THE MEMBERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK
INVITE YOU
A
Celebration of
the Next Generation
of New Plays in America
featuring professional readings
of excerpts of member-developed plays
Jane & J.B. Harrison
David Goldman & Carol Dweck
invite you to
An Evening to Benefit National New Play Network
Date:
Monday, March 31, 2008
Time:
6:30 p.m. - Wine, Hors d’oeuvres
7:30 p.m. - Scenes
8:15 p.m. - Light Buffet
Place:
The Hungarian House
213 East 82nd Street
(between 3rd & 2nd)
New York City
Suggested Donation:
$150 per person
(100% Tax Deductible)
RSVP:
Call 212.860.4559 for Reservations
NNPN ANNOUNCES
ZAYD DOHRN'S SICK
AS LATEST CONTINUED LIFE OF NEW PLAYS FUND PROJECT
NNPN is pleased to announce that SICK by Zayd Dohrn's new drama SICK is the latest play to be selected to participate in the Continued Life of New Plays Fund. Featured during NNPN's 2007 National Showcase of New Plays, SICK tells the story of Maxine and her two children, who can't leave their house due to their ultra-severe allergies. Allergic to oil, asbestos, cheez whiz, and city air, they survive on deliveries and internet chat rooms. But when Maxine’s husband brings a guest home to dinner, everyone's diseases spin out of control. As part of the project, SICK will be produced by Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas) May 30 - June 28, 2008; New Jeresey Repertory Company (Long Branch) March 1 - April 1, 2009; and Southern Rep (New Orleans) March 11 - April 5, 2009.
A NUMBER OF NNPN MEMBER-DEVELOPED
PLAYS
RECEIVE ACCOLADES
The American Theatre Critics Association has announced six finalists for the 2008 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, the largest playwrighting award in the country. Three of six finalists are plays that made their World Premieres at NNPN member theatres: END DAYS by Deborah Zoe Laufer, is currently a participant in NNPN's Contiued Life of New Plays program, thorugh which it received rollign world premieres at Florida Stage (West Palm beach) in October 2007, Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis) in January 2008, and an upcoming production at Curious Theatre Company (Denver) in July 2007. Also included as finalists are DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE by Sarah Ruhl, which was premiered by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington DC) in June 2007, and THE CROWD YOU'RE IN WITH by Rebecca Gilman, which premiered at Magic Theatre (San Francisco) in November 2007. Funded by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and administered by the American Theatre Critics Association, the Steinberg New Play Award awards $25,000 to the author of the first place script, as well as $7,500 each to the second and third place winners. The winning scripts will be announced March 29.
Read About the Steinberg Finalists in the March 6 Entry on
Miami Herald Theater Critic Christine Dolan's Drama Queen
2006 Smith Prize-winning script, TOPSY TURVY MOUSE by Peter Gil-Sheridan, was called "exceptional" in Tucson Citizen's recent review for Borderlands Theater's World Premiere production.
Read TOPSY TURVY MOUSE'S Tucson Citizen Review
Aditi Brennan Kapil's LOVE PERSON kicked off its three Continued Life Fund Project premieres with an outstanding production at Mixed Blood Theatre (Minneapolis). Future productions are scheduled at non-NNPN member theatre, Marin Theatre Company (Marin, CA) in April 2008 and Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis) in July 2008.
Read LOVE PERSON'S Star Tribune Review
and
Read LOVE PERSON'S TwinCities.com Review
2007 Smith Prize-winning script, BLACK GOLD by Seth Rozin, was a tremendous success for InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), where it permiered through NNPN's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in January 2008, before being produced by Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis) in April 2008, ArtsWest Playhouse (Seattle) in October 2008 and PROP Thtr Group (Chicago) in November 2008.
Read Excerpts of Several Reviews of BLACK GOLD
Playwright Mary Fengar Gail recently received
the 2008 Craig Noel Award for Best New Play from the
San Diego Theatre Critics Circle
for her play, DEVIL DOG SIX, which was originally commissioned through NNPN by InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia). The play's premiere production at Moxie Theatre (Encinitas, CA) in June 2007 was also chosen as as on of the "Top Ten Theater Productions" of the year by the Union-Tribune.
Find Out More About DEVIL DOG SIX at Moxie Theatre's Website
2007 SMITH PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED
BLACK GOLD
BY SETH ROZIN
NNPN is pleased to announce that Philadelphia playwright Seth Rozin's new comedy BLACK GOLD has been chosen to receive the 2007 Smith Prize. The Smith Prize is awarded annually to the best new play focusing on American politics. The play is currently scheduled to be produced by two NNPN member companies: InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA from January 25 - February 24, 2008 and Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, IN from April 10 - May 4, 2008.
Written in a unique theatrical style, wherein 6 actors play over 100 characters creating an epic tale that chronicles actions all around the globe, BLACK GOLD is a hilarious, fast-paced, vaudevillian take on what happens when Curtis Walker, a man living in Detroit’s inner-city, tries to find a sure-fire way to earn the cash he needs to send his only son to college. His answer? He purchases an oil rig on eBay, drills in his back yard, taps into one of America’s largest oil reserves, and turns world politics on its head.
Seth Rozin is the recipient of two playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts as well as a new play commission from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. His plays include MEN OF STONE (produced by Theater Catalyst in 2001, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play, published by Playscripts, Inc.), MISSING LINK produced by InterAct Theatre Company in 2002, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), REINVENTING EDEN (showcased by the National New Play Network in 2005, produced by InterAct in 2006), THE SPACE BETWEEN US (readings at Abingdon Theatre in New York and InterAct), and BLACK GOLD (showcased by the National New Play Network in 2006, additional production scheduled at Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis in 2008). He has also written the book and lyrics for a new musical entitled GONE WITH THE WIND: THE TRUE-LIFE STORY OF JOSEPH PUJOL, about the rise and fall of the world’s greatest farter. Seth is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where he has directed over 40 productions, including Israel Horovitz's LEBENSRAUM (winner of Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play, Outstanding Overall Production of a Play, and Outstanding Ensemble), and Jason Sherman's IT'S ALL TRUE (nominated for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production). He has twice been named "Best Director" by the Philadelphia Inquirer (for the world premiere of Thomas Gibbons' 6221 in 1993 and for LEBENSRAUM in 1999). Seth has also directed for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, Blue Heron Theatre and the 45th Street Theatre in New York, as well as Act II Playhouse, Venture Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and the University of Pennsylvania. He served as Chair of the National New Play Network from 2002-2006.
Finalists for the 2007 Smith Prize were HARM’S WAY by Shem Bitterman, which received a reading at NNPN's 2007 National Showcase of New Plays in November 2007 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C. in place of BLACK GOLD, which was featured in a reading during the 2006 National Showcase; DANNY CASOLARO DIED FOR YOU by Dominic Orlando; and HOLY GHOST by John Tuttle.
The winner of the first annual Smith Prize, announced in December 2006, was Peter Gil-Sheridan's TOPSY TURVY MOUSE, which is receiving its World Premiere production at NNPN member Borderlands Theatre in Tucson, AZ. The production is scheduled to run February 14 - March 8, 2008.
NNPN LAUNCHES PILOT PROJECTS OF NEW
EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS RESIDENCY PROGRAM
In Fall 2007, NNPN launched three pilot projects of its newest program, Emerging Playwright Residencies (EPR), a program in which NNPN offers a modest stipend to emerging writers graduating from qualified MFA playwriting programs who are chosen to be sponsored by NNPN member theatres for a period of one season. During the 2007/2008 pilot year, InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA hosts Sean Christopher Lewis, a graduate from University of Iowa's MFA Playwrights Workshop; New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA hosts Meron Langsner, a graduate of Brandeis University; and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey in Madison, NJ hosts Brett Williams, a graduate of Rutgers.
Currently, when graduates leave their playwriting programs they go out into the world with virtually no connections to professional theatres and little opportunity for continued artistic advancement. Many of these young playwrights move, by default, to New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, where they compete with thousands of other writers struggling to establish their careers and personal lives. Through EPR, which is similar in structure to a post-graduate fellowship, each participating member theatre sponsors an emerging resident playwright, selected for their talent, artistic vision, and interest in the type of work being produced by the theatre. The theatre provides the resident playwright with an artistic home for a year, while the playwright participates in the day-to-day life of that theatre. Playwrights have direct access to the artistic staff (artistic director, literary manager and/or dramaturg) for mentoring and dramaturgical consultation, as well as access to administrative resources and facilities for writing and developing their plays. Playwrights also gain entrée into the professional theatre community. The participating theatres, in turn, add a new member to their company who may participate in literary management, production, fundraising, outreach and audience development activities. Over time, it is the expectation that many of these playwrights will gain administrative, development and artistic experience while developing long-lasting relationships with the theatres and the theatre communities they have become invested in, which, in turn, will develop those same strong ties with the playwrights.
2007 NEW PLAY COMMISSION ANNOUNCED
SOUL ON VINYL
BOOK AND LYRICS BY MARY FENGAR GAIL
& MUSIC BY DENNIS MCCARTHY
NNPN, through member theatre New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, NJ, has announced that Mary Fengar Gail is the recipient of NNPN's 2007 New Play Commission. Ms. Gail is writing the book and lyrics to SOUL ON VINYL, with music by Dennis McCarthy. SOUL ON VINYL marks the 11th recipient, as well as the first musical, to receive NNPN's commission since the program's inception.
SOUL ON VINYL begins in 1982 in a dilapidated studio in New Orleans where Roger Billy Starks and his backup singers, the Angelicals, are recording gospel songs. In the middle of a song, Roger Billy sneezes, then collapses from a hemorrhagic stroke, and is subsequently institutionalized for 25 years. When he finally recovers in the year 2007, he is middle-aged, still devoutly religious, and utterly convinced that when he sneezed, his soul departed, escaping from his lips into the microphone. From there it slipped onto the master tape, and during mass production flew into the groove of a single vinyl record. Roger Billy decides that in order to recapture his spirit and his voice, he must find the album, so he arranges a reunion with his backup singers and asks them to join in his search. The three women’s lives have not gone as planned, so to humor Roger Billy’s delusion and with high hopes of resurrecting their careers, they meet him in New York City where they intend to explore second hand record shops selling old LPs. When their cab breaks down in the ghetto, Roger Billy begins to spin in circles like a whirling dervish. He believes this means his soul is beckoning from a turntable somewhere nearby, and henceforth the journey takes Roger Billy and the Angelicals on many adventures -- from a jail cell to Wall Street -- as they seek and find the exact location of the record where his spirit abides.
Mary Fengar Gail's plays include CARNIVALS OF DESIRE, FUCHSIA, JAMBULU, DRINK ME, THE GARDEN ON F STREET, THE BREASTS OF FORTUNA, and DEVIL DOG SIX. She has had readings, workshops and productions at various theatres including the Sundance Institute, the New York Stage and Film Company, the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Collaborative Arts Project 21 and Lark Theatres of New York, the InterAct Theatre of Philadelphia, the Attic and Moving Arts Theatres of Los Angeles, the Fritz Theatre of San Diego, and the Kitchen Dog Theatre of Dallas. She is a recipient of the Arnold Weissberger Award administered by New Dramatists, the Stanley Drama Award sponsored by Wagner College, the TheatreFest Playwriting Competition in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, the National Children's Theatre Festival Award and the Santa Fe Performing Arts Company's Playwriting Competition. Ms. Gail recently received commissions from South Coast Repertory of Costa Mesa and the National New Play Network, as well as a playwriting fellowship from the California Arts Council.
Ms. Gail previously received NNPN's New Play Commission for her play DEVIL DOG SIX, through NNPN member theatre InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA. DEVIL DOG SIX received its World Premiere production by MOXIE Theatre in San Diego, CA in June 2007.
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
ANNOUNCES FUNDING FOR 9 NNPN MEMBER THEATRES
& 5 CONTINUED LIFE OF NEW PLAYS FUND PRODUCTIONS
The National Endowment for the Arts recently announced the recipients of its 2008 Access to Artistic Excellence funding cycle. The list, available on NEA's website, included nine (9) NNPN member theatres and one (1) non-NNPN member theatre for its participation in a current NNPN Continued Life of New Plays Fund (CLNPF)project. In total, five (5) CLNPF project productions were recognized:
InterAct Theatre Company
Philadelphia, PA
To support the world premiere of HOUSE, DIVIDED (formerly EFRAT FROM AFAR) by playwright Larry Loebell as the centerpiece of a festival of new plays. Panel discussions and readings of new and contemporary plays that explore American perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will occur in conjunction with the production.
Kitchen Dog Theater Company
Dallas, TX
To support the New Works Festival, featuring a full production of a new work and a series of staged readings. The festival will include the Playwrights Under Progress Festival (PUP Fest), which offers local high school playwrights developmental workshops and staged readings of their original short plays.
Magic Theatre, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
To support the world premiere of TIR-NA-NOG (LAND OF YOUTH) by Irish novelist and playwright Edna O'Brien. Artistic director Chris Smith will direct the play.
Mixed Blood Theatre Company
Minneapolis, MN
To support the commissioning, development, and world premieres of LOVE PERSON by Aditi Kapil and Red Ink by Rhiana Yazzie and Native American playwrights. Artistic director Jack Reuler will serve as producer and Liz Engelman will serve as dramaturg for both productions, with accompanying outreach activities.
New Jersey Repertory Company
Long Branch, NJ
To support the world premiere of AND HER HAIR WENT WITH HER by Zina Camblin. Artistic director SuzAnne Barabas will oversee the production and casting and select the director.
Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey
Madison, NJ
To support THE FAIR HAIRED BOY by Sheldon Harnick, David Baker, and Ira Wallach with accompanying educational activities. In partnership with the Morris Museum/ Bickford Theatre, the musical will feature a revised book, lyrics, and music and be directed by associate artistic director James Glossman.
Southern Rep
New Orleans, LA
To support the development and production of FOR BETTER, a new play by Eric Coble. The project is part of the National New Play Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund (CLNPF), and will be directed by Gary Rucker.
Unicorn Theatre
Kansas City, MO
To support the world premiere of A HOUSE WITH NO WALLS by Thomas Gibbons. The play is a project of the National New Play Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund (CLNPF).
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Washington, DC
To support the continued development and world premiere of STUNNING by David Adjimi, who will be in residence at the theater during the play's rehearsal period. Artistic director Howard Shalwitz will lead the dramaturgical team, with direction by regional and national director Anne Kauffman.
Marin Theatre Company
Mill Valley, CA
To support LOVE PERSON by Aditi Kapil, one of the Three-Way National New Play Network World Premiere productions. Director Gia Forakis will direct the production, with accompanying outreach activities.
NNPN ANNOUNCES 2008 ANNUAL MEETING
MAY 30 & 31, 2008
Phoenix Theatre
Indianapolis, IN
NNPN's 2008 Annual Meeting will be hosted by member theatre Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, IN. The two day event will be held May 30-31, 2008 and will feature the annual meeting of the Board of Directors, as well as a production of OUR DAD IS IN ATLANTIS, written by Javier Malpica and translated by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, which was featured during NNPN's 2007 National Showcase of New Plays at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C.
NNPN'S
2007 NATIONAL SHOWCASE
OF NEW PLAYS
From November 9-11, 2007, National New Play Network, in conjunction with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Comany, hosted the 2007 National Showcase
of New Plays
in Washington D.C. The Showcase featured readings of six new plays:
THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
written by
Billy Aronson
THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE
written by
Mark Schultz
OUR DAD IS IN ATLANTIS
written by Javier Malpica
translated by
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas
SICK
written by Zayd Dohrn
WARD 57
written by Jessica Goldberg
2007 Smith Prize Finalist
HARM'S WAY
by Shem Bitterman
NNPN COMMISSION
RECIPIENT
NOMINATED FOR
PULITZER
PRIZE
RISING WATER, a new drama
commissioned by NNPN in 2006
through Southern Rep
in New Orleans,
has been nominated for the
2008 Pulitzer Prize in drama. The drama, written by
New Orleans-based playwright John
Biguenet,
was featured in NNPN's 2006
National Showcase
of New Plays and was a
recipient
of an Access
to Artistic Excellence
development
and production grant
from the
National Endowment for the Arts.
In RISING WATER, a couple awakens
in the middle of the night to find
their pitch-dark house filling with
water. Clambering into their attic,
and then onto their rooftop,
they struggle not only to survive
but also to keep the guttering flame
of their love from being extinguished.
For more information, visit
Southern
Rep's RISING WATER
page by clicking here.
SUPPORT NNPN AS YOU SURF THE WEB
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