Volume 201 - August 15, 2009 Notes
ELAINE AVILA’S BIO:
Elaine Avila’s plays have been performed across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Some of her favorite projects include Lieutenant Nun (based on the true story of a woman conquistador), Burn Gloom (a music-theatre collaboration involving writers from 14 cities, including Malawi, Santiago, Tasmania, Bali, New York City, Montreal, and Belle Ile, France) and Good Fooling (the story of Shakespeare’s Clown). She is the recipient of numerous awards including The Victoria Critic’s Circle for Best New Play, a Canada Council Millennium Grant, “New Works for Young Women” Award/Residency from Tulsa University, the A.S.K. Theatre Projects Scholarship, and the Alden B. Dow Fellowship. Her screenplays include “Fortune,” “Kai takes a Solo” “Lead Dress” (with Juliet Belmas). She is currently at work on her novel, Saudades, about her Portuguese grandfather immigrating to North America from the Azores. She has an MFA in playwriting from California Institute of the Arts, where she worked closely with Suzan-Lori Parks and Erik Ehn. She has taught in universities from British Columbia to Tasmania.
One of her passions is working with people who do not traditionally have access to theatre because of life threatening illness, violence, poverty, language barriers or disability. Highlights in artistic leadership include serving as Artistic Director of a company specializing in international theatre and the classics, and spearheading LEAP, a multicultural initiative fostering young playwrights. While working professionally as an actor/director, in the U.S., Canada and Australia, she became one of the few people in the world trained in Pochinko clown through mask technique, a combination of Native North American and European clowning, as well as Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and commedia dell’ arte. Her play, Quality, (a dark comedy set in the world of women’s footwear) is about to premiere in Edmonton, Alberta in a highly innovative, site-specific production set in a shoe shop, directed by one of Canada’s top Directors, Kathleen Weiss (an UNM alum) and London, England in the Fall of 2007.
“In the Heights” has two new leads in the Broadway show. Javier Muñoz replaces Lin-Manuel Miranda as USNAVI and Marcy Harriell replaces Karen Olive as Vanessa. The good news: Javier Muñoz is a better USNAVI than Lin-Manuel. The bad news: No one can replace Karen Olivo.
“West Side Story” has a new flavor, bilingual scenes, and all Spanish songs (selected songs). It also has a star, Karen Olivo as Anita, who won a TONY for the role. The bad thing about the production, no one bother to teach Josefina Scaglione how to speak without an Argentinian accent. This little matter gives the Spanish dialogue and songs a horrible sound.
On the artistic side, Arthur Laurents hired decided that the two gangs, JETS and SHARKS should look like J. Crew models… and very gay. Hardly any sets and the music was “jazz up” to horrible results.
Episode 202 will include two short conversations with two artists from the New York area.
