BTW Unbound
Presents Seven News Works
Including New Play By Joyce Carol Oates

Boston Theatre Works has announced the final selections "BTW Unbound 2005: A Festival of New Plays," taking place August 4-7 at Boston Center for the Arts' Black Box Theatre. The festival will consist of seven workshop performances of new plays by established and emerging playwrights from around the country. Each play will be followed by a discussion with the director and, in most cases, the playwright. BTW received nearly 200 scripts this season from around the world.
 
The seven plays chosen for BTW Unbound 2005 are:

"Not Enough Air" by Masha Obolensky (First Prize)
Sophie Treadwell was a champion of women's rights who became emotionally involved in the trial of Ruth Snyder, who was executed by electric chair in 1928. Sophie's outrage over the outcome of the trial was the inspiration for her groundbreaking play, "Machinal." "Not Enough Air" explores the fine line an artist walks when creating fiction from real life.

"The Tattooed Girl" by Joyce Carol Oates (Artistic Director's Choice)
Joshua Seigl is a celebrated but reclusive author. When he encounters Alma Busch, a sensuous, physically attractive young woman with bizarre tattoos covering much of her body, she stirs in Seigl a complex set of emotions: pity? desire? responsibility? With a masterful balance of dark suspense and surprising tenderness, "The Tattooed Girl "probes the contemporary tragedy of ethnic hatred and challenges our accepted limits of desire.

"In Divisiblunder" by Richard Sewell (Second Prize)
Two mysterious government agents surprise a woman and her sister while investigating a suspected terrorist. One of the agents is accidentally murdered and the other realizes he has been dating one of the sisters! Chaos ensues in this zany play that lampoons extremism of all persuasions.

"Man on Dog" by Ry Herman (Second Prize)
Rachel Telman's world is turned upside down when she becomes involved in a three-way relationship with a married couple. Now, pregnant and drunk, she confesses the history of her relationship to a stranger in a bar. But the stranger isn't all he seems to be, and neither is the couple.

"Off Hollywood and Vine" by Ned James Beedie (Honorable Mention)
Sixteen-year-old Travis is already wise to the streets of Los Angeles. He is smart and cocky, turning tricks with horny old men to stay alive. But a chance encounter with an aging transsexual unmasks his suffering and helps him discover an unlikely salvation.

"The Monkey Jar" by Richard Martin (Honorable Mention)
A charter elementary school with an impeccable reputation is sent into tumult when a fourth grade student pulls a gun on his teacher. The learning disabled student and his parents struggle to avoid expulsion, as school officials must decide what is more important - their reputation, or the safety of their students.

and

"Approaching the Garden State" by Kathryn Walat (Honorable Mention)
Two sexy New Yorkers fall in love on the subway as a pair of old friends reminisce on a front porch in New Jersey. A year later, the world has been taken over by aliens. As the parallel and interlocking personal dramas unfold, the characters are asked to face their fears and follow their true desires.

The schedule for the weekend is as follows:
 
Thursday August 4, 8:00 p.m.
"In Divisiblunder"
Directed by Jason Slavick
Repeats on Sunday at 5:15 p.m.

Friday August 5, 8:00 p.m.
"Man on Dog"
Directed by Nancy Curran Willis
Repeats on Sunday at 6:45 p.m.
 
Saturday, August 6, 8:00 p.m.
"Not Enough Air"
Directed by Jason Southerland
Repeats on Sunday at 8:00 p.m.

Festival Schedule for Sunday, August 7
(schedule subject to change)
 
12 Noon - "The Monkey Jar" - Directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer
         
1:30 p.m. - "Off Hollywood and Vine" - Directed by Kevin M. Kline
          
2:15 p.m. - "Approaching the Garden State" - Directed by Elizabeth Ross
          
3:30 p.m. - "The Tattooed Girl" - Directed by Jason Slavick
         
5:15 p.m. - "In Divisiblunder"

6:45 p.m. - "Man on Dog"

8:00 p.m. -  "Not Enough Air"
 
The Playwrights . . .

Ned James Beedie received his Master's in screenwriting from the American Film Institute. While there, he wrote three feature scripts: "Jihad," an updated retelling of Antigone set in modern day Tunisia; "Three," a story about a gay couple who became involved with a third; and "Harvest Moon," a teen genre film about an overweight girl who discovers she's a witch. He interned at Paula Weinstein's Springcreek Productions where he got to observe two major motion pictures being filmed. Ned is co-founder of Pavlov Productions, which will produce "Three" next spring. Ned has optioned two of his earlier scripts and also worked as a writing assistant to the co-executive producer of "Touched by an Angel." He graduated from with honors in Psychology at NYU. He also spent two years in Manhattan studying Meisner at the William Esper Studio.
 
Ry Herman is a playwright and director based in Tucson, Arizona. He is the author of the award-winning musical "Voices In My Head" and the frequently performed film noir satire "Foul Play." His children's play, "The Monster," has been produced across the US and Canada, including a two-year run in Michigan schools. Ry is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in playwriting and directing, and he was an apprentice at Jeff Daniel's renowned Purple Rose Theatre. For the past few years, Ry has been artistic director of the Bloody Unicorn Theatre Company, which stages world premieres of original plays.
 
Richard Martin Hirsch has written more than thirty-five plays. He is a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights as well as the Theatre 40 Theatre Company in Beverly Hills, where he participates in their Playwrights Workshop led by such notable mentors as Miguel Piñero and Neil Flanagan. His full-length drama, "The Quality of Light," was selected for the New Works Festival at the Long Beach Playhouse. His full-length comedy, "Proclivities," won First Place in the Writer's Digest Magazine Annual Writing Competition (for staged plays). The same play was also nominated for the Kaufman and Hart New American Comedy Award. His one act play, "Peripheral Vision," received First Place and a production in the Attic Theatre Ensemble's One-Act Marathon and Second Place in The Little Theatre of Alexandria's National Playwriting Competition. It will have a follow-up run at the Westchester Playhouse in Los Angeles.
 
Joyce Carol Oates is an internationally recognized author of fiction and plays. Her novels include Broke Heart Blues, We Were The Mulvaneys and Black Water. She has also written more than two dozen plays, including "Tone Clusters," "I Stand Before You Naked" and "Black." Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and The PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She graduated from Syracuse University as valedictorian and received an MA in English from the University of Wisconsin. From 1968-78, she taught at the University of Windsor then moved to Princeton, where she is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities in the creative writing program. She also prints and publishes The Ontario Review with her husband, Raymond J. Smith.
 
Masha Obolensky has written and directed several plays including: "Historic Beauty" (an exploration of celebrity inspired by the life of Greta Garbo) performed at New Georges Theatre and at Here Arts Center; "Natasha and Andrei" produced by the Chekov Now! "Festival and Queens Sand" (inspired by the life of Isabelle Eberhardt, a woman who lived as a man in the Sahara Desert) workshopped with The Directors' Collective. "Not Enough Air" has had readings at 78th Street Theatre Lab and at Lincoln Center's Rose Building. Masha is also the director of a short film called "Lonely" (by Anne Marie Healy), which was featured on Urbanwildlife.net and screened in The Pioneer Theatre's Evening of Best Shorts and in the NYC Freight Film Festival. She is an associate member of The Culture Project and Sightlines Theatre Co. and a founding member of The Momentary Theatre. Masha is currently pursuing her Masters in Theatre and Community at Emerson College.
 
Richard Sewell is a member of the Actor's Equity Association. He has one child and has taught directing & theater history at Colby College. His adaptation of Lessings' "Nathan the Wise" played at the Peal Theatre in New York City and at The Jewish Repertory of Southern California.
 
Kathryn Walat's play "Know Dog" received its world premiere at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin. Her other plays include "Johnny Hong Kong" (Perishable Theatre), "Rotten State" (Bay Area Playwrights Festival), "A Book of Two" (Yale Drama School), "Spy Speak Spy" (New York International Fringe Festival), and "Double Double Helix" (Ensemble Studio Theatre First Light Festival). Her work has been presented at Theatre Double in Philadelphia, Actors Theatre in Santa Rosa, and in New York at New Dramatists and at New Georges, where she is an affiliated playwright. She has recently completed a commission for the Hanger Theatre in Ithaca, and is a member of the Women's Project & Productions' playwrights' lab. Her work has been published in the International Women's Playwriting Festival Anthology, in the upcoming New Monologues for Women by Women (Liz Engelmen, Tori Haring-Smith, eds.), and by Salvage Vanguard Press. She received a BA from Brown University, with honors in creative writing, and an MFA from Yale Drama School.

Admission to the festival is a suggested donation of $10 for a single play or $15 for multiple plays. Reservations and donations can be made at www.BostonTheatreWorks.com or by calling 617-728-4321.

The Boston Center for the Arts Black Box is accessible via T; take the Green Line to Copley Square Station or the Orange Line to Back Bay Station. For more information and detailed directions, please consult www.BostonTheatreWorks.com. The theater is fully accessible to disabled patrons.

-- OnStage Boston

08/01/05

 
 
 
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