Author: davidleewhite44

My local supermarket

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

This is exactly what the in-store muzac at my local supermarket sounds like –

“Boop boop shoop shoop! Who put the moop moop in the bow bow dippy dippy boooooow!

“That was DIPPY DIPPY MOW MOW by the Dippies! Attention shopper! Welcome to Shop-Rite! You’re a shopper who loves to shop! And shopping shoppers at Shop-rite love deals for shopping! Deals and shoppers and Shop-rite make good shopping, shoppers! You are a shopper! Shopping and deals today, money shopper equals SAVINGS! Special deals for shoppers you want while you shop! At Shop-rite, deals and savings and DEALS for shopping make shoppers and deals happy, Shop-rite shopper deals! SAVINGS!

“Enjoy being a shopper! Now let’s listen to MOP MOP DIDDY MOP by the Mops!”

So there were these two plays I wrote…

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

I wrote these two plays. THE FESTIAL QUARTET and REAL TRUE CRIME. They need a home. They’re quirky and personal and a bit eccentric. They’re not political, they don’t deal with social issues, they don’t really raise awareness of anything significant. But I like ’em. I wrote it after reading Chekhov. It’s like teen Chekhov in the 80s. I didn’t write them for Passage Theatre or for a youth ensemble or on commission or any of the other reasons I’ve written plays. I just wrote them ’cause I wanted to. REAL TRUE CRIME has had some great development work with the wonderful folks at Dreamcatcher Rep in Jersey as well as at The Hive in NY. I also had a great time working with Adam Immerwahr and theatre students at Rider University on the piece last year. FESTIAL QUARTET had a great reading at Bristol Riverside Theatre in Pennsylvania a few months ago (directed by Nick Anselmo), and at some point, we’ll do another reading at Writer’s Theatre of NJ.

This what they’re about –

THE FESTIAL QUARTET –  (3M, 3W) When the best piano player at Festial High School dies, her friends (the titular quartet) gather together for a memorial service with Amy’s mom and the head of the local church youth group. Unfortunately, Amy was the glue that held the group together. As the choir begins to fall apart, the friendships begin to fracture. Secrets are revealed and world views are changed.

REAL TRUE CRIME – (3M, 3W) Maddie is divorced and working as a checkout clerk at Wawa. She never finished her thesis and is about to turn 40. She spends her days reading trashing true crime books and playing the lottery. When Charly holds her up at gunpoint and whisks her away, the two intend to embark on a crime spree. Instead they find themselves in a cabin with a college professor, a young punk rocker, a formerly famous child actor and a priceless comic book. Did I mention the guy in the penguin suit? There’s a guy in a penguin suit.

Both plays are waiting for a production. FESTIAL QUARTET is small, quiet, intimate – a good show for college age actors. It’s a play about young people, but it’s definitely not for young audiences. REAL TRUE CRIME is a farcical dark comedy. Big characters, lots of criminal activity and a scene where everyone drops acid.  While they’re in nice shape just as they are, I’d also welcome the chance to do rewrites with a director and actors. If they sound interesting to you, you can email me at davidleewhiteplaywright@gmail.com Or if you’re a member of the New Play Exchange, you can download them here – https://newplayexchange.org/users/966/david-lee-white

SANISM at NJPAC

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

Here’s a link to the NY Times article on NJPAC’s Stage Xchange series.

Chisa Hutchison, Nikkole Salter and I have been commissioned by NJ theatres and NJPAC to write plays that will be produced in 2017. My play, SANISM, will be produced by Passage Theatre. SANISM follows three New Jersey friends who haven’t seen one another since their high school graduation but are reunited when one of them is discovered living on the street and suffering from symptoms of schizo-affective disorder. The play is based on interviews with healthcare professionals, caregivers and people who have suffered from mental illness. The reading will be April 29th at NJPAC and features Maria Konstantinidis, Newton Buchanan, Deena Jiles and Dara Lewis under the direction of Charlotte Northeast! Hope to see you there!

The Festial Quartet – Monday, April 4th abt BRT

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

On Monday, April 4th,  Bristol-Riverside Theatre will present a reading of my play “The Festial Quartet – a play for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass” as part of their annual America Rising series. It’s an unusual play for me. Usually, I write dark farces with absurdist overtones, accidental deaths and hot pepper cheese cubes. “Festial Quartet” is a small play that started out as an autobiographical piece – an expansion of a story I tell in my solo show “Panther Hollow.” Most of the autobiographical aspects of the story have given way to fiction, at this point, but I still look at the cast in rehearsal and occasionally hear the voices of my high school friends. It is simultaneously weird and invigorating. It also means that I really have no idea how the piece will be perceived. I like it very much. But the personal nature of it makes it difficult to pin down. Please come! I’d love to know what you think.

A brief synopsis – “Eighteen year old Amy was the best piano player at Festial High School. After her tragic death, her four best friends – the Festial Quartet – join their Christian youth leader, Tom, to prepare for her memorial. When Amy’s grieving mother asks Tom to save the Festial Quartet’s souls, their fragile psyches begin to crack, forcing one of them to reveal a secret she’s been harboring for two years – a secret that will change everyone’s perception of adolescence, adulthood, friendship and religion.”

The reading will be in the rehearsal hall at BRT on Monday night at 6:00. Get there by 5:00 if you want dinner. BRT has presented some very cool pieces in this series and I’m very pleased to be a part of it. The reading is directed by the terrific Nick Anselmo and performed by six actors that I’m very lucky to have – Jacob Merinar, Carl Roa, Laura Allan, Maria Konstantinidis, Janet Quartarone and Adam Rzepka. For more info, go here – http://www.brtstage.org/america-rising/festial-quartet/

 

NJPAC Stage Exchange kicks off next Thursday!

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

I’ll be at the Madison Public Library next Thursday night with Chisa Hutchison, Nikkole Salter, RN Sandberg and the folks from NJPAC and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance for a panel discussion called “Birth of a Play.” The discussion will take place at 39 Keep St. in Madison, NJ in the Community Room of the Library. It starts at 7:00 PM. See link below for more details. http://www.americantheatre.org/2016/03/18/new-jersey-performing-arts-center-launches-commissioning-program/

 

Rick Reynolds “Only the Truth is Funny”

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

There is finally a watchable copy of Rick Reynolds’ HBO special “Only the Truth is Funny” available on YouTube. The previous version had out-of-sync sound but this one is perfect.  I highly recommend it for fans of confessional comedy.

I’ve now performed “Panther Hollow” a half dozen times and it’s become very obvious to me that my three main inspirations for the piece are Lauren Weedman’s “Bust,” Mike Dugan’s “Men Fake Foreplay,” and this televised work from 1991. I know Lauren and Mike so I’ve had the opportunity to tell them how much I appreciate their work. But I’ve never met Rick. In fact, he seems to be off the grid at the moment, so I put this here with the hope that he’ll see it somehow.

Reynolds wasn’t the first to inject truth into comedy. Richard Pryor had been using stand-up to stare into the abyss for awhile by this point. But Reynolds’ breezy delivery and sheer honesty was different. He was a cynical bastard who believed in the power of love. He survived a childhood full of domestic abuse and still managed to discover a love for family. And more important than any of this, he was freaking hilarious. The show is a combination of autobiography and stand-up comedy. Reynold’s somehow manages the encapsulate the full experience of graduating from the pain and nostalgia of childhood to the awkward responsibility of adulthood.

Even now, I realize that the description I’ve written makes it all seem very Pollyannaesque and I supposed parts of it are. But there’s a sharp and, at times, bitter edge to Reynold’s humor that keeps it real and sincere.

Reynolds followed up this show with another called “All Grown Up With No Place to Go.” It was less satisfying, perhaps, but still just as funny and just as real. A sitcom based on his work (and co-starring Pam Dawber) didn’t catch fire. With the exception of something called “The Happiness Project” more than a decade ago, Rick seems to have retired from the public eye or, at the very least, from the internet. I hope he’s out there somewhere and I hope he knows that people still remember this remarkable piece of work. Many of us that saw it watched it over and over. I’m keenly aware that when I’m on stage performing “Panther Hollow,” that Rick’s mannerisms and vocal inflections sometimes find their way into my delivery.

Anyway, if you’ve never seen it, here it is. Some of it may seem familiar, particularly if you’ve paid attention to the work of people like Mike Birbiglia or Tig Notaro. But remember, this was 25 years ago. Before “The Moth,” and “This American Life,” and the current storytelling craze, Rick was there first.

 

The thing that happened right before I did PANTHER HOLLOW last night.

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

Al: Hey! Sorry I’m late. You ready to do the show?

Me: Yeah. Did you bring my new belt?

Al: I did. The one I got you for Christmas, right?

Me: Yeah. John thought I should wear jeans instead but the waist is a little big and my belt is too loose so I thought this one would be better. I don’t want to be on stage constantly pulling my pants.

Al: This one doesn’t have holes. It’s a new kind of belt or something.

Me: That why I thought it might work better.

Al: Put it on. Let’s see.

Me: Okay. How does it…I guess you just loop this through the buckle and pull it…Whoa! Okay. Too tight. I made it too tight.

Al: Loosen it a bit.

Me: How do you do that?

Al: I don’t know. Let me see. Do you just pull it through like this?

Me: OW! It’s tighter! You made it tighter. Ouch. Oh my God. I can hardly breathe.

Al: There must be a button or something that loosens it.

Me: I don’t see one.

Al: That’s ridiculous. It has to be there.

Me: Ow! Oh my God. The show starts in fifteen minutes.

Al: Are you just supposed to never take the belt off?

Me: THERE’S NO BUTTON TO LOOSEN THIS BELT!

Al: There has to be!

Me: WELL I WISH YOU COULD FIND IT!

Al: I left the instructions at home.

Me: It came with instructions???

Al: It’s a belt without holes! Of course it came with instructions!

Me: Why didn’t you bring them?

Al: I cut all the tags off! I thought I was being helpful!

Me: Okay. I’m going online to look up how to take off this belt.

Al: Good idea. Google “Mission Belt.”

Me: It’s called a Mission Belt?

Al: Yes.

Me: Typing “Mission Belt – How do I open it?”

Al: There! They have a website!

Me: “As seen on Shark Tank.” This belt is from Shark Tank???

Al: I don’t even want to tell you what I paid for it.

Me: Clicking on “How does the Mission Belt work.”

Al: Good. There’s an instructional video. Play it.

Me: I think it just punctured my liver. But I’m glad there’s an instructional video.

Al: Shhh! There! The video just showed how to open it.

Me: I missed it.

Al: There’s a trigger! There’s a trigger on the buckle!

Me: THERE IS NO TRIGGER ON THE…Wait. There’s a trigger on the buckle. Ugh! It won’t move. The buckle trigger won’t move!

Al: Maybe you’re doing it wrong.

Me: It’s a belt buckle trigger! How many ways can there be to do it? ??

Al: I’ll play the video again. Pay attention this time.

Me: I can’t feel my legs! See if you can find a knife or something. We’re going to have to just cut me out of it! I need the jaws of life or something!

Al: There! See! You just pull up the trigger.

Me: I TRIED PULLING UP THE TRIGGER BUT I CAN’T PULL IT UP BECAUSE IT WON’T wait I think I got it. Yep. I totally got it. The trigger works. You just have to pull the trigger.

Al: You okay now?

Me: Yeah.

Al: You gonna wear that belt?

Me: Well now that I know the trigger works, sure. I like it. Good belt.

Al: Cool. Break a leg. See you afterwards.

Me: Thanks. Love you.

Panther Hollow – This friday at Passage Theatre’s Solo Flights Festival!

by davidleewhite44, posted in Uncategorized

http://www.centraljersey.com/time_off/all-by-themselves-passage-theatre-is-bringing-back-its-solo/article_dd707876-dca9-11e5-a676-7b114748dc37.html

All By Themselves: Passage Theatre is bringing back its ‘Solo Flights Festival’ of one-performer shows

  • By Anthony Stoeckert

In the early 1990s, when he was in his mid 20s, living in Pittsburgh, David Lee White went through a severe, suicidal clinical depression. There was a lot going on in his life then, but looking back, he sees a particularly horrifying moment as key.

   ”I recalled having found a dead body in the woods of my house, which I know just sounds absurd and ridiculous, but it’s absolutely true,” Mr. White says. “It was a guy who hung himself, and I just saw his body hanging there while walking to work one morning.”

   There is a legend that says if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if a frog is placed in cool water that is slowly boiled, it won’t realize it, and will stay in the water to its death. Mr. White’s description of his depression sounds analogous. Looking back, he says that he now knows he already was depressed by the time he saw that body, but he didn’t fully understand what was happening to him at the time. The depression developed in a slow, tense way, he says, and seeing the dead body was a trigger moment.

   ”It was really that which led to me to finally seek help, and find a therapist, a psychiatrist, and talk about the fact that I was obsessively, constantly thinking about suicide,” Mr. White says. “And they helped me. The thing about mental illness is that mentally ill people are so fascinating, and the cure is just so boring.”

   Finding humor in the very serious topic of mental illness is the goal of Mr. White’s one-man play, Panther Hollow, which he will perform as part of Passage Theatre’s Solo Flights Festival, March 4, 12, and 18.

   Solo Flights will showcase one-performer plays, March 3 through March 17. It was an annual event for the Trenton-based theater company, but was retired a few years and is returnnig as part of Passage’s 30th anniversary year.

   ”We missed it, and I think the audiences did too. So we’re glad to be able to do it again,” says Mr. White, Passage’s associate artistic director.

   ”This year, we thought, ‘It’s our 30-year anniversary, Solo Flights was popular, let’s do it again,’” says June Ballinger, Passage’s artistic director. “And this year, David has a show that he’s written and performed, and I have a show that I’ve written performed, so that brings another whole element to it, that the artistic leaders of Passage are writers and performers are well.”

   Mr. White has been working on Panther Hollow for the past few years. When he started it, he wasn’t sure if it would be a memoir or performance piece, and it took form when he developed it at Passage’s play writing lab. He debuted the piece at the United Solo Festival in New York in November.

   ”I actually entered it before it was really finished,” Mr. White says. “They gave me a filler slot on 3:30 on a Wednesday on Veterans’ Day… but it went really well. I found a great director (John Augustine), and he really helped me shape it and craft it.”

   He since has performed it at Pittsburgh’s Arcade Comedy Theater and at Point Park College in Pittsburgh. Prior to that he did some private readings of it for friends.

   ”It’s such a personal piece that I had to do it enough times to where I didn’t have that adrenaline stomach ache when it was over,” Mr. White says. “It took me a while. I did a performance over at Rider college for some students before the first ‘real’ performance, and that was literally the first time that I didn’t want to throw up after it, so I thought, ‘Well OK, I’m ready.’”

   Ms. Ballinger will perform a work she has written. Remembrance Day, directed by Janice Goldberg, shares the memories of an 80-year-old British woman who was a code breaker as she attends a Remembrance Day service in England, similar to Memorial Day in the U.S.

   Remembrance Day is inspired by the story of Ms. Ballinger’s mother, who was a “Wren,” meaning a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service. She worked as a codebreaker for Britain during World War II, at Bletchley Park, the base for Britain’s codebreakers during the war. Among the people she worked with was Alan Turing, whose story was told in 2014 film, The Imitation Game. As amazing as her mother’s story was, Ms. Ballinger didn’t know much about it.

   ”She signed the Official Secrets Act, as they all did, and my mother, being a very good British woman, stuck by it,” Ms. Ballinger says. “And even when that information was declassified, and even when there were books about it and it was starting to come out, my mother always stayed mum about a lot of this.”

   Her mother did talk about life during the war, her personal life, how people lived day to day, but not about the work. Then after her mother died two years ago, Ms. Ballinger found her letters and diary.

   ”(They) weren’t about her work but mostly about her day-to-day, during her 20s… I went to Bletchley Park, I read a ton of stuff, and I created the narrative of a woman, like my mother, who had this value of self,” Ms. Ballinger says. “She was 21 and she had an important job. She was with these minds, these men — and some women — who were basically changing the tide of the war, and working with computers. My mother was very good at math, so she was selected to be on this team with (codebreaker) Max Newman, working on the Colossus machine, which was the successor to the Bombe, which is what Turing’s machine was.” After that, she came to America.

   ”It’s the story of a woman who had that incredible empowerment during the war, and then come the ‘50s,” Ms. Ballinger says. “The war ends and women are relegated back to the kitchen, no more working, it makes the men look bad, and that kind of implosion of self-esteem that women — who had that sense of value — suffered.”

   The play also explores stories of Ms. Ballinger’s mother’s personal life, fiancés who were killed in the war, and then her life in America. Ms. Ballinger says she kept the story on universal issues about women, and technology and science, while keeping it historically accurate.

   Solo Flights will begin with an adaptation of Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land by Joseph Edwards, March 3, 5, 6. Panther Hollow will be performed March 4 and 18, with a performance with limited seating scheduled for March 12. Remembrance Day will be performed March 10 and 20. Playwright and performer Leslie Ayvazian will read from her collection of stories, Mention My Beauty, March 11 and 19. Susan Stein will perform Etty, a show based on the writings of Etty Hillesum during the Holocaust, March 13 and 14. Alex Clothier, and improv performer and storyteller will perform Everything’s Finest, a story of what happened when Grandma was by a train, March 17.

Performances will be at the Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 E. Front St., Trenton. Tickets cost $25. For tickets and information, go to passagetheatre.org or call 60-392-0766.