In case you missed our May show with City Lights Theatre, here’s your chance to listen to Melinda Marks perform “Not a Gardener” by Melissa Flores Anderson, followed by a lively conversation with Rebecca Wallace. Thank you City Lights!
2020: The year that has forced us all to reexamine healthcare, work/life balance, “essential” work, art—everything.
As we write this, our community is still sheltering in place to address the Coronavirus (COVID19) health pandemic. Families, small businesses, nonprofits, universities, K-12 schools, healthcare professionals, restaurants and retail—everyone is affected. At Play On Words, we’re hunkered down, trying to convert our in-person lesson plans to “virtual learning” and hiding out in the garage, working remotely while parenting small kids. It is at the corners of the day, the moments not dominated by news, work, or childcare, that we return to art as a salve. Netflix, yes, but also books, music, virtual museum tours, visual art—anything to remind us that humanity has survived so much already and we are capable of finding purpose and creating beauty, even in the hardest times.
Over the past few months, we have also taken this opportunity to shift our focus to longterm planning. Thanks to the support of Silicon Valley Creates, who referred us to a nonprofit consultant, we learned how to apply for fiscal sponsorship through Intersection for the Arts, a historic arts nonprofit that provides people working in arts and culture with fiscal sponsorship and resources to grow.
Part of Play On Words’ mission is to find ways to incentivize artists at all stages of their careers. Recent contributors know that we have been able to offer honorariums to participating actors and writers, thanks to our fall t-shirt drive. In 2015, a grant from the San Jose Downtown Association and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation allowed us to pay artists for two shows. By pursuing fiscal sponsorship with the Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) which allows us to offer tax deductions for contributions, this will also allow us to apply for larger grants in the future and gain access to artist resources.
We have often been asked by POW friends and fans how they can best support the work we do. Now, at last, we can point to you a central place where you can offer one-time or recurring donations. Any donations we receive will go toward future artist honorariums, space and equipment rental, administrative and technical resources (i.e. subscriptions to WordPress, DropBox, etc.
We recognize that this is a challenging time for the world and prioritize the health and well-being and of our community above anything else. If, at this moment in time, you are interested and willing in investing in our community, we gladly welcome your support.
When the world feels safer and healthier, we hope to return to regular programming in San Jose and beyond. If you have ideas for contributing your stories or art to the POWSJ community in the meantime, we are all ears. We’re open to guest submissions to this blog, visual art and music inspired by this historic time, links to livestreamed performances, etc.
We hope to see you all again, happy and healthy, from whatever distance is deemed safe, very soon.
“Humanity’s lease on the planet may soon be up,” writes the narrator of Tania Martin’s “While You Were Sleeping,” who envisions bear attacks, drive-by proselytizing and the inevitable downfall of humankind while her partner lays sleeping. Something in this piece’s macabre yet realistic tone felt very 2019 to us—it is at once self-effacing and full of anxiety, yet conscious of the beauty still left in our world. We’re looking forward to performing Tania’s piece at our Beyond Boundaries show at the San Jose Museum of Art on Jan. 12.
Tania is a writer from San Jose. She is currently working on her first novel, which she hopes to complete in 2020. She is co-founder of The Flash Fiction Forum, a literary reading series focusing on short works. She is also an assistant editor at Narrative Magazine. Tania enjoys teaching art to middle school students and cycling around the bay area on her road bike. She earned a BS in Geology from UC Davis and loves the outdoors.
What are you working on these days?
Flash Fiction Forum will have its next reading series on January 8th at Works Gallery 365 S Market St, San Jose. For more information visit our website.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I’m a big fan of Play On Words. I love the collaborative energy they bring to San Jose’s literary scene. It’s magical to hear your words preformed by such talented actors.
Which writers or performers inspire you?
I’m a big fan of Louise Erdrich, Jhumpa Lahiri, Annie Proulx, Denis Johnson, and Zadie Smith to name a few; the poetry of Seamus Heaney and Elizabeth Bishop; and re-reading the classics: especially Tolstoy, Austin, and the Bronte sisters. I’m currently reading Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights, which is a gorgeous book about travel and discovery.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
One of my fondest memories is my father reading The Hobbit aloud to me when I was a child. J.R.R. Tolkien’s world building captured my imagination and I looked forward to hearing the next chapter all day. I saw how it was possible to carry entire other worlds around with you in your head.
Want to see us perform Tania’s work aloud? Get your tickets now for our January 12 show at the San Jose Museum of Art. Entrance includes free admission to the museum.
Exciting news: Reading through submissions for our LitCrawl show this fall, we received so many amazing pieces through the transom that we have more than enough to feature in San Francisco as well as for our next show. Our challenge? Finding a space to showcase all of this great work. Today we’re going to go behind the scenes at Play On Words to illustrate to potential community partners why you should partner with us to make these shows a reality:
Interested in partnering with us on our next show? Email Julia and Melinda (because it’s just the two of us!) at playonwordssj@gmail.com so we can get the conversation started. Let us fill your house.
This week marks five years since our first Play On Words show at San Jose’s Blackbird Tavern. With every season, we’ve tried something new–performed at festivals, partnered with Flash Fiction Forum on a chapbook, staged live readings of television shows. This fall, we’re delighted to partner with the San Jose Museum of Art on its upcoming “New Terrains: Migration and Mobility” cross-disciplinary exhibit. We’ve got our first 2019 date on the calendar–Sunday, February 24, from 3-5 pm–which means that we need you, faithful writers and artists, to share your work with us!
For our February show, we are seeking work that responds to the theme of New Terrains: Migration and Mobility. What does that mean to you? Does new terrain denote geography, movement, space? Could it be a crossing of emotional territory? Or a literal reflection on what it means to move your body, your family, your city?
Send Us Your:
For prose pieces, we ask you to cap submissions at 1500 words. Depending on the work of theatre, you can submit something longer if it reads quickly.
Email us your submissions to playonwordssj@gmail.com by December 15 to be considered for our February show.
We’ve been invited to present at the museum’s November 15 partner kickoff, which will feature many of the organizations contributing to the New Terrains exhibit. Mosaic Silicon Valley will offer a number of special performances during the evening. The international creative collective known as RadioEE will roll up to the party with Autopiloto, a marathon radio transmission that will be broadcast while on-the-move in a semi-autonomous vehicle traversing the Bay Area, examining how emerging autopilot/AI technologies are transforming the world. RadioEE will be live streaming their interactions with partner organizations and visitors while at SJMA, as part of their project commissioned by the Lucas Artist Residency Program at Montalvo Art Center.
Play On Words will be reading a few show selections at the event. We’ll be there to promote our call for submissions and enjoy an evening of performance, artistry and excitement. We hope to see you there!
Tickets are available on the San Jose Museum of Art website: $5 after 5 pm, free for museum members.
This year marks our fifth anniversary of producing original content in the Bay Area. Every year, we’ve been lucky enough to find great collaborators–our 50+ contributing writers, many of whom we’ve gotten to perform more than once; our 20+ amazing actors, working professionals who perform regularly in San Jose and beyond; and the community partners who have exposed us to new opportunities, venues, and artists. For our 2018-2019 season, we’re thrilled to announce that Play On Words is partnering with the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its “New Terrains: Mobility and Migration” exhibit.
Through “New Terrains”, South Bay arts organizations band together to present a series of cross-disciplinary exhibitions, programs and experiences that explore how bodies move through spaces–social, political, literal and figurative. Projects address timely topics such as transportation and urban planning, navigation and orientation, public protest, immigration and migration, and mobility in its many forms. With expanding partnerships, “New Terrains” will embrace multidisciplinary thinkers and cultural producers through a growing range of events. Collaboratively presented through spring of 2019 by organizations of all sizes and types–from museums and artist residencies to community centers and civic think tanks–events and programs will take place across the greater Silicon Valley.
We are thrilled to throw our artistic hat in the ring, and can’t wait to learn from the multitudes of creative partners involved in this exhibit. Play On Words plans to host at least one (and hopefully more) performance as part of this show, and we will be sharing a call for submissions on the theme New Terrains: Mobility and Migration in the coming months.
Until then, we encourage you to check out the amazing programming at the San Jose Museum of Art–and if you have a short work of fiction, nonfiction, poetry or theater that responds to this theme at the ready, feel free to send it along for consideration at playonwordssj@gmail.com.
Big news, Playonwordsians! We’re returning to Redwood City’s Dragon Theatre on Monday, August 27, for Nostalgia-rama, an evening of comedy and drama performed by our stellar POW cast. If you’re as tired of the news as we are, and hungry for something fun, join us for staged readings of four of our favorite television shows: The Twilight Zone, Cheers, Tales From the Crypt and Wishbone.
Will it be funny? Yes. Will it be goofy? Most definitely. But most of all, will it be entertaining? You can count on it.
We’ll be rolling out more information about the show as the day draws nearer. In the meantime, RSVP on our Facebook page to stay in the loop. Hope to see you there!
Just what is a rite of passage–and what does it represent? The lovely Arcadia Conrad performed Tania Martin’s short piece, “Rites of Passage,” last week at Play On Words: New Horizons. We have previously performed Tania’s “Suck it Up” and “The Pink Suitcase”, and were thrilled to read more work by her.
Tania writes fiction in San Jose. When she’s not teaching art to middle school students, or working on her first novel, she enjoys cycling around the Bay Area on her Bianchi road bike. She is co-founder of Flash Fiction Forum, a literary reading series focusing on short works since 2013, and she is an assistant editor for Narrative Magazine. She earned a BS in geology from UC Davis and loves hiking in the Sierra Nevadas. Her work has appeared in Sugar Mule Literary Magazine, Flash Flood’s online anthology, and in the collection, “(After) Life, Poems and Stories of the Dead, Purple Passion Press (2015).
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I love the way Play On Words combines the imaginings of both writer and actor to bring a new element to the work. And as a writer, it’s interesting to see my words interpreted by someone else. It’s like I have baked a delicious cake, and then handed it off to a talented cake decorator.
Which writers or performers inspire you?
I recently listened to the audio book, Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders, and loved it so much I bought the hardcopy and read the book too. I’m a fan of Louise Erdrich, Annie Proulx, Denis Johnson, and Zadie Smith to name a few; the poetry of Seamus Heaney and Elizabeth Bishop; and re-reading the classics: especially Tolstoy, Austin, and the Bronte sisters. I have wonderful memories of my dad reading The Hobbit to me when I young.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
My parents always left lots of books around the house, and didn’t notice me reading the Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby when I was 12, and for awhile I was terrified of being possessed by evil spirits. But now I’m fascinated by superstition and mythology, and often write superstitious characters into my stories.
Couldn’t join us last week? Stay tuned for video from the show in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out Branden Frederick’s photos from our show on our Facebook page.
It’s not every day that you read a story written from the perspective of a chicken–and a dark, slightly absurd one at that. We were blown away by Maria Judnick’s “Sister Fowl,” a macabre, fascinating and funny piece that we plan to perform next Wednesday at Play On Words: New Horizons.
Maria is a Bay Area freelance writer and educator whose work can be found at KQED Pop!, The Santa Clara Weekly, and various literary journals. She enjoys participating in local reading series. During the summers, Maria coordinates National Endowment for the Humanities institutes for teachers.
Publications, Honors or Awards:
Book Chapters:
Essay:
Poem:
Flash Fiction:
Interview:
“Maria Judnick Interviews Linda Spalding.” MARY: A Journal of New Writing. 2013
“Maria Judnick Interviews Rebecca Solnit.” 2012
Ongoing projects:
She is also is one of the editors of Activate, the chapbook we produced in partnership with San Jose’s Flash Fiction Forum earlier this year.
Follow SJSU’s Writing Center on Instagram at @sjsuwc and check out their blog
Maria kindly answered some questions for us in advance of the show.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I love celebrating local artists and writers – San Jose is a vibrant community for the arts!
Which writers or performers inspire you?
How much time do you have? There are so many writers that have influenced me over the years and mentored me.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
I recently discovered Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and I found myself quite moved by some of the entries. I’m envious of the great things she did with that format too!
Want to see Maria’s work performed live? Join us at 7 pm next Wednesday, April 11, at San Jose’s Cafe Stritch.
Play On Words 