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NETWORK
By Lee Hall
Based on the film by
Paddy Chayefsky
Directed by
Ashley Kelly Tata
Scenic: Afsoon Pajoufar
Lighting & Video:
SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal
Audio: Aubrey Dube
Costume: Nancy Leary
Props: David Allen Prescott
Stage Manager: Vanessa C. Hart*
Assistant Director: Joe Juknievich
SEPTEMBER 27-NOVEMBER 3
The Fall
2024
Dear Every Body,
Welcome to our fall. I just returned from the land of the Trans-cendentalists, Concord, MA, where I have been totally immersed in the making of Network.
Big thanks to the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts where I spent somewhere between 30-40 hours going through the Paddy Chayefsky papers. Join me in showing your library love here.
I am thrilled that this project allowed me to continue collaborations with Afsoon Pajoufar who designed a brilliant playground/gladiator arena/newsroom studio for us to play in; Vanessa C. Hart with whom I first was in a room they stage managed in February of 2020 before everyone went home and Vanessa invented how to manage the stages of Mad Forest; and Tom “no-notes” Giordano who I met in grad school and who was in my thesis production of Brecht’s Good Person of Szechwan.
This production introduced me to an incredible group of new collaborators from the Boston area: very fine actors, designers, technicians and makers who leaned in to the challenge of making this work with curiosity, excitement, seriousness and a lot of joy, despite the nature of the material. My overwrought director’s note can be found in a section at the bottom of this email. Quick reminder: “Mad as hell…” This screenplay was developed between 1974 and the film’s release in 1976. It covers such topics as presidential assassination attempts, the co-opting of social movements by corporate and entertainment interests, the sacrifice of the fourth estate on the altar of ratings, the suspicion of women in executive roles, crises in the Middle East and in New York City, and other topics that we are lucky to have moved on from 50 years since the text was initially drafted.
So while Concord, MA is a bit of a trek, if you find yourself in the Boston environs, go take a walk in the woods and then check it out. The Umbrella is creating a space that encourages and supports artists to dive into the work with a deep commitment, integrity and bravery. Really grateful to have been able to make a work there.
Some other things happening this fall are the Festival for Theatre and Democracy at the Martin E. Segal Center on October 31st which I’m curating. And Orestes by Euripides at the New School. A bit of post-democratic theater before the onslaught of winter. And also - pick up your copies of Kate Soper’s The Hunt now available on Compact Disc (and Band Camp) from New Focus Recordings. And pick up a copy of New Dramaturgies of Contemporary Opera:The Practitioners’ Perspective edited by Jingyi Zhang and out now through Routledge. Some really exciting contributors in this volume and I’m proud to be among them with a chapter that I wrote about a couple of things.
Thanks as always for reading, for being a member of the community I call home, and for all that you make in this world.
In solidarity and in making,
Ash
Left to right: Zoe Pepin, Tom Giordano, Amy Barker with Bill Motos (projected). Photo by Tim Gurczak
Network is performed by
Barlow Adamson* as Max Schumacher
Amy Barker* as Louise Schumacher/Camera A technician
Steven Barkhimer* as Frank Hackett
Jennifer Bubriski as Sheila/Production Assistant
Blythe de Oliveira Foster* as Diana Christensen
Tom Giordano* as Nelson Chaney/Floor Manager
Johnny Gordon as Director
Tim Hoover as Harry Hunter/ELA Member
Will McGarrahan* as Arthur Jensen/Continuity Announcer/Interviewer
Bill Mootos* as Howard Beale
Zoe Pepin as Camera B technician
Damon Singletary* as Jack Snowden/Warm-Up Guy
Olivia Sowell as Schlesinger/Hair/Makeup
Phil Thompson as Edward Ruddy