Today began the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival with a series of first read-thrus for each of the plays in the Elementary, Junior HS, and High School Divisions. For the Fesitval there will be two separate performances: one on Monday night for the Junior HS & Elementary plays; another on Tuesday night for the High School plays. Separate casts are assembled for each evening and today we began with the Junior HS & Elementary group.
We met with the cast at the University Center Little Theatre on the campus of Kean University beginning at 11:00 this morning and were joined by
Amanda Kefalas, the author of the play
I Beat the Bully. After reading Amanda's play, we proceeded through a few more scripts before breaking for lunch.
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| Director Artem Yatsunov in action. |
After lunch, the cast regrouped and added additional actors and directors to read the plays from the High School division. These plays are further divided into two pairings, which are based in part on theme, but largely on the way in which the character breakdowns match up. Two separate casts of actors are assigned to each pairing, which also have their own director. After reading through the plays all together, the two casts split up to continue discussion of the play and, if time permitted, began blocking the script.
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| Miranda Hoyt-Disick enjoying a moment in rehearsal. |
Miranda Hoyt-Disick, the author of
Enter Banquo's Ghost, was with us this afternoon and provide insight into the play for Artem Yatsunov, the director and his cast of
Megan Greener,
Rosemary Glennon,
Gavin Earl Johnson, and
Seth Jambor. I sat in on some of the rehearsal for
Enter Banquo's Ghost and caught a few moments of the action. The play is inspired by Shakespeare's
Macbeth and follows engaged couple Beth (Megan Greener) and Joey (Seth Jambor) as they prepare for and host a dinner party for Beth's college friend, Allie (Rosemary Glennon). Beth is haunted by the memory of her former boyfriend Robert Banquo (Gavin Earl Johnson), who makes an appearance at the dinner party as a figment of Beth's imagination. The story is full of anxiety and action for Megan Greener in the role of Beth, which brought some great pictures like the one below:
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| Megan Greener |
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| Megan Greener & Seth Jambor |
You can find additional photos from tonight's sessions on the NJYPF Facebook page
here. Additional pictures will be added to the album over the next two days. Enjoy!
