AdA: Author Directing Author
Written and Directed by:
Neil LaBute | Marco Calvani | Marta Buchaca
Theater | US Premiere
Co-production by: La MaMa E.T.C, Grec 2016 Festival de Barcelona,
Mixó Italy, & Sala Beckett/Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia
In collaboration with Umanism LLC New York and 369 gradi Rome
Run Time: 95mins
Three authors. Three plays. Three directors. One show.
Featuring:
| GABBY BEANS | MARGARET COLIN | GIA CROVATIN | DALIA DAVI | RICHARD KIND | VICTOR SLEZAK |
Following the success of the first two editions of AdA – Author directing Author – which resulted from a collaboration between the American and Italian writers/directors Neil LaBute and Marco Calvani culminating in the presentation of international premieres of four new plays performed in three different languages, the Spanish writer and director Marta Buchaca joins AdA for the third edition of the project. After HOME and DESIRE, this third edition of AdA revolves around one theme: POWER. Each playwright wrote a one-act play that one of the other writers directs. These three US premieres will be performed together in a single show.
“I don’t know what I can save you from”
By Neil LaBute
Directed by Marco Calvani
with Richard Kind & Gia Crovatin
An estranged father and daughter meet to negotiate a new relationship between themselves. Old wounds surface and new ones appear as they grapple with the past, present and future of the bond they have. In the end, there will be a price to be paid for continuing on as parent and child.
“After the Dark”
By Marco Calvani
Translated by Allison Eikerenkoetter
Directed by Marta Buchaca
with Margaret Colin & Gabby Beans
A designer is on a business trip with her young and negligent assistant. Late in their hotel after a night of drinking, the boss, eager to boost her company sales, and her underling, who has other plans for the evening, play a cruel game that reveals their own fragilities and true intentions in the wee hours before sunrise.
“Summit”
By Marta Buchaca
Translated by H.J. Gardner
Directed by Neil LaBute
with Victor Slezak & Dalia Davi
After a decade in office, a male city mayor is defeated by the female candidate of the left-wing party. A conservative who can’t bear the idea of a woman from the left-wing taking over his seat, the outgoing mayor is in no hurry to leave, even on the day when his successor arrives to assume power, eventually revealing an ace up his sleeve.
NEIL LABUTE
(New York, USA)
Playwright, director and screenwriter, he studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU) where he met the actor Aaron Eckhart who, in the succeeding years, played the leading role in several of LaBute’s films. He received a diploma in Cinema and Theater from the University of Kansas. In 1993, he returned to Brigham Young University to present his play In the Society of Men, an acid portrayal of businessmen as ruthless social climbers and misogynists which, in 1997, he later adapted as his first film. In 1998, he directed his second feature film Your Friends and Neighbors starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Stiller. In 1999 he had his Off-Broadway debut with Bash: Latter-Day Plays. In 2000, he directed Nurse Betty which won the Palme d’Or for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Festival. His 2002 play, The Mercy Seat, with Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, was the first major theatrical response to the attacks on September 11, 2001. In 2002, he also directed the film Possession with Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart. In 2006 he directed two films: The Wicker Man, with Nicolas Cage, and a filmed adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff. His most recent films are Lakeview Terrace (2008), Death at a Funeral (2010), Some Velvet Morning (2013) and Dirty Weekend (2015). For the theater, he has written, among others plays: The shape of things (2001), Fat pig (2004), In a Dark Dark House (2007), Reasons to Be Pretty (2008), Some White Chick (2009), The Furies (2009), Reasons to Be Happy (2013), The way we get by (2015). He is currently working on a film adaptation of Crooked House by Agatha Christie.
MARCO CALVANI
(Rome, Italy)
He made his debut as an actor before switching to playwrighting and directing. Strong Hands was his first play to be performed to great acclaim throughout Europe. Commissions from the Todi Art Festival, the Phoenix Theatre of London, Teatro di Roma, the Théâtre de la Ville of Paris and the Grec Fundaciò of Barcelona followed. Other plays include: Oil (Teatro India, Roma; Robert Moss Theater, NY), The city beneath (La MaMa Theatre, NY; Ubud Festival, Indonesia;
Sala Beckett, Barcelone), Penelope in Groznyj (Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin; Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Teatro Vascello, Rome), Nails (Fringe Festival Madrid; Galleria Toledo, Naples), I am Dracula (Teatro Fabbricone, Prato) and Stockholm by Bryony Lavery which he translated into Italian (Teatro Belli, Rome). He is the founder and artistic director of Mixò, an international cultural center that brings together young actors and writers and promotes original works for stage. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Playwrights/Directors Unit at the Actors Studio. Currently he is collaborating in the position of Literary Advisor to the National Theatre of Scotland. He is the winner of the 2011 SIAE Prize for Best Playwright, of the 2013 Outstanding Playwright for his play Oil (Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards) and of the 2015 Calcante Prize for his play The Second Time. He’s also the recipient of the 2011 Cité Internationale des Arts Grant (Paris) and of the 2015 Writer Fellowship at the Edward F. Albee Foundation. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
MARTA BUCHACA
(Barcelone, Spain)
A graduate in humanities from the UAB. She trained as a dramatist at the Centre d’Études Théâtrales in Louvain-la-Neuve (Bèlgica) and at the Obrador de la Sala Beckett. She is the author of L’olor sota la pell (V Joaquim Bartrina Prize; Sala Beckett, 2007), Emergència (runner-up for the III Fundació Romea Prize for theatrical texts), En conserva, Plastilina (XXXV Ciutat d’Alcoi Theatre Prize, second place in the Marqués de Bradomín Prize 2007 and runner-up for the Max Prizes 2010; Sala Beckett, 2009), Les nenes no haurien de jugar a futbol (Festival Grec and Versus Teatre, 2010; with productions in Croatia, Mexico, Cyprus and Greece), A mi no em diguis amor (TNC, 2010), L’any que ve serà millor, written with Carol López, Mercè Sarrias and Victoria Szpunberg (La Villarroel and Teatro Bellas Artes de Madrid, 2011-2012; winner of the Max Prize 2013 for the Best Author in Catalan), Litus (SALAFlyhard/Teatre Lliure. Nominated for the Butaca Prizes for the best small-format show) and Losers (La Villarroel, 2014). She combines her theatre work with scriptwriting for television.
“With the country soon to be in the throes of inauguration celebrations — and protests — a story with the female candidate actually winning takes the stage at La MaMa. In “Summit,” by the Spanish playwright Marta Buchaca, a liberal woman defeats a sitting mayor, a conservative man, who tries to resist the takeover.”
~ The New York Times
“Both playwrights are known for their pitch-black views of human nature, [which] seemed to promise a Halloween-worthy orgy of creepy misanthropy. The entertaining results of this union turn out to be more delicate and complex.”
~ Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“A must-see.”
~ Nick Russell, TheaterMania
“Calvani’s thorny, elliptical work introduces an exciting new voice with a reverence for the 20th-century masters. […] As directors Calvani and LaBute are finely attuned to each other’s verbal rhythms and their characters’ buried animosities.”
~ Diane Snyder, Time Out