CHRISTOPHER CARTMILL: News

THE FERRIS WHEEL SONG, a short film written and staring Christopher Cartmill (with Joe Schulz as the Childish Friend) and directed by Richard Jack and produced by Richard Ende is an Official Selection of the 8th Annual Coney Island Film Festival!

8th Annual Coney Island Film Festival
September 26-28, 2008
at Sideshows By The Seashore and The Coney Island Museum in the historic Brooklyn neighborhood Coney Island, New York!

High in the Odenwald, young Louisa von Landkurz waits to marry the Count von Altenberg, a man she has never met. When the Count appears, she is smitten -- but is he the real Count, a murderer, or a ghost? And for that matter, is the second Count real? Or the third Count? A gothic comedy full of mistaken identities, mysterious messages and ghostly appearances.

For your copy go to www.playscripts.com and plays an order. While you're at it get a copy of Christopher adaptation of THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW!

Washington & Lee University has chosen Christopher Cartmill to be the 2009 featured playwright for the seventh annual festival, following the likes of Paula Vogel and Neil LaBute.

Ruth E. Flournoy Theatre Endowment and celebrates the pivotal role of the playwright in theatre arts and encourages dramatic writing in the United States and throughout the world.

"Playwrights are the heart and soul of the theater. They challenge cultural assumptions, question cherished beliefs, resurrect forgotten values and revitalize the theater for each passing generation," said Joseph Martinez, theater department chairman. "Institutions of higher learning have an obligation to support playwrights and play writing as part of a rich liberal arts tradition."

Christopher will direct his play THE APOTHEOSIS OF VACLAV DRDA and a reading of another work to be announce will also be presented.

THE APOTHEOSIS OF VACLAV DRDA
2/5-7 at the Lenfest Center for the Performing Arts, Lexington, VA. For more information go to
www.wlu.edu

Christopher accompanied NET documentary maker/producer Christine Lesiak and associate producer Carol Brown to Ponca City, Oklahoma for the dedication of the Standing Bear Park & Museum. Events included; the Annual Standing Bear Pow Wow and the Museum dedication.

By Travis Coleman, Journal staff writer

Four years ago, Christopher Cartmill was no more than a curious outsider interested in the tales of Nebraska's American Indian tribes. Now, he's being trusted with telling the story of its members and one of its most heralded chiefs.

That transformation is documented in "The Nebraska Dispatches," a monologue based on journal entries Cartmill wrote while researching a play he was set to write on Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.

Standing Bear successfully argued in U.S. District Court in Omaha that an American Indian is a "person" deserving of certain rights. The decision allowed the Poncas to return to their land in modern day Knox County, Neb., that had been previously taken from them by the federal government.

But before he could write that play, Cartmill said he needed to learn more about the area's tribes, which led him to Renee New Holy, an Omaha tribal member from Macy, Neb.

"I felt that it was vital," said Cartmill, a playwright originally from Lincoln, Neb.

But after first meeting on the Omaha Indian Reservation, New Holy questioned why Cartmill, a non-Indian, would be interested in the stories of Standing Bear and other tribal people.

"(I told him) to tell this story, you have to understand what we've been through as Native people," New Holy said. "I saw myself as a gatekeeper. If you make it past me, you may have a chance to do something pretty awesome."

Cartmill wanted to write about the "powerful" story of Standing Bear's desire to go home, Cartmill said. But "Dispatches" details the changes he and New Holy went through in the year they spent together, also featuring the "bad use of cowboy boots and a very small car," Cartmill said.

"I was pretty ill prepared for the journey," Cartmill said.

"The Nebraska Dispatches" can be seen for free at 4:30 p.m. today at Valentine Parker Jr. Center in Macy. Following the performance, New Holy is set to perform a poem on American Indian youth suicide.

"Dispatches" is the first of three plays, with the last two using actors to tell Standing Bear's story. Those performances are set to be performed in the Omaha and Ponca tribal languages, Cartmill said. Cartmill has performed "Dispatches" in Lincoln and shows are planed in New York City later this year.

While those plays are still in production, the lessons Cartmill learned on American Indian life over the past year continue.

"It will never be done now," Cartmill said. "It's too much a part of my life."

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOK5vC0hCbw
Check it out. Forgive my "By God!" If I'd seen the dailies . . .

A reading of Christopher's ROMEO'S DREAM with an extraordinary cast; Jess Dickey, Jerry Richardson, Julie Evan Smith, William DeMeritt, Richard Ende, Joe Schulz, Samantha Brahms, Tom Budd, Virginia Lowery, Christine Marie Brown and John Wright.

Christopher performs the solo memoir in Lincoln, Nebraska; presented by the Lied Center for the Performing Arts at the Great Plains Study Center. With opening and closing prayer graciously given by Omaha elder Alice Saunsoci and a piece read by poet Renee New Holy.
Directed by Christine Marie Brown.
On the day of the celebration of Chief Standing Bear.

look for Christopher in a commercial for Verizon.

The Art Insitute of Chicago presents an amazing week of music and performance with the Silk Road Ensemble. WOW!
April 9th thru 15th.

The premiere of Christopher Cartmill's solo performance of his journals from Nebraska. Directed by Christine Marie Brown.
March 26th and 27th at the Access Theater, NYC and April 28th and 30th at THEATRELAB, NYC.

Suzie Devoe is an amazing actress and has created a solo performance of the works and wit of Dorothy Parker. This work is not to be missed. March 19th @ 7:30pm at the Access Theater, NYC.

Christopher's hilarious play THE ROBBERS OF MADDERBLOOM read at the Access Theater as a part of Gad's Hill's celebration of process during the run of THE APOTHEOSIS OF VACLAV DRDA. With Christine Brown, John Wright, Julie Evan Smith, Joe Schulz and more. WHAT A WAY TO CELEBRATE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY with a play writing in Ireland!

Christopher Cartmill's new play THE APOTHEOSIS runs at the Access Theater in NYC. Starring Kathleen O'Grady, John Wright, Quinn Michael Mattfield, Carter Roy, Carolyn Stone, Jason Grossman and Armand Anthony. Stagemanager Samantha Brahms. March 8 thru April 1.

A series of readings and VOICES and inspirations at one of the world's great museums. February 25 to March 3.

Christopher hosts a reading of Michael Milligan's new play, PHAETON.

Christopher Cartmill spent the weekend working with extraordinary musicians Betti Xiang (erhu), Omar Al Musfi (percussion) and Kinan Abu Afash at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Make plans for the premiere of Cartmill's new play - this March at New York's Access Theater. Directed by Yuval Hadadi.

On Monday, 2 October 2006 Christopher directs and the writer's collective GROOP curates an evening of readings to benefit the Hancock County Library. The readings will include the works of Faulkner, Williams, Armstrong and the live a capella vocals of Derrick McQueen. Actors reading that night will include Michelle Hurst, Kathleen Chalfant, Jay O. Sanders, among others. The reading takes place at the Chashama space, 217 East 42nd. $15 suggested donation.

Christopher gives four performances in one day to help kick off the Art Institute of Chicago's SILK ROAD Project. 30 September 2006 will be a day of extraordinary events at the AIC which will kick off a year long exploration of the Silk Road. Also performing will be Krithika Rajagopalan and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. Look for Christopher at the following events;
10:30am in Price Auditorium: WE'RE RIDING ON A CARAVAN
12:30pm in Price: TIME TRAVELLERS
1pm in Price: DRAGON'S IN THE MIST
2:30pm in Fullerton Auditorium:
PERSIA, MAJESTY AND RIDERS