Breaking Ground 2008

The press release with full details should be out any day - but here are some of the details of this year's 5th Anniversary Breaking Ground Festival at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts - April 3-6, 2008. Hope to see you there!

THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 7:30p

Unknown Soldier

Music and Lyrics by Michael Friedman, Book and Lyrics by Daniel Goldstein

Directed by Will Frears

This epistolary chamber musical’s intimacy beautifully conveys the tale of WWI-era lovers separated by time and space. When a modern-era woman discovers their letters, the past becomes present as she enlists the help of a researcher far away, and their correspondence begins to mirror that of previous generations. Unknown Soldier is the result of a commission from the Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.

FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 8p

Sense of an Ending

By Ken Urban

Directed by Evan Cabnet

An African-American journalist arrives in the land of his ancestors to uncover dark truths about an act of genocide. The trip becomes something more troubling, however, when he finds he may be part of the story. After he meets a survivor, the journalist struggles to understand the nature of man's inhumanity, and to find the path that returns us to the best versions of ourselves. Ken Urban is a current Huntington Playwriting Fellow.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2p

Thomas Repair

By Mat Smart

Directed by Melia Bensussen

A family crisis ensues when a mysterious girl appears in Jacob Thomas’ quirky repair shop. She’s blue – literally and figuratively – and as she attempts to “come clean,” the relationships around her are thrown into chaos. Things left unsaid begin to fester and rot, and she proves she might be the only one who knows how to fix what’s long been broken. Thomas Repair is the result of a commission from the Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 8p

Broke-ology

By Nathan Jackson

Directed by Amanda Charlton

In this family serio-comedy, the sons of an African-American family are torn between familial obligations and the dreams they’ve established for themselves. With dashed hopes for higher education, an ailing patriarch who sees his dead wife, and the mounting expenses of a new baby, the boys help each other face the major decisions of their lives. Together they just may discover a new definition of what it means to be a family.

SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 7p

Caroline in Jersey

By Melinda Lopez

Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara

Things aren’t looking so great for Caroline. Her husband has left her for a younger woman, she’s about to be thrown out of her sublet in New Jersey, her landlady thinks she’s crazy… and the spirit of Arthur Miller’s accountant lives in her refrigerator. Thrown into this mystery, Caroline must discover the truth about her haunting (and herself) to help to heal a broken family across two planes of existence. Melinda Lopez is a 2003-2005 Huntington Playwriting Fellow; Caroline in Jersey is the result of a commission from South Coast Repertory Theatre.

Fellows at work

Ilana sent the following along for posting. Stay tuned for our 2008 BREAKING GROUND FESTIVAL announcement soon.

Hi All,

There are some exciting things afoot for our current and past HPFs.

First off, Joyce Van Dyke's new play THE OIL THIEF was just read at New Rep as part of their New Voices series. Joyce got a great interview and write-up in the Globe last week, too: www.boston.com


Secondly, Melinda Lopez's new play with music, GARY, opens this Thursday at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, with Bevin O'Gara directing and me serving as guest dramaturg. The process has been terrific, and the actors have been really rocking out. Featuring: Adrianne Krstansky, Elise Manning, Nael Nacer, Karl Baker Olson & Molly Schreiber. February 28 - March 16; tickets $25 Gen./$20 Sen./$10 Stu. BPT is offering a special friends and family deal for the first weekend only: $10 tickets through Sunday, March 2. Online or phone, use the promotional code: GARY949
There was a nice write-up on Melinda in the Globe this past weekend:
www.boston.com


Ken Urban's play THE HAPPY SAD will receive its world premiere at New York's Flea Theatre (in a double-bill with a new play by Breaking Ground alum Tommy Smith), March 6 through April 22. Info here: www.theflea.org


Both Ken and Melinda will be represented in the Breaking Ground Festival this year! Stay tuned for more info on that front.


Lydia Diamond's STICK FLY will go up this summer at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival (CATF) in Sheperdstown, West Virginia. (Sonia Flew played there, too!) You can catch a piece on NPR about the play here: www.npr.org
You can hear the play in its entirety (until next weekend) here: www.scpr.org

THE BLUEST EYE is open now at Hartford Stage through March 23, and then runs at the Long Wharf March 28 to April 20.
Lydia's HARRIET JACOBS (recently up at the Steppenwolf) is scheduled for Williamstown this summer, where it will be kept in good company with Ronan Noone's THE ATHEIST, once again featuring Campbell Scott, with Justin Waldman directing.


Kirsten Greenidge's GIBSON GIRL opens at Boston's Company One (where's she's this season's Playwright in Residence) on March 14 and plays through April 5. More info here:
www.companyone.org


And of course, Sinan Unel's THE CRY OF THE REED goes into rehearsal next week, directed by Danny Goldstein.


What a terrific round-up of work for these talented writers!

Cheers,
Ilana

Young Writers explore plays

This article about our Young Voices Playwriting program caught my eye this morning. Just had to share:

"From Shakespeare to Broadway, live theatre has survived for centuries through the advent of moving pictures, radio broadcasts, television and iPods, and remains a thriving art form into the 21st century.

A great production requires top-notch performances from actors and crew alike, but none of that can get off the ground without a strong writer and a great script.

One group of Lynn Classical students is taking the first step in becoming the next great American playwrights by participating in a unique program at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, where they will work one-on-one with theatre professionals to polish their scriptwriting skills and produce an original work."

I've got lots of other stuff to share in my reader - which you will find in the sidebar labeled "Todd's shared items". Check out Melinda Lopez's new play Gary, reviews for Shining City at the Goodman in Chicago, and find opinion about Rebekah Maggor's Shakespeare's Actresses which opened this week at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. I've only seen one post so far - but I will add to the list as soon as I see more.

In other playwriting news; our recent announcement of the next round of artists to join our Huntington Playwriting Fellows has been getting some attention lately, with a question coming in from all quarters, including this blog. Click here to read the post and comments.

New Fellows

HUNTINGTON ANNOUNCES 2008 PLAYWRITING FELLOWS
Program helps four local artists develop new work for the stage.

BOSTON – The Huntington Theatre Company announced today its choices for the 2008 Huntington Playwriting Fellows program, which provides a structured environment for theatre artists to explore and talk about their work while providing significant access to the company’s artistic staff and resources.

The current class includes Boston-area playwrights Kirsten Greenidge, Jacqui Parker, Ken Urban, and Joyce Van Dyke. This is the third class since the program began in 2004.

The Fellows meet together with Brownstein twice monthly for one year to discuss creative ideas, receive critical input on their works, and learn the process of getting plays read at theatres across the country. In year two, they receive individual support focused on specific theatrical pieces they are developing. To date, the Huntington has produced five plays by its Fellows.

The 2008 Fellows are, in alphabetical order:

Wesleyan University and University of Iowa graduate Kirsten Greenidge has received commissions from New York’s Clubbed Thumb, The Kennedy Center/White House Historical Association, South Coast Rep, and Boston’s Company One, where she is this season’s playwright in residence. (Company One will produce her play, “Gibson Girl” this spring.) An Arlington, Mass. native, she was the NEA/Theatre Communications Group playwright-in-residence at New York’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre and has had plays produced around the country, including two at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival. Greenidge’s “103 Within the Veil,” featuring stories inspired by a cache of historical African American photographs, was the 2005 winner for Best New Play from the Independent Reviewers of New England.

Recipient of Elliot Norton and Independent Reviewers of New England Awards, Boston's Jacqui Parker is a playwright, actor, artistic director of Our Place Theater Project, and founder of Boston's African American Theatre Festival. In 2004 she received the StageSource Theatre Hero Award. Her play "Dark as a Thousand Midnights" premiered at the 2006 Festival at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. She has been seen on stages around the country, including the Huntington’s productions of “Breath, Boom,” and as an understudy to Phylicia Rashad in August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean.”

A recent transplant to Boston, Ken Urban is a Harvard University professor and founding artistic director of The Committee, a New York-based theater company. He has received a commission from Target Margin Theatre in New York, and his work has been produced at Soho Rep, Moving Arts, Rude Guerrilla, and other theatres in Los Angeles and New York. His plays ( “Wasps,” “I [Heart] Kant,” and “The Secret Lives of Eskimos”) and critical essays about theatre have appeared in Performing Arts Journal, New Theatre Quarterly, New York Theatre Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Modern Drama, and Yale’s Theatre Journal.

Joyce Van Dyke graduated from Boston University’s playwriting program and was a Massachusetts Cultural Council Playwriting Grant finalist. Her play, "A Girl's War," received a workshop production at Boston Playwrights Theatre in 2001, for which it was named one of the Boston Globe’s Top Ten Plays of the year and won the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award. “A Girls’ War” premiered in 2003 at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Mass., was nominated for the Steinberg National New Play award, and was published in the anthology “Contemporary Armenian American Drama.” New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre—in conjunction with the Sloan Foundation—commissioned her play, "The Oil Thief," in 2006. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and is a published scholar of Shakespeare and poetry.

The program underscores the Huntington's commitment to fostering and presenting original work by local and new playwrights and artists. Under the direction of Literary Manager Ilana Brownstein, Fellows receive commissions from the Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.

"This program gives artists a safe place to flex their muscles and develop their work," says Ilana Brownstein. "Our goal is to allow the playwrights to feel they have a permanent artistic home – to welcome them as part of the company and the Huntington family."

PAST SUCCESSES
The 2005 group of four Huntington Playwriting Fellows has had significant success since its involvement with the program. Plays by Lydia Diamond and Kate Snodgrass are in development. John Shea's "Comp" premiered at Boston Playwright's Theater this year and Rebekah Maggor's one-woman show, "Shakespeare's Actresses in America" is part of this year’s “Huntington Presents” series at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.

The 2003 Fellows also have had success. Melinda Lopez’s “Sonia Flew” has been produced nationwide since its development and premiere at the Huntington’s Calderwood Pavilion. Sinan Unel’s “The Cry of the Reed,” and Ronan Noone’s “The Atheist” and “Brendan” were produced by the Huntington this season, and John Kuntz’s play, “Jasper Lake,” developed while at the Huntington, won the Kennedy Center’s National Student Playwriting Award and a Paula Vogel Playwriting Award.

Shea at BPT, Noone at BUR

BU Today has a video feature about Comp, a new play written by Huntington Playwriting Fellow John Shea. The show runs through this weekend at Boston Playwrights Theatre.
Click here to watch the feature.

HPF Ronan Noone appeared on WBUR today. Click here to listen in, requires RealPlayer. Ronan's portion of the item starts about ten minutes in.

In Box - Playwriting News

Hello Blog Readers,

I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on the state of the Huntington’s exciting new play programming. This season marks the fifth anniversary of the Breaking Ground Festival of new play readings (this year it’s scheduled for April 3-6, so mark your calendars), as well as the fifth year of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows (HPF) program.

Here’s a stunning statistic: by the end of this season, the Huntington will have presented or produced FIVE plays by Huntington Playwriting Fellows, and EIGHT plays that have debuted in the Breaking Ground Festival (there is some overlap in these numbers). Why is this important? One of the unfortunate truths of the American theatre is that many worthy plays become entangled in endless cycles of development – that is, numerous script-in-hand readings or workshop productions at theatres that are interested in the material, but not interested enough to produce it. The play gets vetted for months or years, but never finds its home, and so, never gets a full professional production. All the while, the playwright has to fend off the too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen trend, whereby at each reading or workshop production, there are people with excellent advice on how the writer might refine the work, but there are also plenty of people with opinions on how the writer might “fix” the play. There are, of course, no guarantees that once “fixed,” the play will get a production, so playwrights have to become ever-vigilant in sorting out the very good and helpful suggestions from the dross. It can be exhausting.

There are many many excellent development programs in this country, but there are also suspect ones (like those described above). When I created the Breaking Ground Festival and the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program in the 2003-2004 season, the goal was to find ways to execute good and helpful programming, to make our resources available to writers in a useful way, and to be aware of the ways in which we might avoid poorly executed new play development. Five years on, I feel confident in saying that statistics prove us out: we have put our producing mettle where our rhetoric is. It’s not just the playwright who benefits from this effort, it’s the audience as well. Those who were lucky enough to see the first Breaking Ground Festival in 2004 caught the very first public showing of Melinda Lopez’s Sonia Flew; it premiered at the brand new Calderwood Pavilion mere months later, and since then has had an active production life all over the country. If you attended Breaking Ground in 2006, you might have seen the debut of Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius, which went on to premiere at the Calderwood that fall, and just this October it opened on Broadway. Consider this: where else does one have the chance to see the progression of a newly conceived and executed piece of art, from its inception through its premiere? How often do you have the chance to be present at the birth of a young playwright’s career? We aim to give you just this kind of opportunity.

All this is to say: there are a lot of great plays by Huntington Playwriting Fellows in Boston this season! At this very moment, there are THREE: Brendan by Ronan Noone at the Huntington, Comp by John Shea at Boston Playwrights Theatre, and The Bluest Eye by Lydia Diamond at Company One – all play until the weekend of Nov 17-18. Later this season, catch Rebekah Maggor’s one-woman cabaret Shakespeare’s Actresses in America (which, she emphatically states, “is not like school”), and Sinan Ünel’s heartbreakingly immediate The Cry of The Reed – both will be mounted by the Huntington at the Calderwood Pavilion.

Furthermore, we are about to officially announce the members of the newest class of Huntington Playwriting Fellows, some of whom also have productions scheduled for this season around Boston. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on this blog as soon as the news goes public.

Your support of new plays is so important to us; thanks for being there for us, and for our writers. We can’t wait to bring you even more exciting new works by playwrights from near and far. Stay tuned!

-- Ilana Brownstein, Literary Manager

Inbox: Tuesday

More news from Ilana on the Huntington Playwriting Fellows:

Hello All,

It's already a busy month for updates, and it's only the second week of October!

I wanted to let you know about a few exciting programs on NPR. LA Theatre Works is theatre company that records plays for radio broadcast, often with all-star casts. Here in Boston, we only get broadcasts once a month on WGBH, and it's difficult to track down the schedule for what they're going to air. Luckily, KPCC (Southern California Public Radio) airs programs from LA Theatre Works every week and online, and they now have a podcast you can subscribe to. So, why am I telling you this?

On October 20, LA Theatre Works/KPCC will begin broadcasting their production of Melinda Lopez's "Sonia Flew," which was recorded in the spring, starring Hector Elizando (photo on right) and Elizabeth Pena. You can get the podcast by subscribing here:http://www.scpr.org/programs/latw/podcast.php

Or you can listen online using RealAudio, between Oct 20 and Oct 26, here: http://www.scpr.org/programs/latw/

Shows are usually only available for a week, even via iTunes, so if you want to hear it, it's wise to subscribe and download in order to save it for later.

In mid-November, LA Theatre Works will record their production of Lydia Diamond's "Stick Fly," starring Dule Hill and Justine Bateman. They haven't set a broadcast date yet, but I expect it will be a few months. When I find out, I will let everyone know. http://www.latw.org/live/detail.aspx?title=Stick%20Fly
Image courtesy of mccarter.org

But wait, there's more!
If you haven't caught it already, some Huntington faves have been making appearances on WBUR's Weekend Edition Sunday for the last several months. Will LeBow, John Kuntz, and Melinda Lopez are cast members of "11 Central Ave," a weekly radio comic strip. (Don't ask me what a radio comic strip is, I haven't really figured that out yet. But it's nice to hear these folks on the air every week!) Here's the website: http://www.11centralave.org/Home.html
You can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

Best to all,
Ilana

In Box - Writers Update

Ilana Brownstein sent this update to the company last Friday. It's news worth sharing!

HPF= Huntington Playwriting Fellows, BPT=Boston Playwrights' Theatre:

It's time for an update on some of the Huntington's favorite writers.

Lydia Diamond has been busy of late, with a production of "Stick Fly" at the McCarter (playing through Oct 14), starring Radio Golf alum Michole Briana White. Variety dubbed it a "well-cut jewel of a play," and noted that "Diamond displays a rare gift for narrative flow and character development." As if that weren't enough to keep her busy, she's been promoted to a full time teaching position in the BU School of Theatre, *and* has enrolled in the first ever class of MFA playwriting candidates through the BU/BPT collaboration.

John Shea's play "Comp" will go up at BPT this November. John has been working on the script diligently as part of the HPF program, and fellow HPF Kate Snodgrass was so taken with it, she's programmed it at her theatre. It opens on Nov 3, and I'll be serving as guest dramaturg.

Melinda Lopez continues to be swept up in a whirlwind of theatrical activity. Her play "Gary," which she began in her HPF days, received a workshop production at the Steppenwolf in August. It was terrific, and she's now refining the script. It will get another outing at the Lark Play Development Center in NY, as part of their annual Playwrights Week - "Gary" will show on Oct 4 at 1p. Furthermore, "Gary" will go into production at BPT in the spring; it will be directed by Huntington alum Bevin O'Gara, and I'll serve as guest dramaturg. Melinda's play "Alexandros," which was featured in last season's Breaking Ground Festival, will premiere at Laguna Playhouse in the spring.

As you already know, Ronan Noone, Sinan Unel, and Rebekah Maggor are being kept busy by us this season with productions at the Calderwood.

John Kuntz is walking the balance beam between his writing and acting endeavors. His play Jump/Rope (which, fyi, was first produced by Justin Waldman's company Next Stages, several years ago) got its New York debut this past summer, and starred both John and local favorite Bill Mootos. You can catch Johnny in January at the ART in a production of "Copenhagen," also starring Will Lebow and Karen MacDonald. What a cast!

Kate Snodgrass is, as you can discern from the previous few paragraphs, quite busy fostering the work of her fellow HPFs John Shea and Melinda Lopez. Her own play, "Parallelogram" (from last season's Breaking Ground), is still in development.

Our next class of Playwriting Fellows will be announced soon, and I guarantee that it's going to be an excellent group. Commissions are coming along as well, and you can expect to hear more from the Artistic Department on that front sometime later this fall. As for commissions from the last round, we're expecting delivery of scripts quite soon from Mat Smart, Danny Goldstein/Michael Friedman, Mark Bennett, and Naomi Iizuka (a co-commission with Yale Rep). Keep your eyes peeled for at least one or two of those to turn up in Breaking Ground this year.

Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to two staggering statistics: by the end of this season, the Huntington will have produced or presented 5 plays by Playwriting Fellows, and 8 plays that have come through the Breaking Ground Festival. Not to mention that we can celebrate "Mauritius" as the first play to go through our development process and progress to Broadway. There aren't many other theatres in this country with that kind of total track record, so it's definitely something we as a whole company can be proud of.

Happy Friday!
-Ilana

BU Today

BU Today is running a five part series called "Backstage at BU" starting off today with a feature on BU Alumni and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Ronan Noone and his play Brendan, which was performed as a workshop by the University last fall and we'll produce in October.

Click here for Part 1. (Brendan)
Click here for Part 2. (La Boheme)
Click here for Part 3. (The Cherry Orchard)
Click here for Part 4. (Tonight, Tonight)
Click here for Part 5. (Mauritius)

I'll quote a couple of paragraphs of the article:

"Boston University loves drama, from the moodiness of Anton Chekhov to the humor of George Bernard Shaw. The GRS Creative Writing Program’s elite playwriting program has produced some of today’s most successful young playwrights, such as Ronan Noone (GRS’01) and Melinda Lopez (GRS’00), and benefited from decades of partnership with BU’s Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, founded by Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize winning poet and a BU professor, and the Huntington Theatre Company, in residence at Boston University. The 25-year relationship between BU and the Huntington has given one of the country’s best professional companies a performance space and offered BU students an opportunity for hands-on experience.

This week BU Today looks at five shows produced at Boston University in 2006 and 2007, ranging from workshops at the College of Fine Arts to full-scale productions by the Huntington.

Subscriber Bonus - Campbell Scott

There are many benefits to being a subscriber such as saving up to 25% on single ticket prices and getting first go at tickets to special Huntington Events. Today's news is of one of those special events; Campbell Scott will star in a limited run of Ronan Noone's The Atheist

I quote from our latest issue of Spotlight;

The Atheist
by Ronan Noone
Directed by Justin Waldman
Starring Campbell Scott

14 Performances Only
September 12-30, 2007
at the Virginia Wimberly Theatre
in the Standford Calderwood Pavilion
at the Boston Center for the Arts.


EVERY GOOD NEWS STORY NEEDS A GOOD STORYTELLER. Augustine Early, a crooked journalist, has made an art of clawing his way up the professional ladder. When he turns the Mayor’s tawdry predilections into front page news, the scandal threatens to undo the one person he thought was immune – Augustine himself. A searing and hilarious new play about catching the perfect frontpage headline, whatever the cost.

Actor and director Campbell Scott (whose numerous film credits include The Secret Lives of Dentists and Roger Dodger, as well as the title role in Hamlet for the Huntington) performed a reading of this one-man show during the Huntington’s 2006 Breaking Ground Festival of New Plays, before The Atheist premiered in both New York and London earlier this year. The Atheist is written by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Ronan Noone, whose play Brendan is also part of the Huntington’s 2007-2008 Season, and will be directed by Huntington Artistic Associate Justin Waldman.

I was lucky to be at the 2006 reading and I am really looking forward to seeing Campbell in this play again. It is a great night of theatre.

Breaking News

Noah Haidle's Persephone is garnering impressive reviews from Variety, Boston Metro and many others. Good seats are still available for this weekend and beyond. Congrats to Noah, Nicky, Melinda, Seth, Mimi, Jerry and to everyone who made this production possible. Tickets available at 617 266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org or www.bostontheatrescene.com

Casting for next week's Breaking Ground has been announced. Check out the news items at Playbill and TheaterMania and see the video below. Tickets are free, but reservations are required; call 617 266-0800 or email to tickets@huntingtontheatre.org. We will gratefully take donations at the door.

Here is Breaking Ground mastermind Ilana Brownstein to give us a preview of next week's festival. Ilana is the Huntington's Literary Manager and also runs our Playwriting Fellows program. Just click on that play button.



Thank you Ilana. We also have a FAQ on new play development here for your reading pleasure.

I've also heard rumors that Present Laughter star Victor Garber will also perform at the Huntington's Annual Gala Benefit "Spotlight Spectacular" We are close to sold out, but there are a couple of tables and a few tickets left. The fundraising event, hosted by Tony Award winning Jason Alexander is on Monday April 30th at the new Westin Waterfront Hotel.

I'd suggest contacting Michelle Williams at 617 273-1536 or Mwilliams@huntingtontheatre.bu.edu
to join the fun.


Bidding for our auction items has already begun. Grab your credit card and click here.

Last item: (just because there isn't enough going on)

On Saturday, May 5, between 12pm and 3pm, the Huntington will host an Open House at the Boston University Theatre. This special event is the perfect opportunity for you to explore our entire backstage area — take a tour through our scene shops, costume shops, and dressing rooms, see technical demonstrations on stage, and learn about our 2007-2008 Season from our artistic department, plus much more!

Comedy with a Side of Darkness

I don't have much time these days to write my own content, so you'll have to suffice with my just passing things along for a while.

I borrowed this post's title from the Boston Globe, who published a nice feature article on Persephone today.

I do have an update to the article. We had a casting change just yesterday and the role of Demeter is now being played by Boston actress and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Melinda Lopez. Melinda joined us yesterday for our second tech and her first rehearsal. It's tough to come into a production at this stage of the game and Melinda is doing wonderfully. I think you'll really enjoy her performance.

Here's a photo of the Act I set under construction this week.

In Box - March Madness

Was it just me, or was there the sweetest hint of Spring in the air today. Just around lunch time. It might be enough to get me through the mess that Friday is going to be...

I have a longish post today with three updates:

Ilana Brownstein sent along some news about the Huntington Playwrighting Fellows:

Lydia Diamond has a number of upcoming productions, some already scheduled, and some still in-the-works...

"The Bluest Eye" at Playmakers Rep, North Carolina - March 2007
...and three other theatre companies may have productions in the planning stages.
"Stick Fly" at True Colors Theatre Co. (Kenny Leon's company) - Spring 2007
...and at least one other theatre company is working out details for next season.
"Harriet Jacobs" at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company - Fall 2007

Lydia recently participated in the Old Vic's US/UK playwright exchange program where she spent one week in London at the Old Vic working on "Harriet Jacobs." She's also been invited to the McCarter Theatre's 10-day artistic retreat in June 2007, and just inked a 3-play publication deal with the Dramatic Publishing Company.

Rebekah Maggor continues to perform her popular one-woman play, "Shakespeare's Actresses in America," most recently this last weekend at the Natick Center for the Arts.

Her play "Two Days at Home, Three Days in Prison" (Breaking Ground 2005) will receive a reading at The New York Theatre Workshop on Monday March 5.

And across the street in Studio 210, you can see Rebekah in Leslie Epstein's "King of the Jews" through March 10, in a production mounted by Boston Playwright's Theatre and fellow HPF Kate Snodgrass.


Donna Glick sent the following today:

It's March Madness in Education!

All after-school programs began their second semester. Local Boston playwrights, including Lydia Diamond and Melinda Lopez, are mentoring our Young Voices playwrighting students.

Education staffers Amanda Rota and Naheem Garcia have been gearing up for our "live" performances of KNOW THE LAW to take place in the Wimberly Theatre on Thursday, April 13 and Friday, April 14. We will share our work with over 1500 students from Boston and beyond. We are in the process of burning DVDs for YOU BE THE JUDGE to distribute to schools and after-school programs.

Meanwhile, the Codman Academy program, led by Lynne Johnson and Naheem Garcia, will begin rehearsals for the Spring Showcase. The 9th graders will work on an abridged version of A Raisin in the Sun and 10th graders will create an original performance piece based on their curriculum, Justice and Injustice. The showcase date is Friday, May 25th.

The entire education department is involved with POETRY OUT LOUD. Last year, we had 12 schools participating in this national poetry competition, sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council, the NEA and the Poetry Foundation. This year we have 31 schools participating and the competition is state-wide, adding five western MA schools. We will hold semi-final rounds for the 31 schools on Saturday, March 17th; taking place at our Huntington Ave Rehearsal Hall and at Clark University in Worcester.

Finals for POETRY OUT LOUD will be held in the Roberts Theatre on Saturday, March 24th. Times for these events vary, but all three begin at 9:30 am.

Also in March is the YOUNG ARTISTS' SHOWCASE, at the Calderwood Pavilion on Saturday, March 31st. This is the culminating event for all of the after-school programs - The Acting Classes, Scene Study, Young Voices Play writing and Know the Law.

If you would more information about any of these programs click here to send a note to the Education staffers. Have you participated in any of our educational/outreach programs? Tell us about your experience! Click on "Join the conversation" below.

And from Marketing:

There are several special events associated with our production of Well, and all are free with the purchase of a ticket to Well.

Tuesday March 13 - Sneak Preview Presentation by a member of the Huntington's Artistic Staff, featuring contextual background and production related information, 6:30pm at the Theatre.

Tuesday March 13 - Fenway Neighborhood Night (for Fenway area residents)
Friday March 16- Beacon Hill Neighborhood Night (for Beacon Hill residents)
Join your friends and neighbors at a pre-show reception with free refreshments, and get discounted tickets. Order online at huntingtontheatre.org and use code 1132 when you login.

Wednesday March 21 - Out & About Club G.L.B.T. audience members gather for a pre-show reception and a backstage look at the production. Begins at 6pm.

Actors Forum Participating members of the cast take your questions after the 7:30pm performance on March 22 and after the 2pm performance on April 4.

Sunday March 25 - Humanities Forum A lively discussion about the issued and ideas presented in the production. After 2pm show.

One last link: Well star Lisa Kron has a website, with a video. Visit it here.

Email

Three or four items today:

1) The Cherry Orchard received some very nice attention from the New York Times in today's Arts section, with a nice review and a slide show, both available online.

2) from Ilana Brownstein more news about our playwrighting fellows:

I wanted to alert you all to a lovely review in the Globe for Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kate Snodgrass' one act, "Haiku," which is playing at BPT (Boston Playwrights' Theatre) on a joint bill with fellow Boston writer Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro's "Amazon."

Info about the show can be found here. It runs through this Sunday, January 21.

Congrats to Kate!

In other HPF (Huntington Playwriting Fellows) news, Melinda Lopez's "Sonia Flew" is about to get another production, this time at the Miracle Theatre Group in Portland, Oregon - it will be the Northwest premiere of the play.

Congrats, Melinda!

Cheers to All,
-Ilana

3) The Huntington will again be hosting Jacqui Parker's African American Theatre Festival, presented by the Our Place Theatre Project, this year at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts in January/February. The main event is FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Ph.D and there's plenty more.

4) Marketing passed along a few links from public radio including a piece with WBUR's Andrea Shea, Kate Burton, and playwright/adapter/translator Richard Nelson focus on the new adaptation the Huntington commissioned for this production.