DANIEL JOHN KELLEY

Exciting news!

My MFA in Playwriting is coming to close, and with it, a production of my epic Wall, Ball, Summer and Fall (A Coney Island Adventure) is going to be mounted at Hunter College. It’s being directed by the excellent Alex Correia, with the wonderful J. Stephen Brantley- who’s been with the piece since the beginning- playing the part of Moses.

All the details are below- come one, come all!

This summer has been a productive time full of new and exciting adventures, such as:

1. The Here and Now Project- All summer I’ve been curating the writing of four excellent playwrights from across the country (Ohio, Florida, Arionza and Hawaii), as they write about where they are and what is happening there now. The results have been pretty incredible, and you can check them all out right here!

2. #whatshouldwecallplaywrights- playwright Adrienne Dawes enlisted myself, and playwrights Jenny Lane and Kari-Bently Quinn in creating a preposterous tumblr full of the trials and tribulations of being a playwright, in comical GIF/joke format. You can check that out right here!

3. Vanguard (A Tale of David Fagen)- My newest project this summer has been putting together a play based on the true story of David Fagen- an African-American soldier who defected from the American army during the Philippine-American War, and became an officier of the Filipino army and scourge of the Americans from then on. His story is fascinating, and shrouded in myth and mystery, and what it means to be a hero, and I’m looking forward to exploring it further.

An excerpt of this piece will be performed at the Culture Project as part of their American Foreign Policy short play weekend this coming Friday and Saturday. Tickets are right here!

4. Preparing for Year 2- Year 2 of my MFA at Hunter College begins shortly, and I am gearing up and working to put together a play that will be produced(!!) in the spring of 2013. Very exciting to get to work on that.

All in all, an exciting summer, and much to look forward to!

The second semester of my Hunter MFA is drawing to a close, and with it, a presentation of my new play “Wall, Ball, Summer And Fall (A Coney Island Adventure).” And you’re invited!

Here are the details:

Wall, Ball, Summer And Fall (A Coney Island Adventure)
By Daniel John Kelley
Directed By Alex Correia

Saturday, May 19 @ 7PM
Frederick Loewe Theater, 68th Street between Park and Lexington Aves
Take the 6 to 68th St. Hunter College or the F to 63rd and Lex

When Brooklyn teen Jeremy Stevens discovers his dad has lost his job, he runs away as far as he can imagine…to Coney Island.

There, he meets Moses Dirko- the master of handball, who speaks like he lives in ancient times, but actually lives with his grandmother.

Is this the hero Jeremy has been seeking? Is Handball the answer to all the woes of the world? Or is this merely the beginning of a much greater adventure…

The grand poohbah of Playwright interviews, Adam Szymkowicz has interviewed lil’ old me as part of his exhaustive series of interviews with contemporary playwrights. I’ve been reading these since they began, so I have to admit I’m nerding out a little bit to be included among some of my favorite writers working today.

You can read the interview here:

http://aszym.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-interview-playwrights-part-440-daniel.html

Semester one of my graduate school experience is finished, and I have a shiny new play to show for it. Thanks Tina Howe!

The play is Wall, Ball, Summer And Fall (a Coney Island Adventure), and it’s a 100 minute comedic drama about Coney Island Handball and how one finds one’s place in the world. It’s an adventure story, really, about a young boy who flees the Brooklyn he knows for the Brooklyn he wishes he knew, encounters a range of sad and funny broken people along the way, and all this changes his life forever. You can read all about the play here.

The play started as a kernel of an idea, based on a fabulous article from Sports Illustrated in 1991 about a guy who is a master of handball in Brooklyn, but the fact is, American culture has never really been that captivated by handball. The article is available online, and you can read the thing here. It’s a fantastic read.

I’m going to keep working away at it- and a few other projects, which have been on the back burner until now- and this will the first place to know if anything comes of it. Until then…

In exciting news, a few weeks ago the editor of Nytheatre.com, Martin Denton, asked to include The Conveniences of Modern Living in a new project of his:

The project is called “Indie Theatre Now”, and it’s a digital library of new American plays, produced in New York, as part of the self-producing Indie Theatre scene. This first batch of plays are all plays from the NY Fringe, and as “Conveniences” was produced there last year (to a rave review from Nytheatre.com), it fit the bill. So huzzah for that.

I’m really grateful to be included on the site, as it features some of my favorite playwrights writing today including Mac Rogers and Qui Nguyen and others.

You can take a look at the play below, and purchase it to be a part of your digital library on Indie Theatre Now. And a portion of the proceeds go to me so, you know, buy it a lot! Hooray!

http://www.indietheaternow.com/Play/PlayDetail/95

It’s official: I’m one of four playwrights accepted into the second year of Tina Howe’s playwriting MFA at Hunter College. The deposit is paid, the GRE is taken, and I start in September!

The other three folks I’m going with are: Rob Cardazone, Kristen Palmer, and Lindsey Ferrentino. We all met over a non-lunch and several pitchers of sangria with Tina Howe in lower manhattan, and they all seem like excellently smart and talented folk. I’m looking forward to our journey together…

In fact, I went this past week to see the readings by the current MFA students, and was incredibly impressed by the work going on there- a great variety of passionate original voices, with ambition, imagination, pathos and humor.

My favorite piece was one by current student Johnna Adams- it was a searing 90 minute drama that takes place in a parent teacher conference *spoiler alert!* after a 5th grader commits suicide. Really, really strong piece. My favorite thing about it was that- though it’s super unambitious in terms of putting it up- it dug deep into these characters, and didn’t sacrifice anything in terms of scope of imagination. It is incredibly HUMANLY ambitious, true, and brutal. Producers, if you’re looking for a play, may I suggest this one? No, really, do it.

So…the bar is certainly set, and I’m gonna have bring my A game- or perhaps even a game above that, if such a thing is possible- but that’s kind of the point, right?

Onwards!

Coming up in May, my short play “More Wondrous Things” will be performed as part of “The Flash Plays: City To City” by the  Special Sauce Co.

I love the concept of these shows: it’s a 3 week festival of 5 minute plays, performed in site specific locations, and occurring without warning. Is it a play? Or are they crazy people? OR BOTH? Only time will tell.

My play, “More Wondrous Things”, is about a little boy coming of age as he crosses the street all by himself for the very first time. There’s also magic and dancing and music. I’m curious to see how it will play out in the real world in real time. We shall see…

Fun news- Monster Literature lives!

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan has asked the good folks behind “Monster Literature” to bring the series in for their Spring Break Arts Festival. We’ll be remounting “The Secret Garden…OF MONSTERS!” on Saturday April 23rd, for two shows at 2PM & 3PM.

This is the first time we’ve been asked to take this show- which last time we did it was (for us) pretty tech and set heavy, and put it up in a way that’s more mobile. The solutions we’ve come up with, I think, are pretty exciting, and a bit of fun for all the kiddos at the show.

So…basically…come along!

The Secret Garden…OF MONSTERS! @ The Children’s Museum of Manhattan
Saturday, April 23rd @ 2PM & 3PM
212 W 83rd St btw. Bway and Amsterdam
$11- (cost of admission to museum includes the performance)

Another fun thing is on the horizon- a number of excellent folks (the folks behind Theatre In A Van, in fact) have put together an evening of short plays by the likes of Daniel Talbott, Maya Macdonald, Dan Moyer and yours truly, in addition to several others.

It’s all going up site specifically in an apartment in Williamsburg, and each play has a drinking game involved. So you can watch some short plays and then- as part of each play- get very drunk. An excellent idea, if ever there was one, and there have been several in the course of HISTORY!

I sent them a variety of short plays to do, but the one the picked is an oldy but a goody: Practical Origami

Should be a bit of fun!

Bottoms Up : a night of drinking game plays
Saturday, April 9th @ 8PM
424 Rodney St btw. Hope and Grand Street, Apt #3 in Brooklyn
Take the L to Lorimer or the G to Metropolitan

The peeps who brought you ‘Friend Me’ and ‘Hand Job’ are gearing up for another night of theater ‘Bottoms Up’! Including drinking games in the plays!

This night is a party night, so wear your party hat and shiny shoes and get ready to dance and experience site specific new plays by:

Maya Macdonald
Dan Moyer
John MacDonald
Daniel Talbott
Caitlin Bebb
Daniel John Kelley
William Shakespeare (yes, he wrote a new play just for us)
and a very special Surprise Person

Bring $10 for entrance and drink all night

See you April 9th!