Here’s our press release for 7 SINS IN 60 MINUTES at HERE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 16, 2010

SEVEN AWARD-WINNING PLAYWRIGHTS TACKLE THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS AT HERE JULY 11 – 15, 2010

New York, NY – AAI Productions (Melanie Sutherland, Artistic Director) announced today that 7 Sins in 60 Minutes, a collaboratively-created fever dream directed by John Golden Award winner Ms. Sutherland, will have its world premiere as part of HERE’s Summer Sublet Series July 11 through 15, 2010.

7 Sins. 7 Playwrights. 60 Minutes. 7 Sins in 60 Minutes is a high-octane ride through the Seven Deadly Sins, done 21st-century style.  Developed by seven award-winning playwrights and one director, the piece boasts a playful and provocative mix of comedy, drama, dance, spoken word and original music.  Over the course of one hour, four characters — Mike, Amadea, Dante and Willow – take a rollercoaster ride from sloth to pride.

In January 2010, New York-based director Melanie Sutherland assembled a group of actors, playwrights and a producer to develop a new piece inspired by the seven sins.  Each playwright was assigned actors and asked to write a seven-minute scene based on one of the sins.  After the first playwright finished her scene, it was passed along to the next one to continue the story and tell the next seven-minute portion through another sin.  And so on…

The playwriting team includes Paula Cizmar (international documentary piece Seven), Cheryl L. Davis (Daytime Emmy Award nominee, As the World Turns), Olga de la Fuente (popular Mexican TV series El Pantera), Chisa Hutchinson (2010 GLAAD Media Award, Best Off-Off Broadway Play She Like Girls),  Natalia Naman (Old Ship of Zion, The Lark), Anne Phelan (two-time Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow), and Melisa Tien (New Dramatists, Manhattan Theatre Club).  The cast includes Duane Cooper (Stress Positions, FringeNYC 2009) Cortnie Loren Miller (New Jersey Repertory), Michael Rosete (FringeNYC Thirty Minutes or Less) and Karen Sours (Chisa Hutchinson’s GLAAD Media Award-winning play She Like Girls). Joyce Liao is the lighting designer.
7 Sins in 60 Minutes will perform July 11 through July 15 at 7:00 pm at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, Enter on Dominick, 1 Block South of Spring; Subway: C/E to Spring or 1 to Canal).  Tickets are $15.  For tickets, visit here.org or call (212) 352-3101.  The box office opens at 4:00 pm on show days only.

This production is being presented through the Summer Sublet Series, part of HEREstay, HERE’s curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical and administrative support.

AAI Productions is a Brooklyn-based non-profit theatrical company dedicated to the development of new work.

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LISTINGS INFORMATION

What: 7 Sins in 60 Minutes
When: Sunday, July 11 through Thursday July, 15 at 7:00 pm

Where: HERE, 145 Sixth Ave., Enter on Dominick, 1 Block South of Spring; Subway: C/E to Spring or 1 to Canal

Tickets: $15 at here.org or call (212) 352-3101.  The box office opens at 4:00 pm on show days only.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

…about 7 Sins in 60 Minutes, visit www.7sinsin60.com

…about AAI Productions, visit http://7sinsin60.com/aai-productions/

…about Here, visit here.org

Playwright Olga de la Fuente just finished her scene on gluttony.  Here, she sheds some light on the ideas that influenced her seven-minute scene:

When [director] Melanie [Sutherland] asked me what my favorite sin was, my mind wandered as imaginary food floated around me. I found myself drooling over chocolate mousses and crème brûlées; seared scallops and pad thai noodles… Not to mention red wine and frozen margaritas. So, what’s wrong with gluttony besides its name? Like Ego, the food critic in Ratatouille, says: “I don’t like food, I LOVE food. And if I don’t love it, I don’t swallow.”

My initial idea was to justify gluttony as a non-sin. But as I was brainstorming, a pot of gold fell from the sky: Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, declared that eating transgenic chicken causes homosexuality and baldness. It would’ve been a sin not to use that declaration! And more news followed in a domino effect: oily fish from the gulf, American congressmen explaining how to identify illegal immigrants by the shoes they wear…

How the hell did I fit all that into one 7-minute scene? Luckily, the three skillful writers that preceded me left the path prepared. It was especially fun writing right after Chisa’s “Lust” scene because it got me “in the mood” and I ended up treating food as something to lust after.

To conclude, I leave you with a song I was obsessively listening to while writing the scene. It’s Louis Prima´s “Chop Suey Chow Mein”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrILRv0t

On Saturday, June 5th, we officially kicked off 7 Sins in 60 Minutes with our first soiree, celebrating Pride.  Nearly 70 people joined us for drinks, food and great conversation at a fabulous downtown New York loft.

Four of our fabulous seven playwrights — Cheryl Davis, Natalia Naman, Chisa Hutchinson and Anne Phelan — revved up the fun.  Spending time with them over the next 18 months is certainly going to be a wild ride!

We want to thank The Noho Star, which provided delicious appetizers to the party, and Vita Coco, which donated eight cases of its delicious coconut water.  We wouldn’t have had a party without the wine donation from Michael Vitali! Thanks also to V, our host, and all of friends and family who attended.  Also, we’d like to give a shout out to Sarah Zucker and Felix, our photographers extraordinaire!  And, finally Audrey Whitworth, AAI Productions board member, really brought the party together.

This is only the beginning.  We hope you will join us for the next party.

Paula Cizmar is the next playwright up to bat.  Here are some of her thoughts about writing the second installment (about greed no less) of 7 Sins in 60 Minutes:

OK, so Greed.   Not only did I have the fun of taking on Greed, the Evil of all Evils—I also got to introduce the next two characters, who were scheduled to pop into the mix according to Director Melanie Sutherland’s Map of Sin-land, AKA Who Was Assigned To What and When.  To get an idea of how this feels, take a moment to picture a vast pile of gold and treasure sitting in front of you—a horde that is far more than you could ever hope to use or need—as you rub your hands together and croak, My preeeee-cious.  Yes, greedy playwrights like to have more more more, so having more characters and getting to be the first one to use them—well it’s big fun.   Especially when dealing with the Mother of All Sins, Greed.   (Yes, OK, to the medieval mind, Pride was the Ultimate Deadly Sin—but that’s a whole other story and I’ll leave it to Cheryl to tell that tale.)   But Greed….the worship of money.  The material.  Accumulating stuff to wield power.  Is it not the great big ostrich egg that has hatched about 99.9 percent of the world’s problems?  Isn’t it the cause of wars, of cruelty, of exploitation, child labor, of haves and have nots, of…oh don’t get me started.

But I didn’t want to put all of this permanently on the backs of our characters.  I didn’t want them to have to shoulder the burden of three thousand years of human avarice all by themselves, so at the end of the scene I gave them a way out.  A dance.  A chance to, like Sufis, whirl and stomp and connect to something outside the material.  Greed’s not their fault.  They were born with it.  Like all of us.  And they see the traces of it every day on the news.   So dance, people, dance.  As Rumi said,

Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.

Last night at the inaugural Lilly Awards, named in honor of Lillian Hellman, 7 Sins in 60 Minutes own Chisa Hutchinson was recognized for playwrighting alongside Melissa James Gibson, Lucy Thurber, Annie Baker, Liz Duffy Adams, Deborah Zoe Laufer and Sarah Ruhl.  Kudos Chisa!  For more information on the awards, visit here.

7 Sins in 60 Minutes is a collaboratively created piece of theatre.  Seven fabulous female playwrights — Paula Cizmar, Cheryl Davis, Olga de la Fuente, Chisa Hutchinson, Natalia Naman, Anne Phelan and Melisa Tien – were each assigned actors and asked to write a seven-minute based on one of the sins.  After the first playwright finishes her scene, it is passed along to the next one to continue the story and tell the next seven-minute portion through another sin.  And so on…

First up was the extraordinarily talented Natalia Naman.  She finished her piece last week.  Here she gives us the lowdown on her approach to SLOTH.

Because I wrote my pages first, I had the unique pleasure of starting with a totally blank slate.  I can only appreciate how talented the other six writers are, because they’ll be writing off of a previous playwright’s contribution.  Fun challenge, but not for the slothful.  Sloth was my top sin choice, because it’s one of my favorites to take part in.  Of course, I’m referring to the sort of constantly napping, generally not doing anything productive type of “sloth,” not the medieval religious definition which is much more depressing.

I hoped in my scene to present sloth from a fresh angle.  (i.e. I didn’t want two characters laying on a couch drinking beer, watching TV, and talking.)  I applied sloth to a character who is trying to actively be slothful.  A sort of fascinating paradox.  He is frustrated with the treadmill nature of modern life and is hoping to exist outside of it.  Who knows if he’s actually succeeding, or more importantly if he’s actually more content?  I’m excited to see how it ends up spanning out over the course of the next months, especially once all the other women have contributed their scenes and sins.   Finally, please look at these adorable CUTE OVERLOAD sloths.  If for no other reason, the actual animals made it impossible for me to write any other sin.  http://cuteoverload.com/2010/05/17/the-deadliest-of-all-sins-cute/

When we started 7 Sins in 60 Minutes, we looked forward to the day we were fully cast.  It has arrived. Cortnie Loren Miller and Michael Rosete join Brandon Jones and Karen Sours, who have been with the project since day one.  Our cast is fabulous, and we cannot wait to spend the next 18 months creating and touring with them.

Expect upcoming posts from Cortnie, Michael, Brandon and Karen too.  Everyone will be a part of the blog, giving you the lowdown and behind-the-scenes scoop on the 7 Sins in 60 Minutes project.

– Lanie

Welcome to my fever dream!

So…. It all began when, during a recent 9-month period, I experienced two earth-shifting events in my personal life, which birthed my new mantra – seize the feckin’ day because life changes in an instant.

Suddenly, ideas, aspirations, plans, dreams could no longer be postponed. I had to do “it” now. One of those plans – take a show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. I had been to the Edinburgh Fringe as an audience member in 1995. How cool would it be to take a show, and live there for a month?!

In November, I collected a few hardy souls and infected them with my Scottish dream (a shout out to Anna, Arnie, Brandon, Debby, Karen, & Lanie!!!). Originally, I had thought to use a few published plays by Arnie & Debby, but after further research, determined that a touring play was a unique animal with specific requirements. After much brainstorming, we knew we had to start from scratch – the challenge: to create a short play that could travel easily, and perform in any venue. I talked about my theatre company’s Sins/Virtues project from the ‘90’s which had garnered a lot of attention and grants. Lanie blurts out – 7 Sins in 60 Minutes! Brilliant!!!! We had a title!

Now – to the play. The structure has morphed countless times in four months to find its final iteration – seven unique voices, telling one story, through the seven deadly sins. I spent many months reading scripts and talking with a gazillion rockin’ writers. Seven amazing and talented writers have jumped into the fray, they are: Anne, Cheryl, Chisa, Melisa, Natalia, Olga, & Paula. Wow! Right?!

Ok, so getting to Edinburgh this August was too daunting a task – we needed more time to create the play, get a buzz happening, and raise the funds!!!

In the meantime, thanks to the encouragement of friends, Alexis and Renee, we applied to the HERE Summer Sublet Series and Philly Fringe. And we’re in! Join us in New York City in July and in Philadelphia in September. And that’s only the beginning…..

We’ve launched the $7 Campaign (get it? Seven? All things seven for this project…) – and have many fundraising parties planned. I hope you’ll support our sinful efforts.

Welcome to my fever dream. It’s HOT……

~Melanie