'Windowmen' awarded Outstanding New Script at last night's Norties

Ryan Landry presents the award for Outstanding New Script to Steven Barkhimer

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees at last night's Elliot Norton Awards, but especially to Steven Barkhimer, whose Windowmen was awarded Outstanding New Script! Windowmen lead Alex Pollock received the Outstanding Actor award in the Small or Fringe category for his performance...and also for his stage turns in Company One's The Flick and Gloucester Stage Company's This Is Our Youth.

BTM XVI's One-Minute Sprints

The Dramatists Guild New England and Boston Playwrights' Theatre are co-hosting the One-Minute Sprints as part of the annual Boston Theater Marathon (BTM) weekend.

What’s a One-Minute Sprint? It’s a one-minute play on the theme of “TIME IS RUNNING OUT” that will be read by four very talented Bostonian actors(two men, two women). It’s great fun and a chance to hear many different voices.

WHAT | The One-Minute Sprints (a.k.a. one-minute plays) as part of the BTM Warm-Up Laps readings at the Boston Theater Marathon
WHEN | Saturday, May 10, 2014
WHERE | The Calderwood Pavilion, Deane Rehearsal Hall (2nd Floor)

Plays and playwrights of BTM XVI

Six Piece Chicken McNuggets by Amy Adler

Machsom Watch by Toby Armour

The Accident by Richard Ballon

Reassurance by Alan Brody

Eskimo Pie by Stephanie Brownell

Now, a blizzard of short plays: #1MPF is here!

We hope you’re planning to join us this weekend for The 3rd Annual Boston One-Minute Play Festival. Here’s a little information round-up, so that you’re ready for an exciting weekend.

Halberstadt's 'notJENNY'

Tuttle's 'August and Autumn'

Third annual Boston #1MPF

Time flies -- The 3^rd Annual Boston One-Minute Play Festival will be here before we know it! More on this very soon, but in the meantime here's the official press release:

The One-Minute Play Festival (Dominic D’Andrea, Producing Artistic Director) and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (Kate Snodgrass, Artistic Director) continue their dynamic partnership with the The 3^rd Annual Boston One-Minute Play Festival, with part of the proceeds to benefit BPT’s artist residency programming.  

The 3^rd Annual Boston One-Minute Play Festival will be presented on Saturday, Jan 4, Sunday, Jan 5, and Monday, Jan 6–all at 8 p.m. at BPT  (949 Commonwealth Ave ). Tickets are $20 and available for purchase at 866-811-4111 and bostonplaywrights.org.

The performance on Sunday Jan 5, at 8 p.m., will be livestreamed on Howlround.com’s HowlroundTV at livestream.com/newplay. 

BTM XVI deadline Nov. 15

The Boston Theater Marathon (BTM) will be held in May and will benefit a designated charity. The BTM will include 50 plays to be performed by hundreds of Boston’s actors, directors, technicians, and volunteers, each one produced by one of at least 50 New England theatre companies.

The submission deadline is November 15. Acceptance will be acknowledged in early spring.

Script Eligibility

• All scripts must play under 10 minutes.
• Ten pages maximum. IF YOUR PLAY IS MORE THAN 10 PAGES LONG, IT WILL BE INELIGIBLE FOR THE FESTIVAL.
• Please use a 10-point font or larger.
• No more than two submissions per author. This includes coauthored pieces.
• Minimal sets and props suggested.
• Submissions will be accepted from New England-area playwrights only. The states of New England are: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
• New England does not include New York. Sorry. 

Kate to discuss God of Carnage

Tonight, Kate is the special guest for the post-play discussion of Elements Theatre Company's God of Carnage...

Expo tomorrow

BPT will be there. Will you?

Houston's Supergravity opens tonight

 

Opening tonight at the Factory Theatre, Vagabond Theatre Group’s production of Heather Houston’s Supergravity and the Eleventh Dimension...Heather's thesis play. Read more about its early development here. Break a leg!

Greetings from…The 2013 StageSource Theater Conference

StageSource members and friends surround 2013 Theater Hero Award recipient Mimi Huntington. Her acceptance speech included kind words for Kate, about the years the Nora Theater Company operated out of BPT: “Kate said, ‘Stay as long as you like.’ And we did. For 11 years!” Congratulations Mimi!

Halberstadt's Da Vinci opens tonight

Can't Wait Productions' production of MJ Halberstadt's The Da Vinci Commission opens tonight at the Erick Jean Center for the Arts in Dorchester. Congrats, MJ!

BTM XV -- thank you!

Thank you to everyone -- onstage and off -- who contributed to the success (and fun!) of Boston Theater Marathon XV. We hope you had as great a time as we did. See you next year!

Voices of BTM XV: Steven Barkhimer

Steven Barkhimer

Odd I never thought of it. The Boston Theater Marathon is turning fifteen, and I moved to the Boston area fifteen years ago. It has somehow gone underappreciated by me that I was in the very first one!  So in a sense the Marathon and I have “grown up” here together. I was present at its birth, if not its conception, and have loved it from its glorious birth through its rambunctious infancy. And even though it has outpaced me in terms of reaching a certain maturity, my feelings for it are entirely undiminished.

But oh! I remember it as a kid – it was so lively, so exuberant, so – so impossible! And yet, there it was! Organized as intricately as a multi-pronged military invasion and running with the efficiency of a Swiss train. And all taking place, quite improbably, in the space so many of us now regard as home, the Boston Playwrights' Theatre.

Voices of BTM XV: Obehi Janice

Obehi Janice

I have a confession. I just started playwriting.

Everybody says this, but I too have wanted to be a writer since I was a kid. Writing has always come first to me, even though now it’s a second vocation. When I was in Kindergarten, I deemed myself an “author” and made makeshift novellas out of construction paper, yarn, and those thin pieces of big lined paper. My stories were often about white boys who lost their dogs and had terrible, horrible, no good very bad days. My writer’s voice developed in middle school when I discovered Sojourner Truth’s oratory, and then in high school when I created my own speeches. In college, it clicked: even if there are no acting roles for me, there are many if I write them. Solo performance, then, has been my medium of expression. When I’m not doing theater or commercial work, I’m usually touring my solo show FUFU & OREOS.

I have another confession.

How many times have you walked right by this?

BTM XV running order announced!

12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Obehi Janice’s RED DRINK, Bad Habit Productions 

Charlene A. Donaghy’s SLIDING, Wheelock Family Theatre

Rick Park’s FROM YOUR MOUTH TO GOD’S EARS, Actors Shakespeare Project

Gail Phaneuf’s LAPSE, Boston Actors Theater

Joyce Van Dyke’s WHITE HOLE, Boston Center for American Performance

K. Alexa Mavromatis’s THE QUIZ, Wellesley Summer Theatre

Voices of BTM XV: Terrence Kidd

Terrence Kidd

Regular readers of this blog know The Boston Theater Marathon is the greatest day of theater this town has. My first time in “The Marathon” my parents, who – save The Phantom and The Lion King – are not theater-goers, came from out of town. It was a great weekend, and not just because it was the first time they saw something I wrote produced. The day was made greater because once we got to the Calderwood they didn’t want to leave. My Dad said, “ Let’s stay for one more. Want to?” And Dad is the kind of guy who (endearingly) acts like he never wants to do anything. My mother – a self-professed part-time misanthrope (like her son) – said she found something to identify with in every play we saw – and we stayed for seven hours!

That’s a lot of identifying.

Voices of BTM XV: Lisa Burdick

Lisa Burdick

I was going to write a compare and contrast essay about what it’s like to participate in both Boston Marathons. In fact it was almost done. That was before. That essay is saved on my hard drive waiting for the right time to share it, perhaps next year. Perhaps the year after that. 

Instead I find myself thinking about what it means to participate in this year’s Boston Theater Marathon. It’s got those words in the title, Boston and Marathon. Those two words will forever be linked with the events of Monday, April 15th, 2013. We can’t escape it. It’s like having your birthday be September 11th. People will always pause. 

But this is our event, 50+ playwrights from New England, 50+ theater companies from Boston, 50+ directors, dozens of crew members, hundreds of actors, all Bostonians. I find myself thinking about art’s place in the world after a tragedy. Here in Boston we’ve had our sports teams to inspire us after a difficult week. But we also have our artists. Art can inspire and heal and bring people together. The Boston Theater Marathon brings the theater community together like no other event. It inspires us too. Perhaps this year it will even help heal us. This city has adopted the phrase “Boston Strong” as a rallying cry, a slogan to use as we pick ourselves up and show our resiliency. The theater community understands because when we keep going, when we pick ourselves up, when we show our resiliency, when we say “Boston Strong,” we’re just finding a new way to say “The Show Must Go On.”

--Lisa Burdick


We hope you’ll join us on Sunday, May 12 for Boston Theater Marathon XV (and for The Warm-Up Laps on May 11!). Click here for tickets and event details. See you there!