Little Talks (2013)
Produced by NYU-Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dramatic Writing
Directed by Eduardo Machado
Written by Jessie Bear
Starring:
Claudia Acosta
Elena Bossler
Maureen Silliman
Zuleyma Guevara
Linda Larkin
Matthew Jellison
Michael Frederic
Yul Vazquez
Tommy Heleringer
Clark Carmichael
Augie Praley
Infinite Thumbs.
Staged Reading, May 16, 2013: Theater for the New City
Poster Credit: Stefan Hartmann
Directed by Eduardo Machado
Written by Jessie Bear
Starring:
Claudia Acosta
Elena Bossler
Maureen Silliman
Zuleyma Guevara
Linda Larkin
Matthew Jellison
Michael Frederic
Yul Vazquez
Tommy Heleringer
Clark Carmichael
Augie Praley
Infinite Thumbs.
Staged Reading, May 16, 2013: Theater for the New City
Poster Credit: Stefan Hartmann
Little Talks was my thesis play for NYU when I got my MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch. It is the most bizarre and probably most impractical of any play I have ever written, and (probably because of that alone) I am so, so in love with it. It didn't hurt that, as an NYU student, I had access to incredible, incredible, INCREDIBLE actors to read it, and my dear teacher, Eduardo Machado, who has had probably the most profound effect of anyone on the way I write plays, agreed to direct it. I knew, because of its bizarreness and impracticality, that I needed someone who was a genius, like Eduardo, to direct it for me. And man, is he a genius. And man, were those actors brilliant. In a 2 hour rehearsal it went from words on a page to something truly phenomenal. Yes, it was "just" a staged reading, but it is one of my fondest theatrical memories and I feel incredibly privileged to have gotten to experience it. It was like spending the night in a super fancy hotel: I knew it'd be a long time before I got to do it again, but holy shit did it feel wonderful at the time.
I don't know if this play will ever be produced. It presents one major challenge to the modern theater maker: it's incredibly large cast size. I think there's something like 15 characters. We did the reading with 10 (plus the lovely Augie Praley reading Stage Directions), and it was still a bit confusing because people were so doubled up. But it is my biggest wish, one day, to see this play fully realized. So if you know any rich producers willing to back an impractically huge cast play that's a bit unconventional...you send them my way.
Like most of my work, I agonized over what to write for its log line. Again, you really have to see it to understand it. I wound up with a whole bunch of lengthy, descriptive-ridden sentences, but the more words I added, the less I seemed to grasp the essence of this strange little thing. So I settled on just two words. I don't know if I got any closer at "capturing" what Little Talks is, but at least I kept it interesting: "Infinite Thumbs."
To read one of my favorite monologues from the show, just click the link below!
| jessie_bear_little_talks_excerpt_2013.pdf |