Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Making the parents proud

I'm sorry. I know. Stop with the new light shine talk. OLD NEWS! But this cracked me up and made me feel inexplicably proud

In my google books page, my key terms for New Light Shine are Mad Old Cunt, fucking and Kitty Bits. I know. Right? Literary. Genius.

New/New

Good god, where does the time go? If you are me, mostly on wine. But let's not wallow in who did what and who didn't blog and why I promise things I constantly fail to deliver and let's get back to all the things we love, namely talking about me. Because while you have been fretting for me - You are fretting for me, aren't you? If you're not, you should really start. Like now. I am totes worth a goodly amount of fretting time - I have been busy pushing send on my email and sending plays into the world. So, if you live in New London, New Hampshire (and if you do, god bless you, because that is the greatest town/state combo I've come across next to Paw Paw, Michigan) you should go to this at the Sawyer Center Theatre which is so big, I'm sure you could fit the whole town in it. It's 10 bucks! Which means I am worth $1.11 of your hard-earned cash. I couldn't be cheaper if I tried. And trust me, I'm not.


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Fine and Performing Arts Fall Production of "The Biggest SNAFU Ever'


Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 1-3 – Sawyer Center Theatre, 7 p.m.

This fall production of the SNAFU tradition features nine original short plays, selected from more than 600 that were submitted by award-winning theater professionals from around the world. The plays will be directed by primarily Colby-Sawyer students and faculty member Michael Lovell.


Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for non Colby-Sawyer students and children, and free with a Colby-Sawyer College ID. Purchase tickets using our online system here. Please call the Sawyer Center Box Office at (603) 526-3670 for more information.


The plays include "10-minute Antigone" - by Stephen Dierkes, directed by Christi Wilson. A retelling of the story of Antigone, in ten minutes or less. Stephen Dierkes is a member of the Playwrights Unit at Ensemble Studio Theatre-Los Angeles. His plays have received productions and readings in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Spokane, New York and Los Angeles.


"It's the Jews" - A comedy about the difficulty of getting your vision put on stage, written by John Minigan and directed by Alex Banat. Minigan was named “Best Playwright of 2011” in the 8-Minute Madness Festival in New York City and was the winner of the 2010 Firehouse Theater New Works Contest and the 2010 KNOCK International Short Play Competition. His plays have been produced in New York City by the Circle Repertory Company, Turtle Shell Productions, Quaigh Theatre, Gran Mal Theatre and Shelter West and by theaters throughout the country and in the United Kingdom. He has been playwright-in-residence developing new work with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and the Utah Shakespearean Festival's New American Playwrights Project. His scripts have won the Playwright's Collaborative Award and been selected for the Samuel French Best of Off-Off Broadway Festival and the Boston Theater Marathon. He is married to choreographer and dance scholar Lynn E. Frederiksen and, when not writing, teaches theater, Shakespeare and writing. Minigan is a member of the Dramatists Guild.


ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! YES, IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!

"Piercing the Skin" - A drama about what is important and essential in one's life, written by Shannon Murdoch and directed by Brianna Cram & Thomas Buckley. Murdoch is the 2011 winner of the Yale Drama Series Award for her full-length play New Light Shine, which was also selected for the National Play Festival 2011 in Sydney, Australia. It has received staged readings from Yale Repertory Theatre and Monkey Wrench Collective and is published by Yale Press. Other plays include One Cloud (Theatreworks, Melbourne), Everything in Between (Smith& Kraus) and Act Accordingly (JAC Publishing). She holds a first class honours degree in Theatre and Creative Writing from Griffith University and is a graduate of The Playwrights Studio at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).



"Japanese Schoolgirl Night" - A comedy about a college professor who is mystified by her student's behavior, written by James McLindon. and irected by Joshua Hardy. McLindon currently a New Voices Playwriting Fellow at the New Repertory Theatre in Boston. His play, "Comes A Faery," was developed at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Sean Daniels directing and was a finalist for the 2011 and 2012 Humana Festival. His new play, "Dead and Buried," was an O'Neill semifinalist for 2011 and will be produced by the Detroit Rep this spring. His play "Salvation" was produced in New York this fall by the Hudson Stage Company, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, to critical acclaim. Hia full-length play, "Faith," was the winner of the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, and another full-length play, "Distant Music," has just been published by Dramatic Publishing and was featured as a Main Stage staged reading at the Great Plains Theatre Conference last summer and was most recently produced by the Brigit St. Brigit Theatre in Omaha. His ten-minute play, "Laying Off," was produced at the Samuel French Festival and another ten-minute play, "Safe," was a finalist for the Heideman Award.



"The Sum of Your Experience" - A drama about whether, given the opportunity, we would give away the painful past experiences of our lives, written by Trace Crawford and directed by John Clarke. TRACE CRAWFORD: Recent: NYC: Playhouse Creatures, Sundog Theatre, Turtle Shell, Rapscallion Theatre, BrooklynONE, Truffle Theatre, Love Creek, Between Us, GI:60. CHICAGO: Point of Contention, n.u.f.a.n. ensemble. REGIONAL: Arts Center, Askew Theatre, Black Box, Bloomington Playwrights, Carte Blanche, Chameleon Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Fusion Theatre, Future Tenant, MadLab, Majestic, Mildred's Umbrella, Shelterbelt, INT'L: Insignificant Theatre, New World Theatre, Pint-Sized Plays, Seoul Players. UNIVERSITY: Roxbury Rep, Flathead Valley. A Dramatist's Guild member, Trace was interviewed by David Ives for the July/August 2012 issue of The Dramatist. A theatre educator for the past 15 years, he has also organized a quarterly state-wide (OH) improvisational comedy competition for high school students since 1999. Three of Trace's plays will be published in the coming year.

"Midnight Rubes" - A droll comedy about two tower guards hoping to survive the night by Ron Fromstein and directed by Michael Lovell Ron Fromstein is a Toronto-born playwright who has also lived in Vancouver, New Orleans and Chicago. He is a four-time winner-finalist of the Toronto Fringe 24 hour Playwriting Competition and three time winner of the Canadian National Playwriting Competition (2006, 2007, 2009). For the present though, he is extremely excited that for summer 2011 three of his shows will be performed in at least five separate fringes.


"Jinxed" - A smart and funny comedy about a post-apocalyptic fight over whoopee pies written by Alexa Mavromatis and directed by Jamie Newell Alexa is a 2012-2013 New Voices at New Rep Playwriting Fellow. Her play "The Back Room" was the 2008 third place winner of the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, presented by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Alexa's short plays and one--‐ acts – including "Bastard" (a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award in 2008), Bone China, Jinxed, The Quiz, and True Blue (a finalist for the 2012 Arts & Letters Prize for Drama) – have been produced across the country and internationally, and are published by Bedford/St. Martin's and Smith & Kraus. Alexa is a member of the Dramatists Guild, StageSource, Small Theatre Alliance of Boston, Theatre Communications Group, and Rhombus Playwrights. She holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Boston University, and a B.A. in Drama from the University of Georgia. In addition to her work as a playwright, Alexa manages the Boston Playwrights' Theatre blog


"Killing Naked Roses" - a comedic drama about the vagaries of fame, love and bad art, written by K.K. Gordon and directed by Michael Lovell. Kenneth (K.K.) Gordon holds a B.A. from Marywood University, where he majored in English and minored in Philosophy and Religion. He has worked with Scranton's Diva Theater for over 13 years and is a creative consultant to Scranton Public Theatre's Jason Miller Playwrights Project. He also is a Penn state rostered artist who is currently serving as an artist/instructor specializing in theater and poetry for the NEIU's Art Save program for at risk youth.
As a playwright, Gordon was mentored by Mark Medoff (Children of a Lesser God) and has seen 21 of his plays produced in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area and has won thirteen NEPA Theatrical Alliance awards including four Best Original Productions, Best One Act, and Best Drama.

"A Vital Dilemma" - Roomates make a bizarre discovery. Written and directed by Zach Matson. Matson is a Colby-Sawyer College student.