Today on Home Grown, David soldiers on alone in a unique Home Grown that welcomes two sets of guests together for the entire hour. It’s Virginia Wawner, James Sanford, and Kerry Moran from Live Arts Theater’s upcoming show Hand to God and also Jonathan Karns, Victoria Clement, and Frank Saxon from Four County Players’ upcoming show Avenue Q. Both shows use puppets, and puppets are topic of conversation — designing them, acting with them, acting opposite them, respecting them, and loving them. It’s a collection of puppet masters you can love even in your tin foil hat on this week’s Home Grown: Your Show about Local Art.
Home Grown is heard on 94.7 WPVC the Progressive Voice of Charlottesville, Sundays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Today on Home Grown our co-hosts Leslie M. Scott-Jones and David Vaughn Straughn give you a double shot of drama with two local theaters about to open two very different but equally interesting shows. First, DMR Adventures and Belmont Arts Collaborative collaborate to bring out Will & Whit, the musical adaptation of local graphic novelist Laura Lee Gulledge’sgraphic novel of the same name. Gulledge visits the show for the first time to tell David and Leslie about her “artnership” with DMR Artistic Director, returning guest Melissa Charles. They also bring along young actor Mia Buckley to sing the show’s first song on the air. Next, we head on up Barboursville way to our friends at Four County Players. Actors Frank Saxon, John Kemgard, and Teresa Teixeira visit the show to talk about their upcoming production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. It’s a great conversation about working with Miller’s language and the challenge to what to allow this classic American parable to represent. We’ve got your next ticket purchases here on Home Grown: Your Show about Local Art.
Home Grown is heard on 94.7 WPVC the Progressive Voice of Charlottesville, Sundays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
This is our fourth in a series of radio plays from Charlottesville’s top playwrights and the talented actors at Live Arts Radio. Each play was written by members of Charlottesville’s Playwright’s Lab.
In our fourth episode, we meet a couple who are coping with the loss of a family pet with humor and respect. Please note that this episode is based on a true story where a couple was forced to put down their dog, and may be upsetting to those who have recently suffered the experience. It may also provide some healing.
Dead Dog is the work of the following talented men and women:
Stephanie Hess (Julie) has performed with Live Arts, Act I, Play On!, Four County Players, Heritage Theatre Festival and Persimmon Tree Players. She has been performing in community theater for more years than she cares to remember. Some of her favorite roles are Julie in Dead Dog and Alta in Language Archive with Live Arts, Sister Robert Anne in Nunsense with Act I, Claudia McFadden in Suite Surrender with Persimmon Tree Players and Ms. Furnival in Black Comedy with Four County Players. Stephanie is a retired dance teacher. Her biggest claim to fame is that she had a stint as a cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles and is a member of the NFL Alumni Association. This is Stephanie’s maiden voyage into the world of podcasts and really enjoyed recording Dead Dog. She hopes to be doing more podcasts and voice acting work in the future.
Frank Saxon (Dan) is a relative newcomer to the Charlottesville theater scene. Over the past two years he has appeared in Xanadu, City of Angels, Guys and Dolls, and Locally Sourced (where Dead Dog was first performed) at Live Arts, Cleopatra VII at Gorilla Theater, The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Four County Players, and in Barhoppers 2016 for Offstage Theater. He is thrilled to be a part of this production and is looking forward to performing more of Alex Citron’s original works.
Tim White (Director) retired two years ago after teaching for 40 years. As a theatre/speech major he received his BA and MEd. from James Madison University. Tim developed theater programs in Loudoun County, Charlottesville City, and St. Anne’s – Belfield School, besides teaching classes at UVa and PVCC. The last seven years of his teaching career were working with students with autism at The Institute of Autism in Charlottesville. Since retiring, Tim has devoted much of his spare time volunteering with Live Arts. Tim directed Dead Dog as one of six one-act plays presented by the New Playwrights Lab at Live Arts last summer. The play has also been performed at Cville Coffee.
Alex Citron, (Writer, Co-Founder-Facilitator of the Playwrights’ Lab) has been a member of the Lab since 2002. He has worked in theater for over forty-five years, as an actor, director, producer, set designer and stage manager. Of the seventeen plays he has written, six have been produced by companies in California, Texas, New York and Virginia. From 2005 until its closing in 2014, Alex was Executive Director of Play On, a Charlottesville community theater.
Nathan Anderith (Co-Founder) has been directing, acting and producing theater for 18 years, from Shakespeare on the Lawn at UVA to drama groups in West Africa. His favorite part of putting together these podcasts is doing his sexy radio voice for the intro and outro.
Cory Capron (Music Composer) is a has written three full-length plays and several shorts, directed and co-directed several shows, and worked in props, sound, costume and creature design. He is a founding member of Gorilla Theater Productions, where he has worked as house composer on many productions. Outside the theater, Cory is a short story author, a singer-songwriter, and occasionally an experimental filmmaker.
Sean Michael McCord (Co-Founder) is a Charlottesville-based playwright, producer, director, and occasional actor. Once upon a time, he was radioactive. He is currently an MFA Playwright at the Hollins Playwrights’ Lab in Roanoke.
The Live Arts Playwrights’ Lab is a free forum for writers of every experience level, in which they share, read, hear, and discuss their work in a community of fellow playwrights. The Lab is dedicated to developing the work of local writers in a fun, creative, supportive setting; and includes opportunities for public staged readings and full productions. The Lab meets on the first and third Monday of each month (except July and August). Whether you’ve been writing for years or are just getting started, there’s a place for you in the Lab! Visit Live Arts The Foundry for more information.
Post production work for Dead Dog was done by Dan Gould at the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.
