announcements Archives

MAY SALON

GILLIAN'S (W)HOLE by Tracie Gardner
Sunday, May 18th at 6:30pm
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Gillian's (W)hole
During a stay in a hospital emergency room after accidentally almost killing herself, beleaguered single mother Gillian Banks is startled to learn that her hope has fallen out of her- quite literally, in the form of a woman named Ara. Despite doubts about her own sanity, Gillian grudgingly accepts Ara's strange presence, and the two are dropped back into Gillian's anguish-laden life. Guilt, despair, and outrage over gender stereotypes and an inadequate justice system flood in on a tide of embittered humor as Ara slides ever closer to extinction in the grip of Gillian's vicious nightmares. Gillian's only hope for her "hope" breathes in the dead, their influence tethered along a curious lifeline strung from the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Tracie Gardner, a transplant from Detroit by way of San Jose, has completed her first full-length project with the play, Gillian's (W)hole. She holds a degree in English from a small, private university in the Midwest, did significant post-bacc coursework in science, and has taught science and math as a middle school teacher in Texas now for three years, the last two here in Austin. Next year she will specialize in working with high-functioning autistic-spectrum students. She is fortunate to have three fabulous children who amuse her regularly.

3 Short Works by ASW Members
Sunday, April 27th @ 6:30pm
State Theatre, 719 Congress. Ave.

Ballet for Dog and Red-Haired Girl by Hank Schwemmer
What would YOU do with a broken clock, a three-legged dog, and 2000 jigsaw puzzles? Can you tell nirvana from a fire escape? It's 4:33 AM, the day of John Cage's death. The window's open, and it's a long way down.

The Alcoholic Drama by Tommy LeVrier

U-Screen by Mahani Zubedy
A comedy about maximum exposure and a 40% higher retention rate.

DYNAMO FROM DALLAS by Michael Michaelian
Sunday March 30, 2008 @ 6:30 PM
Featuring Babs George

^^^^^^^NOTE CHANGE IN LOCATION^^^^^^^^
The Austin Center for Religious Science
4701 Westgate Blvd, Ste A-103
Austin, TX 78745
The Center is located across the street from the Westgate Theaters in the white stone office buildings (Westgate Professional Center) around the corner from Central Market South in South Austin.

Detailed directions and map available on the website: www.austincrs.net.

ABOUT THE PLAY:

Dynamo From Dallas is a one woman play celebrating the life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes of Dallas, Texas. Hers is the story of a woman who was underestimated by everyone but herself. Yet the list of her major accomplishments is a staggering series of firsts: the first woman state judge in the South (at a time women weren't allowed to serve on juries) - 1935, at age 38; the first woman to be placed in nomination for Vice-President -1952; the first woman appointed a Federal District Court judge -1961; the first woman to swear in a President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson -1963. She won her against-the-odds victories by the strength and determination of her personality, on the merits of her skills and professionalism, and by her fearlessness. The reading features Babs George as Judge Hughes.

ABOUT MICHAEL MICHAELIAN:
Michael Michaelian has been a screenwriter and playwright for 35 years. His career began with multiple episodes of "Kung Fu" in 1973 and continued with hour episodes of such TV series as "Barnaby Jones", "Hawaii 5-0", "Charlie's Angels", "Fantasy Island", "Dukes of Hazzard", and "Star Trek: The Next Generation", just to name a few. He also wrote and co-produced the miniseries, "Roughnecks", which starred Harry Morgan and Vera Miles; adapted Paul Gallico's "Miracle in the Wilderness" for TNT, which starred Kris Kristofferson and Kim Cattrall; and wrote "The Black Fox" for CBS, which starred Christopher Reeve. As a playwright, his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's "A Single Man" opened at the Greenwich Theatre in London in June of 1990 and starred Alec McCowen. His comedy "Fertility Rights" was produced by the Arizona Theatre Company in both Tucson and Phoenix in 1993. "Dynamo from Dallas" is his third full length play.

ASW provides Seed Support funding to members on a quarterly basis, as available. New funding guidelines and an application are available on our Programs page. The next application deadline is April 1, 2008.

BLUE MONDAY by C. Denby Swanson
Sunday February 24, 2008
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

C. Denby Swanson's, Blue Monday, a new play that she is adapting from the medieval morality play EVERYMAN.

C. Denby Swanson is the TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence at Zachary Scott Theater Center and the former Artistic Director of Austin Script Works.

Chasin' the Bird by Jason Tremblay
Sunday January 27, 2008
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Set in Kansas City, Chasin’ the Bird is the story of the first recording that Charlie Parker ever made. Moving between 1936 and 1996 the play focuses on William Owens who at 15 made the recording and at 85 wrestles with the decision to share it with the world.

Jason Tremblay’s plays have been presented in big places like New York and Chicago, little tiny places like Charlottesville, Virginia and Grand Marais, Minnesota and nice comfortable places like Austin and Boulder. In April his play Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted her name back will be presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as part of New Visions/ New Voices and will be produced next season by Adventure Stages at the Vittum Theatre in Chicago.

ASW in partnership with Teatro Vivo presents SEGUNDA ETAPA: The Second Stage, the culmination of the second phase of the Latino Playwrights Initiative. Two full-length plays commissioned by Austin Script Works will receive a week of rehearsals and workshopping leading to public staged readings. The day-long event will also include a playwriting workshop and a party.

The schedule for SEGUNDA ETAPA: THE SECOND STAGE is as follows:

Saturday, December 8, 2007

10:30 AM Playwriting Workshop with Jorge Luis Cacheiro
2:30 PM Woman on Fire by Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Nakissa Etemad
7:30 PM The Bonobos by Amparo Garcia-Crow directed by Jorge Luis Cacheiro
A party will follow the evening reading.

ALL EVENTS at The VORTEX
2307 Manor Rd.

Information and Reservations:
512-454-9727 or info@scriptworks.org

Eskandar by Allan Baker
Sunday, October 28th at 6:30
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Eskandar is a modern re-telling of the opera Carmen, set in today's Afghanistan. Joe is a gay Afghan-American, who has returned to Afghanistan as part of a shadowy military unit. There he meets Eskandar, an Afghan boy who was the sexual companion of a warlord killed in an operation carried out by Joe's unit. What develops is an explosive and violent relationship that is shaped by the "force of nature" that is Eskandar, the dark complexities of today's Afghanistan and thousands of years of a cultural heritage almost unknown in the West.

Allan has written six plays since becoming a Script Works member in 2004. His 9/11 play, Five Minutes, which began in the 2005 Weekend Fling, went on to become a FronteraFest "Best of the Fest" choice in 2006. It was produced in New York City in the fall of 2006 as part of the Emerging Artist's Theatre festival of short plays and again there in June of this year as part of the Samuel French Festival of Off-Off Broadway Short Plays. Allan's first play based on an opera, All the Saints, a modern re-telling of Verdi's La Traviata, with gay characters, will be given a staged reading at Zachary Scott Theatre in January of 2008.

Sunday, September 30 at 6:30 pm
The State Theatre
719 Congress Ave.

HOLLYWOOD MELODY OF 1933
by Louise Richardson

Hollywood Melody of 1933 is both a tribute to and an updating of the movie musicals of Warner Brothers and RKO from the 1930s. An old-time vaudeville performer, made rich and famous by his stereotypical portrayals in silent films and early talkies, tries to woo the maid of a successful New York playwright who goes to Hollywood to write for the movies while the playwright's ex-husband attempts to use her talents to save his fading career as a producer. Meanwhile, two brash young Broadway actors dodge gangsters and try to break into the movies with the help of the playwright and the old vaudevillian.

Louise Richardson was one of the few people actually born in Austin, Texas around the middle of the Twentieth Century. She has acted in, directed, and written plays in Austin since the late 1970s, including her "Hamlet the Dane", which was presented at Capital City Playhouse in 1991, and "Chanteuse" (Act I, scene i), which appeared in the Short Fringe of FronteraFest 2007. In addition, Louise produced programs on KOOP radio and Austin Community Television, and now edits her own video travelogues and biographical tributes for fun and profit.

A primer in self-producing for the fringe
A workshop taught by Christina J. Moore

Wednesday, September 12th at 7:00 PM
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

$5 ASW members; $10 general

This workshop, led by ASW Executive Director and FronteraFest Producer Christina J. Moore, will guide participants through the process of preparing a piece for FronteraFest. From resources for finding actors, directors, and rehearsal space to the ins and outs of the technical rehearsal, we'll cover it all.

Christina J. Moore is a director and producer whose work has been seen at The State Theatre, Zachary Scott Theatre Center, Mary Moody Northen Theater, Vortex Repertory Company, Capitol City Playhouse, Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre, Different Stages, and Austin Script Works, which she helped found in 1997. FronteraFest 2008 will mark her seventh year as producer of the festival under the joint enterprise of Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works.

Info/Reservations: 512.454.9727; christi-at-scriptworks.org

Inspired by Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays project, invites you to join with us this summer in the daily practice of writing. Go to our programs page for complete details.

Sunday, May 20 at 6:30 pm
The State Theatre
719 Congress Ave.

A Perfect Circle
by Tom Cointer

In A Perfect Circle, a small boy with a mesmerizing power is endangered by the adults around him and their confidence that they will be able to protect him, no matter what.

Tom Coiner is a playwright and actor hailing originally from Marlborough, Massachusetts. But please don't hold that against him, he's also lived in Gambier, Ohio where he attended Kenyon College, and he spent a year in Louisville, Kentucky as an apprentice at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Since planting his feet in Texas he has enjoyed performing in his own play, Parachute, at the FronteraFest Short Fringe, as well as in Teatro Vivo's Boiler Room, ASW's Hybrid, and several of Dan Dietz's plays in Shrewd's Trash Anthems. A Perfect Circle is Tom's first ScriptWork's reading.

Linda Ramsey was named first winner of the Wasserstein Prize, an honor for emerging writers established in memory of playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died last year. Ramsey, who has had plays produced at the University of Texas at Austin, was recognized for her script, This Feather House. The prize includes a $15,000 cash award, funded by the Educational Foundation of America, where Wasserstein was a member of the board.

In This Feather House (alternatively called Momma, Crazy!), an aura counselor's daughter struggles to succeed as an assistant at a cheese factory, but her mother believes that finding a man would bring her more happiness than the life of an executive woman ever could. Nobody can say she still doesn't do everything she can to ensure her daughter's success: blessing her hair extensions with holy salt, shopping for men online, and performing express exorcisms on their old car when they can't get it to start. But when is a mother's love too much? Or too crazy?

Linda is a senior English major at UT and previously attended the University of Puget Sound before wandering down south. Her play, Ink, was produced by the Broccoli Project at UT last March and her essays and poetry have been published in the Aurora Review and The Strange Fruit, a literary magazine based out of Seattle.

ASW is proud to announce that current Artistic Director Colin Denby Swanson and former Artistic Director Dan Dietz are two of the eleven national recipients of the 2007 NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights. The program, developed and administered by Theatre Communications Group (TCG) in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and supported in part by the Ford Foundation, was created to afford playwrights the opportunity to create new work while in residence at a host theatre and to become part of the theatre's artistic life and community activities.

Dietz will be in residence at Salvage Vanguard Theater. He will develop a play called The Difference Engine, exploring the relationship between the brilliant 19th century engineer Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, mathematical visionary, and drug addict. Dan will also develop a series of playwriting workshops that focus specifically on using drama to excite students about math, science and history.

Swanson will develop Blue Monday, based on the life of the late Clifford Antone, a fascinating figure in the Austin music scene, in residence at Zachary Scott Theatre Center where she will also lead an extended writing workshop with student writers from ZACH's Performing Arts School, writers and dramaturges from Austin Script Works and musicians from the Austin Music Foundation.

Each playwright receives $25,000 and each theatre $4,500 to enhance support for the residencies. Austin, Chicago and San Francisco are the only cities to receive two residencies; further evidence of our growing reputation as a hotbed for creative new work. Congratulations Colin and Dan!

Austin Script Works will be hosting guest playwright Ronan Noone May, 3-5, 2007. Noone, an Irishman currently living in Boston, will receive a rehearsed reading of his play, Riding the White Horse, on Friday evening and will lead a workshop for area playwrights on Saturday afternoon. Both events are open to the public and will occur at the State Theatre. (see details below)

ASW is a member of the Sister City playwright exchange, headquartered at Emory University, and Noone's visit is part of that program. Last year, ASW playwright Kirk Lynn visited Boston and had work read at the Boston Playwrights Theatre.

Noone's work has been seen at Boston Playwrights Theatre, the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, the Kennedy Center, the Irish Arts Center and Center Stage in NYC and in London. He was an American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg Award nominee, he won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script and was commissioned as a playwriting fellow by the Huntington Theatre under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays. His work has been published by Samuel French, Inc. and by Dramatist's Playservice, Inc. Noone teaches playwriting at Suffolk University in Boston.

The schedule for the weekend's events is:

Friday, May 4, 7:30 PM
State Theatre (Studio A), 719 Congress Ave.
Riding the White Horse by Ronan Noone

Amy wants to live in Miami to live out her fantasies, but her husband, Jimmy Sr., won't go. In the meantime, Charly Kennedy needs help in his gigolo business and hires Jimmy Jr., his best friend. Jimmy Jr. agrees as long as his mother doesn’t find out. But, his Mother, Amy, has already hired Charly to help her relax.

Riding the White Horse is a dark comedy about sex, success and sacrifice in pursuit of the American dream.

A rehearsed reading directed by Ronan Noone and Christina J. Moore featuring Emily Erington and Douglas Taylor.

This event is free and open to the public.

Saturday, May 5, 2-5 PM
State Theatre (Studio A), 719 Congress Ave.

Focus On Narrative

A playwriting workshop with Ronan Noone looking at narrative trajectory using the Aristotelian concepts of character and dialogue.

Cost is $15 for ASW members; $25 for the general public

For more information or to make a workshop reservation call 454-9727 or email christi@scriptworks.org

Sunday, April 29th at 6:30
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

GREYHOUND GIRLS by Zack Gonzalez
When Lara moves in with her new partner Deneen, they learn that time waits for no woman. A play about love and chance.

Zack Gonzales recieved his BFA in Theatre Arts at UT Austin. His work was recently seen in HYBRID ASW's Out of Ink production and in the Latino Playwright Initiative. He dislikes writing bio's but very much hopes you will make time to come out and hear this reading of his work in progress.

Sunday, March 25 at 6:30pm
State Theatre, 719 Congress Avenue

Limit of Persuasion
by Dan Pugh

Limit of Persuasion is historical fiction concerning an Hispanic girl who lands a job at Fort Sam Houston during World War II and becomes entangled in wartime intrigue, mystery, and romance. She is the target of a spy ring, a German soldier attempting escape, and a U.S. Interrogator. Through it all she follows her heart and gets her man in the end.

Dan Pugh has written on a wide variety of subjects throughout a long Texas career in public administration. In recent years he has founded the Rockport Little Theatre and directed several of its early plays. His attention now has turned to writing plays with subjects of historical relevance to Texas. Limit of Persuasion is the most recent and the most action packed of the scripts.

Austin Script Works and Teatro Vivo combine forces for phase one of a three-phase commitment to new work by Latino writers

Austin Script Works, the regional advocate for playwright and new play development, and Teatro Vivo, the leading Latino production company in the area, are teaming up to present a festival weekend of new play readings, community involvement, workshops, mentorship, and celebration.

Primer Paso is the culmination of the first phase of the Latino Playwrights Initiative. In the spring, ASW and Teatro Vivo put out a call for new short plays by Latino playwrights. Playwrights from all over the country submitted work. Six plays were selected by a committee that included theater professionals from Texas and California. These plays will receive a professional, public reading with Austin actors and directors, as well as the advice and mentorship of guest artists Michael John Garcès, a playwright and director and the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles, and Kristoffer Diaz, a playwright and educator with Cleveland Playhouse. The festival will include a playwriting workshop and a party.

The festival includes new works by Austin playwrights Monika Bustamante, Amparo Garcia-Crow, and Zach Gonzales; Lakeway writer Guillermo de Leon; and California writers Paco Jose Madden (Los Angeles), and Marisela Trevino Orto (San Francisco), both of whom will be in town for the festival.

"Every playwright needs opportunity, inspiration, mentorship, and connection," says C. Denby Swanson, Artistic Director of Austin Script Works. "Our Latino Playwrights Initiative will develop new voices and bring their work to the attention of theaters all over the region. When the community of writers grows, every playwright, every artist, every audience member benefits. That writers are willing to fly in from California for this opportunity speaks to the giant need for this kind of festival. Moreover, ASW has already been fielding phone calls from national theater companies who want to produce works by Latino writers and are looking to Austin for names and introductions."

Rupert Reyes, Artistic Director of Teatro Vivo, says, "El Primer Paso marks the beginning of our journey toward creating a new home for the development of new plays by Latino playwrights. Austin is known as the Music Capital of the World. The Latino Playwright Initiative will stake our claim as the Teatro Capital del Mundo. This is a fantastic beginning, thanks to all those who submitted their work and to Script Works for their support of Latino playwrights."

Each of the short plays had to somehow include three "ingredients" provided by theater luminaries Caridad Svich, whose new play THRUSH is being premiered by Salvage Vanguard Theater this fall; Elaine Romero, a Los Angeles-based playwright and television writer, whose play for youth ALICIA was commissioned in 2005 by Zachary Scott Theatre; and Michael John Garcès. There were no other requirements for subject matter or theme.

"The festival will be a place where artists and audience can talk about identity and art, politics and production, language and liberty," says Swanson.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

October 6 - 8 PM
Keynote Event with Michael John Garcès
FREE

October 7 - 2 PM
Playwriting Workshop with Kristoffer Diaz
$15 for ASW members, seniors & students / $25 for general public

ASW $15	public $25

October 7 - 8 PM
Public readings of six new plays by local and national Latino writers
$5 for ASW members, seniors & students / $8 for general public

ASW $5	public $8

October 7 - 10 PM
PARTY!
Catered, with beer & sangria

All events take place at the Vortex Theater,
2307 Manor Road (1/2 mile East of I-35, between Chestnut and Maple)
On bus route #20. Free Parking. Wheelchair accessible

Reservations can be made emailing christi-at-scriptworks.org or by calling 454-9727.

Austin Script Works awards four commissions for the FronteraFest Short Fringe to cover production expenses. The deadline for applying is September 22nd. Download the application for complete details.

• FronteraFest Short Fringe commission application

Contact christi-at-scriptworks.org with questions.

It's that time again! Applications for FronteraFest 2007 are now available. ASW members should receive applications in the mail, but if you need one sent to you contact christi-at-scriptworks.org

There's an "early bird" discount if you apply before October 2 and the application deadline is November 1st. ASW members may apply for Short Fringe Commissions and receive up to $200 to produce your piece.

Phase One:New Short Plays
The Latino Playwrights Initiative Phase One kicks off this week with a request for new short plays by Latino/a writers.

Phase One of the LPI is a process of identifying existing writers and reaching out to inspire new writing in the region. With this release, ASW and partners announce the rules for a new short play festival, modeled after the "Weekend Fling" that ASW has organized for its general membership for the past eight years. Three "ingredients" are listed below. Playwrights are invited to submit 10-20 minute plays that somehow include these ingredients. Deadline for submission is June 15.

A committee comprised of national and local artists and community members will review all submissions and select 8-10 plays. The plays will then be performed in a public reading festival at the State Theater September 8 and 9, 2006. The weekend will also include panel discussions, workshops, and mentorship of selected playwrights by nationally-recognized writers.

"One of this region's greatest strengths is the Latino community,"says C. Denby Swanson, artistic director of Austin Script Works, "and yet there is an absolute dearth of new works for the theater by Latino writers on our stages. This initiative will work to change that."

Phases Two and Three will focus on commissions, development, and, ultimately, production by regional theater companies, starting in 2007. "Our plan is to repeat the short play call bi-annually, so that we are continually looking for and connecting with new Latino writers. It's not one isolated weekend; it's a substantial, long-term program."

Austin Script Works, the State Theater, Teatro Vivo, and a dedicated committee of local and regional artists are organizing the area's first Latino Playwrights Initiative.

"One of this region's greatest strengths is the Latino community," says C. Denby Swanson, artistic director of Austin Script Works, "and yet there is an absolute dearth of new works for the theater by Latino writers on our stages. This initiative will work to change that."

The Latino Playwrights Initiative will provide a framework to develop and advance Latino/Latina writers in the Central Texas region, and will include things like Mentorship, Commissions, Inspiration, Readings, Workshops and Networking.