The fifth vignette in the "Artaud Line-Up"
playing June 17th, 20th, 26th, 27th, July 1st, 8th, 10th, and 11th
as part of "sUBVERsIVE sHORTs" 2010
HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME
by Diane Sampson of San Francisco, California
Directed by Bob Van Valin
Starring
Hasheen
DeBerry* as "Donald"
Michael Renna as "Henry"
Scot Kaitanowski as "Gordon"
ABOUT THE PLAY.
"How You Play the Game" is an all-too-realistic drama about
a Black South African and a well-intentioned American Peace Corpse worker
struggling to keep afloat an independent safari lodge. They think
they've found a way to break free of the oppressive systems of the past, but
the old prejudices and privileges keep rearing their ugly heads.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT.
Diane Sampson earned an M.A. in Creative
Writing from SF State University. She
spent time in arts administration, and then settled down to write.
For 5 years, Diane has been a member of PlayGround, a competitively
chosen pool of 36 Bay Area playwrights working in the 10-minute play form, and
her plays Stuck; Three Women on a Bench, Talking; Who’s My Baby
Now?; Poetic License and Monsters at Home and Abroad, His New Best Friend, and Facelift
have all been performed within the past several years at California theaters.
Poetic License was Grand Prize Winner in the 2006 Eclectic
Company Theatre’s 3rd Annual Hurricane Season in southern California.
Her full-length dark comedy, Charlotte Takes the Plunge, has had
two staged readings. She has also worked as composer/lyricist and co-author of the
book for two musicals, Oh, Progeny! and Writes and Re-writes.
The first, a musical revue about the ups and downs of raising children
in the new millennium, has had two productions in the SF Bay Area, and a
developmental staged reading at New York’s York Theatre.
Writes and Re-writes, a book musical about the ways in which we
re-invent our histories to make sense of our lives, won Not Quite Opera’s
2003 New Musicals Competition in the SF Bay Area.
Diane’s short play, The
Sound of Moonlight, will receive a production in Santa Cruz,
California in early 2009.  ABOUT THE CAST.
Hasheen
DeBerry* ("Donald")
Hasheen
is no stranger to the stage. Since 2001 he has worked on both sides of
the curtain for companies such as Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions, Road Less
Traveled Productions, the New Phoenix theatre, O’Connell and Company, and
Subversive Theatre. He most recently appeared on stage in Langston
Hughes’ "Harvest."
Hasheen currently serves as the Production manager for Road Less Traveled
Productions. Hasheen is very honored and excited to perform before you
today. He is also performing in the play CLIMATE
CHANGE AND THE COURTESAN, the second vignette of this Showcase's
"Brecht" Line-up.
 Michael
Renna ("Henry")
Michael
is excited to be a part of "How You Play the
Game" and
this festival over all. He was trained at the University at Buffalo
and has been seen in productions with the Alt Theater, Torn Space and
American Repertory
Theatre. His highlights include "The Fastest Clock in The
Universe", "The Rocky Horror Show",
"Red Clay" and "Not".
 Scot
Kaitanowski ("Gordon")
Scot
has appeared in a number of theater productions in the region including Crimes
of the Heart, Mass Appeal, Tribute, The Good Doctor, and The
Glass Menagerie with The WS Players, Tony and Tina’s
Wedding with Actors Anonymous, Noises Off with
Rocking Horse Productions and Funny Money with The Lancaster
Regional Players, in which he received a Meritorious Achievement Award from
The Theatre Association of NYS. He also toured nationally with Indigo
Productions in productions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The
Miracle Worker, Peter Pan and The Hobbit. He recently
starred in the short film, “Fight!” by Nathan Lewinski which was
juried at the Chicago Film Festival and Sundance.
Scot is also performing in the play DO/DON'T
DO, the second vignette of this Showcase's "Artaud"
Line-up. This is Scot's first time working with Subversive Theatre.
 ABOUT THE DIRECTOR.
Bob Van Valin
Bob
is a recent graduate of the University at Buffalo, is ecstatic to be directing
for Subversive. At UB he was the Theatre Student Guild Co-President,
Assistant Director on The Cherry Orchard
under Kazimierz Braun, and directed several pieces of his own,
including: This
is Our Youth, Samuel Beckett’s
Rough for Theatre I,
Harold Pinter’s The Dwarfs, and The
Universal Language and Variations
on the Death of Trotsky from David
Ives’ All in the Timing.
Bob would like to thank Kurt Schneiderman for giving him
his first professional directing opportunity.
* = indicates members of the Subversive Theatre
Collective
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