- Don Elwell
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Don Elwell, Ph.D. (born January 21, 1952) is an American playwright, director, novelist, teacher, and futurist who lives in the Philadelphia metro area. His central concerns as an artist include the meaning of personal identity in a technological society, the conflict between secular humanism and religious fascism, and the nature of human sexuality.
Active in the world of theater and film for nearly forty years, he has published several novels and plays, directed theatrical and cinematic productions, and worked nationwide as an actor and an instructor to actors.
He is a founding member of the Greylight Theater in Illinois, and Grindlebone Arts in Baltimore, Maryland.[1]
Contents
Early life
The son of a vaudevillian song and dance man, Elwell spent his early life in Birmingham, Alabama and on Okaloosa Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It was there that he developed a love of the ocean (reflected in his novel "The Ganyameade Protocol") and began his lifelong dedication to writing and the theater.
Education
Elwell attended Florida's Stetson University, majoring in theater. After receiving his BA, he completed a Masterʼs in Theater at Florida State University. In 1999 he was awarded a Ph.D in Theater from the Union Institute in Cincinnati. His dissertation was titled, "The actor reflects: passage events in the lives of professional actors".[2]
Career
Theater
After completing his Master's, Elwell toured for several years with Theater South Productions as an actor and production coordinator before accepting his first major directing post with the Saenger Theater of Pensacola, Florida. During his tenure, the theater mounted productions of Cabaret, Guys an Dolls, The Real Inspector Hound, and Pippen among many others. Their production of Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" was noted locally for its innovative use of slide projections from the (then recent) Mariner spacecraft journey.[3]
In 1995 Elwell helped found the Greylight Theater in Illinois. Greylight focuses on producing new works by promising playwrights and has helped launch the careers of Kenneth Boe, Clare McCall, Margie Pignataro, Lynn Eaton, and John McCall, among many others. The works of many of these artists were gathered in "Greylight Theatre: Selected New Plays from the First Three Seasons" published in 2001 and edited by Elwell.[4]
Elwell has described the creation of Greylight as based in the need for "...a theater immune from politics and money".
During the late nineties while involved with Greylight, Elwell wrote his Coyote trilogy as well as his one-man play “The Death of Maynard G. Krebs”. Both were initially staged by Greylight before going on to be staged by other companies around the country.
Throughout the 1990s and the early part of the next decade, Elwell worked at various colleges around the country teaching and developing theater programs.
In 2003 Elwell was invited to create a theater department for Carroll College in Westminster, Maryland. As part of this effort, he create "Grindlebone Arts", in Association with Baltimoreʼs Hamilton Arts Center. Modeling Grindlebone on Greylight, Elwell developed it into a platform for his students to transition into professional careers as actors, writers and theater technicians. Elwell has stated in interviews that this period began to open his eyes to the importance of teaching.[5]
While working in Westminster and Baltimore Elwell attended Playa Del Fuego, a twice-yearly event held in northern Delaware and modeled on the famous "Burning Man" project in Nevada and California. One of the main events at every Playa Del Fuego is the ritualistic burning of a wooden effigy on top of a large bonfire. Fascinated by this, Elwell quickly became the leader of the event's "Fire Team" a group that is charged with ensuring all fires are both safe and enjoyable. After a few years of this, Elwell constructed the effigy itself, a large wooden pony of his own design.[6]
In 2006, Elwell became involved with the Vanguard School in Valley Forge, Pa. Drawing on his experiences as a teacher he developed curricula using Commedia del Arte and Shakespeare for middle and high school students with autism and Aspergerʼs syndrome.
Plays
Elwell is one of the few playwrights in the Cyberpunk genre. His Coyote Trilogy ("Coyote", "Cyberpunk Opera", and "Dub for Babylon") was heralded for its prescient examination of personal identity and self-definition in the Internet age. The plays take place partly in the real worl and partly in cyberspace. Elwell is currently producing a video version of the trilogy using a mixture of live action and machinima recorded in the virtual world "Second Life".[7]
His one-man play, "The Death of Maynard J Krebs", is an homage to the trivialization of the Beatnick movement by American television and to the long and tragic life of Bob Denver.
Books
Elwell has written two novels: “The Ganymeade Protocol” and “In The Shade”. Both works center on the problems of retaining one's humanity while coping with a mindlessly conformist society. In "Ganymeade", the protagonist escapes to a floating city at city, made up of hundreds of boats which spend most of their time tied together far from land. In "Shade" Elwell uses homelessness as a metaphor for humanists in modern America.
He is also the author of the non-fiction work, “The Actorʼs Notebook” a text on acting.
In 2007 Elwell launched "Wild Shore Press", and independent publishing house. Wild Shore has published several titles, perhaps most notably, “Letters from Lotusland”, a memoir of 60ʼs pop Icon Ian Whitcomb.
Film
In 1992 he produced the instructional video “So You Want To Be An Actor”.
Elwell is currently (as of 2010) producing a video version of his play "Cyberpunk Opera", using a mixture of live action and machinima filmed in the virtual world Second Life.
References
- ^ Interview with Don Elwell
- ^ Don Elwell. c.v. submitted to the author
- ^ Pensacola News Journal, May 25, 1996
- ^ ISBN 978-0595211852
- ^ Online Interview
- ^ The Playa del Fuego web site contains general information on the event, including the effigy, the Fire Team, and the event's relationship to Burning Man.
- ^ “Here is Somewhere Else”, Baltimore Citipaper
External links
- Greylight Theater, Selected Plays
- Greylight Playwrights
- Interview with Don Elwell
- Wild Shore Press
- Grindlebone Arts
- Review of Cyberpunk Opera
- Review of Cyberpunk Opera
- Edwin Booth: Two Act Plays - Introduced by Elwell
- Reviews of the Ganymeade Protocol
- an article about Grindlebone Arts
- Elwell Biography
Categories:- 1952 births
- Living people
- American dramatists and playwrights
- American novelists
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