James Lapine is working. He looks as relaxed as any other summer resident, bicycling around Edgartown in shorts and T-shirt, but this is no vacation for the Pulitzer, Tony and Peabody award-winning dramatist, theatre director and filmmaker.
Four years ago, Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews traveled to Martha’s Vineyard to participate in Vineyard Arts Project’s first annual New Writers New Plays festival.
James Lapine's new play Act One, incubated at the Vineyard Arts Project, was recently nominated for five Tony awards including Best Play. Tony Shalhoub was nominated for Best Actor.
Logan Settle, 8, and Damian Hudson, 23, had a bet. If Damian won, Logan would have to fix him a hot dog with mustard. If Logan won, Damian had to bring Logan a Golden Oreo cookie.
The two stepped into a pair of sacks and hopped off on the lawn of 215 Upper Main street in Edgartown. Damian won, and was promptly challenged to a rematch. He agreed but first he needed to finish the hot dog.
You’ve almost certainly seen the shingled building, sitting obvious yet unobtrusive between the dentist and the hair salon on Upper Main street in Edgartown. Perhaps you have heard the skinny: that it’s a dance studio built by a fabulously wealthy man so his daughter, an aspiring ballerina, would have a place to take private lessons for two weeks every summer. According to this tale, the hotel-sized building sits empty the other 50 weeks of the year, and the daughter gave up dancing to study political science anyway.
B allerinas dance with their feet, balancing on pointe shoes with their limbs elongated to expose the intricate workings of muscles, or leaping across stage, leaving only a slight noise on the floor. But this week at the Vineyard Arts Project, they were dancing with their hands. Wrists became entangled, thumbs circled other digits, and knuckles discovered unexplored crevices.
The folks responsible for the musical Witness Uganda were seated in a circle of folding chairs in a large mirrored Vineyard Arts Project studio Tuesday afternoon, taking a needed break from their rehearsal schedule to talk about the origins of their project. Writer and director team Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews offered tales of their travels to Africa, shared stories of the Ugandan university students around whom the script is based, and introduced two of their star actors, Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson.
Three plays in development will debut with pay-what-you-can performances this weekend at the Vineyard Arts Project in Edgartown. Each play runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday, in a rotating schedule so viewers can see three different plays in one day, or one each day, or any other combination.
Since August 16 six newly graduated acting students from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London along with playwrights David Simpatico and Saviana Stanescu, and director, Nona Sheppard, have been in residence at the Vineyard Arts Project, located at 215 Upper Main street in Edgartown. The company has been working on a selection of new plays and on Friday, August 26, and Sunday, August 28, both shows at 6 p.m., the results of their residency will be on display.
Artists communicate in different forms. But whether the message is through visual or performing art, it always comes back to the essence of the human experience.
Two groups have been in residence for the past two weeks at the Vineyard Arts Project, working to highlight both the dark and exhilarating sides of the human experience. This weekend they go public with their work.
