SNAPSHOTS, the OUT OF INK PLAY FESTIVAL 2013, Scriptworks at the Salvage Vanguard theatre, June 20 - 29, 2013 -

presents

OUT OF INK 2013

Snapshots

the 15th annual showcase of 10 minute plays

June 20-22 and 27-29, 2013 at 8 p.m.

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd. - click for map$15 general admission, $12 students/seniors/ScriptWorks
June 20th is a Pay-What-You-Wish preview

RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION: www.scriptworks.org512-454-9727

Whether it's avoiding adjectives, employing superheroes, crickets, or trunks, or finding a way to incorporate the opening and closing lines of Finnegan's Wake, ScriptWorks members have been up to the challenge of combining three arbitrary ingredients into cohesive ten-minute plays for 15 years.

Every year for the past 15 years, members have worked feverishly for 48 hours during the Weekend Fling to pen their opuses built around that year's three ingredients. And every year for the past 15 years, eight of the plays have been produced in the Out of Ink 10 minute play showcase. Over the years, the showcase has been performed at six different venues, from the long-gone Public Domain to the recently-gone Blue Theatre with stops at ACC, The State Theatre, The Hideout, Hyde Park Theatre, and Salvage Vanguard along the way.

Dozens of national and local theatre artists have contributed ingredients including Robert Faires of the Austin Chronicle, Michael Barnes of the Austin-American Statesman, director and casting director Vicky Boone, actors Ev Lunning and Babs George, designers Leilah Stewart, Ia Ensterä, and Natalie George, and playwrights Sherry Kramer, Suzan Zeder, Sibyl Kempson, Zell Miller, III, Naomi Iizuka, Dan Dietz, and Lisa D'Amour to name just a few.

This year the mini-festival returns to Salvage Vanguard and with eight plays inspired by the following ingredients:

1) The play must contain or involve a photograph--which two or more characters interpret the meaning of differently.
2) One character speaks only in commercial lingo, using known tag-lines or slogans.
3) The play must contain a gunshot or a birth.

At the end of the Weekend Fling, the plays were read in a ScriptWorks Salon at Hyde Park Theatre. A selection committee picked eight of the plays for production in Out of Ink. The selection committee included director Sharon Sparlin and non-applying members Elizabeth Cobbe and James Venhaus.

The Snapshots scripts were written by James Burnside, Trey Deason, Amparo Garcia-Crow, Kirk German, Zac Kline, Max Langert, Jason Rainey, and Anne Maria Wynter.

The plays will be performed by an ensemble of actors including Roxy Becker, Pete Betcher, Amy Chang, David DuBose, Nathanael Dunaway, Joe Hartman, Heather Huggins, Katie Kohler, Jordan Marrett, Don Sneed, Rommel Sulit, and Katy Taylor. They'll be directed by Lowell Bartholomee, Heather Huggins, Ellie McBride, Christina J. Moore, and Sharon Sparlin. Designers for the project are Pam Friday, George Marsolek, Jennifer Rogers, and Bryan Schneider.

ABOUT SCRIPTWORKS ScriptWorks (formerly Austin Script Works) is a playwright-driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and protect the writer's integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. ScriptWorks is funded and supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future.

For more information about ScriptWorks call 512-454-9727 or email: info@scriptworks.org
 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

TCG Interview: Amparo Garcia-Crow on Latino Theatre, May, 2013

From Theatre Communications Group -- a post as part of the Diversity & Inclusion blog salon led by Online Curator Jacqueline E. Lawton for the 2013 TCG National Conference: Learn Do Teach in Dallas. Check out further Diversity and Inclusion interviews on Jacqueline’s blog.)

Plays Are About Humans

JACQUELINE LAWTON: First, tell me about the work you do as a theatre artist or administrator.

AMPARO GARCIA-CROW: I am an inter-disciplinary artist who acts, directs, sings, writes plays, screenplays and songs; I am also a film artist currently working on a documentary film and supplement all of these delights by being a teaching artist at Austin Community College where I teach playwriting, intro to theatre and stage movement. A strong focus (and area of employment) for the last few years has been in storytelling and the development of solo work; I direct and coach a handful of performance artist/storytellers.

JL: How do you identify in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, and heritage? How has this identity influenced the work that you do?

AGC:I am Mexican American with a Chinese Mexican great grandmother and I am also a Tejana. (original Texan of Mexican descent) As a writer my race, ethnicity, culture and heritage became “a burden of representation” at the beginning, meaning I was committed to giving expression to every nuance of being exactly the combination I embody; as I mature I no longer limit what I write to any one focus, I let the muse dictate what wants to be created; as a professional actor, I still struggle with the narrow opportunities available to what used to be termed in film and television as “the exotic”; thankfully the breakdowns are finally stating after the name of the character– “all ethnicities considered”, however, the reality is that they still do not cast outside the box kind of the way Latino plays might be read at new work stage reading events but rarely produced; the most freedom I experience is in directing (and dramaturgy) where I get to cross all boundaries, bringing to life what the piece requires with the added awareness I have that I wish to create realities that are not bound by race, in fact the more I can push the expectations in any of these areas, the better.

JL: How has this identity impacted your ability to work in the American Theatre? Have certain opportunities been made available to you owing to “who” you are? Have certain doors been closed to you?

AGC: When my play Under a Western Sky was produced Off-Broadway and received a stellar New York Times review, I was disappointed to receive letters from mainstream publishers (Broadway Play Publishing, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service) to whom I submitted the play for publication–in essence they were saying similar things: “We think this is a provocative play but we do not think it will have a big enough audience” which was essentially saying, “we don’t think a play about a small Mexican American town in Texas where all but one of the characters is white” will sell. This was in the 1990s, don’t know that I would get that response now but it certainly was telling at the time that they had unquestioned beliefs about what an audience is willing to view if it involves characters outside the mainstream “ethnic” and racial demographics. I personally have never thought of plays that way–I’ve never said, “I don’t want to read or see Chekhov cause he writes about Russians.” It is assumed that plays are about humans and then we go from there.

Click 'Read more' for continuation at AustinLiveTheatre.com OR click here to view full text at www.tcg.com

Opportunity: Inside Theatre with Amparo Garcia Crow and Aralyn Hughes, 1000 Passions, June 1 - 13

presents

Inside Theatre

Opportunities June 1 - 13 $425 for up to four persons,

click to go to the web page

Observe the process of how a theatrical piece is conceived, step by step, by attending working rehearsals of a new show with acclaimed writer and director Amparo Garcia-Crow and performer Aralyn Hughes. You’ll have the chance to witness a work in development, with the unique opportunity of being able to contribute to its creation.

During the last year Amparo has developed and directed a series of interactive one-woman shows starring Aralyn Hughes, iconic artist and performer. The current show is called I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency), which will be performed at the Dougherty Arts Center in Austin on June 14th, 15th, and 16th. The 8th solo performance in the series, I.C.E. poses the question: "Who do you call to resuscitate you when you're no longer looking for love in all the wrong places?" If Gloria Steinem was your hero--and you too passed on the role of the "homemaker and motherly hand that rocks the cradle"--where did that all get you?

As part of your experience, you’ll spend the day with the director and actor as they rehearse, taking on an active role if you desire by giving feedback and interacting with the show and its content. The writing and creation of the material is an ongoing process, with changes and modifications being made every day. You’ll then return to see the show performed live and possibly participate as well, if your interaction proved integral to the material. Plans are being made to turn the series into a documentary film.

Join us for this unique chance to see how a show is brought to life, and experience cutting edge theater from the inside!

This unique event, for private groups of 1-3 people, is presented by 1000passions.com, a new website where people can buy behind the scenes experiences in entertainment, art, fashion, sports and nature. You can read more about the event, and book online, at: http://www.1000passions.com/en/entertainment-culture/listexpdetails/Inside_Theater-_One_Person_Show

Upcoming: 'Inside Theatre' Experience with Amparo Garcia-Crow, July 29 - August 6

Received directly:

Hi Michael,

We've seen your website about theater in Austin and think that you may be interested in an event we are promoting on 1000passions.com. We are a new website where people can buy unique personal experiences providing behind the scenes access to the worlds of art, crafts, music, food, film, sports, theater and nature.

We're launching our site with an amazing Inside Theater event in Austin Texas, with acclaimed writer/director Amparo Garcia Crow. This is a private group experience in which one can observe and participate in the creation of an original theatrical piece. You can read more about this experience at http://bit.ly/q7JkWR.

Please feel free to share this opportunity with your audience, and stay in touch for many more exciting experiences in Austin!

The 1000passions team
1000passions.com


Inside Theater: One Person Show
Observe the process of how a theatrical piece is conceived, step by step, by spending the day with acclaimed writer and director Amparo Garcia-Crow. You’ll have the chance to witness a work in development, with the unique opportunity of being able to contribute to its creation.

Amparo has been developing a series of interactive one woman shows starring Aralyn Hughes, iconic artist and performer, documenting Aralyn’s life and work over the course of a year. The current show is called The Moving Brunch, and you’re invited in on the fun. As part of your experience, you’ll spend the day with the director and actor as they rehearse, taking on an active role if you desire by giving feedback and interacting with the show and its content. You’ll then return to see the show performed live (August 7th), and possibly participate as well, if your interaction proved integral to the material. Plans are being made to turn the series into a documentary film.

Join us for this unique chance to see how a show is brought to life, and experience cutting edge theater from the inside!

Amparo Garcia-Crow is an award winning, multi-disciplinary artist who acts, sings, directs and writes plays, screenplays and songs. Her half hour film, “Loaves and Fishes” (which she also stars in) aired on the PBS series “Territories”, after premiering at SXSW Film Festival and the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. As an actress Amparo has performed at the Kennedy Center and other regional theaters in the Southwest. As a director, she has received the prestigious NEA/TCG Director’s Fellowship and has worked on new play development at various theaters including the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. A collection of her work “Between Misery and the Sun: The South Texas Plays” was published by No Passport Press in February 2009.

Price: $475 for a group of up to 3 people. Duration 5 hours. Price includes organic lunch and snacks, as well as a ticket to the performance.

Upcoming: In2 The West, Austin Community College, April 28 - 30

Found on-line:

In2 The West
directed by Amparo Garcia-Crow and Shelby Brammer

April 28-April 30, 8 p.m.

Austin Community College Rio Grande Campus, 1212 Rio Grande (click for map)
Tickets: $10 donations are suggested to help support the ACC Drama Department scholarship fund.

The Creative Writing and Drama Departments of Austin Community College present their 2011 production of IN 2 THE WEST, continuing a 20+ year tradition of presenting captivating original monologue portraits of people who live in the West.

IN 2 THE WEST features new regional performance literature written and performed by ACC creative writing students and student actors in a compelling and provocative showcase each spring. The growing collection of insightful monologue portraits of ordinary people who live in or who have come to the West is a unique collaboration between emerging literary and theatrical voices working with guest professionals. The showcase is an interdisciplinary effort of the ACC Creative Writing Department and Drama Department.