theatre’s collaboration with the regional Dramatist Guild for the program, “In Their Own Voices.” Because of COVID-19, we have to video-record our reading. So, I found myself practicing the script reading as well as doing a number of “takes” to get the angle of the camera, the lighting, and the background decent!
The most difficult part with the video was angling the camera away from the reflection in my eyeglasses. I even tried to make the text on my laptop large enough to read without glasses.
With the help of my wonderful fiancee, we pulled this off!
I’m grateful & honored to be a part of “In Their Own Voices”:
covid-19: Writing a Zoom play
When Alleyway Theatre put out a call for a digital play, I was gamed. During COVID-19, many theaters are putting out calls for scripts about the pandemic, and have migrated to plays that can be performed by 1 actor or by 2 or 3 who live in the same household and can perform on Zoom with no special lighting, etc.
Alleyway Theatre, though, is re-imagining another form of art—one that can be performed during this or any such situation where stages are closed and no one can go out. I imagine a health pandemic or wartime or the streets are on fire and curfew is at 8:00 pm.
Going digital, Alleyway asks: What “magic” can you employ to use technology to help tell your story in the most successful way? Is it Zoom? Skype? FaceTime? An app? Something else? Is it live? Live to tape? Filmed previously and heavily edited?
In terms of audience, Alleyway provides questions: Is it interactive? Passive? Zoom fatigue is real.
The best example I've seen in using Zoom as a medium is SNL where a pastor takes us to church but is constantly interrupted by the congregants. However, when he mutes them, he loses call-and-response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYP1mXqiwqc
For my new play, When women travel, they take a song, I decided to use the Zoom format. My sense is that in the world of social media such as tiktok, an audience is likely to click through numerous pages until something catches their attention, then they click through many more again. For my play, I create a collage of six stories that encourages the audience to switch their attention throughout the show. The two main characters who open the play are on Zoom, and a futuristic search engine named Athena places other characters in Zoom for the teenage girls to study for their year-end project.
This is an all-female cast, across generations, ethnicity, time-periods, and sexual orientation. These characters are chosen as they relate to the theme of “women traveling.” The irony, of course, is the lack of traveling as people are stuck in Zoom.
The way I came about this idea, is I first thought about a monologue I had just completed. I have 2 monologues ready for performance, and a 3rd one that I call a “monologue collage” which gives it more texture. As monologues can be performed on stage, I thought about what would drive these to be performed digitally?
Each of the 3 monologues is spoken by a woman over 60. They are of different ethnicities and time periods.
I looked across my other plays for women characters, and found a theme of traveling & song.
Nikki Giovanni’s poem, “Quilting the black-eyed pea” popped into my head: “To successfully go to Mars and back you will need a song…take some Billie Holiday for the sad days and some Charlie Parker for the happy ones but always keep at least one good Spiritual for comfort—”
I took 2 of my teenage characters—a lesbian couple—and placed them at the opening of the play where they’re working on their capstone project based on Giovanni’s poem to finish out their senior year. They’re musicians and have gotten into trouble because they turn all of their school assignments into a concert and have been told “no concert, or they’ll fail the capstone project and won’t graduate.”
Stuck at home during a pandemic, exploring seven traveling women in Zoom for their final high-school assignment, lesbian lovers BHAGYA and CHIUNG-WEI clash over their own plans for the future.
On the way to Mali Street. April 7, 2019
A street sign in Jerusalem: changing the title of a play
I changed the title of Home Economics to A street sign in Jerusalem.
While I thought a major theme in the play was about making a home, during revision after the Zoom reading, I realized the script was about not forgetting Gabriel - not forgetting family. Naming a street after someone is certainly a sign about not forgetting the person - in this case, my aunt Mali Spighel who founded AKIM.
With the title Home Economics, I thought I was very clever. That’s the name of a course in school where women learned about cooking and being a homemaker in the old days whereas Doda Mali went to medical school - the only woman in the class - and “economics” meant she constructed her tiny living space into a home & physician’s office with her husband.
"Economics” also meant navigating the move from a hostile country to a new home (Nazi Germany to pre-State Israel), and then finding the means to establish a home for cognitively challenged adults (AKIM).
MALI SPIGHEL
Seven thousand keys for 7000 individuals to live with dignity. This is home economics. If someone were to ask Gabriel why was AKIM founded, he would say, “Because of me.”
The key to the play, however, is “don’t forget”:
MALI SPIGHEL
I instruct my family to not forget Gabi when I’m gone. Sie lieb zum Gabriel. Sie relt zum Gabriel. Be loving to Gabriel. Be nice to Gabriel.
With the title A street sign in Jerusalem we have an object, a place, and curiosity. What sign? Why is it important? What’s the story?
I learned from playwright William F. Mayfield that the title of a play should tell what it’s about, like his play, Harriet Tubman Loved Somebody. With the title, I couldn’t wait to see the production. I met Mr. Mayfield only a few times at a playwrights gathering at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. At one of these gatherings, he talked about how to title a play. It’s the only conversation I remember from that day. He must’ve been an incredible mentor. He passed away very young, 62, in 2012.
Thank you, Mr. Mayfield.
Playwright Judy Meiksin standing beneath the street sign in Jerusalem named after Malka (Mali) Spighel. January 30, 2018.
COVID-19: The Show Must Go On!
Here is how plays are produced during quarantine - on Zoom! Livestreamed on Facebook!
10 Minute Tuesdays produced a special show for Pride 2020. My play, “Pennies, Powder & Pussy” starts at the 43:34 mark.
My fiancée Edie & me on our way to the Show!
Opening scene of “Pennies, Powder & Pussy,” at 10 Minute Tuesdays - June 2, 2020, 8:00 pm (ET), produced by Phoenix Tears Productions in Orlando, FL. Begins at the 43:34 mark.
LYNNE, played by Michelle (left) and DANIELLE, played by Tasha. “Pennies, Powder & Pussy,” 10 Minute Tuesdays - June 2, 2020, 8:00 pm (ET), produced by Phoenix Tears Productions in Orlando, FL.
Curtain call! Three plays, 1 singer, 1 comedian, for 10 Minute Tuesdays special Pride show, June 2, 2020, 8:00 pm (ET), produced by Phoenix Tears Productions in Orlando, FL!
My play is part of Pride celebration tonight! 8 pm (ET)
“Pennies, Powder & Pussy” will be livestreamed tonight on facebook, Ten-Minute Tuesdays by Phoenix Tears Productions.
covid-19: 24-24-24
When folks ask how long it takes me to write a play, I get stumped for an answer. It took me 7 years to write Jonathan, I say. While writing Jonathan, I worked on numerous other scripts & poetry and had a FT job, and a family. So it’s not like I wrote 9-5, 5 days a week, 2-week vacation, for 7 years.
With my covid-19 routine, I now know it took me 24 hours to write the treatment for the one-act play “Lookin’ for Liza Jane.” I wrote 6:30-7:30 am, M-F, beginning on March 24. I finished the treatment on April 24.
Treatment excerpt for “Lookin’ for Liza Jane”
covid-19: Script reading of “Find the Miracle” on zoom
We’re starting to get the hang of this Zoom deal.
This script-reading brought together 7 actors and a stage manager – no easy feat! Across a few nights, with some availability and bandwidth problems, actors and the stage manager jumped around quite a bit, picking up the lines for different roles. They are so fantastic and I’ll link to their names.
The big take-aways from this reading:
1. Is Helena Jozef’s 1st wife? 2nd? Does she die and he gets married a 3rd time?
2. Abby comes from no where. Need to develop the relationship between Abby & Jodi; they should be more buddies than the script currently shows
What’s working:
“Gold star” goes to the story with Jozef & Helena: Theirs is an epic love story
“Need to see” goes to the story of the prisoners in the Nazi death camp: This story is adventurous, intense, compelling; it’s very visual, so some of the confusion in the reading may be cleared up on stage
“The jury’s still out” goes to the current day story: some love the teenagers/some don’t see enough distinctions between the characters
My concerns:
a. How do I make the current day story as compelling as the prisoner story?
b. How do I weave the 3 stories as one play, showing 3 generations of 1 family?
This is 1 of 3 collage plays I’m developing. I have no blueprint, which makes this writing very exciting. The scenes are not flashbacks. Rather, the past informs the present as it unravels and forges ahead.
Great THANK YOU’s go to Star Banks, Jonathan Berry, Christian Carter, Jasmine Leonard, Tonya Lynn, Faye Miller, Nik Nemec, Shakira Stephens, Shakara Wright
The prisoner story and the love story from “Find the Miracle,” a script in progress.
“AIM” script-reading!
Thank you to Kaitlin Marie Cliber and Hannah Brizzi for bringing Eidel and Henda to life in "Aim"! and thank you to Lynnelle Goins for giving three-dimensions to the longest set of stage directions in one-act play history! This is at Pittsburgh New Work's New Play Reading Series.
March 2, 2020
(Left to right): Kaitlin Marie Cliber (Eidel) and Hannah Brizzi (Henda) with Lynnelle Goins (Stage Manager)
(Left to right): Hannah Brizzi (Henda), Judy Meiksin (playwright), and Kaitlin Marie Cliber (Eidel).
covid-19: Back to playwrighting
After watching the Pro Bull Riding Global Cup with my fiancee, Edie, I’m back to work.
covid-19: Script reading of “Home Economics” on video call using facebook
The first script reading we set up on video call during the covid-19 quarantine was Home Economics, a biographical play about my great aunt Mali Spighel who founded AKIM in Jerusalem, an independent-living organization for intellectually-challenged adults. In one part of the play, Aunt Mali’s family is scattered, running away from Nazi Germany. This scene takes a special meaning during this time of “sheltering-in-place” – whether we’re miles away or just in the next block, we’re unable to get together with family.
Unlike Aunt Mali’s time, though, we have video calls on zoom, What’s App, Skype, fb….
Even so, when deaths from the virus began climbing in China, then Italy, and theaters were shutting down in London & nyc to promote social distancing, I found myself calling my daughter several times a day. She lives in the UK.
More take-aways from the script reading:
1. How does the history connect with Mali’s desire that her family remember her son Gabriel when she’s gone?
2. What segues from the present to the past will make the transitions important to the audience?
3. What is the purpose of the interaction between Gabriel and his cousin?
4. What do I want the audience to know when they leave the play?
Kudos to Kim El – playwright | actor | director – for taking the lead with these questions after the reading.
Great THANK YOU’s go to Kim El and Cheryl El-Walker for splitting the roles of Mali Spighel and Ilana, to Jonathan Berry for reading Gabriel, Nik Nemec for reading Cousin, and playwright Faye Miller for reading Stage Manager.
covid-19: Frankie's line about Newton from "Seeking Transparency" - a script in progress
FRANKIE: It’s frustrating because it’s impossible to finish by deadline. I mean, I can try every metal in the periodic table, but then there’s every possible configuration. How much of it, for how long. Like baking it, you know? If I grow it at different temperatures, they do different things. If I try out the combination of materials in different amounts, they do different things. I need to have all the time in the world, then I could get somewhere. The best part for Newton was when they had a plague and he had to leave school. He got to go away and work for like two years straight and came up with his greatest discoveries.
covid-19: writing plays during quarantine!
covid-19: Writing M-F @ 6:30 am
Sister playwright Faye Miller and I establish a writing schedule, Monday through Friday, 6:30-7:30 am, on video call using Facebook. I’m using this time to write the treatment for a one-act play about Clara Brown, called “Lookin’ for Liza Jane.”
