Readings at Ohio Dominican!

An evening of Limbo plays at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio, on March 13, 2008.

Dr. Ann C. Hall, dean at Ohio Dominican University, member of ICWP, and the teacher of the drama class that chose to do the readings, introduces the evening.


Doin' the Limbo by Kathy Coudle King, with Phil Tobin as Bill, Erin McGuire as Victoria, Lynn Hall as Lorna, and Marty Stand as Freddy, with Shawn Steward (not visible) doing the stage directions.

Katherine Burkman's The Date; Phil Tobin does stage directions while Vicki Lefevre reads Marsha


Lynn Hall reads the stage directions for Saver by Mark Harvey Levine, with Phil Tobin as David, Allison Ricket as Irene, Marty Stand as Arthur, and Ann Trotter as Tina


Jan O'Connor's The Daylight Zone, with Brian West doing stage directions, Allison Ricket as the musician, Tim Mackey as Arnold, and Vicki Lefevre as the narrator.


Brian West does stage directions again for Ann C. Hall's Mary and Tom, with Lynn Hall as Mary and Shawn Steward as Tom.



Two Women, One Man, and a Bed, by J. Boyer. Tim Mackey reads stage directions for Lynn Hall as Melissa, Shawn Steward as Brian, and Erin McGuire as Sarah.


and the whole troupe, minus Phil Tobin, who ducked out early! Playwright (and ICWP member) Kathy Burkman, seated at the far right, joins the actors.

Date Set for readings at Ohio Dominican University

Thursday, March 13th has been set for readings at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio; map at http://www.ohiodominican.edu/about/directions/default.asp

Details and the plays to be read:

March 13th Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, Ohio
Spangler Library 7:00 p.m.
Jay Boyer,Tempe, Arizona: Two Women, One Man, and a Bed
Katherine Burkman, Columbus, Ohio: Date
Kathy Coudle King, Grand Forks, North Dakota: Doin’ the Limbo
Ann C. Hall, Columbus, Ohio: Limbo
Mark Harvey Levine, Pasadena, California : Saver
Jan O’Connor, North Hollywood, California: The Daylight Zone

and thanks to Dr. Ann C. Hall, whose Ohio Dominican class has taken on the task of doing these readings!

Readings Set at Muskingum College, Ohio

an evening of readings has been scheduled for Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, on Wednesday, March 26th, at 7:00 p.m. in Caldwell Hall. Diane Rao, of the Muskingum faculty, is coordinating (and is also a Limbo playwright, although her play will be read elsewhere). The plays now set for Muskingum are:

Hank Kimmel, Atlanta, Georgia: The Cycle of Death
Shirley King, Benecia, California: Hold Tight
Robin Rice Lichtig, New York, New York: The Straight and Narrow
Barbara Lindsay, Seattle, Washington: Holy Hell
Kevin Six, San Diego, California: No Problem

more information about the college is at http://www.muskingum.edu/home/

More Limbo!

A small but enthusiastic audience, on a bitterly cold midwestern night, celebrated Limbo with five more plays, performed in masterly style by four of Columbus's leading performers.



Lori Cannon and Ken Erney in Craig Abernethy's That Day, a chilling reminder of the limbo in which the events of 9/11 placed both victims and survivors alike.




Lori Cannon, who's been a major figure in Columbus theatre for the past twenty years, with appearances at CATCO, Red Herring, Reality Theatre, and many others. She'll be in Hay Fever for Actors Theatre in May at the Dublin Recreation Center, and was a swashbuckling Petruchio in the gender-switched Taming of the Shrew at Actors in Schiller Park last summer.




Christopher Roche, Anita Davis, Lori Cannon, and Ken Erney in Karen Jeynes' Go Home Affairs -- caught in the bureaucratic limbo of visas in the Republic of South Africa.




Anita Davis, who gave a spectacular reading last summer in Adam Bock's Thugs for Columbus's Available [Light] Theatre--which made me make contact with her for future readings. She'll also be reading Judy Juanita's Theodicy in March in the Eileen Heckart Drama for Seniors series (see http://heckartdrama.blogspot.com)




Lori Cannon, Christopher Roche, and Ken Erney in Michael Kimball's imaginative Henny and Hitler in Hell




Ken Erney. I first worked with Ken some twenty-five years ago in the first season at CATCO, the Contemporary American Theatre Company; first saw him act some thirty years ago at OSU in The Importance of Being Earnest




Christopher Roche and Anita Davis in Joe Feinstein's Real Love




actor Christopher Roche, who finished his M.F.A. in acting last year and is now in his first year as a doctoral student; he'll be directing Working this spring at Ohio State.





Christopher Roche, Anita Davis, and Ken Erney in The Other Shoe by Lisa Soland.

photos by Ann Alaia Woods

More readings!!

Join veteran Columbus performers Lori Cannon, Anita Davis, Ken Erney, and Christopher Roche as they explore more plays from the Limbo Project--­ten minute plays that in some way deal with the topic of Limbo.

Wednesday evening January 30th, at 7:30, New Works Lab, Drake Performance and Event Center, 1849 Cannon Drive, on The Ohio State University campus; free parking in the lot between the towers, just south of the Ohio Stadium.

The plays are:

Craig Abernethy, San Diego, California: That Day
a couple reexamines their relationship on (and because of) 9/11
Joe Feinstein, West Bloomfield, Michigan: Real Love
a would-be actor finally gets a professional job, to the consternation of his long-suffering wife. And it’s ­understudying Bob Cratchit in Christmas Carol
Karen Jeynes, Cape Town, South Africa: Go Home Affairs
A waiting room where the afterlife becomes an object lesson in bureaucracy
Michael Kimball, Cape Neddick, Maine: Henny and Hitler in Hell
Adolph Hitler discovers that his hell is to spend eternity in a theatre’s green room, never getting a chance to go on. Then Henny Youngman enters . . .
Lisa Soland, Granada Hills, California: The Other Shoe
a man learns something startling about his date, then the other shoe drops ­from the designated shoe dropper

And January 30th is another feast day for St. Gregory of Nazantius--those Eastern Orthodox Saints get a couple of feast days because of the shifts in the calendar. St. Gregory has a third feast day from the Roman Church, but that's passed--

Palpable Hits!

An enthusiastic audience of about 40 people watched the Limbo Plays readings at Ohio State on Friday, January 25th--coincidently the name day of St. Gregory of Nazantius, and also of St. Tatyana of Russia (which performer Tatyana Yassenov let us know; a professional actress in her native Belarus, she emigrated to Columbus (which has given theatregoers reason to celebrate for the last dozen or so years!). I'm grateful to Nancy Gall-Clayton for the photographs she so kindly took, and even more graciously made available!

The Limbo Plays at this readings were:

Kathy Burkman, Columbus, Ohio: E-Mails from the Dead
read by Frank Barnhart as Hector
Maureen Brady Johnson, Oberlin, Ohio: Limbo
read by John Kuhn as Tom, Cate Blair-Wilhelm as Augusta, and Tatyana Yassenov as God
Nancy Gall-Clayton, Louisville, Kentucky: Terminal L
read by John Kuhn as Lush Limbaugh, Frank Barnhart as Lowell Lunyon, Cate Blair-Wilhelm as Linda Lindell, Tatyana Yassenov as the Fairy Godmother, and Alan Woods as Luigi Lyons.
John Kuhn, Columbus, Ohio: The Edge
read by Cate Blair-Wilhelm as Mary, Tatyana Yassenov as Ruth
and my own Limbo, Ohio
read by John Kuhn as Willy Loman, Cate Blair-Wilhelm as Jocasta, and Tatyana Yassenov as Cleopatra.



The New Works Lab at Ohio State's Drake Performance and Event Center, waiting for the readings to start.



Alan Woods (standing, right) introduces the readings. Readers (left to right) Frank Barnhart, John Kuhn, and Cate Blair-Wilhelm. Unhappily, accomplished performer Tatyana Yassenov is not visible.



Playwrights together! Kathy Burkman (Columbus), Nancy Gall-Clayton (Louisville), Carol Dale (Columbus) gather and schmooze



after the readings; Frank Barnhart, closest to camera on left, farther back John Kuhn, both enjoy cookies brought by Nancy Gall-Clayton. At back: Alan Woods, then more center, Cate Blair-Wilhelm, talk with audience members

First Plays Read!

First group of plays read to a small, but highly enthusiastic! audience at Gallery 202 in Westerville, Ohio--much thanks to Gallery owner Renee Kropat for her hospitality--we'll be back there with more plays in April

plays read included:

Vicki Cheatwood, Dallas, Texas: For the Fourteenth Time
Small: Mark Mann Texie: Danielle Mann Blue: Donny Wohlenmeier Rayford: Irene Braverman
Emily Davis, Columbus, Ohio: Cappadocia
woman: Danielle Mann counselor: Irene Braverman Voice: Mark Mann
Shirley King, Benecia, California: Bingo
Liz: Danielle Man Carl: Donny Wohlenmeier Jenny: Irene Braverman Mack: Mark Mann
Stacey Lane, Miamisburg, Ohio: Lucy Dreaming
Lucy 1: Danielle Mann Lucy 2: Irene Braverman
Andrea Lepcio, New York, New York: Get In The Car
Our Jackson: Mark Mann Our Edith: Danielle Mann




Danielle Mann and Mark Mann, veteran Columbus performers; I first saw Danny work when she was Eve in The Diary of Adam and Eve as an undergraduate; Mark was (most recently) Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Columbus' outdoor Shakespeare in the Park.



Donny Wahlenmeier, a current OSU undergraduate theatre major, who was in Our Town last year as the milkman; I was the undertaker and typecast as the doddering professor




Irene Braverman, another veteran Columbus performer; she appeared in our International Women's Day readings last year in Matinee Lunch



all four performers in Gallery 202: Donny Wahlenmeier, Danielle Mann, Mark Mann, Irene Braverman

all photos by Ann Alaia Woods