May | 2015 | Intimate Excellent

Stephen Sachs, LA Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, and Deborah Lawlor

The Fountain Theatre has been awarded a grant in the amount of $10,500 from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to support the creation, development and presentation of a new play in 2015-16.

“We deeply appreciate the support from the City of Los Angeles,” said Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs. “Particularly in these embattled times. The LA City Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs and our Councilman Mitch O’Farrell understand the importance of intimate theatre in Los Angeles.” 

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Fountain has a long and accomplished history of developing new plays that go on to enjoy successful lives beyond our intimate venue. Fountain projects have been produced across the United States, in London and throughout the UK, and around the world translated into other languages.  

Two world premieres of new plays are already slated for 2015: the world premiere stage adaptation of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine, adapted for the stage by Stephen Sachs; and Freddie, an immersive theatre piece created by Deborah Lawlor, supported by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. The future new play funded by this 2015-16 City Department of Cultural Affairs grant will be determined by projects in the Fountain’s development pipeline. 

“Creating new work is at the heart of our artistic mission,” adds Lawlor. “Our longtime partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs helps make that happen.” 

Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre

Tagged arts organizations, Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine, Deborah Lawlor, Fountain Theatre, Freddie, grant, Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Mitch O’Farrell, new play development, new plays, plays, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre

The Fountain will present a free reading of its new stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine‘s acclaimed, award-winning book Citizen: An American Lyric, this Sunday, May 31 at 7pm at the Fountain Theatre. This will be an exclusive first-time reading of the script that is currently in development, adapted for the stage by Stephen Sachs and directed by Shirley Jo Finney. The world premiere full production is planned for this summer.

Citizen: An American Lyric is a provocative meditation on race fusing prose, poetry, and the visual image. A lyric poem, snapshots, vignettes, on the acts of everyday racism. Remarks, glances, implied judgments. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV — everywhere, all the time. Those did-that-really-just-happen-did-they-really-just say-that slurs that happen every day and enrage in the moment and later steep poisonously in the mind. And, of course, those larger incidents that become national or international firestorms. As Rankine writes, “This is how you are a citizen.”

Claudia Rankine

Born in Jamaica, Claudia Rankine earned her BA in English from Williams College and her MFA in poetry from Columbia University. She is the author of five collections of poetry: Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014); Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2004); PLOT (Grove Press, 2001); The End of the Alphabet (Grove Press, 1998); and Nothing in Nature is Private (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1995), which received the Cleveland State Poetry Prize. Her honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowments for the Arts. In 2005, Rankine was awarded the Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by the Academy of American Poets. She is currently the Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College.

Citizen: An American Lyric has earned international critical praise and has been honored with the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the NAACP Image Award, and is a PEN Award finalist.    

The actors featured in Sunday’s script reading include Bernard K. Addison, Chris Butler, Tina Lifford, Simone Missick, Linda Park, Amy Pietz and Larry Poindexter.

Author Claudia Rankine will be in attendance at the reading.  

The stage reading on Sunday, May 31 at 7pm, is free of charge. Seating is limited.  Click here to reserve your seat, or call (323) 663-1525.  

Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Books, Drama, Fountain Theatre, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, poetry, Theater, theatre

Tagged actors, Amy Pietz, Bernard K. Addison, book, Chris Butler, Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine, Fountain Theatre, Larry Poindexter, Linda Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times Book Award, National Book Award, new plays, performing arts, plays, poem, poetry, race, racism, Shirley Jo Finney, Simone Missick, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, Tina Lifford, world premiere