Upcoming: Out of Ink Festival, ScriptWorks, April 19-21, 26-28

We are very excited to announce the creative team for this year's Out of Ink! April 19-21 and 26-28

Playwrights: Colin Denby Swanson, Trey Deason, Aimee Gonzalez, Anne Marie Newsome, Amparo Garcia-Crow, Marshall Maresca, Robert M Barr, Elizabeth Cobbe

Directors: Jason Phelps, Ellie McBride, Lowell Bartholomee, Sharon Sparlin, and Debbie Lynn Carriger

Dramaturgs: Kristen Harrison, Ellie McBride, Debbie Lynn Carriger

Production & Design Team: Christi Moore, Kayla Newman, Cassandra Castillo, Christina Smith, Pam Friday, George Marsolek, Jen Rogers and Robert Fisher

Scriptworks Dramatis Personae Lecture: Micah Magee on Found Storytelling, State Theatre, March 7

ScriptWorks Dramatis Personae Series presents Found Storytelling Workshop - telling global stories on a shoestring budget with Micah Magee
Wednesday, March 7th, 7-10pm at The State Theatre,719 Congress Ave. (click for map)

COST: $20 ScriptWorks members/ $30 general public
INFO/RESERVATIONS: info@scriptworks.org; 512-454-9727

What are our values as independent filmmakers or playwrights? How can we best use our limited resources to tell global stories?In this three-hour workshop, participants explore the narrative material of self and environment through place, memory and improvisation - using both fiction and documentary as storytelling material to create subjective universes Hollywood would never dream of building.

Writer/director Micah Magee will present ways of structuring found stories through archetype, fairy tale and a story-specific macro-dramaturgical analysis of time, character and place developed by screenwriter Armando Lao. Seeds of initial writing exercises will be further developed through partner writing, acting exercises and improvisation in the group.

Micah Magee is an award-winning writer and filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany and Troy, New York. In the past, Micah has worked as co-director of Cinematexas Film Festival, pirate radio programmer and (currently) full-time mom. She holds two undergraduate degrees from UT Austin (B.A. Plan II Liberal Arts/B.S. Film Production) and attended graduate school at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. She has taught at the DFFB in Berlin, Istanbul Film Academy and WizArt Art Academy in the Ukraine. Micah's films have taken her to festivals all over the world. She is overjoyed that they are finally taking her back to Texas with SXSW 2012! Micah has received a Fulbright Award in Journalism, a screenwriting fellowship from NYFA and an individual artist grant from NYSCA.

ScriptWorks is a playwright driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and to protect the playwright's
integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. The Dramatis Personae series was initiated to provide area
playwrights a place to experiment with their craft and expand their careers.

This project 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. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

Seeking Theatre Staff: FronteraFest by Scriptworks and Hyde Park Theatre

Received directly from Christina J. Moore:

AND

are currently seeking staff and production team members for FRONTERAFEST 2012, including festival coordinator, box office personnel, house managers, board operators, stage managers, and assistant stage managers. All staff and crew will receive a small stipend.

Please send resume and letter of interest to: Hyde Park Theatre; ATTN: FronteraFest; 511 W. 43rd St.; Austin, TX 78751; or send by email at fronterafest@hydeparktheatre.org.

FRONTERAFEST 2012 runs January 17 - February 18, 2012. This five-week-long performance festival presents a variety of performances in four different components: the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, Bring Your Own Venue, and Mi Casa es su Teatro. The 2012 iteration will be the nineteenth festival nd the eleventh to be presented by co-producing partners Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks.

ABOUT HYDE PARK THEATRE Hyde Park Theatre develops writers, designers, directors, and actors from within the Austin community, while at the same time producing works by exciting new and established voices of the alternative theatre scene. HPT works with a broad and diverse base of local artists to produce theater that confronts, challenges, and entertains. Hyde Park Theatre is funded in part by a cultural contract with the City of Austin and by the Texas Commission on the Arts

ABOUT SCRIPTWORKS ScriptWorks 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 in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and individual donors. For more information about Austin Script Works call 512-454-9727 or visit www.scriptworks.org.

FronteraFest 2012: Applications Available Now, Seminar on September 14

Received directly from

and

Applications for the 2012 FronteraFest Theatre festival in .pdf format are now available on-line (click to download)

They're accepted on a first-come, first-served basis until November 1

Dates: Long Fringe (90-minute slots) January 24 - February 5 at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre and the Blue Theatre

Short Fringe (30-minute slots) January 17 - February 18 at the Hyde Park Theatre

B.Y.O.V (Bring Your Own Venue) open

In its "Dramatis Personae" Series, Scriptworks presents

FRONTERAFEST 101
A primer in self-producing for the fringe

A workshop taught by Christina J. Moore

Wednesday, September 14, 7 p.m.
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. (click for map)
COST: $5 Scriptwork members; $10 othersl
INFO/RESERVATIONS: 512.454.9727; reserve@scriptworks.org

Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks, co-producers of FronteraFest, a five-week long performance festival held every January and February, announce that applications are now available for download at the Hyde Park Theatre website, www.hydeaparktheatre.org. The application deadline is November 1st and the application fees of $50 for the Short Fringe and $500 for the Long Fringe are discounted for those applying by October 1st.

The FronteraFest 101 workshop, led by ScriptWorks Executive Director and FronteraFest Producer Christina J. Moore, will guide participants through the process of preparing a piece for FronteraFest. From resources for finding actors, directors, and rehearsal space to the ins and outs of the technical rehearsal, we'll cover it all. Christina J. Moore is a director and producer whose work has been seen at The State Theatre, Zachary Scott Theatre Center, Mary Moody Northen Theater, Vortex Repertory Company, Capitol City Playhouse, Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre, Different Stages, and ScriptWorks (formerly Austin Script Works), which she helped found in 1997. FronteraFest 2012 will mark her eleventh year as producer of the festival under the joint enterprise of Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks.

About Scriptworks (formerly Austin Script Works) ScriptWorks is a playwrigh- driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and to protect the playwright's integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. The Dramatis Personae series was initiated to provide area playwrights a place to experiment with their craft and expand their careers.

About the Hyde Park Theatre. Hyde Park Theatre develops writers, designers, directors, and actors from within the Austin community, while at the same time producing works by exciting new and established voices of the alternative theatre scene.

Upcoming: Christi Moore on How to Produce for FronteraFest, Hyde Park Theatre, September 15

Received directly:

Austin Script Works Dramatis Personae Series

FRONTERAFEST 101
A primer in self-producing for the fringe
A workshop taught by Christina J. Moore
Wednesday, September 15, 7:00 pm

Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St.

COST: $5 Scriptworks members; $10 general admission

INFO/RESERVATIONS:
512.454.9727; christi@scriptworks.org

This workshop, led by ScriptWorks Executive Director and FronteraFest Producer Christina J. Moore, will guide participants through the process of preparing a piece for FronteraFest, the month-long festival to be held January 11 to February 12 at the Hyde Park Theatre and other venues. From resources for finding actors, directors, and rehearsal space to the ins and outs of the technical rehearsal, we'll cover it all.

Christina J. Moore is a director and producer whose work has been seen at The State Theatre, Zachary Scott Theatre Center, Mary Moody Northen Theater, Vortex Repertory Company, Capitol City Playhouse, Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre, Different Stages, and Austin Script Works, which she helped found in 1997. FronteraFest 2011 will mark her tenth year as producer of the festival under the joint enterprise of Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks.

ScriptWorks is a playwright-driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and to protect the playwright's integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. The Dramatis Personae series was initiated to provide area playwrights a place to experiment with their craft and expand their careers. Contact: Christi Moore @ 512-589-4055

Seminar: Writing the Impossible, with C. Denby Swanson, Austin Scriptworks at Dougherty Arts Center, June 26

Received directly:

Austin Script Works Dramatis Personae Series

WRITING THE IMPOSSIBLE

A workshop with Colin Denby Swanson

Saturday, June 26th from 2-4pm
Dougherty Arts Center , 1110 Barton Springs Rd.

COST: $20 ASW members/ $30 General
INFO/RESERVATIONS: 512.454.9727; christi@scriptworks.org

Playwright Jose Rivera encourages us to include at least one impossible thing in each of our plays. In the play that you are writing or even just thinking about, what is your one impossible thing? What *can* it be? We’ll study Rivera’s “36 Assumptions About Playwriting,” and specifically the idea of impossibility. The workshop will also include writing exercises to make room for impossibility in character, dialogue, scene direction and events.

More information at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Michael Michaelian, Dramatis Personae, Austin Scriptworks at State Theatre,

Received directly:

Austin Script Works Dramatis Personae Series

presents

STAGE TO SCREEN: AN OVERVIEW OF SCREENWRITING FOR PLAYWRIGHTS . . . AND EVERYONE ELSE

with MICHAEL MICHAELIAN

State Theatre, 719 Congress Avenue
Saturday, March 27, 2 - 5 p.m.

Admission: Austin Scriptworks members $25, general admission $40
Info and reservations: :512.454.9727; info@scriptworks.org

This 3 hour workshop will provide a practical approach to the basics of screenwriting with an emphasis on structure as well as the application of those basics to adapting your play for the screen. The "Business of the Business", including agents, meetings, deals and contracts, the Writers Guild of America, and credits will also be discussed.

Michael Michaelian has more than 36 years of experience as a screenwriter in motion pictures and television. He has written more than 50 episodes of such TV series as "Kung Fu", "Charlie's Angels", "The Quest" (Western Writers of America Award), "Fantasy Island", "Dukes of Hazzard" (story editor), and "Star Trek: The Next Generation". TV movies include an adaptation of Paul Gallico's "Miracle in the Wilderness" starring Kris Kristofferson for TNT and "The Black Fox" starring Christopher Reeve for CBS. His plays have been produced in London and the US. He holds a B.A. in film and an M.F.A. in theatre from UCLA and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Dramatists Guild.

Austin Script Works is a playwright-driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and to protect the playwright's integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. The Dramatis Personae series was initiated to provide area playwrights a place to experiment with their craft and expand their careers.

Austin Script Works is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, and is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, and by individual donors.

Upcoming: Steal Away, read by author John M. Lively, Austin Scriptworks at State Theatre, February 28

Found on-line:

SALON -- A Public Reading

STEAL AWAY
by John Lively
Sunday, Feb. 28 at 6:30 pm
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Steal Away tells the story of a young couple intrinsically connected but separated by East Texas race relations. Charlamaine and Tommy fall in love and live out their secret tryst under the cover of a hidden bayou. As the narrative unfolds, the outside world, with all their social mores encroaches upon their relationship with tragic consequences. Part Our Town and part Romeo and Juliet, Steal Away expresses fundamental truths measured beyond the known distinctions of race, color and creed.

Originally from Arlington, Texas, John Lively is a Texas Tech University Graduate with degrees in English and Theatre. His play Tear Down was featured in the 2009 FronteraFest Long Fringe.


The Salon

The backbone of Austin Script Works, the Salon provides a place for playwrights to hear their work in an informal setting. Monthly salons feature unrehearsed readings of finished plays or fragments from plays-in-progress by members and are followed by writer-driven discussions with ASW members. Salons usually occur on the last Sunday of the month at 6:30 PM. Members must have attended two salons before they can have on scheduled for their work. Prospective members are welcome to attend a Salon before joining.

Upcoming: Spill, reading by C. Denby Swanson sponsored by Austin Scriptworks, State Theatre, December 13

Found on-line:

Austin Scriptworks' December Salon
features

Spill

by C. Denby Swanson

Sunday, December 13 at 6:30 p.m.
The State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Spill is a modern take on Pandora’s Box, this time using Tupperware.

C. Denby Swanson is a former artistic director of Austin Script Works and on the faculty at Southwestern University. Her play A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits opens at Salvage Vanguard Theater on February 11, 2010 and is an Austin Script Works Finer Point Production.

Swanson's alumna profile at UT

Swanson's profile published by Portland Center Stage

[images published by Portland Center Stage and by Dalton Publishing]

Upcoming: Steven Dietz on the Art and Craft of Playmaking, Austin Scriptworks at the State Theatre, November 10

Received directly:

presents
in its Dramatis Personae Series

Steven Dietz on
The Art & Craft of Story Making

Tuesday, November 10 7:00-9:30 pm
The State Theatre,719 Congress Ave.

General Admission $40, Austin Scriptworks members, $25
information and reservations: 512.454.9727; info@scriptworks.org

[image: Ralph Barrera, Austin Statesman]

This master class with nationally-renowned playwright Steven Dietz will focus on the "living play." Simply putting words and action onstage does not "activate" a play, so what narrative strategies bring a theatrical story to life? Steven Dietz will describe candid and tangible tools of the playwright's craft used to make a play move, change, and push forward. In short: come to life.

Steven Dietz is one of America's most widely produced playwrights. Since 1983, his more than 30 plays have been regularly produced regionally, off-Broadway and internationally. His latest plays Yankee Tavern and Becky's New Car will be among the most produced plays at local and regional theatres this coming season. Mr. Dietz divides his time between Seattle and Austin, where he is professor of playwriting at the University of Texas.

ABOUT AUSTIN SCRIPT WORKS Austin Script Works is a playwright-driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and to protect the playwright's integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. The Dramatis Personae series was initiated to provide area playwrights a place to experiment with their craft and to expand their careers. Austin Script Works is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, and is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, and by individual donors.

Teacher, Teacher by Max Langert, Austin Scriptworks at the Off Center, June 12 - 27

Max Langert writes dialogue that pops and crackles, not just for the jokes but also because it springs from the characters. They speak to one another in the quick shorthand of coworkers under stress. Folks who know one another, perhaps too well. They can telegraph their messages, and they can needle one another persistently in an effort to keep a chaotic situation on track. There's no time or patience for introspection in the teachers' lounge at an urban Austin middle school.

The setting recalls many another farce, movie or situation comedy set in a work environment. Define your characters, set 'em to bounce off one another under stress, give 'em unexpected surprises, and let it rip. Langert sets up the qurks, director Ed Harrelson cranks up speed, and an assured cast of actors converts the characters into individuals.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Class: Building Character (without the bother of adversity), C. Denby Swanson at Austin Scriptworks, May 6 - 27

Announced on-line:

DRAMATIS PERSONAE WORKSHOP

BUILDING CHARACTER (without the bother of adversity)

A four week workshop with Colin Denby Swanson

Wednesdays, May 6, 13, 20, and 27, 7:00-9:30 pm
The State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.
All four sessions: $100 ASW members; $150 General
Drop-in rate: $30 ASW/ $40 General

INFO/RESERVATIONS: 512.454.9727; info@scriptworks.org

Your dad told you that cutting the lawn with clipping shears would build character. Maybe there’s an easier way. In this four-meeting workshop, we’ll experiment with ways to express, engage, and fortify the characters in your work. The adventure will include exercises on dialogue, objective, secrets, lies, non-verbal moments, and the power of focused (but intensive) revision.

Participants should see or read Caryl Churchill’s play A NUMBER (playing at Different Stages through May 10) before the May 7th meeting.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Auditions, April 21: Teacher, Teacher by Max Langert

Received from Austin Scriptworks:

Loaded Gun Theory is excited to be casting for its next show, Teacher Teacher, for production June 12th-27th. Looking for Actors/Actresses who are old enough to have earned a teacher's certificate. Auditions are at the Dougherty Arts Center Tuesday April 21st at 7:30PM, and are cold readings from the script. To schedule an audition call 280-4795 or email auditions@loadedguntheory.com.

Teacher, Teacher is a great new script by Max Langert that takes place in the teacher's lounge of a Texas high school. There are tornados, unconcious principals, stowaway teachers, and a runaway bus on the way to Mexico. You won't want to miss this hilarious comedy.

CANCELLED: Gary Garrison, Playwright and Exec Director of Dramatists' Guild, Blue Theatre, April 1

CANCELLED AS OF 3/31




Found on-line:




Dramatis Personae Workshop:

FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS ABOUT THE LIFE OF A WRITER

A workshop with Gary Garrison, Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild of America We are often taught how to write, but seldom taught how to be a writer. This workshop will explore the fundamental truths every writer should be aware of with regards to their career, craft and artistic collaborators.

7:30-9:30 PM Weds. April 1, 2009 Blue Theater 916 Springdal Rd.
Free to ASW members/ $10 General Public Info/Reservations: info@scriptworks.org, 512-454-9727

Read More . . . .

Upcoming: Time Steps, the 11th annual Out of Ink Ten Minute Play Showcase, Austin Scriptworks, March 26-28, April 2 - 4

Found on-line:

Time Steps
the 11th annual Out of Ink Ten Minute Play Showcase

March 26-28 and April 2-4, 2009 @ 8 PM
Blue Theater, 916 Springdale Road

Reservations: info-at-scriptworks.org/ 512-454-9727

Flashbacks, maternal admonitions, and all kinds of dances promenade through Time Steps, the 11th annual Out of Ink ten-minute play showcase. Eight plays were selected from submissions created during a 48-hour writing retreat, called the Weekend Fling. During the Fling, writers are given three “ingredients” and two days to write their hearts out and create a ten-minute play.

This year’s ingredients were:

1. The play must go backward, from beginning to end
2. Include a sudden dance break that causes a shift in the action
3. Include three things your mother told you not to do

At the end of the Fling, the plays were read in an ASW Salon at the State Theater. A selection committee picked eight of the plays to produce in the Out of Ink Festival. The selection committee included Michael John Garces, Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theatre in Los Angeles, Natalie George, local producer and lighting designer, and Emily Fordyce, ASW board member.

The Time Steps scripts were written by:
Katherine Catmull, Aimée Gonzalez, Meg Haley, Max Langert, Marshall Maresca, Susan McMath Platt, Sarah Saltwick and Timothy Thomas.

The plays will be performed by an ensemble of actors including Kelli Bland, Kenneth Bradley, David Dubose, Kathleen Fletcher, David Gallagher, Anne Hulsman, Michelle Keffer, Rhonda Kulhanek, Christopher Loveless, Nicole Marosis, and Zeb L. West.

They’ll be directed by T.J. Gonzales, Heather Huggins, Ellie McBride, and Christina J. Moore .

Tickets: $12 general admission, $10 students/seniors/ASW/ACoT
March 26 is a Pay-What-You-Wish preview

KUT-FM AUDIO FEATURE on the 2009 Out of Ink Festival

Interviews of Time Steps playwrights on Austinist.com, by Jooley Ann, March 25:

Marshal Ryan Maresca

Tim Thomas

Max Langert

Meg Haley

Upcoming: Reading of Homegrown Tomatoes by Micah McCoy, State Theatre, March 29

From the website:

an unrehearsed reading of

Homegrown Tomatoes by Micah McCoy

Sunday, March 29, 2009 @ 6:30 PM
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Fundamentalist seminary student Evan Beech can find no other shelter in all of Austin, TX but a shared living cooperative run by a “nest of backyard-pooping hippies.” When Evan’s famous televangelist father is caught up in a sex scandal, Evan and his new roommates are forced to face head-on the complexities and absurdities at both extremes of America’s ‘culture war.’

Micah McCoy is an Austin based freelance writer, playwright, and activist, recently returned from a year in Nairobi, Kenya where he worked as the communications officer for a non-profit relief and development organization. This is Micah’s first play.

About The Salon
The backbone of Austin Script Works, the Salon provides a place for playwrights to hear their work in an informal setting. Monthly salons feature unrehearsed readings of finished plays or fragments from plays-in-progress by members and are followed by writer-driven discussions with ASW members. Salons usually occur on the last Sunday of the month at 6:30 PM. Members must have attended two salons before they can have their own work on the schedule. Prospective members are welcome to attend a Salon before joining.