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.