April 2008 Archives

DRAMATIS PERSONAE WORKSHOP: The Tricky Middle

THE TRICKY MIDDLE
Getting to the heart of your play
A workshop taught by Colin Denby Swanson

Wednesdays, May 7, 14, 21 and 28, 7-9 PM

Zachary Scott Theatre Center Conference Room
1510 Toomey Rd.

All four sessions: $100 ASW/ $150 General
Drop-in rate: $30 ASW/ $40 General (Payable by check only)

Info & Reservations: 512.454.9727; christi@scriptworks.org

You have a great idea for a full length play. You like the beginning. You even possibly like the end. It's the middle that gets you. The middle where the meat of the play is. The middle that should be lean and efficient, the heart of the conflict. Frankly, it stinks. We'll approach the tricky, tricky middle of your play from different perspectives, comparing the tricky middles of published plays, including John Patrick Shanley's DOUBT, with shorter works. (Participants should read or see DOUBT prior to the May 14th meeting.)

ABOUT COLIN DENBY SWANSON
C. Denby Swanson is a graduate of Smith College, the National Theatre Institute, and the University of Texas Michener Center for Writers. She is a former William Inge Playwright in Residence, Jerome Fellow and McKnight Advancement Grant recipient. Her work has been commissioned by the Guthrie Theater; featured in the Southern Playwrights Festival, the Women Playwrights Project, the Estro-Genius Festival, the Lark Theater's Playwrights Week, PlayLabs 2002, New York Stage & Film (through P73), Culture Project's IMPACT Festival, and the Icicle Creek Theater Festival; and produced by Salvage Vanguard Theater, The Drilling Company, and 15 Head a Theater Lab. She is published by Smith & Kraus, Heinemann, Accompany Publishing, and Playscripts, Inc. THE POTATO FEAST received a Susan Smith Blackburn Houston Special Prize in honor of the award's 30th anniversary in 2008. She is a Core member of The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, a former Artistic Director of Austin Script Works, and on the faculty at Southwestern University. Currently, she is the NEA/TCG Playwright in Residence at Zachary Scott Theatre Center, working on a new play about Austin blues club owner Clifford Antone.

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.