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Plays • Journey to Benares • Night Angel • Boat Child |
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Journey to Benares First Performed at
Asia Society and Museum, Nov 2003 Journey to Benares charts the daunting spiritual journey that underlies and illuminates the seemingly harrowing love story of Lavinia, our heroine. Her deep passion for her lover, Benjy (an excessively driven New York producer), leads her through the desolate, frantic landscape of New York's downtown scene and S and M bars to the poverty-stricken streets of Benares, where Benjy has sent her in order to "cleanse her soul" of desire. As Lavinia makes her pilgrimage through the dramatic flaming city of the Dead to visit Benjy's guru, her world is shattered and her faith in humanity is almost destroyed. But her unflinching belief in the force of love sees her through a series of nightmarish betrayals, whilst the Indian gods Shiva and Parvati, who preside over the city of Benares, are, at last, moved by her steadily opening and compassionate heart. Finally, she experiences, together with us, a world of supreme bodily and cosmic bliss in the temple in Benares, where the gods Shiva and Parvati reveal to her their tantric dance to Love.
set design taken from Triptych Series
• for more information see Journey to Benares • see details on Journey to Benares at Asia Society & Museum • for tour and rights information contact info@camberporter.org
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Night
Angel A One-Woman Musical |
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First Performed at Lincoln Centers Clark Theater, Fall 1996 Night Angel is a poignant and witty one-woman musical about a cabaret singer's efforts to resurrect her life and career in the aftermath of a painful divorce. During her comeback attempt in a Newark, New Jersey, nightclub, she tries to pull together her act, emotions, and life. Night Angel features the exhilarating music of Carman Moore and presents fourteen songs, ranging from hard rock to mystic ballad to waltz, all strong on melody, rhythm, and unexpected harmonies. The songs feature the emotional narrative and lyrics of Melinda Camber Porter. Night Angel's Songs: Act I Louis Louisa Act II Boulevard St. Michel The set features Melinda Camber Porter's backdrop paintings: The Night Garden
60" x 36" ©1991
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Boat
Child A Comedy |
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by Melinda Camber Porter Blake Press, ISBN 0-9637552-0-X "Boat Child has great strengths, not the least of which is its stretches of brilliant comic insight. Some sections remind me of Shaw and Wilde. One can tell that there's real intelligence behind these lines and that the undercurrents run fast and deep here. A play like Boat Child immediately alerts us to an original persona here in the author, which is a rare matter, indeed. As a first play, we may rightly call it superb." —Peter Perhonis, chairman of SCENA Theatre Company of Washington, D.C. BOAT CHILD, a comedy, written and illustrated by Melinda Camber Porter (Blake Press). Originally performed at the National Theatre Conservatory of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Jennifer McCray Rincon, M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama and currently Director of Acting at the Denver Conservatory. BOAT CHILD is an uproarious comedy with a profound and disturbing center. Set in the amoral, greedy milieu of Hollywood in the eighties, it is a tale of irresponsibility gone awry. Malcolm, a successful British screenwriter, married to an American movie star, decides to adopt a boat child. But neither of them prepares for the arrival of the child the way a parent should. In fact, the mere thought of having to take care of someone other than themselves provokes the wildest, funniest and most revealing antics. BOAT CHILD shows what went wrong in the eighties and why America had to radically change its values. It is also a fascinating portrayal of the British-American connection, showing how the New and Old World interlock. BOAT CHILD explores in depth the fantasies that any expecting parents might have while awaiting the arrival of their baby.
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The Works of Melinda Camber Porter info@camberporter.org |
