Upcoming: University of Texas New Theatre (UTNT), February 27 - March 9, 2014

UTNT (UT New Theatre), the annual showcase of new plays from The University of Texas at Austin M.F.A. Playwriting Program, returns this spring with five dynamic works by emerging playwrights. 

Now in its seventh iteration, UTNT 2014 presents the following:

 

 Preview Productions

Annie Jump
Written by Reina Hardy
Directed by Natalie Novacek

February 27, March 1, 7 at 8:00 p.m.
March 9 at 5:00 p.m.

Annie Jump is a 13-year-old science genius whose alien-obsessed father is the laughingstock of Strawberry, Kansas. One night in August, a meteor falls, and Annie meets Althea, an intergalactic supercomputer that manifests itself in the form of a mean girl with really nice hair. Althea’s here to help Annie take humanity from the earth to the stars, but being the Chosen One isn't all glory. What is Althea hiding? And what will Annie have to sacrifice to fulfill her destiny?

 Advance Man
Written by Abe Koogler
Directed by Will Davis

February 28, March 6, 8 at 8:00 p.m.
March 2 at 5:00 p.m.

Bear Creek is a small town. So when rumor spreads of an impending visit from the President himself, everyone gets very excited. There's just one problem – no one knows when he's coming, or why. And who's that mysterious man in a dark suit, asking all those questions? A dark comedy about the way we live now.

Individual tickets and ticket packages for these preview productions go on sale early January 2014.

Enhanced Readings/Presentations

‘ratio Visual Narrative by William Anderson
Text Narrative by David Turkel
Directed by Jess Hutchinson

March 1 at 11:00 a.m.
March 8 at 2:00 p.m.

In the weeks following Hamlet’s death, Horatio navigates a harrowing regime change at Elsinore under the rule of bloody-minded prince Fortinbras.

Still Now Written by Katie Bender
Directed by Rudy Ramirez

March 2, 9 at 2:00 p.m.

After witnessing the fall of the twin towers, Annie heads to Japan to study Butoh, looking for a dance form that expresses the destruction she can’t comprehend.  Ten years later, Annie is diagnosed with stage four cancer and returns to Butoh to prepare for her final dance. Still Now confronts us with the accelerated motion of a woman learning and losing her body, accompanied by the doctors, teachers, friends and lovers that become her partners in movement, to ask the question: what can our bodies teach us that our minds cannot fathom?

Or, “The One with the Dogs” Written by Briandaniel Oglesby
Directed by Jeremy Lee Cudd

March 1 at 2:00 p.m.
March 8 at 11:00 a.m.

In a crappy house surrounded by a dead walnut orchard, brothers Boomer and Dirt struggle with each other, with themselves, and with their dog-breeding business. As their prized pregnant pooch swells, they seem on the way to strike it big. Their dreams are disrupted when Boomer brings home Marisol, who should be a one-night stand, and Dirt finds a boy who will never grow up.

 UTNT (UT New Theatre) is curated by Steven Dietz and Gia Marotta. Performances are February 27 through March 9 in the Lab Theatre. Ticketing information will be available in December 2013.

Dramtis Personae: Delving into Character with Dael Orlandersmith, Scriptworks at the Hyde Park Theatre, April 3, 2013

DRAMATIS PERSONAE WORKSHOP COMING UP!

Delving Into Character

with Dael Orlandersmith
Wednesday, April 3rd at 7:00 pm
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 West 43rd St.

Contact Christi@scriptworks.org to sign up!

This workshop will explore character development using aspects of Carl Jung's work. The workshop will emphasize the inner life of characters and how and why they respond to the story set up by the playwright. How and why does a character think/respond to circumstances? How does the family background/environment play a role?

Dael Orlandersmith is an actress, poet and playwright who is best known for her Obie Award-winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman. Her latest project, a co-production between Berkeley Rep and the Goodman is Black N Blue Boys/Broken Men in which she plays male characters who have been abused. She will be doing a reading of that work at Austin Community College as part of their Arts and Humanities Festival on April 4th.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: 9 Lives (and Deaths) of Slapdash, Loaded Gun Theory, November 17

presents

9 Lives (and Deaths) of Slapdash

Slapdash Flimflammery 9

Loaded Gun Theory's (mostly) annual 24-hour play festival returns on November 17th! 7 writers locked in a dark theatre overnight. 7 directors and 21 actors rehearse all day and 7 new plays are brought to life at the Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo, near E. 7th and Robert Martinez, behind Joe's Bakery (click for map).

Performances at 8 p.m., November 17. Tickets $15 ($13 Creative Alliance members) available on-line through GetPlayTix.

Stage Goddess	Maddie Winston	Stage Manager
Writer	Travis Holmes	Writer
Writer	Aimee Gonzales	Writer
Writer	Trey Deason	Writer
Writer	Timothy Thomas	Writer
Writer	Anna Ford Larson	Writer
Writer	E. D. Harrelson	Writer
Writer	Gary Jaffe	Writer
Director	Lynn S. Beaver	Director
Director	Julie Winston-Thomas	Director
Director	Ian LeClair	Director
Director	Frank Benge	Director
Director	Ian King	Director
Director	Andrea Smith	Director
Director	Karen Jambon	Director
Actor	Bill Arnold	Actor
Actor	Amy Lewis	Actor
Actor	Le Easter	Actor
Actor	Zach Pettichord	Actor
Actor	Suzanne Balling	Actor
Actor	Mary Roark	Actor
Actor	John Dunn	Actor
Actor	Courtney Hopkin	Actor
Actor	Mick D'arcy	Actor
Actor	Jessica Medina	Actor
Actor	Alexandra Budziszewski Russo	Actor
Actor	Dawn Youngs	Actor
Actor	Marsha Sray	Actor
Actor	Robert Deike	Actor
Actor	Kurt Hildebrand	Actor
Actor	Andy Smith	Actor
Actor	Derek Jones	Actor
Actor	Kera Blay	Actor
Actor	Wray Crawford	Actor
Actor	Alison Farnell	Actor
Actor	Brian Schneider	Actor

(Click to return to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Playwright/UT Prof Steven Dietz Speaks at St. Ed's on March 29

St. Edward’s University’s Visiting Writers Series will host UT Austin Professor of Playwriting Steven Dietz, in their Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 pm.

Since 1983, Dietz’s thirty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Italy, Slovenia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa. His work has been translated into ten languages.

Mr. Dietz joins authors Oscar Casares and Debra Monroe, and poets Marie Howe and Naomi Shihab Nye on the list of celebrated writers that the Visiting Writers Series will be bringing to the St. Edward’s University campus for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Location: Maloney Room, 3rd Floor of the Main Building (at the center of the campus)
St. Edward’s University, 3001 South Congress Ave. (click for campus map)

[photo: Steven Dietz, via University of Texas]

Upcoming: Playwright Will Kern Lectures at Trinity University, San Antonio, January 30

Via

Trinity University Dept of Human Communication and Theatre

presents

a lecture by playwright Will Kern

Monday, January 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cafe Theatre located in the Ruth Taylor Theatre Building (#3 and #31 -- click for map)

Trinity University Campus, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas, 78212

Admission free -- no reserved places

Internationally known and produced playwright Will Kern will present a lecture at Trinity University on The Art of Playwriting. Mr. Kern's most famous work is the play Hellcab (1992). First produced as a late-night show by Famous Door Theatre in Chicago, the play, which was originally scheduled for twelve performances, ran for over nine years and is one of the longest running shows in Chicago theatre history. Hellcab has been performed all over the U.S. and abroad, including Scotland, Israel, Singapore, and Ireland. The play was adapted for the screen by Mr. Kern in 1998 and the film starred Gillian Anderson, John Cusak, Jullianne Morre, Laurie Metcalf, Harry Lennix and John C. Reilly.

Trinity University Dept of Human Communication and Theatre
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 7:30pm in the Cafe Theatre located in the Ruth Taylor Theatre Building.

Internationally known and produced playwright Will Kern will present a lecture at Trinity University on The Art of Playwriting. Mr. Kern's most famous work is the playHellcab (1992). First produced as a late-night show by Famous Door Theatre in Chicago, the play, which was originally scheduled for twelve performances, ran for over nine years and is one of the longest running shows in Chicago theatre history. Hellcabhas been performed all over the US and worldwide, including Scotland, Israel, Singapore, and Ireland. The play was adapted for the screen by Mr. Kern in 1998 staring Gillian Anderson, John Cusak, Jullianne Morre, Laurie Metcalf, Harry Lennix and John C. Rilly.

Location:Trinity University Campus, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas, 78212
Tickets:FREE
For Reservations: Limited seating and NO Reservations are being taken. Seating is on first come basis.

Upcoming: Back to the Flim Flam, Part 8, Loaded Gun Theory, October 1

Received directly:

presents

October 1, 8 p.m.

at the Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street (click for map)

Tickets $15 ($13 for members of the Austin Creative Alliance) Click to buy tickets on-line

24 hours before showtime 7 writers are locked in a theater. They give a line, they take a line. They write all night.

Early the next morning groggy directors, actors, and stage managers show up to rehearse frenetically and produce a fantastic night of theater for you at 8 p.m.

So what's the special sauce this year? We can't say much. But it has a little something to do with time...

Playwriting Competition: MetLife Nuestras Voces Seeks Latino Themes

Found at the Collective Leverage blog of Chicago Theatres, February 3:

Playwriting Competition

2011 Met Life Nuestras Voces

GUIDELINES FOR THE 2011 MET LIFE NUESTRAS VOCES NATIONAL PLAYWRITING COMPETITION

In 2000 MetLife Foundation and Repertorio Español joined forces to establish The MetLife Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition in the hopes of discovering new American plays by established and emerging playwrights writing about the many themes and topics relevant to the Latino communities across the United States—plays that may be under the radar in other venues. It has been our privilege to promote and develop new plays, encourage bright new talent to continue writing plays by providing this forum.

REQUIREMENTS:
*Please read carefully. Plays that do not meet the requirements will not be read.
-Playwrights may be Latino or of any other ethnic or racial background as long as the play’s subject matter and characters resonate with Latino audiences and accurately depict the Hispanic experience.
-No screenplays, one act plays, musicals, adaptations or translations will be accepted.
-New and un-produced plays preferred. Plays that have had readings or a workshop production are acceptable.
-All plays must be original and full-length (minimum running time: 1 hr., 30 min) and can be written in Spanish and/or English.
-Playwrights must be at least 18 years of age and residents of the United States or Puerto Rico.
-Previously submitted scripts are accepted unless they have already placed in the top 10.

SELECTION PROCESS:
-Each script will be read by two independent judges selected by Repertorio Español, on a blind submission.
-Winners will be announced six to seven months after the deadline.
-Each participant will be notified of the results by e - mail. We request that participants do not contact the office to inquire about the competition’s results.

PRIZES:
Round 1: Finalists will receive a staged reading at Repertorio to further develop the script.
Round 2: Grand Prize Winner: $3,000 and a full production at Repertorio Español
2nd Place: $2,000 3rd Place: $1,000 Two runners-up will receive $500 each

Click for additional information and link to online application form