Alumni news, in brief:

Read about Richard Snee's latest project -- Kurt Vonnegut's Make Up Your Mind -- which opens at the Lyric this week...

Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly has settled in for a run (through Dec. 22) at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Company...

Monica Bauer's My Occasion of Sin opens at Detroit Rep on Jan. 9...

Deirdre Girard is one of three Next Voices Fellows at New Rep this season. In the spring, her play Reconsidering Hanna(h) will receive a staged reading as part of the theatre's Next Rep Festival...

Adventures in publishing: The Compass Rose by Ronan Noone has been published by Indie Theatre Now, and Jinxed by K. Alexa Mavromatis is available from Original Works Publishing...

New Rep's Festival of New Voices kicks off Sunday 5/19

Gabridge | Mavromatis | Girard | Floyd

This season, I've had the great fortune of being a playwriting fellow at New Rep alongside fellow BPT alums Peter Floyd and Deirdre Girard, and my Rhombus pal (and BTM vet) Patrick Gabridge. Together with New Rep Associate Artistic Director Bridget O'Leary, who founded the program, we have met every three weeks to discuss the progress of each others' plays. It's been an amazing journey for all of us and this week we will share our progress with you. Join us if you can!

I asked each of my fellow fellows to share a little bit about their plays (including goals for their readings) with you here...

Alumni news, in brief:

Cliff Odle is “equal parts cuddly and calculating” in the New Rep production of David Mamet’s Race…

“I never forgot what it’s like to be 10” – Karen Zacarías on playwriting, to the Orlando Sentinel. Her play Chasing George Washington (with music by Deborah Wicks La Puma) is onstage at Orlando Repertory Theatre until Nov. 18…

Leslie Dillen is opening the THEATERWORK (in Santa Fe, NM) season as Dorothea in Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary…

Another kind of storytelling: Narrative designer Jonathon Myers talks to Gamasutra about adapting Games of Thrones: Ascent for Facebook…

Alumni news, in brief:

Demonio at The Fakus

Peter Floyd, Deirdre Girard, and K. Alexa Mavromatis are part of New Repertory Theatre's second class of New Voices Playwriting Fellows. BTM vet Patrick Gabridge [who must certainly hold the record for non-alum most frequently featured in Alumni News, btw] rounds out the group. Each Fellow will work on a full-length project over the course of the season; the program will culminate with a series of readings at New Rep in June 2013...

Speaking of New Rep, Cliff Odle will bow in Watertown next month as part the cast of David Mamet's Race...

John Greiner-Ferris has been selected as an Accomplice with Interim Writers...

Episode two of Blood Rose Rising: Heir of Suspicion (co-written by Steve Barkhimer and Ben Evett) hits the stage this weekend...

And Ronan Noone's Brendan opens tomorrow in NYC, part of the annual 1^st Irish Festival, Sept. 26-30, presented by Origin Theatre Company. The play will be produced by Fat Violet Theater, in association with The Drilling Company…

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.