Playwright Sarah Ruhl Sponsored by Michener Center forWriters, University of Texas, October 16, 2013

DEX & ABBY by Allan Baker, staged readings at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, March 11 and 16, 2013

Abby Productions

presents staged readings of

Dex & Abby

by Allan Baker

directed by Stacey Glazer


and featuring Matt Burnett,Tom Byrne, David Henne, Jenny Lavery and Kelly Matthews

Monday, March 11 and Saturday, March 16, 7:30 p.m.
Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map

supported by a grant from Scriptworks

Though Sean and Jim are enjoying the beginning of a relationship and their new home together, their dogs, Abby and Dex, are not. Abby, Sean's young dog must learn to deal with Dex, who has been Jim's companion and protector for thirteen years.

Over a period of two years we watch the development of these two relationships and see how the dogs both resolve their conflicts and aid Sean and Jim in the resolution of theirs. Fortunately, all four characters are able to communicate in lovely and very unexpected ways. A funny, sweet and very moving tribute to the importance of the companions with whom we share our lives.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Teatro Vivo Invites Scripts for New Latino Play Festival; Deadline Is February 12, 2013

Teatro Vivo Call for Scripts from Texas Playwrights The 2013 Austin Latino New Play Festival (ALNPF) May 16 - 18, 2013, 8 p.m. 3 nights, 3 new plays at the Rollins Theatre Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin TX Deadline for submission by e-mail is midnight, February 12, 2013

The Austin Latino New Play Festival brings together playwrights and audience members together for staged readings and rich conversation about three new scripts, each running just one night. After each reading, the playwright, director and actors participate in moderated talkback sessions with the audience. Attendees are able here, to provide feedback to the playwrights. The focus for the 2013 ALNPF is on Texas/Tejano playwrights. ALNPF focused on Austin playwrights in 2011 and in 2012 on a national call for scripts. What is the process for Austin Latino New Play Festival (ALNPF)? How do I submit a script? The ALNPF provides an opportunity for Texas playwrights to hear, see, and receive feedback on their original works. The festival format brings together the playwright to work with a dramaturg, director, and actors to bring their play to life as a staged reading in front of an audience. The rehearsal process for each staged reading is approximately 1 1/2 weeks long. Guidelines for ALPNF scripts: *The script is a work by a Latino(a) playwright or focused on the lives of Latino(a)s. * Scripts already produced or scripts scheduled for full production before August 2013, do not qualify as a script in development. *The script is an original work. *The script utilizes both the English and Spanish language. Playwrights selected will... *be available and willing to collaborate with the dramaturg and the director that are selected to work with your play. *be available to participate in the development process via email, Skype or in person. *be available on to attend the reading of their play, and participate in a facilitated talk back with the audience immediately after the reading. We encourage playwrights to attend all three readings of the festival, if possible. This year's ALNPF will playwrights selected will be invited to share their work with with local writers and community members in a 60- to 90-minute workshop/dialogue the afternoon of their reading.

Click to go to the Teatro Vivo website for submission inforfmation
 

MOTHER HICKS and THE TASTE OF SUNRISE by Suzan Zeder, Staged Readings at the University of Texas, February 9, 2013

(University of Texas theatres, Winship Drama Bldg. (WIN), near 23rd St. and San Jacinto, Austin)

presents

Staged Reading of Mother Hicks by Suzan Zeder
February 9 at 2:30 p.m. at the B. Iden Payne Theatre
Audience members are invited to a reading of Mother Hicks, the first play of Suzan Zeder’s cherished Ware trilogy. Set against the stark backdrop of the Great Depression in Ware, Illinois, Mother Hicks introduces the audience to three outsiders: a deaf young man, Tuc; a foundling child, known only as Girl and a mysterious recluse, Mother Hicks, who the townspeople suspect of being a witch.

Staged Reading of The Taste of Sunrise by Suzan Zeder
February 9 at 4:30 p.m. at the B. Iden Payne Theatre
Set in the roaring twenties, The Taste of Sunrise tells of the night Tuc, the beloved leading character from Mother Hicks, loses his hearing. Follow him through his experiences at the School for the Deaf and his return to his hometown of Ware, Illinois.

* These abbreviated readings are free and open to the public.

Completing the Trilogy: Suzan Zeder's "The Edge of Peace"

The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents the world premiere of Suzan Zeder’s The Edge of Peace, February 1 – 10 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre (click for additional information at www.AustinLiveTheatre.com). Set in the last days of World War II, a young soldier from a small Illinois town has been declared missing in action. Buddy, the soldier’s little brother, refuses to believe what seems inevitable. Told through the visual poetry of sign language, the town's deaf postman shares the story of one community struggling to make sense of a world at war.

For playwright and UT professor Suzan Zeder, The Edge of Peace is about home and the challenges of leaving home, coming home, and staying home when the danger and adventure of the world is far away. Her cast of compelling characters, including “Tuc,” played by Chicago-based deaf actor Robert Schleifer, and “Nell Hicks,” played by veteran actress and UT professor Franchelle Dorn, takes the audience on a touching journey of loss, hope, and healing.

Zeder has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the nation’s leading playwrights for audiences of all ages. Her plays have been performed in all fifty states, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Germany, Israel, Ireland, and New Zealand. She is the three-time winner of the Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education.

The final play of Zeder’s acclaimed trilogy (Mother Hicks, The Taste of Sunrise), The Edge of Peace is produced in partnership with nationally acclaimed Seattle Children’s Theatre (SCT). Director Linda Hartzell (artistic director of SCT) describes Zeder’s masterpiece as a “a drama, mystery and adventure rolled into one. Audiences will fall in love with these characters and their stories. The play really demonstrates the interdependence of community members during times of crisis.”

ASL interpreted performances of The Edge of Peace are on February 3 at 2:00 p.m. and February 9 at 8:00 p.m. To arrange seating for an ASL interpreted performance, patrons should contact the Department of Theatre and Dance in advance at 512-232-5301.

Learn more the play and buy your tickets today!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

THE PICNIC PLAYS: Sunday Readings by Paper Chairs in February, 2013

presents

The Picnic Plays: Readings on Sunday in February

Each Sunday in February you’re invited to pull up a blanket someplace cozy and give listen to a play we think has promise, with a lively discussion to follow. This series will feature works by local writers Mark Stewart, Dallas Tate, and Elizabeth Doss and will also include The Suicide by Nikolai Erdman. Each reading will take place in a well-suited spot and will feature stellar paper chairs talent. Mark your calendars!
WHEN:
February 3:
Bomb Shelter by Mark Stewart
February 10:
The Suicide by Nikolai Erdman
February 17:
New Therapy by Dallas Tate
February 24:
Murder Ballad Murder Mystery: Redux by Elizabeth Doss
All readings begin at 2pm
WHERE:
All locations: TBA: check back on Facebook for more details, coming soon…

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: An Ordinary String by Hannah Bisewski, staged reading at the Blue Theatre, May 9

The Blue Theatre new plays series

presents

 

. . . . 'An Ordinary String'

...a new play by Hannah Bisewski

ONE NIGHT ONLY - Wednesday, May 9th at 8 pm

Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale

Blue Theatre hosts UT MFA playwriting graduate
Hannah Bisewski to present her newest play:
'An Ordinary String'

A mind-bending play within-a-play-within-a-play, in which stories encompass wandering theatre troupes, a steampunk turn-of-the-century magician, and an Old World cabaret. Bisewski originally developed and premiered 'An Ordinary String', co-directed by Melanie Scruggs and Hannah Bisewski, last fall during its earliest stages as part of the Plan II-affiliated Broccoli Project' at the University of Texas. Bisewski is a recent graduate of the University of Texas MFA Playwrighting Program and attends Columbia this Fall.

Blue Theatre Resident Director and Company of Actors are pleased to present a formal public staged reading of 'An Ordinary String', as part of our New Plays Series. Our Resident Artists support, develop, host and produce new works of multi-disciplinary art, performance and theatre. The New Plays Series/Writer Development Program is designed to give emerging playwrights an opportunity to develop these new works for the stage through open public staged readings held throughout the season. We encourage you to attend talk-backs with playwright, actors and director following each performance as feedback and open discussion play a fundamental part in the writer's creative process.

'An Ordinary String' will be presented at Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale, Austin, Texas 78702 on Wednesday, May 9th at 8 p.m.

Staged Reading FREE to attend. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated and support ongoing new plays development at the Blue Theatre. Reception to Follow.

Upcoming: What A Stranger May Know, outdoor readings, University of Texas South Campus Mall, April 16

presents

What a Stranger May Know

A site-specific outdoors simultaneous reading of 27 plays to commemorate 32 lives lost in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting

by Erik Ehn

Monday, April 16, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m.

The outdoor performance takes place on The University of Texas at Austin’s South Mall at Inner Campus Drive, Austin, Texas 78712.

Students, faculty and staff of The University of Texas at Austin community will participate in a daybreak tribute to those who lost their lives in the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings on April 16. What a Stranger May Know is a series of 32 plays, one for each victim, written by Erik Ehn, an internationally known artist-activist and the director of play writing at Brown University.

The University of Texas at Austin’s outdoor reading will follow Erik Ehn’s ambitious, plays-within-a-play format as a series of monologues. What a Stranger May Know is produced by Isaac Gomez, Michael Massey, Megan McQuaid and Sam Gorena, undergraduate students from the university’s Department of Theatre and Dance. The event will take place at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, April 16, on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, during the time of its occurrence in 2007.

Twenty-seven student actors will be scattered in different stations across the university’s South Mall leading up to the Tower, reading their 90-minute monologues simultaneously. Members of the audience are free to move about, wandering through the scenes as the stories unfold, or to stay with one selection throughout its entirety.

This community performance reaches beyond The University of Texas at Austin’s campus. What a Stranger May Know will be presented on April 16 at Santa Clara University, Brown University, City College of New York, Brandeis University, University of Ulster, The New School, The University of Texas at Arlington and Whittier College.

Join the conversation on facebook.

Upcoming: The Way of the Water by Caridad Svich, staged reading at the Hyde Park Theatre, April 3

Scriptworks and the Hyde Park Theatre

present a staged reading of

The Way of the Water

by Caridad Svich

Tuesday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.

Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. at Guadalupe (click for map)

Austin selected for reading of award-winning playwright's work marking two-year anniversary of Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill

Austin, along with several cities throughout the US and abroad will be the site of a multi-organization play reading of 2011 ATCA Francesca Primus Prize winning playwright Caridad Svich’s new play The Way of Water, marking the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill on Tuesday, April 3^rd at Hyde Park Theatre at 511 W. 43^rd Street. The reading is presented by Scriptworks and Hyde Park Theatre.

The project is spearheaded by the NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press, based out of Arizona, an unincorporated collective dedicated to the advocacy, production and publication of works expressive of cross-cultural and aesthetic diversity in the arts.

The Way of Water is a four character, two-act play that focuses on poverty in America and the devastation of the ongoing health and environmental crisis in the US Gulf region. The play was developed at the 2011 Winter Writers’ Retreat at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, after Svich’s extensive research.

The play, which deals with the aftermath of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effects on human health and the environment in the US Gulf region, is being made available for local presentations during the month of April to mark the two-year anniversary of the spill and increase awareness of environmental concerns.

Among the theaters that will be presenting the play are American Stage Theatre Company in St. Petersburg, FL; ScriptWorks and Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, TX; California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA; Cornell University’s Teatrotaller and Theatre Incognita in Ithaca, NY; EAST LA REP in Los Angeles, CA; Emerson College & Atomic Age Theater Company in Boston, MA; ion theatre company in San Diego, CA; Main Street Theatre in Houston, TX; Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe, NM; Vortex Theatre in Albuquerque, NM; internationally at Aberystwyth University in Wales/UK, Leeds University Workshop Theatre and Rose Bruford College in England/UK, and Pat the Dog in Ontario, Canada, and venues in Berlin, Sao Paolo, Australia and Turkey, and more than twenty US universities including Carnegie Mellon and UC-Davis. Additional presenting venues will be announced in the near future.

Caridad Svich’s other plays include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia…a rave fable, and The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende. The dramaturgy team for the international reading scheme for The Way of Water are Philadelphia-based dramaturge Heather Helinsky and New York City-based dramatist & dramaturge R. Alex Davis. The play’s premiere has not yet been announced.

For more information about Caridad Svich’s The Way of Water, visit http://www.nopassport.org/thewayofthewater

About NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press

Upcoming: Graves End, a musical, staged reading by the Red Dragon Players, Austin High School, March 9 and 10

present

GRAVES END

a New Musical based on Edgar Alan Poe

by James Merillat & Jesse Johnson

Public Performances
Friday, March 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 10 at 2:00 p.m.

Larry Preas Theatre, Austin High School, 1715 W. Cesar Chavez (click for map)

Free Admission

Composer and writer, James Merillat & Jesse Johnson, from New York City, are our guest artist. They are working our students to develop and write a new Gothic-horror musical called GRAVES END. This new piece is based on the works of Edgar Alan Poe, and there will be a staged reading performance this weekend.


Featuring: Katie Berlin, Jack Corcoran, Maura Kampa, Louise Root

With… Isabella Bontorin, Andrew Newton, Felipe Ramirez, Catherine Schwartz

Upcoming: Sam and Laura by Ron Powers, staged reading at the Blue Theatre, November 30

Found on-line:

presents a staged reading of

Sam and Laura

by Ron Powers

Wednesday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m.

at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale (click for map)

The BLUE Theatre New Play Series continues its monthly, staged readings of new theatre works by emerging playwrights with Sam and Laura, by Pulitzer Prize-winning and Emmy Award-winning journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer, Ron Powers. Powers will be in attendance the night of the staged reading to speak about the play on Wednesday, November 30th.

An imaginative extension of a true relationship in the life of Mark Twain, Sam and Laura is set in the present, and the action takes place in Laura Wright’s threadbare Los Angeles apartment and a Hollywood speakeasy in 1925. The staging features performances by Justin Scalise and Kathy Rose Center.

The free reading begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception with the playwright and cast after the reading. The BLUE Theatre is located at 916 Springdale Road. For more information, visit www.BlueTheatre.org.

Upcoming: Antarctica, staged reading, Crank Collective, October 25, Blue Theatre

Found on-line:

presents a free preview show of

Preview Crank Collective’s new show, Antarctica, for one night only: 8 p.m., Tuesday, October 25^th at the Blue Theater, 916 Springdale (click for map). In this special workshop preview performance, audience will be able to give feedback and determine the plot for the final scene.

A descendent of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton mounts a musical on a cruise ship, drifting into pack ice and the Antarctic winter. A one-hour musical comedy with a live band from Crank Collective, who brought you Drone, nominated for Best Musical for the 2011 Austin Critics Table Award.

Special free performance one night only: October 25^th at the Blue Theater, 916 Springdale at 8 PM. Info antarcticashow@gmail.com 512-569-6155 www.antarcticashow.com

Cast

Lucy Miller-Dowin		Cassidy Schlitz
Alexandra Russo		David Craig
Christian Huey		Matt Melton
Josh Meindertsma		Don Lampasone
Brandi Hollsten		Shannon McDermott

Upcoming: Rosie, staged reading of a new musical, University of Texas, September 17

Found on-line:

presents a staged reading of the new musical

ROSIE

ROSIE, a new musical based on the iconic character Rosie the Riveter, will be presented in a staged reading at the Department of Theatre and Dance. The reading is open to the public and admission is FREE.

Saturday, September 17 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

B. Iden Payne Theatre (WIN), Winship Drama Building

The Winship building is located on the East Mall circle near the intersection of San Jacinto and 23rd streets.
Parking available in the San Jacinto Garage on San Jacinto near Dean Keeton.

contacts: inquiry@uts.cc.utexas.edu tel. 512-471-5793

The ROSIE creative team includes Johanna McKeon (associate director of American Idiot), Larry Gatlin (award-winning country singer/songwriter), Michael Arthur (artist, Public Theatre, NYC) and playwrights Elizabeth Hemmerdinger and Anne de Mare. The cast includes students and alumni from the Department of Theatre and Dance and award-winning actors from the Austin community.

Open rehearsals: Patrons are also invited to observe the creative team and cast as they stage the new musical through the revision and rehearsal process. Open rehearsals are September 7-9 and 15-16 at 6:30-9:30 p.m. in the B. Iden Payne Theatre at the Winship Drama Building.

Upcoming: Reading of The Happy Ones by playwright Julie Marie Myatt, University of Texas, October 28

Received directly:

THE MICHENER CENTER FOR WRITERS
at the University of Texas at Austin

presents a reading of

The Happy Ones

by Julie Marie Myatt, Fall 2010 Michener Residency Author

Thursday, October 28, 7 p.m.

Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302, southeast corner of 24th & Speedway on theUT Campus

Orange County, California, 1975. For appliance salesman Walter Wells, it’s the happiest place on earth. He has a beautiful wife. Two great kids. A house with a pool. Contentment. Until fate strikes a devastating blow, leaving Walter with no reason to put the pieces of his life back together. He resists attempts to help, especially the unexpected — and unwanted — o er from a Vietnamese refugee named Bao Ngo, who bears his own sorrows. Across a cultural divide, Walter and Bao each look to the other for a way back, if not to happiness, then at least to peace.

Julie Marie Myatt’s The Happy Ones is the winner of the Ted Schmitt Award from the L.A. Drama Critics’ Circle honoring an outstanding new play . Her other recent work includes Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before being performed at the Kennedy Center in DC; My Wandering Boy; Sex Habits of American Women; and Boats on a River. Her plays The Joy of Having a Body, Zealot, and Mr. and Mrs. are all published by Playscripts,Inc.

A member of New Dramatists, Myatt lives in Los Angeles.