Advice on forming a writer's group

I was talking to a playwright friend from Michigan.  She says make up  
a flyer that describes your ideal colleagues and what you want to work  
on, plus gives a contact number, and pin it up on the multitude of  
bulletin boards and kiosks at the University-- and in libraries.  Also  
post the call on Craig's List.  You'll have an abundance of applicants  
from which to pick the most compatible.
We just formed a group via a PS paragraph in the suburb's weekly.   
This is in addition to the Oldest Established large group I've been in  
for 30 years, that only critiques actor-read completed pieces and has  
a long waiting list for its public readings/feedback.  The informal  
new group is small enough to respond to ideas and fragments as they  
emerge, and can save months of work on an unpromising direction.

Photos from Martha Mitchell in NYC

Wonderful final matinee!  A final party with friends, and then back to Boston on the bus.....

Joan Faber, June Lewin, and Geralyn Horton after rehearsal in the Graycliff Music Room, then on to NYC!

You won't believe the stories I've got to tell you! -- Martha

testimonial for Martha

Just saw Geralyn Horton in the one-woman show MARTHA MITCHELL - IN MOSTLY
HER OWN WORDS by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro (who is a member, just not a
lister). Geralyn was, as expected, radiant. A delight. I didn't know she
could sing too. Beautiful voice soared in the baptistry stage space of the
86th Street Theatre. I wouldn't change a word of the 50-minute show. Pretty
darn good-sized audience too (not easy to get on a beautiful spring
afternoon in NYC).   

- Robin

Didactic theatre -- arguing pro vs general con

I know there is no support-- the past is inscrutable.  But I don't think religion/ritual/education/propaganda/language/music/storytelling can be separated out.  Groups develop ways of being together within an environment that (sort of) works.  The "imitation of an action" that elicits a pattern of shared feeling builds and maintains the structure that every child must grow to fit into if the group is to survive.   I remember seeing a PBS show on a dying tribe.  They needed about  15 specialists in addition to the 60-70 hunters fishers and gathers to make a go of their island.  They have songs and dances about their work and play, and as you say the kids work alongside their parents and learn from them. But the youth are no longer willing to be, say, the trap maker's apprentice just because the tribe has to have one to survive on the island.  The kids have heard stories of the city, and they want to go experience those more exciting roles....  So in a few years they will all have to leave-- or die.

Is a seder didactic?  It is ritual and lesson and religion and history and a play within which the players and audience are the same.....

Info re: Martha in NYC

This sent out by June  April 14th

We are bringing the Boston production of MARTHA MITCHELL by Rosanna Alfaro to New York next weekend!  This is NOT the most recent version of MM's story (written by someone else and produced, with Annette Miller, at Shakespeare & CO. last summer).  This is a one-woman play with music, featuring Geralyn Horton (I directed), which we originally produced in Boston & took to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1989!  We took it out of mothballs a couple of years ago when it was clear the wire-tapping and other excesses of the Watergate years were being re-played, and we've been going strong ever since. We'll appear for 2 performances under the umbrella of Six Figures Theatre Company, in their Artists of Tomorrow Festival.  Sat. 4/19 at 8 pm and Sun. 4/20 at 3 pm at the West End Theatre, 263 West 86th St. 
I'd be grateful if you'd circulate this to the Bostonians-in-NY gang, who might be willing to come and support a few old friends & colleagues.  Also, this company seems like a lively group, and it might be a good contact.
Hope you're doing well; haven't been in touch in some time.  Theatre in Boston is alive and very well just now. I went to the IRNEs last night and was excited at how vibrant and diverse the quality of the work is.  The Cyclorama, which as you know is huge, was packed, and clearly there was a lot to celebrate!!!

2008 Future Fest -- NYC

April 13th announcement:

I will be performing Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro's solo musical "Martha Mitchell" as the opening show in the Artists of Tomorrow 2008 FutureFest series presented by Six Figures Theatre Co.  at the West End Theatre, 263 West 86th Street NYC at 8 pm on Saturday April 19th and 3 pm  Sunday April 20th.  Martha's director, June Lewin, musical director/pianist Joan Faber, and Stage Mgr/Tech director Jeff Brewer are taking the bus to the Big Apple too.  If anyone  has friends in NYC they can recommend it to, we'd be grateful.  I know it's an honor to be invited, but it'd also be nice to have an audience!

Here's the Six Figures web site     

The Smarttix  blurb for the NYC "Martha"   

Martha Mitchell Musical's own web site  is  

I also have a little Podcast re: the NYC gig at   G.L.Horton's Stage Page Pod Cast

REPLY to email:  Dear Geralyn I wish I knew someone in NYC, but I don't. However I wish you the very best and wish you could do it here in Boston. Martha was a very funny, exciting, bright, independent and out spoken women and I'm sorry to say women of a younger age probably don't know who she is or realize her connection in part to the downfall of the second Nixon White House via the Watergate Connection and her charming husband Attorney General, John Mitchell.  If I remember correctly still a little mystery surrounding her passing. Break a leg Kid. Have fun I know you'll knock em dead. They could not have a better opening. I send prayers for a full house. Blessings Peg H