Women who travel: have you ever had to say “no” to someone in another country? Sometimes it’s not as easy as it sounds. Just ask the narrator in Valerie Fioravanti’s “Hot Turkish Man For You,” as performed by Melinda Marks on June 3 at Cafe Stritch:
…doesn’t always stay there. Today we’re excited to share Adam Magill’s performance of “Suburban Fantasy,” by Renée Schell. He performed this at our June 3 show at San Jose’s Cafe Stritch:
Like what you see? Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all our performances, from 2013 forward.
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at theater school? Mara Sherman‘s one-act, “Stage Kiss,” explores the flirtatious awkwardness behind scene partners who, um, get paired a lot. Check out Laurel Brittan and Gray Performs reading Mara’s play on June 3 at San Jose’s Cafe Stritch:
Does this inspire you to write? If so, send us your funniest, your most awkward, your most poignant stories at playonwordssj@gmail.com. Deadline for our next show is June 30!
Have you ever written an ode to your diploma? Gary Singh has–and Ryan Alpers performed “Sirs Parchment” June 3 at Cafe Stritch, along with “I Ride On the Bus Out to the Suburbs in the Searing Heat”:
Don’t forget to submit to our July show! We’re looking for short, funny, absurd, thought-provoking, surprising content that performs well aloud. Send us your short stories, essays, poems and one-acts at playonwordssj@gmail.com. Deadline is June 30, but the sooner the better!
What happens when a mysterious young woman shows up at a hotel pool with a pink suitcase? Watch and see as Gray Performs brought Tania Martin’s “Pink Suitcase” to life on June 3 at Cafe Stritch:
If you like what you see, check out Gray Performs’ website for upcoming shows, and be sure to check out the Flash Fiction Forum, which Tania coordinates with fellow POW contributor Lita Kurth.
Playonwordsians: it’s all happening. We’re thrilled to produce our first outdoor show in July. We’ll be sharing more specifics about the event itself soon, but in the meantime we need solid content!
Join us
If you’ve been sitting on something great, now’s the time to submit. Here’s what we are looking for:
5-10 minute plays
fiction and nonfiction under 2000 words (~ 5 minutes read aloud)
poetry
We’re looking for work that translates well to being performed aloud. If you joined us last week, you’ll know that we like funny, thought-provoking, voice-driven, surprising material. Sound like you? Email your submissions to us at playonwordssj@gmail.com by June 30.
Interested in performing? Email us your resume and/or links to recent performances, and indicate your availability during the month of July.
Last week we took the stage at San Jose’s Cafe Stritch with a fun cast of characters–thanks in part to the generosity of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in partnership with the San Jose Downtown Association. In case you missed it, we’ll be rolling out footage from our June 3 performance over the next few weeks, starting today with excerpts of Rick Alpers’ “Van Tribe” saga.
“Van Tribe” is a novel-in-progress that follows a group of people living along San Jose’s Guadalupe River, whose lives are affected by suburban growth. Michael Weiland kicked off the evening with “Van Tribe: The River” and “Dudley and Lisa”:
Tiffany Edwards read the next installment, entitled “Pumpkin”:
Finally, Brian Van Winkle read “Miracle Ticket”:
Like what you see? We’ll be posting more videos over the next few weeks. Thanks again to everyone who made this show possible!
It’s nearly time to take flight. We had our rehearsal on Saturday night and we are pumped to perform tomorrow at Cafe Stritch. Our playbills will be printed tomorrow–and in one last effort to spread the word, we’re sharing the full lineup for Play On Words: Take Flight here:
“Audition,” by Brian Van Winkle, read by Michael Weiland, Melinda Marks, Brian Van Winkle, Adam Magill, and Julia Halprin Jackson
As we gear up for the big show, we’d also like to extend our gratitude, once again, to The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the San Jose Downtown Association, as well as Steve and Max Borkenhagen of Cafe Stritch, whose support and guidance helped make this show possible.
There is something magical about Tania Martin’s “Pink Suitcase,” which we are excited to present June 3 at Cafe Stritch as part of Play On Words: Take Flight.
Tania is originally from New Zealand and has lived most of her life in California. She earned a B.S. in geology from UC Davis, and has worked as a lab technician, geophysicist, and technical writer. She stumbled into a writer’s workshop in Alta, Utah a few years ago and has been hooked on creative writing ever since. Her focus has been on the short story and flash fiction. She co-founded The Flash Fiction Forum reading series with Lita Kurth, and she is an assistant editor for Narrative Magazine. She also helped curate the Spoken Word Lounge reading series at The San Jose Art Party festival held at the Santa Clara Fair Grounds in 2014.
Publications, Honors or Awards:
Tania’s flash fiction has been published in Sugar Mule Literary Magazine and Flash Flood’s online anthology. She recently had her poem “Smoke and Fire” published in (After) Life, Poems and Stories of the Dead, Purple Passion Press, 2015.
What inspired you to participate in Play On Words?
I was delighted to hear there was another venue for story-based art in San José. My co-founder of Flash Fiction Forum and I reached out to the folks at Play On Words. Julia Halprin Jackson, one of the founders, read her wonderful flash fiction for our reading series. I jumped at the chance when she mentioned that there was a call for submissions for Play On Words. I am very excited to see my story “Pink Suitcase” performed by actors. Because it’s a character driven story, I think it will be well suited for the stage. I’m also really excited to be part of the strong writer’s community emerging in San José.
Which writers or performers inspire you?
Tolstoy and Austen are favorites, but lately Denis Johnson has had a big influence on me, and I just read J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey for the first time and thought it brilliant.
Name a book or performance that fundamentally affected you.
I very much admired Poet Laureate (Santa Clara County) David Perez’s poetry booth, aka “The Poetry Site,” in which he organized local poets to write poems for festival patrons on typewriters. The poetry booth is both a performance piece and the individual works of the poets. The process of the poets at work on their old fashioned typewriters, thinking and punching away at the keys, then handing over poems to curious hands was inspiring, and I thought this is a great way to expose people to poetry by making it personal. It’s the kind of collaboration I hope to see more of in San José.
Play On Words 