A unique feature of the Our Voices Festival is that each playwright is given The Our Voices Artist Statement template to fill out and share directly with the audience during the evening of staged readings just prior to presenting her play. Audiences continue to share their gratitude for this opportunity to hear directly from the playwright about her inspiration and experience in writing the play. For the playwright, it's an opportunity to take a risk - to stand for her voice & vision in front of an audience. ~ Kelly DuMar
Artist Statement: G.L. Horton
A 90 Pound Lap Dog
This play was inspired by. . . My desire to create material for actors for auditions and class work has resulted in 200 monologues published on my web site, www.stagepage.info I've only heard about 2 dozen of them. I wish I could hear-- and revise-- them all!
One thing that surprises me about this play s. . . How hearing it made me want to rewrite nearly every line.
This play is built upon my strong belief (or faith) in. . . Storytelling, and the shaping and sharing of stories.
If my play could change something what would it be? Cutting out the middleman between dramatic/comic writers and the people who would enjoy bringing their words to life by by embodying a character.
One thing I’ve learned about (myself/my writing) from this play is. . . . Hearing it in different voices I'd like to be able to tailor it for each one.
A block or resistance I have had to overcome in creating this play or monologue was (is still?) my fear/belief/concern that. . . . Shaping or re-imagining material read or overheard into a piece for an actor to re-imagine in performance is a fascinating exercise but an existential conundrum.
My wish for this play is. . . That people speak it, hear it, do variations on it, and be inspired to seek out my other pieces or invite me to collaborate with them in devising some.
Each playwright will be invited on stage to introduce her play and actors to the audience and read her artist statement
Your Name: Geralyn "G.L." Horton
The Title of Your Piece: A 90 Pound Lap Dog.
Setting Your Scene: Actor, age and gender unspecified by author, is telling a story to a friend or a small group.
June Lewin will play the role of Twinkie's beloved human companion.
My monologue was directed by: Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro
A 90 POUND LAP DOG by G.L. HORTON
ACTOR: June Lewin works professionally in the Greater Boston theatre. She particularly enjoys performing, directing and developing new plays. She has worked on various scripts by Rosanna Alfaro and G.L. Horton, including directing Geralyn in the original production of Rosanna's Martha Mitchell for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She has toured with a pantomime company from Poland, taught at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, and appeared with the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven and on stages in New York City, Berkeley, and across New England.
DIRECTOR: Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow (2011) whose play "Before I Leave You" was in current Huntington Theatre season, garnering 3 IRNE nominations. Her plays have been performed at Pan Asian Repertory, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Magic Theatre, The Boston Women on Top Festival, La MaMa ETC., etc. She is the writer/narrator of the documentary Japanese American Women: A Sense of Place. Seven of her short plays have been in the Boston Theater Marathon, and eight were finalists in the National Ten-Minute Play Contest. Her work is anthologized by Baker’s Plays, Heinemann, Charta Books, Smith and Kraus, and Meriwether Publishing.
AUTHOR: Geralyn Horton has written 100s of monologues and dozens of plays and musicals, from one minute to three hours long. Almost all of them are on her web site stagepage.info (The Big Musical has its own: <www. precious-bane.com> For a quarter of a century Geralyn has had the inestimable privilege of working on new plays with this Dynamic Duo as director, actor, or reader, turn and turn-about. Long may we flourish!
Produced by Kelly DuMar, Wendy Lement and Ann Garvin
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