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Austin Script Works is an organization that supports Central Texas playwrights by providing opportunities at all stages in the writing process, from inception through production with a variety of programming.

DECEMBER SALON

Sunday, December 14th @6:30pm
State Theatre (719 Congress Ave.)

The December 14th Salon will feature three short works by members Candyce Rusk, Priscilla Sample, and Teresa Stankiewicz.

LULU's CHARMS IN THE DARK by Candyce Rusk is set in Chicago's Riverview Ballroom in the mid 1940's, and focuses on three women whose fortunes lie with dancing the night away in good shoes...hard to come by and harder to keep.

Candyce Rusk has been writing short plays for a decade. A member of Austin Script Works, other productions include: The Final Sail (2006 Out of Ink Radio play), Little Baby Two Shoes (2006 Short Fringe Festival and short film by Paul Bright), Perfect Snowball and Green Spot Diner.

LASCIVIOUS by Priscilla Sample
When her husband dies under unusual circumstances, popular cook and author Lynn Matthews is surprised to find herself a suspect in the police investigation.

Priscilla Sample, a playwright and teacher, is the Co-Artistic Director of CTEK Arts, which recently produced the highly-acclaimed Wild Party in Provincetown, Massachusetts. For years she has dedicated her work to supporting emerging playwrights; in Dallas as the Director of the Playwrights’ Project and in New York and Connecticut as the Director of External Affairs for the O’Neill Theater Center (home of the National Playwrights Conference). She moved to Provincetown in 1999 when her play Sleeping with Her Eyes Open was workshopped by the Provincetown Theater Company, and since then has continued her theater work as a producer, director, dramaturg, stage manager, and playwright. Her one-woman play Margo Jones was produced in Austin at the Blue Theater and a condensed version of her play Brain Big garnered Best of the Week and Best of the Fest awards in FronteraFest this year. She holds a BA in Film, theater emphasis, from Yale University, and an MFA in Playwriting from UT Austin.

DUTY TO WARN by Teresa Stankiewicz Loretta is a young mother with bipolar disorder struggling to balance her emotions. Her dysfunctional family dismisses her troubles as she spirals out of control. The police, the hospital and the therapist all make the required calls espousing their "duty to warn" when Loretta threatens to kill her mother and her children. Ride the roller coaster of emotions that Loretta suffers and experience the consequences of our "duty to warn".

Teresa Stankiewicz is studying for her MA in Theatre with an emphasis on Playwriting from Texas State University. She has an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois. Her first ten minute play, The Pink Bathtub Murders was produced in the summer of 2008 by the Vestige Group in Austin, Texas. Teresa has directed, acted and choreographed many different plays including Pippin, Marvin's Room and House of Blue Leaves.

NOVEMBER SALON

THE HAPPY COUPLE by James Venhaus
Sunday, November 16 @6:30 pm
The State Theatre
719 Congress Ave.

A young lawyer and his wife return to the house that they rented while he attended law school. A lot has changed in ten years. Squatters now occupy the house and won't let the happy couple leave. By the time the sun comes up, no one's life will be the same.

ABOUT JAMES VENHAUS

James Venhaus is a playwright, actor, director and educator. His plays include award winning one-acts Inside the Loop and The Temple of Dionysus, 10-minute plays, The First Christmas, Santa's Little Helper, Amy's Last Shift, and Three Kings, full length plays The Happy Couple and Weird Sisters, and plays for young audiences Romeo and Juliet at Verona High and The Top Hand of Lone Tree Ranch. His work has been performed off-off Broadway at 13th Street Repertory Company, and in theatres across the country including, Ground Zero Theater Company, Audacity Productions, and Junior Players (Dallas), SUNY Brockport (New York), Killing My Lobster (San Francisco) and Loyola University (New Orleans). He holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from Southwestern University and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Austin College. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife and daughters.

The annual Weekend Fling is a playwriting retreat at which members have 48 hours to write a 10 minute play using 3 arbitrary ingredients. This year's ingredients are being contributed by Michael John Garces, Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theatre in Los Angeles, writer/performer Sharon Bridgforth, and local designer and producer, Natalie George.

ASW members will retreat to a ranch in New Braunfels, TX on the banks of the Guadalupe River to relax, recharge, and release the Muse on October 24th. The freshly written scripts will be read at the Fling Salon on Sunday, October 26th at 5:30 at the State Theatre. The public is welcome at the Salon.

8-10 plays written at the Weekend Fling will be produced in the Out of Ink 10 Minute Play Showcase in April 2009 at the Blue Theatre.

For more information about the Weekend Fling or any ASW programs, email info@scriptworks.org

Austin Playhouse is hosting a benefit performance of Cyndi William's Dug Up next Thursday night, October 16th at 8:00. Cyndi is one of the co-founding Core members of ASW and an award-winning playwright and actress. This premiere production of Dug Up received funding from ASW's Finer Point Fund and the benefit will help to replenish the fund.

AUSTIN PLAYHOUSE presents

DUG UP by Cyndi Williams
October 10 - November 2, 2008
Thursday- Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm

Austin Playhouse, Larry L. King Theatre
3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C
All tickets are $20; student tickets are $10
Box office: 512-476-0084
www.austinplayhouse.com

Inspired by love, loss, and Tennessee Williams, the play creates an off-kilter world deep in Louisiana's bayou country. In the middle of this nowhere land a once great old house has been converted into "a unique and romantic escape for couples seeking solitude in nature." The inn is run by Dewitt and his aunt, the last living members of the Rutherford clan. As the play opens, Dewitt has taken to living like an animal in the courtyard, a sexy and mysterious guest who may have just killed her husband has checked in, and the bones Dewitt has carefully buried may be washing away. Also, his dead twin sister is coming home.

Dug Up is directed by King Theatre Artistic Director, Lara Toner (Women Who Steal, Moonlight and Magnolias) and features Jude Hickey, Jessie Tilton, and Liz Fisher.

Dug Up contains adult language, mature content, copious consumption of hurricanes, and real animal bones.

TRANSGRESSING FORM
A workshop taught by Sharon Bridgforth

Saturday, October 18, 2008
10AM - 12:30PM

State Theatre
719 Congress Ave.

ASW $15 / General $25

INFO/RESERVATIONS:
512.454.9727; christi@scriptworks.org

TRANSGRESSING FORM is a workshop focusing on the process of creating interdisciplinary theatre. Poets/dancers/spoken word artists/hip hop artists interested in translating their work for theatre welcome.

ABOUT SHARON BRIDGFORTH
Sharon Bridgforth is the Lambda Award winning author of the bull-jean stories , and love conjure/blues, both published by RedBone Press. Bridgforth has broken ground in the creation and presentation of the performance/novel and in doing so has advanced the articulation of the Jazz aesthetic as it lives in theatre.

A two time Alpert Award Nominee in the Arts in Theatre, Bridgforth is the recipient of the 2008 Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize. Bridgforth's work has been anthologized and produced widely and has received support from the National Endowment For The Arts Commissioning Program; The National Endowment For The Arts/Theatre Communications Group Playwright in Residence Program; National Performance Network; and the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund Award. Bridgforth's work has presented nationally at venues including:the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN., The Theatre Offensive Out on The Edge Festival in Boston, MA., LaPena in Berkeley, CA., The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, MN

Bridgforth is currently touring delta dandi, a National Performance Network Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Women & Their Work, in partnership with Center On Halsted and the National Performance Network.