WORDPLAY: A NEW SPIN ON STORYTELLING

ALAN OLIFSON Creator and Co-producer

BRICOLAGE STAFF JEFFREY CARPENTER Artistic Director

KRISTIN HELFRICH Production & Facilities Manager

TAMI DIXON Producing Artistic Director

GEORGE MOURA Development Associate

JACKIE BAKER General Manager

EMILY WILLSON Marketing & PR Manager

MICHAEL YOUNG, Production Fellow

CHELSEA THOKAR, Marketing Fellow

BRICOLAGE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Henry Snyder, President Maher S. Hoque, Vice-President Chuck Adreon, Treasurer Bryan DeCecco, Secretary

Dina Clark Abby Goldstein Michelle Hoang Ann Lapidus

Anthony Mologne Brian Pietrandrea Locke Roberts Rod Schwartz

SPONSORED BY:

TELL YOUR STORY AT WORDPLAY! SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: WordPlay stories don’t have a specific theme, but a good WordPlay story is: • True and about you • 1,500 to 2,000 words • A story! Meaning it has a beginning, middle, & end • We love funny & poignant, but steer clear of maudlin & overly sentimental We are always accepting stories! Submit yours to [email protected]. We read all submissions and look forward to reading yours! Performers are paid a $100 stipend for 1 rehearsal and 2 performances.

The stories you’re about to hear are true. The music has probably been embellished a little.

STORYTELLERS: BRIAN BROOME

Brian Broome is a Creative Writing major at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been published in the Ocean State Review, Equal Magazine and Creative Nonfiction. He is a one-time Moth winner and is currently working on a book. Most of his performances have taken place on bar stools throughout Allegheny County.

GINNY CUNNINGHAM

Ginny Cunningham is at home in Pittsburgh—first and last, if not always in between. After raising the kids to be self-sustaining, she ran away to the Big Apple just because. When she realized what she’d done, she fled for a PR job for nuns who serve inside and outside the U.S. in backwater places that normal people avoid. In Jamaica, she climbed the falls at Ochos Rios. (She got the t-shirt!) In Pittsburgh, she was a founding member of the Playwrights’ Lab at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. She wrote lots of plays, some of which were produced. She writes other peoples’ memoirs, and her features and opinion essays (lots of opinions) have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers. She was last onstage in sixth grade. She didn’t save the reviews.

SHAWN P. O’BRIEN

Shawn P. O’Brien has been a CPA since 1991 and a volunteer firefighter since 1994 when he moved to Town of McCandless. His storytelling experience has generally involved a bar stool and a tipsy yet uninterested audience. His previous stage experience includes (and is limited to) his 5th grade play, A Year Without Santa Claus. After his audition for the lead, Santa Claus, was emphatically rejected by the teacher, he was awarded the 2-speaking-lines, off-stage, non-visible role of “Radio Announcer.”

ALAN OLIFSON

Alan Olifson, a Los Angeles native, has made Pittsburgh his new home and still revels in the freedom to put fries on his salad. Alan is an award-winning humor columnist, public radio commentator, comedian and regular host of Pittsburgh’s monthly Moth StorySLAMs. His collection of essays, Manchild: My Life Without Adult Supervision, will be coming out this summer from Six Gallery Press, providing you a great way to block the sun while napping outside. Online, he blogs at themanchild.net. At home, he is mostly told to give it a rest.

ROB RAYSHICH

Rob Rayshich, contrary to popular opinion, was not raised by feral polecats, but by two very nice parents in the very small town of East Rochester, Pennsylvania (Population 900). He eventually moved to Pittsburgh, went to art school, played in rock and roll bands, and met his impossibly lovely and talented wife, Lila. They soon produced, as if by magic, two lovely and talented children, Fred and Max. “Right now I’m working on a graphic novel about two space-traveling mollusks,” said Rayshich in a recent interview. “And the whole family is working to rebuild my home recording studio which was destroyed by a combination of faulty plumbing and abominable cats.” He currently works for Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. “But, I’ve had all kinds of jobs,” said Rayshich ominously. ”So many memories.”

ASL INTERPRETER: HEATHER GRAY

Heather Gray is a certified American Sign Language interpreter (when she is not playing the role of aspiring writer, photographer, and actor). Favorite jobs include interpreting for Kevin Smith (who tweeted about “Silent Heather” after the show) and interpreting as “The Phantom” in the recent touring production of The Phantom of the Opera. Heather has been a finalist in the Steeltown Film Factory screenplay competition. She is a former homecoming queen at the University of Pittsburgh and has been awarded Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards by the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. Heather’s photography has hung at the Carnegie Library in Oakland and has been seen in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh City Paper, and Fangoria Magazine.

DJ: TRACKSPLOITATION

Tracksploitation is a music duo made up of Professor ASAP and Jct45. They specialize in live mashes and mixes using all kinds of space aged equipment but keep it old school with classic turntablism. Tracksploitations style is like the Jeet Kun Do of the music world. During any given mix you might hear Johnny Cash mixed with Justice with a little Outkast. They take all styles and genres and blend them smoothly, doing this live every time. Their process is to get a feel off of the room/venue and do a mix that fits that place at that moment in space. So if you see Tracksploitation three times in a week, that’s three completely different mixes/vibes.

Be a part of Midnight Radio!

We’re seeking submissions of 15-minute radio plays for Midnight Radio holiday variety hour. We’re accepting scripts from now until September 1.

For the full details visit: bit.ly/MDRsubmit

www.pghintheround.com

Your comprehensive guide to Piisburgh’s theater community

Your source for: Directories Reviews Event Calendar

Features

Arrst Spotlights

www.pghintheround.com