On the Trail of the Bespectacled Grouse by Jannie Wolff

ISBN #1-933159-17-0
#2005-0013

Cast

• MAN: Professional, wears a suit, works in publishing, WASPy old boy-type, 50. A trade publisher by profession, he is an ornithologist by hobby, but he is hoping with careful research during his lunch hour each day to document the existence of a truly unique bird, proving his own private theory that although one species of bird may look alike, within that species are not only subspecies, but subspecies of the subspecies to infinity so that in the end no two are the same
• WOMAN: Secretary at an investment company, Puerto Rican, early-30s. She lives a long bus ride from the city

Plot Summary

On the Trail of the Bespectacled Grouse takes place in a large park in the midst of a great city, perhaps Central Park in Manhattan, that is known as a haven for bird watchers.

Author Biography

Jannie Wolff is an actress and writer who lives in Manhattan. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she spent her first year in New York working with the Circle Repertory Company (now Circle East) and became a member of that company’s LAB the following year. Since then she has appeared in over 40 plays and independent films in New York and has had her work produced by various organizations including Circle East, Chashama, La Mama Etc., HERE Theater, Evolving Arts, HOME For Contemporary Theatre, and The Duplex. Her voice can currently be heard at the Cloisters Museum describing the permanent collection.

For the past seven years she has produced evenings of new theater, music and art in downtown locations such as the Knitting Factory, the Bell Caffé, the Orange Bear, South’s, the Tilton Gallery and The DEKK. Her full length play, Coyote, was selected for the NYSSA/South Hampton College workshop in July, 2000; her short play, Conductors, was a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville Year 2000 Heideman Award. Another short play, Happy Hour, was produced that same year at the HERE Theatre as part of Circle East’s festival "A Full Circle of Plays." In 2001 she collaborated on a screenplay with Steven Berkoff. Her poem, Voices, was selected as a finalist for the International Library of Poetry’s annual contest and was included in their anthology published in the Summer of 2001. Later that year she was named a semi-finalist for the Chesterfield Writer’s 2001 Film Project. In the fall of 2001, she developed the concept of the Manhattan Revitalization Project. In response to economic concerns, the project brought jewelry designers and artisans together with restaurants and retailers for evenings designed to promote art and commerce throughout Manhattan. Her photographs and poetry are part of the September 11 Photo Project and were published as part of a collection from that exhibit in April of 2002; her work is also featured in the spring 2002 issue of the literary journal How2 as part of a section on women writers’ responses to September 11. In August of 2002, a collaboration with a photographer and interior designer resulted in a show at the Belmont Lounge, "New York: Through My Friend’s Eye," a personalized look at people and places throughout Manhattan and the five boroughs, told through poetry and photography.

In August of 2003, her short play A Box of Candied Violets was produced at the American Theatre of Actors. Two articles she wrote on home renovation were published in the March 2004 issue of New York Interiors Quarterly, and her short play Happy Hour was produced at the Piano Factory in Boston’s South End in June. An article about theater collaborations was published in the Summer 2004 issue of OutLet, a Boston-based performance magazine, and her short story A General Theory of Relativity was published in the Fall/Winter 2004-2005 issue of the literary journal Entelechy. An article about a recent sailing adventure will be published in a spring 2005 issue of the magazine Offshore Boating. She has just completed writing a screenplay in collaboration with London producer Ana Torres-Alvarez, and a television pilot in collaboration with New York producer Pierre Romaine. In another creative collaboration, she helped introduce Belgian artist Jean Claude Wouters to Manhattan gallerist Ariel Meyerowitz. His work will be premiered in the United States at the Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery in May and June of 2005.

$18/package +
$30/performance royalty