Peace on War

Open and Free - How Often Can We Say That?

2007-07-26T00:44:00.000-05:00

This is where we definitely can.

Are the Fish Happy? Theatre, in association with 'The Personal Theatre Project', presents 'Peace on War - A Grassroots Theatrical Forum':

We don't do War on War, as in War on Drugs, War on Terror.
We do Peace on War.

We want to learn about peace and war, humanity and conflict, through theatre.

Anyone who wishes to learn or share something about peace and war is welcome to participate.

Anything that can be performed is great theatre. It can be a monologue, play, musical, poem, song, dance, film, visual art, multimedia, or any other form you wish to present. Think 'You Stage', as in 'You Tube'.

You can participate in six ways:

1. As a theatre group, producer, or performer. If you already have a play or show - big or small - you can apply to be a part the forum.

2. As a playwright or director. Propose your idea or project, and we - all the participants - will try to make it happen. If you need your show put together or performed by others, as soon as there are enough people signing on, the show is on. Please make your project portable - we have a space and people who care. Your show has great things to say and just needs enthusiastic actors. Ideally, a small group of people can perform it anywhere.

3. As an actor or a technical volunteer. Join us and make theatre! Contact us for casting calls or crew wanted.

4. As a venue, equipment or other physical resources provider. We will perform anywhere - your home, pubs and clubs, bookstores, rooftops, outdoor spaces, as well as conventional theatres. We want to reach people. If you can help us access performance spaces, do let us know. Other resources such as props, costumes, sets and equipment are also deeply appreciated.

5. As a member of the audience. Come to see our shows!

6. As a supporter - financially - by making a tax-deductible donation; in spirit - by spreading the word!

We are anyone who loves theatre, and believes that we can do it just by doing it. That is also what we believe about peace and war - everyone should have some say, and should say it out loud.

We are all volunteering artists, so there is no pay involved. Our shows are free, with suggested donations of $5 or $10. The proceeds go towards our projects.

Peace on War is an ongoing forum. Our next performance will be Theft of Imagination, about two boys entrusted with negotiation a peace treaty for their two warring nations. Free. Reservation required at: http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/137147

Peace on War. Let's Act.

---- Theft of Imagination ----

2007-07-25T04:09:00.001-05:00

The reviews are in!

"What Theft of Imagination? All I see on display in David Negrin's new play... is a ton of imagination."
"Theft of Imagination is quite possibly the perfect show to see during the Broadway strike." - Aaron Riccio, New Theater Corps

"It's easy to see that Negrin has talent... He draws characters that live and breathe with the spirit of individuality."
"...ambitious project..." - Katharine Rolnick, Curtain Rising Magazine

"An exciting play, filled with unpredictable turns of events, and equally brimming with surprising notions that succeed in challenging our assumptions about the issues at its heart."
"Negrin doesn't shy away from making some breathtakingly radical proposals in this play"
"There are quite a few people in positions of authority who ought to see this play." - Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com

Synopsis:

Two nations will go to war in 13 days.

Weapons in hand, two cultures of dueling faiths plan to settle their hundred year blood feud once and for all. But in the eleventh hour, seekers of peace unearth an obscure legal provision that provides a unique solution to settle their epic dispute:

A peace summit can be convened with two all powerful peace ambassadors, a pair of young boys. If these young boys, one from each nation, with innocent and unjaded hearts, settle the dispute before the deadline, their agreement will have the full force of both nations laws…

And there will be peace.

Can two boys accomplish in thirteen days what diplomats, politicians, and holy men haven’t been able to in one hundred years?

-- November 8 - December 9, Thu - Sat, 8 PM / Sun 2 PM
-- The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St., West Village, 212-475-1449
-- Free.

Submission

2007-03-15T23:18:00.000-05:00

We will love your ideas, because you choose to share them.

If you need some input, here is what we are looking for:

- A play or any form of performance.
- Different. Daring. In terms of trying new things.
- Doesn't cost money. It just takes passion, imagination and ingenuity.
- Not preachy. It moves rather than tells.
- And don't forget - it should say something about peace and/or war!

If you propose or submit a project, we will try everything we can to make it happen.

To submit, please outline your project in your email, tell us about yourself, and if you wish, attach your proposal/script.

Then see your own show, live!

Our Projects

2007-03-15T22:56:00.000-05:00

Join our ongoing or future projects:

1. 'Theft of Imagination' - Can two boys negotiate a peace that has long eluded their warring nations?

2. 'Loving Ophelia' - Revenge is clearly not the right course. Can Ophelia's love save Hamlet instead? A 'what if' version of the Bard's play.

2. 'The Art of Peace': Sun Tzu has The Art of War. We have The Art of Peace. A Kung Fu play that demonstrates the way NOT to fight.

3. 'Macbeth-a-thon': A series of one-act plays from different playwrights exploring the themes from 'Macbeth'.

4. 'What is War?’ A Definition Play, with submissions from the public (adults and children).

5. ‘The Debate: Two teams debate whether the human nature leans towards peace or war, and whether the majority of the human history is consist of peace or war.

6. 'The Zone' Series - Several one-act plays in one show, from playwrights from the major conflict zones or countries, or stories from these zones.

A talk-back session with the audience will follow all of our performances.

If you wish to act, direct, stage-manage, design lighting, sound, set, costumes, or assist in any other capacity, for any of our projects, simply email: arethefishhappy@yahoo.com

Gallery

2007-03-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

Press release photos of '3 KINGS AND THEIR DEAD'.

Coming to Michigan in May -- 'A Question of Service'

2007-03-15T16:13:00.000-05:00

'A Question of Service' - A play of choices. A National Guardsman has been sent to Iraq, and his family found itself deeply divided. Should a military service necessarily lead to a funeral service? Come join us on a journey at the home front and the profound choices that had to be made. Whatever you think about the Iraq War, this play will make you ask new questions, possibly towards yourself.

Performances: May 17, 18, 19, 20, at 7:30pm.
Venue: Everybody Reads, 2019 E. Michigan Avenue- Lansing, MI 48912 / (517) 346-9900
Admission: Free, with a suggested donation of $5 or $10 going towards 'Peace on War' Forum

A country cannot simultaneously prepare and prevent war.
- Albert Einstein

We are Together

2007-03-15T13:57:00.000-05:00

Join our net of theatre and peace lovers and link up. Email: arethefishhappy@yahoo.com to add your name or your group to our site, if you:

- Like what we are doing
- See some similarities between your and our group
- Wish to offer a sense of support

Our voice is always bigger together than is separate.
Speak. United.

Your Definiton

2007-03-15T13:15:00.000-05:00

What is war?
What do you think?

We are gathering definitions from the public to make our 'What is War? - A Definition Play'. Your definition, if chosen, will be in our play. But if not - due to the volume or other considerations - will still be listed on our site. By submitting, you authorize the forum to perform your definition. There must be a name and title after the definition for it to be considered. If by children, please state the age and school.

Now have your say!

Here is what some well known people have said:

----------------

Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.
- Issac Asimov

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.
- Ernest Hemingway

Join the army, meet interesting people, kill them.
- Graffiti At Bromley

War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
- Thomas Mann

You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.
- Will Rogers, New York Times, Dec. 23, 1929

One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), Second World War (1948)

Either war is obsolete or men are.
- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), New Yorker, Jan. 8, 1966

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
- George Orwell (1903 - 1950), Polemic, May 1946, "Second Thoughts on James Burnham"

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
- Jimmy Carter (1924 - )

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
- Jeannette Rankin (1880 - 1973), the first Congresswoman of U.S.

War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
- Georges Clemenceau (1841 - 1929), French leader during World War I.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.'"
- Abraham Lincoln

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To submit, click on 'Post a Comment' and start with, 'War is...' Please leave a name and a general title.

e.g. 'War is a condition in which one side does not see the other, yet is nonetheless convinced of its evil.'
- Kat Chamberlain, playwright and director

Get your words in our play!

3 Kings and Their Dead

2007-03-15T09:33:00.000-05:00

What happens when three of Shakespeare's most ruthless kings face their victims?

'3 KINGS AND THEIR DEAD' is an imaginative reworking of scenes from Shakespeare's three plays, in which Macbeth is stalked by Banquo; Claudius has to confront his brother, Hamlet's father; and Richard III gets haunted by all whom he has sent from this world.

Ambition. Treachery. Destruction. There always seem to be glamour and glory, until death and fear reveal war's true nature. Yet it is perhaps the ultimate justice when the perpetrator must answer to those whom he has victimized. This play strips the treason bare and shows the rhetoric for what it is. It's more timely than ever to rediscover what Shakespeare had to say about how the disregard of others' lives and welfare leads to our own demise.

Presented by Are the Fish Happy? Theatre, in association with The Personal Theatre Project, this is part of the 'Peace on War' Grassroots Theatrical Forum. A 'talkback' session with the director, playwrights and actors will follow each performance.

-- Performances: May 30 (Preview), June 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, at 7:30 pm
-- Venue: Arthur Seelen Theatre (Inside the Drama Book Shop, 250 W. 40th St., btw 7 & 8th Ave.)
-- Admission: Free, with a suggested donation of $5 or $10 going towards the project. Seating is limited. For reservation email: peaceonwar@gmail.com in advance. Give your name, performance date, and the number of reservations, and consider them confirmed. Please show up 15 minutes before the show for reserved seats. After that the seats will open for the waiting list.

'Every man's conscience is a thousand swords,
To fight against that bloody homicide.'
- Oxford, Act V, Scene II, 'Richard III'

Cast

2007-03-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

Who We Are

2007-03-14T02:29:00.001-05:00

KAT CHAMBERLAIN

Kat is the founder of Are the Fish Happy? Theatre and the organizer of 'Peace on War' Theatrical Forum. She produces, writes, and directs - plus everything else she can do - for theatre. Her plays include Kung and Fu, 3 Kings and Their Dead: Act III – Richard III and the Ghosts, and an Iraq War play, A Question of Service. She also reviews plays for nytheatre.com.

-- THE CAST OF 3 KINGS AND THEIR DEAD --

DANIEL ABSE

Most recently filmed "SHOWING UP", a documentary about the acting and auditioning process, directed by James Morrison (of Fox Network's " 24"). Theatrical credits include Chekhov's The Wedding Reception (Dymba) at the Triangle Theatre in Philadelphia, Beckett's OHIO IMPROMPTU (Listener), and PARKING (Ray). Television: Law and Order: SVU and Hack. Daniel studies acting with George DiCenzo and has additional training in acting and directing from Yale Drama School, and teaches theatre at East Side Middle School in New York City.

TOM HEDLUND

Tom was born in Kansas City, MO, but has changed residence almost forty times since then. He has attended twelve grade-schools and three high-schools in almost as many States. Tom's father was a manager for Hilton, and the job required moving the family every six months to a year. Unlike his sister, Danielle, Tom never got used to being the new kid every year of his life, or nearly so, and retaliated by becoming the class clown, among other undesirable personality traits, such as his penchant for acting.
Once in 1979, when a live-action Dr. Strange (Marvel comic book hero) made its way onto television, Tom was pretending to shoot magic bolts from his hands during a commercial break. His father saw this, entered the room and grabbed Tom by the shoulder, demanding that he never act that way again, saying that what is on television is make-believe, not real. Tom has a Bachelor's degree in Theatre and a Master's of Fine Art in Acting. So much for make-believe.
Before Tom started college and graduate school he knew that he needed a crash-course in discipline, after spending nearly his entire life being a cut-up and a hot-head, so he joined the US Navy for five years, serving as a Hospital Corpsman and Field Medic for the US Marines. Tom took a few years to make the personality changes needed to be successful in the military, but at the end of five years he finally learned the secret to a life in the armed forces, and with that mastered, he promptly and honorably separated from Navy service on 14NOV98 and seven years later he finished his Master's in acting.
Tom has appeared off-off-Broadway in five productions before Three Kings and Their Dead, including 'Fishin'' and 'The Big Dance' at the TSI Playtime Series, 'Pet Shop' and 'The Sleepers' at the New School for Drama, and a revival of 'Stage Door' at the Theatre Fellowship of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. His next project is an English translation of the play 'Baaahhh!' in which he will play an ever-present bureaucrat, who continually impedes the progress of the hero. Baaahhh! will be part of the 2007 International Fringe Festival, here in New York.
Three Kings and Their Dead presented new challenges to Tom and it's the first Shakespeare role he's played in six years, the last being Benedick from 'Much Ado...' in college. Working to make the language make sense has been his greatest challenge, along with growing an itchy beard to better feel his character!
Tom is honored and elated to be appearing in his sixth off-off-Broadway role and looks forward to his seventh!

EFFIE HORTIS

Effie would like to thank all those who supported her on her crazy never-ending adventure. After studying in Los Angeles and receiving her BA in Theatre Arts, she joined a professional theater company that inspired her to reach out to the global community. She toured with the company, starting at The Getty Center then taking the production to The National Theater of South Korea. She was also able to work with students at The Shanghai Theater Academy which opened her eyes to what she may have otherwise never noticed.
As an aspiring artist, Effie enjoys all aspects of theatre and hopes to write and direct for the stage in the near future.
Thank you Niko for your understanding of the Universe (and me). And to our beautiful babies who make me laugh everytime they cry.

WAEL OMAR

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Wael has spent the past few years as a freelance editor and cameraman, recently moving back to study method acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute. Wael is committed and drawn to classics as well as avant garde work both on screen and in the theater. This is his first appearance in a Shakespearean production in New York.

JULIO C. PEÑA

Born in Peru, has been active in the music industry for many years as an audio engineer and producer. Recently turned to acting, studying at HB Studio in New York City with Austin Pendleton, and improvisation with the likes of John Monteith of Second City and Holly Mandel, formerly of The Groundlings in Los Angeles.
Most recent projects include a reading of Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 1, for Moonbeam.net Productions and a web series “The Hacking Chronicles” for AT&T.
He is very happy to be part of a great experience in a great city.

NICK ROESLER

Nick is thrilled to be a part of the 3 Kings project. A recent graduate of both Connecticut College and the National Theater Institute, Nick is glad that he has finally been able to reach New York! Other theater work includes interning with the Wooster Group and and acting as a contributing member of the Full Stop Company.

So Why Theatre?

2006-10-14T12:13:00.000-05:00

Because it is live. Alive. Real. Real Time.
Immediate. Present.
Personal.

Because unexpected things can happen. And not just on the stage.
Somewhere between light and dark, sound and silence, changes occur.

Give and take. High and low. Up and down.
Because it breathes, sings, laughs, cries, rants, sometimes preaches, often cajoles.
And just as fiercely, it receives, responds, reflects, reaches out.

Bonds us with human connection. Closes us in on truth.
Takes us away.

Because through it, we speak to one another.
We take part.
We are together at once.
We see.