TheDNA New Work Series
PICTURE A MODEL OF DNA, the spiral staircase double helix—a ladder—a building block. It’s all about matched pairs. And so it goes with great theatre; Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and his team at La Jolla Playhouse are providing a ladder to the big time for brand new plays. The DNA New Work Series is like winning the lottery. Over the course of four weeks a select few playwrights get paired with a director and cast. Then the first reading of their play is done in front of a live San Diego audience. Ashley notes, “We are allowing playwrights and
directors the opportunity to really develop a script and see how it works on the stage and how it works in front of an audience. All projects in the DNA New Work Series take place with little or no scenic, costume or staging elements. It’s a rare chance for theatre-lovers to be a part of a new work in its earliest stages of development.” If you saw last year’s DNA Series, then you might
share in Ashley’s delight, “Two of the projects have come into our main stage subscription season as
18 RAGE monthly | FEBRUARY 2014
THE SCIENCE BEHIND GREAT THEATRE
Returns to La Jolla Playhouse by lisa lipsey
full-fledged productions. The first beingThe Who and The What; one year later and it’s in rehearsals for its world-premiere production. We held a reading every three months as it was being re-written, I’ve enjoyed watching it grow and change.” The second knockout success was directed by
Ashley and is entitled Chasing the Song. Written by the creators ofMemphis, it will lead off the upcoming 2014-2015 season as a “page to stage” production. “Last year’s playwrights all learned and grew from the experience, it was a chance to hear their play for the first time. That is incredibly useful, it’s a driver to stick it out and do the rewrite work. And for the audience, every night of the DNA Series is brand new; a brand new voice, a new group of actors, a peek behind the curtain,” says Ashley. “The audience talkbacks were thrilling conversations, our audiences were vocal, articulate and respectful. No one tried to fix the play, but they would say, ‘This is what I loved’ or ‘Here is where I got confused.’” Some things have changed now that La Jolla
A reading presentation for La Jolla Play- house’s DNA New Work Series, running
February 17 through March 2 in the Rao and Padma Makineni Play Development Center; photo by J. Katarzyna Woronowicz.
Playhouse has year one of the DNA Series under its belt. Ashley notes, “It is different and the same; we are doing one, not two workshop readings. We are giving the cast two days, not one, of rehearsing before the night readings, it was just too rushed to rehearse and go. We expanded the readings to six, now we can rehearse, talk, sleep on it and come back. Another one of the things we loved from last year was the show we did for young audiences, The Boy on the Edge of Everything. We are doing a show again this year called The Smartest Girl in the World. We also learned from ourWith Out Walls (WOW!) Festival, we put together a project calledWe Built This City. It was a successful multi-generational piece for families in partnership with the New Children’s Museum. One of our priorities is to create an open door for families at the playhouse.” Interestingly, you never know who might get a
script to Ashley. Michael Benjamin Washington, one of the actors from the La Jolla Playhouse musical Memphis, made mentioned over a cast dinner, that he
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