Kirk Lynn (Playwright) and KJ Sanchez (Director) discuss the life and art of the late Leonard Bernstein as the world celebrates the centenary of his birth. Exploring his spirit through devised theatre techniques, biography, contextual history and music theory, this new work attempts to capture the passion and art of an American musical legend.
The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents a semi-staged reading of A Plan and Not Quite Enough Time, featuring professional and student actors in a lyrical biography of the life and work Leonard Bernstein, directed by KJ Sanchez (ReEntry). Written by Kirk Lynn (The Method Gun) and commissioned through collaboration with The College of Fine Arts and Texas Performing Arts, this new play takes a symphonic look at the major melodies playing throughout Bernstein’s life: music, family, spiritual longing, carnal passions and death. We see him as a boy and man, as a father and son; bisexually brilliant and politically naïve. Cymbals crash, the brass crescendo, the maestro takes a bow.
A Plan and Not Quite Enough Time
September 29-30, 2018
B. Iden Payne Theatre
Commissioned by the College of Fine Arts Dean’s Office, Texas Theatre and Dance and Texas Performing Arts
https://soundcloud.com/user-662171376/podcast-discussing-a-plan-and-not-quite-enough-time
About the Playwright
Kirk Lynn is a novelist and a playwright living in Austin, Texas with his wife, poet Carrie Fountain, and their children, Olive and Judah. In 2015, Lynn’s debut novel, Rules for Werewolves, was published by Melville House, currently be adapted for the screen. Lynn teaches playwriting and devising at The University of Texas at Austin and is one of five artistic directors of the Rude Mechs theatre collective. With the Rude Mechs, Lynn has written and adapted many plays including Lipstick Traces, Method Gun and Not Every Mountain, which will premiere at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis in 2018.
About the Director
KJ Sanchez is the founder and CEO of American Records, dedicated to making theatre that chronicles our time. She has directed reimagined classics, new plays and her own documentary plays Off-Broadway and at many of the country’s leading theatres such as The Goodman, The Humana Festival, Milwaukee Rep, Asolo Rep and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She is the director, co-author and producer of ReEntry, which has toured extensively across the country and abroad. As a playwright, she has been produced at theatres such as Berkley Rep, Playmakers Rep, Asolo Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Frontera Rep, Round House, Cornerstone and Off-Broadway at Urban Stage and Here Arts. As an actor, she performed at BAM, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep and other venues across the country and internationally. Sanchez also provided voices for many characters on Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go!
