DARK MONDAY @ MERLIN goes ONLINE!
SNOWANGEL by Lewis John Carlino
The DARK MONDAY @ MERLIN broadcast of NEAT – New English American Theatre’s Dramatic Reading of SNOWANGEL by Lewis John Carlino will be accessible on Monday, February 1 at 20:00 hrs on the MERLIN YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9UuC5w2G-YFIub1VyYnihw
This presentation is FREE of charge and MERLIN would be very pleased if interested parties would support the venue by purchasing Tickets or Vouchers for the shows on their website – https://merlinstuttgart.reservix.de/
This performance of SNOWANGEL is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
To watch this ONLINE performance, go to –
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9UuC5w2G-YFIub1VyYnihw
on Monday, February 1 at 20:00 hrs
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The year 2021 marks the 30th Anniversary of NEAT – New English American Theatre and we are currently in the 8th year of the ongoing monthly DARK MONDAY @ MERLIN series.
MERLIN has graciously supplied us with the technology and technician to initiate a new performance concept of online performances. The performances will be filmed on stage at MERLIN in advance and broadcast on the regular DARK MONDAY dates, i.e. the first Monday of each month which has been the rule since 2013.
In January of 2021, the WRITERS IN STUTTGART anticipated this new development and presented their latest texts, via a ZOOM performance, as the traditional first DARK MONDAY installment of the year; this has become a popular annual tradition for them, for us, and for the NEAT audience.
The February DARK MONDAY project is a Dramatic Reading of Lewis John Carlino’s intriguing One Act Play SNOWANGEL which features Sylvia Owens and Charles C. Urban
THE STORY –
The plot of SNOWANGEL involves a middle-of-the-night visit to a hooker by a troubled man, who is seeking affection in all the wrong places.
Tormented by the memories of a past love, John comes to Connie, a prostitute, to get her to reenact certain scenes that have etched themselves in his mind and that have become the symbol for all that was ethereal and beautiful in his life. He has brought along detailed notes of his first encounter with someone he loved and lost and asks Connie to recreate that meeting, word for word, gesture for gesture, so he might experience true affection again. Connie is reluctant to adhere to the John’s tightly scripted scene; he makes her wear certain clothing and apply make-up, trying to get her to resemble the girl he lost. He feverishly constructs a scene where he first met this Dream girl, in a museum.
The action builds until he almost feels the moment is being relived, that Connie is really the other girl until Connie feels threatened and shatters his illusion by screaming, “I’m not her! I’m me! I’m me!”
Shocked, John starts to leave, saying he is sorry, that he only wanted to feel the affection of those lost moments. Connie, shaken, asks him if he wants affection, what he gives in return. Quietly, she tells John what she imagines in this dirty little room while strangers use her. She tells her tale simply. When she finishes speaking, John is ashamed and has learned a simple lesson: that he must give to get, that he cannot erase the identity of another human being to suit his own needs.
Through the magical exchange of empathy and despair, their night together mysteriously evolves into passion and devotion from mockery and hatred; it is a story that will surprise and move you.
THE CAST –
SYLVIA OWENS – is a talented actress who has been active in NEAT since 2016. Although she is American, she grew up mostly in Frankfurt in a military family, and so Germany has always been home for her. On the NEAT stage, she played the role of Lucy in our staging of the Orson Welles’ Radio Adaptation of DRACULA, was featured in both of our V-Day projects THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler and A MONOLOGUE, A MEMORY, A PRAYER AND A RANT. Sylvia has appeared in JUST SO STORIES by Rudyard Kipling, SPOON RIVER ANTHLOLGY by Edgar Lee Masters and played several roles in ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell; most memorably Moses, the Raven. Sylvia’s portrayal of Portia in our critically acclaimed staging of IN JULIET’S GARDEN by Judy Elliot McDonald was one of the highlights of the 2017 Season. In 2018, Sylvia was also seen in A PIECE OF MY HEART by Shirley Lauro, the Live Radio Play version of THE WIZARD OF OZ; in which she played the Good Witch Glinda and as Jesse in Marsha Norman’s poignant play ‘NIGHT, MOTHER.
Director CHARLES C. URBAN – founded NEAT in 1991. Directing credits include THE FANTASTICKS by Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt, DEATH by Woody Allen, WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett, THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams, EDUCATING RITA by Willy Russell, MISERY by Stephen King, THE GOAT by Edward Albee, In 2013 he launched the DARK MONDAY reader’s theatre in MERLIN and in October 2015, he initiated a new weekly series of performances at THEATER AM OLGAECK. Charles has appeared in Shakespeare plays, musicals, and children’s theatre, as well as radio plays, television series and film productions. He particularly enjoys doing Voice-Over work. In 2019, Charles made a rare onstage appearance in the Shakespeare play ROMEO & JULIET (with Clowns) as Juliet’s (wicked) Nurse. According to The Who is Who der Schwabenmetrople – Charles is “synonymous with English language theatre in Stuttgart.”
New English American Theater Stuttgart 