Blogs

Check Out the Spark Scheme in Action in Hawaii!

http://www.hittingthestage.com/uhm-joins-with-dozens-of-theatres-to-present-playreading-in-honor-of-women-veterans/

Check Out the webpage for the Spark reading at the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York!

http://www.cherrylanetheatre.org/onstage/spark/

Check Out the website for the reading of Spark at Cummins Theatre in Westerns Australia in Association with Ensemble Free Theater Norway!

http://www.cumminstheatre.com.au/events/?entry=75&display=month

Check out a great blog post about Spark at Ensemble Free Theatre Norway! 

http://www.ensemblefreetheaternorway.com/www.ensemblefreetheaternorway.com/Blog/Entries/2012/9/23_Spark_and_Moral_Chaos.html

This 11 November 2012, in association with NoPassport Theatre Alliance, Ensemble Free Theater Norway will present a reading of Spark by Obie Award-winning playwright Caridad Svich (USA).  Directed by Brendan McCall and presented at the Cummins Theatre (Western Australia), the event features performers from the local community, and will be free to the public.

Ms. Svich says that these free readings of the play are intended to honor veterans of recent wars (Iraq, Afghanistan) and past, and to promote spiritual healing.  At present, theaters across the United States in New York, Boston, Chicago, Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City are confirmed to be participating in the event this November in time with the US Veterans Day, as well as the upcoming presidential elections.  A complete listing of the participating theater companies and venues can be found here.

Mr. McCall, an American who has been living as an expatriate since 2008 in Norway, Turkey, and Australia, is excited to be participating in this reading scheme for a variety of reasons.  At present, EFTN´s reading at the Cummins Theatre is the only venue outside of the US presenting a reading of the play this November.

“There are a number of veterans in the Wheatbelt region, and in Western Australia,” says McCall.  “The recent deaths of 5 Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan highlights the universality of Spark.  I think this can contribute in a small towards bringing our community together, encountering these issues through theater, culture, and dialogue.”

Mr. McCall also shares Ms. Svich´s views that she shared inan essay published on TCGCircle, the blog of Theatre Communications Group (USA): that there needs to be more plays written about such “unpopular” subjects as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the trauma of conflict on families and communities back home, the (in)visibility of female soldiers and veterans, and more.  He hopes that the awareness generated nationally and internationally by these play-readings will turn into more artists writing and performing these kinds of contemporary stories, and that plays like Spark can be produced and staged for a larger audience.

This free reading of Spark will be at 7pm on Sunday, 11 November 2012 at the Cummins Theatre.

Check Out the Spark Scheme on Broadwayworld! 

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Caridad-Svichs-SPARK-To-Honor-War-Veterans-with-Multiple-International-Readings-in-November-20120928#sthash.1zJONaKP.dpbs

Cry

By Caridad Svich

(September 2012)

Lingering light poaches sleep.

Half-forgotten

Is the icy rest

Of yesterday-

Blessed in its descant

Pride-buried,

Holding fast,

Even when holding it down.

Today light shines

Across a meadow

Flanked by flowers

Shorn of breath.

Hazel-eyed swallow,

What’s in your breast?

What song sings you to sleep?

Rest oh child

The soldier says,

Distended from dream’s embrace.

A crippling tune

Of damage done

Surrenders in its wake.

This is how we spend our days

In lightning ache and spark.

In auger’s way,

Some will say

Will sing the bracing lark.

For it cries

Heavenward

Of rain and soot,

Blackened tongues

And blood left drained

On streets

That once were trod upon

With light step

And glinting grace.

Harbor still

The reckoning blast

That shores the one and many

From this dear place

Where we all left space

For the brilliant waste of tyranny

To rise again

Without a care

And outrage on its side.

What happened here? Some will cry

When all is said and done

The wraith of sleep

Will wage sweet war

And tender all its young.

Sorry yet

For those born

On this savaged earth,

Craving much

Where none is made,

Save a holler

Sweet and long.

Check out an essay written by Caridad Svich about the Spark scheme that just went live!

http://www.tcgcircle.org/2012/09/a-spark-of-resistancetoward-healing/