Check out my interview by clicking on the Official Selection below!
My screenplay The Blind Spot won!
My Script, The Blind Spot, has been selected for the 2018 Catharsis International Film Festival in Belgium!
1st Session has been selected as a semi-finalist in the 2016 Sunnyside Shorts Film Festival.
1st Session has been selected to the TEXAS Ultimate Shorts Film Festival (February 2016)! Heeeeehaaaa, ya'll!
1st Session has been accepted at the Frames Film Festival (January 21–23, 2016) in Navi Mumbai, India!
In November 2015, I was a guest panelist at the Hunter College Graduate Theatre Department discussing Shakespeare in America and focusing on Orson Welles’ Shakespearean productions, notably his 1936 all African-American cast production of Macbeth in Harlem, and his innovative 1937 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for his Mercury Theatre.
My feature-length screenplay, The Blind Spot, has been accepted at the Oaxaca Film Festival running October 9-17, 2015.
Reviews are in from my play's London premiere:
'Nothing Could Surprise Me Now' was produced at London's Take Courage Theatre, Amersham Arms, 30th – 3rd July, 2015:
Directed by Michaela Frances Neal
Assistant Director: Chryssanthi Kouri
Narrator 1: Duncan Mason
Narrator 2: Louise Beresford
Narrator 3: Robert Wallis
Encompass Productions presents 'Bare Essentials' – New Writing / Theatre Review in Female Arts, by Carly Halse, 8 July, 2015.
'Nothing Could Surprise Me Now' by Alain G. Cloarec is a suitably upbeat and funny end to the evening, playing on a relatively simple concept – what if you woke up but found you could only narrate your own life in the third person?
Michaela Frances Neal does a good job of directing a complicated piece that ends with a never ending stream of over the top characters narrating furiously. Robert Wallis is particularly funny as the smug Narrator 3 here.
*******
"The Play's The Thing UK" - 2 JULY, 2015
Theatre Criticism & Articles by LAURA KRESSLY
NOTHING COULD SURPRISE ME NOW
Another example of absurdity, this is one of the better productions in Bare Essentials, by Alain G. Cloarec. Turning narration and metatheatricality on its head, it is brief but wonderfully funny. Characters enter the room one by one having awoken this morning only able to speak in the third person, rather like Gregor Samsa but less traumatic.
The “finale” then transcends the play, leading into a curtain call for the entire company. This is an excellent programming choice and some inventive directing by Michaela Frances Neal.
Louise Beresford & Duncan Mason
*******
Review of “Nothing Could Surprise Me Now” at the Take Courage Theatre, London
July 2, 2015 by Terry Eastham, London Theatre1 Reviews - Theatre News
The final production in this evening of entertainment was the intriguingly titled “Nothing Could Surprise Me Now” by Alain G. Cloarec.
How to describe this play? Well, imagine if you had to articulate everything you did – providing a third person past tense narration to your life. This is the problem faced by Narrator 1 (Duncan Mason) who has woken up unable to communicate but only able to narrate his life. This is bad enough but he is soon joined by Narrator 2 (Louise Beresford) who is suffering from the same complaint. Things become tough and then when Narrator 3 (Robert Wallis) arrives it all goes horribly wrong.
“Nothing Could Surprise Me Now” was full of constant surprises for the actors and audience alike as Director Michaela Frances Neil has great fun with the wonderful prose and the absurdity of the situation that the three narrators find themselves in. All three actors are superb in articulating their movements, feelings and thoughts as they go through the show. I have actually tried narrating my life this morning and it’s not easy, so I tip my hat to them.
My short play, Nothing Could Surprise Me Now, will be produced in London at the end of June and beginning of July by Encompass Productions as part of their summer edition of “BARE ESSENTIALS - London's best reviewed new writing night! An acclaimed series of events featuring new work from established and emerging international theatremakers,” (their words, not mine but I luv’em!…)
My short film, "1st Session," has been selected for the Windsor Independent Film Festival which will be held May 29-30, 2015 at the Raven Theater in Windsor California (north of San Francisco). "1st Session" will be shown in the "Films That Make Us Smile" category on May 30th at 7pm. If you're around that day, come on over!!! http://windsorfest.com/
Check out my post: In Honor Of Orson Welles' 100th Birthday, His Early Theatre Days Remembered.
What's Going On?
April 2015. It's official from Las Vegas, baby!
April 2015. It's official from Australia, my script The Blind Spot is a finalist!
April 12, 2015. It's official, from Vancouver, Canada!
February 2015. My short film 1st Session was chosen to receive the Award of Excellence in Filmmaking at the 2015 Canada International Film Festival which will take place April 11th & 12th 2015 in Vancouver.
January 2015. My full-length screenplay The Blind Spot has been accepted at the Colortape International Film Festival in Brisbane Australia!
I also took part as a performer in French multimedia artist Philippe Parreno's film shoot at the Park Avenue Armory the first weekend in January. A very interesting and imaginative experience!
December 2014. A terrific end of year with my screenwriting students!
November 2014. The film courses are up and running and the Screenwriting Workshop is particularly exciting with two period piece full-length screenplays being written and one short script that will be produced in Oslo in 2015 by a graduate of NSKI, the Norwegian Acting Institute, and member of Oslo's Dramadrivhuset (The Drama Greenhouse) where I taught a crash course for actors in writing and producing their own film and theatre works.
October 28, 2014. I will be part of a three-person theatre panel this evening at Hunter College. The topic: “The Influence and Legacy of the New Theatre Movement; the Theatre Guild; The Group Theatre; and the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration, and other left-leaning political theatre companies of the 1930s.” Now, that's what I call a topic!!!
October 17, 2014. The news from Oslo is that my Norwegian students did an incredible job with difficult roles. One of the two most important casting agents in Norway was present opening night and was very impressed with the quality of their work! Good job friends! Check out the photos on Facebook
October 15, 2014. My Norwegian students from the Norwegian Acting Institute will be opening tonight in Oslo and they're all going to be great, I know it! I will be with you in spirit from NYC - six hours earlier. Break a leg to all! Alain
Congrats to our film instructor Alain whose full-length psychological detective screenplay, The Blind Spot, is a finalist at the 2014 San Pedro International Film Festival in California!
September 2014
Alain has just returned from Oslo where he taught an intensive three week scene analysis and sense memory workshop at the Norwegian Acting Institute – Norsk Skuespillerinstitutt (NSKI) – Norway’s only Method Acting school, where he instructed some of the most talented young student actors and actresses he has ever met. They were all incredibly emotionally available, stimulated to learn and committed to the craft of acting. An amazing experience with the newest breed of future international bilingual professional theatre and film actors and actresses! For those of you who read Norwegian, check out NSKI's Facebook page: NSKI.
Alain was also a Guest Lecturer at Oslo’s Dramadrivhuset (The Drama Greenhouse) where he taught a crash course for actors in writing and producing their own film and theatre works.
Photo gallery of my workshop at NSKI in Olso. Click on photos to go forward:
Photo gallery of Oslo. Click on photos to go forward:
