The Spiral Theatre Studio Summer Workshop

Artistic Director Paula J Riley will be offering an 8-week summer workshop for writers, directors, and actors at Manhattan's most innovative studio from May 26th through June 18th. Five writers and five directors will choose their cast from 15 actors for a 30-minute one-act play. Costs: Actors $500.00, Writers and Directors $600.00. For more information, please contact Paula directly at paula@pjrileystudios.com. 

Spiral Stage inches closer to reality

Spiral Stage modular units

The carpeted (Thanks, Mohawk!) modular units that embody The Spiral Theatre Studio are completed and waiting shipment from Nashville to NYC for the theatre's first production, Ted Swindley's Stories My Grandmother Told Me (Opening 9/27). Built in Nashville by David Allds and Steve Alberts, the signature components of the Spiral Stage may be the most eco-friendly of its kind, going as far as using wood cut from a sawmill powered by a... horse (see video below).

Spiral Theatre Studio 

242 W. 36th Street 

NYC 

Paula J. Riley 

Artistic Director

Jaz Dorsey

Managing Director

Dramaturge

GONNE/YEATS - A Literary Cabaret 6/15 (NYC)

Please click image to enlarge.

GONNE - BUT NOT FORGOTTEN 

It's been a while since I had a play produced, so I am naturally excited by the NYC premiere of GONNE/YEATS - a literary cabaret which is a collaboration between myself and St. Louis playwright Dennis Corcoran. 

The purpose of GONNE/YEATS is to introduce the world to Maud Gonne. 

Maud is known as the St. Joan of Ireland, though for our purposes here in the US, it might be more effective to align her with Angela Davis. 

GONNE/YEATS explores Maud through the eyes of Irish poet W. B. Yeats (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923), who is said to have written over 800 poems either to or about her - not to mention proposing to her five times over their life times - and eventually getting so frustrated that he proposed to her daughter! 

A story worthy of a Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracey movie, and there is a movie to be made here. 

Our cast features JR Robinson and Maryanna Principe as Mr. Yeats and Ms. Gonne. Thanks to my collaborator's knowledge of Irish music, we are weaving in a bit of music, which will be performed by Vocalist Jessica Kaufman and Violinist Amelia Meena. 

Spiral Theatre Studio's Artistic Director, Paula J. Riley, will bring a narrative voice to the cabaret in the persona of Countess Constance Markievicz, Maud's great ally in the women's voice for Irish Independence.

GONNE/YEATS fuses the poetry of Yeats with the writings of Gonne. 

For details and to make a reservation, go to www.metropolitanroom.com and search the calendar for Saturday, June 15 at 4:00 pm. 

BTW - June 13 is Mr. Yeats' 148th birthday, so this is a bit of a birthday party as well! 

Jaz Dorsey 

Dramaturge/Managing Director 

The Spiral Theatre Studio 

www.thespiraltheatrestudio.com

STAGE FRIGHT gets a second show on Halloween (NYC)

Please click to enlarge.

The Spiral Theatre Studio production of STAGEFRIGHT has been invited to present at The Theatre For The New City in NYC on Halloween. Based on a concept by Jaz Dorsey, directed by Paula J. Riley and starring Arlene Love, Molly McGivern and Mr. Jesse May as Edgar Allan Poe. Catch a sneak preview at The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, at noon on October 15. Seating for October 15 is limited. Reservations are required and may be made at paula@pjrileystudio.com 

AAPEX "White Rabbit" Award for Theatrical Design goes to Paula J. Riley and Coni Koepfinger

The Spiral Stage

is a synthesis of the free organic and the structured geometric.

To see more examples of how the stage can be rearranged,

please scroll down.

Please click images to enlarge.

If you are young and looking to embark on a career in the theatre, then this is what I wish for you - that you should have a mentor as awesome as the one the universe sent me almost 40 years ago, a remarkable theatrical designer named Richard Thomas Pike.

Rick was the white rabbit who enticed me down the rabbit hole of the American theatre.

As I enter my latter years and look back over my accomplishments, I realize that the true secret of my success really lies in one place, and that is my mentor's wisdom - and now that I have lived long enough to understand that, it is my duty to pass it on. As with all brilliance, it mystifies into a single premise. Unfortunately it's my trade secret, so I can't share it with you.

Another artist who is on this journey is NYC based Paula J. Riley, artistic director of The Spiral Theatre, whose mission lies in the teachings and art of her mentor, Iza Itkin. Paula wants Iza and her work to be not only remembered but engaged and utilized by the theatre of the future and I don't blame her: from the moment I saw the idea for a stage that is at the core of the spiral, I wanted one for myself, and there are very few things any more that I actually want to possess.

In the best theatre, it is the set designer who is our white rabbit, careening us into the world of the play. Paula J. Riley knows that and I 'spect she learned to know that from Itkin. Therefore it is my pleasure to recognize Paula and Iza and Paula's partner, Coni Koepfinger, with the first AAPEX "White Rabbit" Award for Theatrical Design.

Jaz Dorsey,

AAPEX Founder and Dramaturg

To learn more, please click the post's title.