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ASW Presents HYBRID, the 9th Annual Out of Ink Festival of 10 minute plays

A watermelon child. A love affair with a potted plant. An "innocent" ingenue meets her romantic match. A man goes into surgery and comes out with a surprise.

These are the kinds of unexpected stories you'll find in HYBRID, Austin Script Works' ninth annual ten-minute play festival. The festival produces works selected from submissions created during a wild 48-hour writing retreat, called the Weekend Fling. During the Fling, writers are given three "ingredients" and two days to write their hearts out and create a ten-minute play

This year, each play had to include:

1. A hybrid
2. Leaves
3. A sudden reversal

At the end of the Fling, the plays were read in an ASW Salon at the Vortex Theater. A selection committee picked eight of the plays to produce in the Out of Ink Festival. The selection committee included Connor Hopkins, founder of The Trouble Puppet Theater Company and the Austin Puppet Society; playwright and ASW member, Adrienne Dawes; and Aliza Gold, Coordinator of the Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) at the IC2 Institute.

The HYBRID writers include:
Rebecca Beegle, Katherine Catmull, Elizabeth Cobbe, Max Langert, Marc Frost, Zack Gonzales, Aimee Gonzalez, and P. Paullette MacDougal. The plays will be performed by an ensemble of actors including Kimberly Barrow, Tom Coiner, David Dubose, Carrie Fountain, Jude Hickey, Margaret Hoard, Rhonda Kulhanek, Noah Neal, and Robin Grace Thompson. They'll be directed by Lowell Bartholomee, Emily Fordyce, Ellie McBride, Christina J. Moore and Julia Smith.

ASW's 9th Annual Out of Ink Festival
The Blue Theater
916 Springdale Road
March 22 - 24 and 29 - 31 at 8 PM
Tickets $12 general admission, $10 students/seniors/ASW/ACoT
March 22 is a Pay-What-You-Wish preview

RESERVATIONS: 454-9727 or christi@scriptworks.org

One weekend in October, ASW members were given 48 hours to write short plays for radio. At 5 PM that Friday, the rules were announced: each play had to include the same three ingredients: crickets, a countdown, and the fictional town of Piscacadawadaquoddywoggin, Maine. The three ingredients were provided by Jamie Smith Cantara of the Austin-American Statesman, Teresa Ferguson of KUT's Femme FM and Radio Without Borders; and Sue Scott, one of the actors on the famous Prairie Home Companion radio show. At 5 PM on Sunday, the plays were read.

It's a mini-Alaska Iditarod for playwrights," says C. Denby Swanson, the artistic director of Austin Script Works. "You just have to say 'mush' and get the dogs running. Writing plays in 48 hours is exhilarating but a big challenge."

Austin Script Works produces a festival showcase of short plays written by members every year as part of their Out of Ink series. This year, the plays are being produced in the FronteraFest Long Fringe. "We can reach a bigger audience that way," says Swanson, "and focus more on the text and the writers' development. And this year, of course, we wanted to explore the world of sound."

The results of the mini-writing-marathon range from abstract soundscape to zany farce by ASW writers Allan Baker, Rebecca Beegle, Katherine Catmull, Elizabeth Cobbe, Christopher Krejci, Max Langert, Candyce Rusk, Priscilla Sample, Katherine Tanney and Jason Tremblay. The plays will be directed by Ron Berry, Emily Fordyce, Ginger Morris, and Jason Tremblay. In spring 2006, the plays will be broadcast on KOOP Radio (schedule TBA).

Tickets are $10. All performances take place at the Blue Theater, 916 Springdale (map).

Wednesday 1/18 @ 9:15pm
Saturday 1/21 @ 6:30pm
Saturday 1/28 @ 1:45pm
Sunday 1/29 @ 8:00pm

This Out of Ink production is a part of the FronteraFest Long Fringe festival. For reservations, call 512-479-PLAY (7529).

Talk Doesn't Cook Rice, a festival of ten-minute plays by Austin Script Works members

• May 12, 13, 14 & 16 @ 8pm, and Sun. May 15 @ 3pm
  
• Blue Theater, 916 Springdale Road (map)
  
• $12 - general; $10 - Student/Senior/ACoT/ASW
  
• information/reservations: 512-454-9727 or via email at (info -at- scriptworks.org)

In Talk Doesn't Cook Rice, chalk is cheap, life is precious, and love just may be about to fall on your head. Austin Script Works offers you eight plays in a showcase of regional playwriting talent.