Final stop this weekend: The T Plays

The Mill 6 Collaborative's The T Plays V: Last Call is chock full of work by BPT and BTM alums. Lisa Burdick, Patrick Gabridge, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, K. Alexa Mavromatis, Robert D. Murphy, and Rick Park all contributed new short plays to the annual festival, which closes this weekend. Don't miss this fun ride!

Alumni news, in brief:

Walt McGough’s Paper City Phoenix opens this week, produced by Boston Actors Theater…

Ronan Noone and Kate Snodgrass will join Richard Dresser this weekend to respond to ten-minute plays in the annual installment of Salem Theatre Company's Moments of Play. Meanwhile, Ronan’s Brendan will make its West Coast premiere at Theatre Banshee in Los Angeles…

John Greiner-Ferris, Ginger Lazarus, and Emily Kaye Lazzaro are all taking a Mad Dash this weekend with Fresh Ink Theatre and Interim Playwrights…

Learn to write a ten-minute play with M. Lynda Robinson, in her four-week workshop at The Gloucester Writers Center…

Lazzaro's Girls' Sports opens tonight

Fresh Ink Theatre's production of Emily Kaye Lazzaro's newest play, Girls' Sports, opens tonight at the Factory Theatre. Congratulations, Emily! See you soon!

Alumni news, in brief:

Emily Kaye Lazzaro’s Girls’ Sports opens this Friday at the Factory Theatre, produced by Fresh Ink…

Marvelous Fruit, Masha Obolensky’s most recent play, was selected as a PlayPenn finalist this year…

Lots of alums this year on the bill of Boston Theater Marathon XV: Plays by John Kuntz, K. Alexa Mavromatis, Ronan Noone, Rick Park, Michael S. Parsons, Wesley Savick (co-written with Michael Wartofsky), Phil Schroeder, Michael Towers, Sinan Ünel, and Joyce Van Dyke will be featured in the two-day event, May 11-12…

Taking Up Space, by John Greiner-Ferris, is one of seven new works in Provincetown Theater’s 2013 Spring Playwright’s Festival this weekend…

Monica Bauer blogs about Death by Talkback…

Alumni news, in brief:

Lots of BPT love in the 2013 IRNE nominations last weekend: Jaclyn Villano’s The Company We Keep (Best New Play, Small Theatre); Molly Trainer (Best Costume Design, Small Theatre, for Deported/a dream play); Steven Barkhimer for his work onstage (Best Supporting Actor – Musical, Small/Mid-size Theatre) and off (Best Music Director, Small/Mid-size Theatre) in Stoneham Theatre’s Lumberjacks in Love; Melinda Lopez (Best Supporting Actress – Drama, Small/Mid-size Theatre) for The Motherf**ker With the Hat at Speakeasy Stage; and Rick Park (Best Supporting Actor – Drama, Small/Mid-size Theatre) for Company One’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo…

Alumni news, in brief:

Donna Sorbello was one in a cast of very familiar faces in ABC's The Makeover, which was filmed in Boston last summer. If you didn't catch it, look for it in re-runs on the Hallmark Channel...

M. Lynda Robinson – and members of her 10-minute play workshop at the Gloucester Writers Center – will present staged readings of new work on Feb 10…

Emily Kaye Lazzaro will next appear onstage in Heart & Dagger’s production of A Dream Play, opening on Feb. 22…

Alumni news, in brief:

Plays by Walt McGough (Paper City Phoenix) and Masha Obolensky (Marvelous Fruit) are finalists for this summer’s Source Festival in Washington, D.C….

John Kuntz was voted Broadway World Boston's Best Actor (Medium Theatre) for Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of The Hotel Nepenthe (which he also wrote)…

Alumni news, in brief:

Whoa – LOTS of love for BPT peeps in the nominations for the 2012 BroadwayWorld Boston Awards, including John Kuntz (Best Actor in a Play, Medium Theater for The Hotel Nepenthe), Emily Kaye Lazzaro (Best Actress in a Play, Small/Fringe for Murph and Priscilla Dreams the Answer), Melinda Lopez (Best Actress in a Play, Medium Theater for The Motherf**cker with the Hat), Rick Park (Best Actor in a Play, Medium Theater for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Best Actor in a Play, Small/Fringe for The Friends of Eddie Coyle), and the entire cast of The Company We Keep (Marianna Bassham, John Kooi, Bill Mootos, and Jessica Webb). The Company We Keep was also nominated for Best Play, Small/Fringe, and director Elena Aroaz for Best Direction of a Play, Small/Fringe…

Alumni news, in brief:

Ronan Noone’s The Atheist opens this week at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre in North London…

Genevieve Jessee performed her solo show It All Looks Hand-Me-Down (formerly Girl in, but not of, the 'Hood) at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival last month...
 
We blog: Emily Kaye Lazzaro shows off her contribution to Fresh Ink’s recent fundraiser and [since more rough weather is on the way this week] opines about How to Utilize a Hurricane Day as a Writer; MJ Halberstadt contemplates What’s Math Got to do With It?; Colleen Hughes is participating in NaPlWriMo this November [Should you be doing that too?]; and John Greiner-Ferris on his recent stage turn at Roxbury Repertory Theater…

Jonathon Myers on Mass Digi and The Importance of Community…

Alumni news, in brief:

John Kuntz opens this week in the American Repertory Theater production of The Lily’s Revenge by Taylor Mac…

Lydia Diamond was appointed a co-vice president of Theatre Communications Group…

Karmo Sanders’ short play Homer was a finalist for this year’s McLaren Memorial Playwriting Award…

On Oct. 16th, The Naked Stage will present the first public staged reading of Monica Bauer’s new play, Porter's Will, at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in Southampton, Long Island…

Emily Kaye Lazzaro offers her experience of last week’s StageSource soiree, and proclaims “I’m not cool.” For the record, EKL, I disagree…

To scarf, or not to scarf? and much more in MJ Halberstadt’s latest dispatches from Paris…

Alumni news, in brief:

The Underground Railway Theater production of Wes Savick’s Car Talk: The Musical!!! (music by Michael Wartofsky) has been extended a second time, and will play at Central Square Theater until Sept. 16…

Karmo Sanders returned to Alaska – where her show Gold Rush Girls (music by Jerry Sanders) wrapped up its sold-out six-week run at Cyrano’s Theatre Company on Sept. 2 – to help direct a concert version of the show that will run on Alaska Public Broadcasting during the station’s pledge week this fall…

Alumni news, in brief:

Chicago’s Sideshow Theatre Company – of which Walt McGough is a founding member and literary director – just announced its upcoming season…

Monica Bauer’s Made for Each Other opens tomorrow at the Edinburgh Finge! Hopefully, you’ve been following her adventures (and learning a lot about what’s happening behind-the-scenes) in her Fringe blog for The Huffington Post…

Check out Emily Kaye Lazzaro on the Fresh Ink blog, writing about the workshop of her new play Girls Sports…

The next stop for K. Alexa Mavromatis’ Jinxed is Seoul Players’ Ten Minute Play Festival in South Korea next month. BTM playwright Patrick Gabridge is on the bill as well, with Curse the Darkness…

Alumni news, in brief:

A rave from Theatre is Easy was the ultimate Edinburgh send-off for Monica Bauer’s Made For Each Other – and you can get the lowdown on the Fringe as Monica chronicles her experiences across the pond for The Huffington Post…

It’s official: The dates for Fresh Ink Theatre's production of Ginger Lazarus’ The Embryos have been set for Nov. 30-Dec. 15...

Lydia Diamond’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye will bow this fall at Brown University, a co-production of the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and Sock & Buskin…

We blog: Read about Sinan Ünel’s experiences in Turkey, and the always-entertaining Emily Kaye Lazzaro on movies, running, and kitties…

Alumni news, in brief:

The Change by Peter M. Floyd and Third Time’s a Charm by John Greiner-Ferris are part of Hovey Players’ Summer Shorts 2012, opening this weekend. Also on the bill are BTM vets Steven Bergman, Andrea Fleck Clardy, and Chris Lockheardt, among others…

Emily Kaye Lazzaro on the Fresh Ink blog…

Even before it crosses the pond, Monica Bauer’s Made for Each Other is a ScotsGay Magazine Editor’s Recommendation for the Fringe… Read all about the play on the Indie Theatre Now blog. The play opens in 59E59’s East to Edinburgh Festival this week…

Jinxed, by K. Alexa Mavromatis, is one of ten ten-minute plays selected for Short + Sweet Gold Coast (Queensland, AU) in August…

Read about Jonathon Myers’ current project…

Alumni news, in brief:

Enjoy a beer and a play at the reading of Emily Kaye Lazzaro’s Girls Sports tonight at the Landsdowne Pub. The reading is one of the developmental steps leading up to the play’s production at Fresh Ink Theatre Company next spring…

Tickets are now on sale for Monica Bauer’s Made for Each Other at the East to Edinburgh Festival. See the production at NYC’s 59E59 before it goes to Scotland: July 13, 15, 18, and 27…

Werner Trieschmann on William Inge on the Arkansas Repertory Theatre blog…

Wes Savick's Car Talk: The Musical!!! (music by Michael Wartofsky) opens this week at Central Square’s Underground Railway Theater…

Lookin' good: New Voices Playwriting Fellows

New Rep Associate Artistic Director Bridget Kathleen O'Leary (back row, L) with the inaugural class of New Voices Playwriting Fellows at the conclusion of the first annual Festival of New Voices. Clockwise from Bridget: James McLindon, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, Colleen Hughes, and Anna Renée Hansen.

Congratulations, everyone!

Playwriting fellows offer an inside look at New Rep's 'Festival of New Voices'

In preparation for this weekend's Festival of New Voices, each of the New Voices @ New Rep Playwriting Fellows (BPT alums Anna Renée Hansen, Colleen Hughes, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, and frequent BTM playwright James McLindon) was asked what they hope to learn from the readings. See what they have to say -- and learn more about their plays -- below.

To reserve your spot, please RSVP by calling the New Rep box office at 617-923-8487.

Saturday, June 9 @ 2 p.m.

Directive 47 by Colleen Hughes

Sr. Barbara O’Keefe has approved an abortion to save the life of a critically ill patient at the Catholic hospital where she works, an action which Bishop Michael Williams decrees worthy of excommunication. When he offers her a return to full standing in the Church if she repents, everyone has difficult choices to make: should Sr. Barbara sacrifice her beliefs to get back the community she loves? Should fellow nuns Sr. Catherine and Sr. Elizabeth support Sr. Barbara in her time of need or, as Williams desires, seek to remove her from their order? Inspired by a true story, Directive 47 explores faith and doctrine, power and compassion, and what happens when those values collide. 

Anna Renée Hansen and Bridget Kathleen O'Leary talk about New Voices @ New Rep

Around the table (L-R): Colleen Hughes, Anna Renée Hansen, Emily Kaye Lazzaro,
James McLindon, and Bridget Kathleen O'Leary. (Photo: Dana S. Hansen)

C’mon, you didn’t think we’d let Anna Renée Hansen completely out of the clutches of Playwrights’ Perspective, did you? Today, the alum and New Voices @ New Rep fellow talks with New Repertory Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Bridget Kathleen O’Leary about the inaugural year of the program (which, in addition to Anna, includes Colleen Hughes, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, and James McLindon) and the first annual Festival of New Voices on June 9 and 10.
 
For more information (including a schedule) visit the New Rep Web site, and you may RSVP for the readings on the event’s official Facebook page. 


ARH: I would venture to say that a big question for the BPT blog readers may be: Why New Voices @ New Rep Playwriting Fellows? Oh, and what IS IT? (You do the spiel so well...)

BKO: I studied directing at Boston University and during my time in the program I spent a lot of time at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. My exposure to Kate Snodgrass and the work the students were doing led me to pursuing working with companies that had an interest in new plays and development. I chose to intern at New Rep in my final semester because of their relationship with the National New Play Network and as luck would have it, I got hired at the end of the semester. My time at New Rep has allowed me to get to know a lot of writers and participate in a regional dialogue about how we approach new work as an industry, but also gave me the chance to ask writers what it was they were looking for. Surprisingly, “a production” was not the first thing. They mostly wanted support, conversation and guidance. Nobody else works in a vacuum in this business – yet playwrights are often left to write alone and hope they get enough right to be noticed. It’s not fair. 

Alumni news, in brief:

Ginger Lazarus was on the writing team for Malarkey Films' short Ourmageddon, part of The Boston 48 Hour Film Project. You can also read what Ginger has to say about the origin of her play The Embryos on the Fresh Ink Theatre blog...

Hot off the press: Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea in Humana Festival 2011: The Complete Plays...

Coming soon: This year's MFA class (MJ Halberstadt, Rick Park, Michael S. Parsons, and Jaclyn Villano) present their Room to Live Plays...

Also just around the corner, New Rep's first annual Festival of New Voices featuring the work of this year's New Voices @ New Rep Fellows: Anna Renée Hansen, Colleen Hughes, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, and frequent BTM contributor James McLindon...

Dan Hunter in The Edmonton Journal: "Creativity is a practice, not a gift"...

Alumni news, in brief:

Kate Snodgrass will receive this year's Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence at the Elliot Norton Awards ceremony on May 21, joining theatrical luminaries Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, David Wheeler, Lynn Redgrave, Sir Ian McKellan, and the many other amazing artists who have been honored with this award. Kate will also be this year's playwright laureate at Roxbury Repertory Theatre's 6 Playwrights in Search of a Stage on April 27, where her short play Brickwork will be performed; also on the bill is MJ Halberstadt with The Milkman. (Also, rumor has it that John Grenier-Ferris will grace the stage in one of the plays...)

To honor her work on Deported/a dream play, this Friday joint House/Senate resolutions will be awarded to Joyce Van Dyke during the Armenian community's annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at the Massachusetts State House...

MJ Halberstadt received the MFA Creative Writing Global Fellowship in Playwriting. He will live and write in Paris this fall...

Emily Kaye Lazzaro is currently ON the stage at BPT, in Argos Productions' Murph (by Catherine M. O'Neill), which opened last weekend...

Cha Cha, Clem, and Demonio at frequent BTM playwright Kirsten Greenidge's The Luck of the Irish