Cassandra Lewis

I’m honored to have my short play, Terror Act, presented by The Rasaka Theatre Company as part of Remy Bumppo’s thinkTank Project at The Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater in Chicago from March 6 - 30.

In Terror Act, an actor on his way to receive an award is detained in an airport basement and interrogated about his role in a film that questions detainment practices at Guantánamo.

Terror Act is a fictional play that was inspired by a true story covered by the BBC in 2006. Four actors and two others were detained in a London airport while returning from an award ceremony in Berlin. During the interrogation, one of the actors was asked if he intended to make anymore “political” films.

The play explores the belief systems of two opposing characters: Agent O, who tries to hold onto her ideals about justice as she interrogates Louis, a young actor struggling with the collision of art and politics.

Here is promotional information from Remy Bumppo:

Are your rights being covered or smothered?

Remy Bumppo’s thinkTank presents inSecurity Blanket: National Security vs. Individual Freedom

March 6 – 30 at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago

photo by Sara Levinson

This postcard was created by artist Lindsay Moore. Please note Dustin Charles replaced John Dalmon and Sean Boat was the set designer.

I want to thank all of my friends and family for making last weekend the best time of my life. My play, Marked, a dark comedy that explores the connection between love, insanity, and social responsibility, made its world premiere at The American Theatre of Actors in the Chernuchin Theatre, a 140-seater in midtown Manhattan, on Saturday, February 16th.

It was an honor to participate in the Strawberry One-Act Festival. The festival is a competition where the audience votes for the best play and the plays with the most votes receive additional performances. Thanks to my brilliant actors and director, Marked made it to the finals!

Marked was one of the final six and received four performances. While we just learned that the play was not chosen to perform at the Award Ceremony today and will not be awarded the grand prize, I am ecstatic that we made it this far and I am very proud that Vanessa has been nominated for Best Director and Suzan has been nominated for Best Actress.

I am eternally grateful to my remarkably talented actors, Suzan and Dustin, and to Vanessa, for her impeccable instincts and creative guidance. I have never experienced such elation as I felt while witnessing their work. They truly brought the play to life in ways I never imagined possible.

On top of this excitement I got to see my wonderful family and friends and revel in the nostalgic bliss of being back in New York.

My play, American Family was produced as part of Sheherezade, a ten-minute play festival presented by Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco.

Over eight years, Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco has staged an annual festival, Sheherezade, named after the Arabian Nights storyteller who stalled her execution by telling 1,001 stories to her new husband, who had the habit of murdering his wives after the honeymoon.

Sheherezade VIII was performed at The EXIT Theatre in San Francisco on February 7,8,9. It was directed by Erin Blackwell and Soumyaa Kapil. I was amazed by the remarkable caliber of actors, not to mention the originality and high quality of the other plays.

I have had the honor of having my work presented in this festival for three consecutive years. With the theme year in review, the plays are always very imaginative and different.

In my play, American Family, public school teacher Ouida People shows up at the home of Mr. Senate and Mrs. House to confront the negligent parents about their troubled sons, and after attempting to reason with the family she decides to conduct a citizen’s arrest during which George is dragged off stage.

Thank you to Drew, my friends, and family for all of your support and to Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco for this wonderful opportunity.

This weekend I participated in a very inspiring playwriting workshop called, “Writing the Other.” The class was taught by Betty Shamieh at Magic Theatre. She is a world-renowned writer born to Palestinian parents in San Francisco. This three-day workshop was offered for free as part of her residence at Magic Theatre as an NEA/TCG playwriting fellow.

On the first day, she told us, “What we’re going to write about in the next three days are the things that people die for.”

Identity is at the core of each person’s outlook and at the root of beliefs by which people make every decision. Identity is personal and also tied to community or other groups that share a similar concept of self. Betty Shamieh guided us through many writing exercises where we explored our own concepts of identity and our perceptions of how others not in those groups perceive us - and from a complex and sympathetic angle.

I have always been intrigued with the arguments about what a writer has a right to portray. For instance, when Kate Braverman, a writer I very much admire, visited our MFA writing program at New College in 2005, some of my classmates expressed their feelings of outrage at Braverman’s portrayal of Frida Kahlo in her novel The Incantation of Frida K.. It was an imaginary or fictional portrayal, but the outrage was directed at the idea of a white woman writing from the perspective of someone who wasn’t. This remains a controversial issue within literary circles.

Who has the right to write from any perspective? And who makes this decision?

This weekend I gathered from Betty Shamieh’s thought-provoking course that it’s the writer who makes this decision. The point of the writing exercises was to free ourselves from these conventions, to lose the inhibitions that lock us into writing from the same old perspectives.

Today, our third and last day of class, Betty Shamieh said, “We can’t really control how the world perceives us, but we can choose how we identify with ourselves.”

If you haven’t had the honor of seeing her play, Territories at Magic Theatre, I strongly recommend you book tickets immediately. It is one of the best plays I have seen in San Francisco since I moved here four years ago. It’s nothing less than brilliant.

Territories is a historic thriller set during the Crusades. A French knight captures the sister (whose name was never recorded in any historical document) of sultan Saladdin. The experimental form was inspired by Cubist paintings and the story seamlessly explores the collision of two cultures and questions the place of women during war.

Charles Dickens said, “This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.”

I’ve taken his words to heart over the past two weeks. Instead of feeling sorry for myself because an unnameable publishing company recently passed on me for the career opportunity of a lifetime after stringing me along for two months (though I’m still in the running for another job with them), I’ve been sublimating my frustration into my writing and more enjoyably, into attending theatrical performances (which inspire my writing and therefore, can be written off in my taxes).

Last weekend, I saw Todd LeJeune’s “Don’t Let Go of The Potato,” a remarkable monologue or one-man-show, about Todd LeJeune’s coming of age experience in Louisiana. He’s a great writer and performer and I was impressed with how he made light of tragic events, never once portraying himself as a victim. I highly recommend seeing his quite moving and funny performance. It’s at the Marsh for one more week.

As if that wasn’t reinvigorating enough, Thursday, we saw four one-acts at The Eureka Theater. Three Wise Monkeys produce a festival of one-acts called The Bay One-Acts (BOA) Festival. It’s always one of the theatrical highlights of my year. I can’t afford to go to more than one program each year (this year there were three and I had the honor of going to the third. Next year I hope to purchase a season pass).

The lineup for that night was: “Fourth and Goal,” by Scott McMorrow, “Sweet Jesus,” by Nathan Sanders, “Real/Not Real,” by Patricia Milton, and “Vial,” by Nicholas Turner. Scott McMorrow always writes very inventive, unpredictable stories that transport you to places you’ve never imagined. “Sweet Jesus,” was so funny I almost had an asthma attack. It’s about a Southern woman who believes Jesus appeared to her in a pecan pie. “The Vial,” was a clever mystery and ended the evening with bang.

“Real/Not Real,” changed my life. Patricia Milton is one of my heroes. There’s so much I have to learn about writing and I remember this every time I witness her work. “Real/Not Real,” was about a writer who reads her obituary in The New York Times and when she confronts the paper about it, she discovers it’s no mistake. It’s a political response from the government about her book. It had the perfect balance of humor with poignant political analysis.

To cap off my theatrical adventures, Drew and I went to the Saturday night performance by Beach Blanket Babylon. All I can say is there’s a reason they’ve had sold out shows for 30 years. The cast is very talented and the costumes are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Seriously. The cabaret act is updated regularly to include jokes and riffs that refer to current events. Beach Blanket Babylon is a San Francisco landmark and the longest running musical act in American history.

Now that the shows are over, the show must go on.