N  E  W  S

UPCOMING EVENTS

February 28th - March 2nd, 2013

Anam Cara Theatre in West Asheville will present John Crutchfield's award-winning play TWELVE TREATISES ON MEMORY: An Epistemological Slapstick (With Sock Puppets). Directed and produced by Rachel Thomas-Levy and starring Dahlia Legault and Glenn Reed, with live music by Dylan Suter, the play tells the story of a strange night in which two "first loves" meet again after a long separation.

All performances at 8pm.

For more info, click here.

February 28th - March 23rd, 2013

The Magnetic Theatre will present the world premier of THE STRANGE AND TRAGICAL ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO, or: Why Didn't I Just Stay a Damn Puppet?, A Morality Play In Two Inappropriate Acts, by John Crutchfield

An irreverent and phantasmogorical adaptation of the original story by Carlo Collodi (famously prettified by Walt Disney in the 1940 animated filme), the show is directed by the playwright, and features an ensemble of Asheville's finest actors playing dozens of different roles--with celebrated puppeteer Madison J. Cripps as the title character. With sound design by Mary Zogzas, lighting design by Jason Williams, costume design by Elizabeth Evans, and set design by Kehren Barbour.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm. Thursday, February 28th and Friday, March 1st are previews.

For more info, click here.

OTHER NEWS

photo by Peter Brezny

COME THICK NIGHT: A Shakespearean Gruselkabinett, by John Crutchfield

This past January, My Favorite Leg Theatrical Company presented the world premier of John Crutchfield's "chamber of horrors" as part of the 2013 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival.

A nightmarish mash-up of Macbeth and other unspecified but probably dubious sources, the play was directed by the playwright, and featured virtuoso performances by Laura Tratnik and Erik Moellering, with sound design by Mary Zogzas.

On October 16, 2012, Asheville's original low-fi trio, Train on the Island gave a concert at The Magnetic Field on Depot Street in Asheville's River Arts District.

The band comprises Ben Yanes, Sadie Adams, and John Crutchfield, playing original folk songs plus distinctive interpretations of traditional Appalachian string-band repertoire on banjo, guitar, fiddle, bass drum, harmonica, rust-bucket, slide guitar, mandolin, tomato shaker, tambourine, and three strong voices.

Plans are underway for the band to record a first record…

photo by Peter Brezny

Writing For This Stage, These Actors, This Town

Arts Journalist Carol Polsgrove interviewed John Crutchfield on September 27th, 2012 for her website Writers' Lives. Among the topics they discussed is Crutchfield's latest play, Landscape With Missing Person.

To read the interview, click here.

*PLAYSCRIPTS AVAILABLE

Full-text playscripts of selected dramatic works by John Crutchfield are now available online at Indie Theatre Now. At present, available scripts include the verse-play triptych of The Songs of Robert, a delightful one-man show about a boy growing up in Southern Appalachia, Ruth, a contemporary adaptaptation of the Biblical story, and The Labyrinth, a wild modern day re-telling of the Orpheus myth. Also available is the unsettling black comedy, Solstice; and coming soon are Ivory, a realistic drama about personal and professional betrayal in the halls of Academia, and Landscape With Missing Person, an "existential romantic comedy" about two misfits journeying across America.

For more info, click here.

*BLACK SNOW FLYING UPWARDS, or: My Embarrassment

This past July, Asheville audiences and fans of the perennial Asheville Fringe Arts Festival were treated to a rare reprise of John Crutchfield's strange and riotous solo dance-monologue, Black Snow Flying Upwards, or: My Embarrassment. The occasion was a benefit show for the Festival, presented at the venerable BeBe Theatre on Commerce Street in downtown Asheville, and featured an array of past Festival artists.

For more info on the play, or to download a script, see the "Plays" section on this website.

*LANDSCAPE WITH MISSING PERSON: An Existential Rom-Com

In August of 2012, The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville's River Arts District presented the world premier of John Crutchfield's "existential romantic-comedy" about a pair of misfits on a journey across America in search of True Love.

The show was directed by Steve Samuels, featured set design by Don Baker, sound design by Mary Zogzas, lighting design by Jason Williams, costume design by Laura Tratnik, prop design by Rodney Smith, and starred Lisa Smith, Jennifer Gatti, and the playwright.

The show played for a month to enthusiastic houses; plans are now being made for a film version.

*SOLSTICE: A Volatile Black Comedy For The Darkest Night Of The Year

John Crutchfield's explosive chamber-theatre piece, SOLSTICE, which premiered this January, was a cult hit for Asheville's Magnetic Theatre, and garnered rave reviews from the local press. Directed by the playwright, starring Asheville favorites Scott Fisher, Glenn Reed, and Lisa Smith, and featuring an original musical score by Mary Castellaneta, set design by Annette Griffin, and lighting design by Ryan Madden, the play enjoyed a near-sold-out run.

Mountain XPress reviewer David Hopes called the play "simply masterful" and "absolutely convincing and compelling down to the syllable."

To read the full review, click here: XPess review

*THE SOUTHERN POETRY ANTHOLOGY, vol. III: Contemporary Appalachia

Now available from Texas Review Press

Among the many celebrated and emerging Appalachian poets featured in the new volume of The Southern Poetry Anthology, John Crutchfield lays claim to a page or two with his poems "Ox Creek Road," Wild Leeks," "Trout Lake," and "Meteor Shower," all taken from the unpublished manuscript Blackberry Winter.

For more information, click here: Southern Poetry Anthology

*THE BARS OF ATLANTIS: Selected Essays of Durs Grünbein

Now available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Translated from the German by John Crutchfield, Michael Hofmann, and Andrew Shields

Edited by Michael Eskin, who praises Crutchfield's translations for having "beautifully caught the original's stylistic visage...with great fidelity and elegance, while...retaining its mild-to-medium-strong undercurrent of wryness and irony," and for having "managed to follow the original on its many stylistic and intellectual explorations without sacrifiing sense and logical consistency."

For more information, click here: The Bars of Atlantis

*LOCAL BOY GOES TO BIG CITY, MAKES GOOD

THE SONGS OF ROBERT wins "Outstanding Solo Show" at FringeNYC 2009

In August, 2009, John Crutchfield took his quirkily poetic one-man show, The Songs of Robert, to the New York International Fringe Festival. The show ran for five performances at the Milagro Theatre on Suffolk Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side, garnered two very positive reviews, and won the Festival's Overall Excellence Award for "Outstanding Solo Show." For the New York production, Crutchfield worked closely with director Steve Samuels (Artistic Director of The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville) and producer Chall Gray.

To read what the critics had to say, click on the links below:

Time Out New York       NYTheatre

The official playscript is now avalable in the anthology, Plays and Playwrights 2010, edited by Martin Denton. For more information, click here:   Plays and Playwrights 2010

To read the full script online, click here:  Indie Theatre Now

To read Martin Denton's "cyber interview" with John Crutchfield, click here:   Crutchfield interview