The Director is in!

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After almost two months of investigation and consultation with my colleague and co-producer Stephanie Nugent, I can now announce two upcoming directing projects at WEST in Portsmouth, NH. As part of ACTONE’s annual Festival, TRAGEDY: a tragedy, by Will Eno, will run in the last two weeks of October, 2012. [My solo masked show, Clean Room, will also run for four performances in October as part of the Fest. Busy, busy!] I’m already lining up the TRAGEDY cast and itching to start work.

Then, in 2013, Stephanie and I will bring Make Sure It’s Me to WEST. Written by former ABC journalist/television producer Kate Wenner, MSIM addresses the issue of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in military veterans. Although fictionalized, the characters and events in MSIM derive from months of interviews Wenner conducted with TBI survivors and their families, as well as researchers and caregivers who specialize in TBI. The Make Sure It’s Me: Portsmouth project will include a full production in May/June 2013 at WEST, including talk-backs with members of the medical and military communities. Additionally, Stephanie and I will produce a series of library visits to occur in March and April 2013, to use scenes from the play to encourage education and discussion. The goal of MSIM: Portsmouth is to encourage NH veterans with any signs or symptoms to seek screening for TBI, and to build awareness of the great resources in place to support TBI survivors within and beyond the military community. We have begun to partner with the Brain Injury Association of NH and other organizations to develop the outreach components of this project, and to support us in creating realistic portrayals of TBI survivors in the performance itself.

I’m extraordinarily grateful to Stephanie for discovering this play and to Kate Wenner for allowing us to produce it in New Hampshire. Stay tuned for news as this multifaceted project unfolds!

Brighina, Stupino, and Punch rocked Fayetteville!

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Had a great weekend in Fayetteville, NC, where I went to visit my friend Dr. Michael Martin, the director of Choral Activities and Music Education at Methodist University. I had met him a few years back through my work as a presentation coach and choreographer for barbershop choirs (thanks to Dr. Bill Adams and the Austin Chord Rangers for bringing me into the barbershop world!). (If you want a nice mental picture, think of me in Austin, TX in the late 90s developing a dance routine for fifty men, aged 16-90, to spice up their rousing rendition of “Rubber Ducky.”)

Well, Michael liked my teaching style, and he was intrigued by the idea of my mask work. But he’d never seen it. He took a leap of faith and secured funding to bring me to Methodist to give a lecture/demonstration for the public on commedia dell’arte and mask performance. Then he asked arranged a workshop for the Music and Theatre majors on physical theatre. So, that’s what I did! Friday night was the lecture/demo, during which I brought out my masks to illustrate the history of commedia, as well as where I’m going with it in my present work. I can confidently say that Brighina, Stupino, and Punch rocked the house! On Saturday morning, we had about 30 majors all strutting and slouching around, creating original characters from the ground up. Enormous fun–plus, I got to visit with Michael and his family, and learn a little bit about Fayetteville. Next up: Gould Academy in Bethel, ME in two weeks!

I’ve arrived!

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Hello, everybody! As you may know, there was until lately another version of lesliepasternack.com. It was a poor, raggedy site that I insisted on building the hard way. I had arbitrarily selected software I couldn’t understand, and I declined to seek training or sustained advice from one of the many kind gurus in my life. Periodically, I threw the user’s manual at the wall, gently, and that did relieve some stress, but it didn’t improve the site. (Plus, I have pretty paint on the walls now, so I can’t risk a repeat of that technique.)

I did have some better luck over the years with two iterations of buffoonworks.com, thanks to a dear bear of a man named Gary, who first set it up and designed it for me. Thanks, Gary! You rock! That site is still there, for now; presently it documents my directing work in 2011 on Mike Kimball’s Best Enemies. (Great cast! Great show! Great audiences!)

But I thought it was time to put my friends and family out of the misery that was lesliepasternack.com, by dragging it into the WordPress era.

So, here I am! I’m happy to say that I’m quite busy making two large theatre projects with my colleague Stephanie Nugent of ACTONE, so I’m not sure how long it will take me to bring lp.com up to the standards of my online heroes (Shreve Stockton at The Daily Coyote is an important one). But I’ll have lots to talk about as my work with Stephanie unfolds, so please hang with me.

In the meantime, some topics I’ll be addressing in 2012:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), military-civilian relations, the nature of tragedy, Red Cross volunteer programs, the importance of blood, surface and depth, clean rooms, and the ongoing magic of dogs. . .