THE AUTEUR

A Special E-News Publication for
ASSOCIATION FOR THEATRE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
PLAYWRIGHTS AND CREATIVE TEAMS (PACT) FOCUS GROUP

March 19, 2008 - Vol. 9, #1

NOTE FROM THE E-NEWS EDITOR:

Please continue to send along information and material for your E-Newsletter. We want to hear about your achievements, updates on committee work, job and script opportunities. Also, please send along contact information for people you think should be on the E-NEWS email list.

All submissions to E-NEWS should be email form. Please, no hard copy. Send along information to Jeffrey Ullom at AuteurATHE@aol.com. Thanks for your help!!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: (SEARCH FOR **** FOR NEXT TOPIC)

***ATHE 2008 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

***CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS FOR PLAYWRITING PRE-CONFERENCE

***ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE DAVID MARK COHEN AWARD

***PLAYWORKS 2008 ANNOUNCES PLAY COMPETITION WINNERS

***LATINO PLAYWORKS 2008 ANNOUNCES PLAY COMPETITION WINNERS

***SELECTED PLAYS AND ARTISTS FOR THE NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

***ACTORS NEEDED, FOR VARIED AGE, GENDER, AND ETHNICITY RANGES

****ATHE 2008 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

 The 2008 ATHE Conference will take place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Denver from July 31-August 3. Information concerning the pre-conference follows below.  The following is the schedule of events for the PACT (Playwrights and Creative Teams) Focus Group

Pre-Conference

Tuesday            July 29              8:00 pm                     “Playwrights And…” dinner

Wednesday       July 30              9:00 am –5:00 pm      “Teacher as Artist” sessions

Conference

Wednesday       July 30              7:00 pm-10:00 pm     #1216-New Works Training Session

Thursday           July 31              9:00 am-1:00 pm       #1215-NPDW, DMC, PlayWorks

                                                                                    #1220-Orientation, First Rehearsal

                                                                                    #1221-Breakout Session for Playwrights

1:30 pm-4:45 pm       #1214-PlayWorks Open Work Session

Friday               August 1            8:30 am-11:45 am      #1213-PlayWorks Staged Reading      

10:15 am-11:45 am    #1204-Workshop: Found Objects As

                                                                                             Writing Stimuli       

12:30 pm-2:00 pm     #1201-Membership Meeting #1

12:30 pm-2:00 pm     #1211-NPDW Rehearsal II

12:30 pm-3:45 pm     #1202-DMC Dress Rehearsal

4:00 pm -7:15 pm      #1207-DMC Staged Reading

Saturday            August 2           8:30 am-10:00 am      #1208-Solo Performers in Action

12:30 pm-2:00 pm     #1206-Membership Meeting #2

4:00 pm-7:15 pm       #1212-NPDW Rehearsal III

5:45 pm-7:15 pm       #1203-Practive/Pedadogy of

           Stage Adaptation

5:45 pm-7:15 pm       #4017-Ensemble Devising Process

Sunday             August 3            9:00 am-1:00 pm       #1209-NPDW Staged Readings

**** CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS FOR PLAYWRITING PRE-CONFERENCE

Looking Out for Number One: Teacher as Artist

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

9:00 am -5:00 pm

The PACT (Playwrights and Creative Teams) Focus Group, formerly known as the Playwrights Program, is sponsoring a one-day Pre-Conference on Wednesday, July 30, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, site of the 2008 Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in Denver, Colorado, July 31-August 3. The Pre-Conference, “Looking Out for Number One: Teacher as Artist”, will feature a writing workshop with Master Teacher and award-winning playwright Steven Dietz along with other writing and group critique sessions, a resources exchange session, and plenty of opportunities for networking. The Pre-Conference will run from 9 am until 4 pm, with a post-discussion from 4-5 pm. Those who wish to arrive on Tuesday night are invited to join in a “Playwrights And…” dinner on Tuesday night, July 29. The cost of the Pre-Conference is $75, with a discounted price of $50 for graduate students. This fee does not include the Tuesday night dinner. Those who wish to stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Tuesday and/or Wednesday night are eligible for the ATHE conference rate (participants must make their own reservations).

The deadline for Pre-Conference registration is July 1, or until all spaces are filled. To register, please send a short letter to the address below along with your full payment (make checks payable to Pamela Turner). The letter should include your name, address, email address, phone number, and a brief description of what you hope to get out of a one-day writing workshop. Registration confirmations will be sent out by email, and, starting June 1, registrants will receive a Pre-Conference schedule and other session format information. Send letter and payment to:

Dr. Pamela Turner

Director of Theatre and Film

Ben Franklin Academy – Emory

1585 Clifton Road NE

Atlanta, Georgia 30329

pamelanne@att.net

****ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE DAVID MARK COHEN AWARD

The 2008 David Mark Cohen Award Winner is Elephant’s Graveyard, by George Brant, University of Texas, Austin. The Second and Third Place winners are Jimmy Cory, by Kevin Daly, Bloomington, Indiana, and Sow and Weep, by Nitzan Halperin, Brooklyn, New York. The performance will take place at the ATHE Conference on Friday, August 1, directed by Daniel Patterson (Keene State College).  

The David Mark Cohen Award is a combined ATHE and Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Award. The competition honors the memory of David Mark Cohen, himself an accomplished playwright and head of the University of Texas MFA program in playwriting.

Scripts are submitted to the competition by the Playwriting Program Chairs of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Each of the KCACTF regions may submit two scripts, both of which must have received some level of reading/production before submission. Award winners are selected by a panel made up of readers from both the Kennedy Center ACTF National Playwriting Program and ATHE’s Playwriting Program.

Winner’s Bio

George Brant is currently in his final year as a Playwriting Fellow at the James A. Michener Center for Writers.  His work has been produced in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Austin. His plays have been selected for the Prop Thtr New Play Festival, the Circle Theatre New Play Festival and the WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Lab, and have been finalists for the Clauder Competition, the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, the Hangar Theatre Lab, the Herrick Theatre Foundation’s New Play Competition and the Keene Prize for Literature.

"Elephant's Graveyard" Performance History:

"Elephant’s Graveyard" has been workshopped at WordBRIDGE Playwright's Lab, had readings at both Seattle's Capitol Hill Arts Center and Providence's Trinity Repertory Theatre, and has received a student production at the University of Texas at Austin, directed by Trinity Repertory’s Laura Kepley.

****PLAYWORKS 2008 ANNOUNCES PLAY COMPETITION WINNERS

Winner for PlayWorks 2008 Play Competition is: Companeras, by Kathy Coudle King, Grand Forks, North Dakota. The performance will take place at the ATHE Conference on Friday, August 1, directed by Tom Robson (Indiana University) with dramaturg Ara G. Beal (University of Maryland).

Winner’s Bio:

Kathy Coudle King has written more than 40 plays, enjoying productions is 14 states.  She earned her BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU after which she moved to North Dakota.  Unable to find a job as a playwright ANYWHERE in the state, she promptly returned to school where she earned an M.A. in English.  She has been teaching writing and women studies at the U. of North Dakota since 1994.  During her graduate school work, she was appointed playwright-in-residence at the UND Women Center where she developed work to lend voice and face to issues such as domestic violence, bigotry, and eating disorders.  Later, she earned commissions to write plays for medical and social issue conferences.  Her play, "Milk Dreams," is one of the few plays about breast feeding ever to be presented on the stage (hard to believe), and was performed in ND, MN, IA, IN, ME, and AZ.  In 2007, her full-length, "Trees," was selected as one of 4 plays to receive a week of development at Fullerton College with dramaturg and playwright Ed Mast.  It went on to be named a finalist in FutureFest where it received a staged performance in July, 2007.  Her full-length "St. Bette's," a semi-finalist for the 2007 ATHE, premiered at NYU's Stella Adler theatre lab as a senior workshop in March, 2008.  She has also had work done by Potluck Productions (K.C.), NJ Rep, Manhattan  Theatre Source, and TrueNorth (Beacon, NY) where she was a finalist for the Riverfest award  ('07) for her short about the ND flood of '97.  A co-founding member of the ND Playwrights Co-op and member of the International Center for Women Playwrights, she looks forward to this opportunity to stretch and grow at this year's ATHE.  www.dakotalit.com

”Companeras" Performance History:
Companeras has never benefited from a public reading or performance.  A draft was begun at OSU - summer of 2007 -- at a retreat for the International Center for Women Playwrights during which early pages were read and critiqued.  Early drafts were read at "round-tables" of the ND Playwrights Co-op meetings in Fall, 2007.

****LATINO PLAYWORKS 2008 ANNOUNCES PLAY COMPETITION WINNERS

Winner for Latino PlayWorks 2008 Play Competition is: Volver, Volver, Volver, by Leonard Madrid, Albuqureque, New Mexico. The performance will take place at the ATHE Conference, directed by Gil Gonzalez (Whittier College, CA), dramaturg, TBA.

Winner’s Bio:

Leonard Madrid is in his third year in the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at the University of New Mexico.  He has a BFA in Theatre from Eastern New Mexico University as well as a BA in Design for performance from UNM.  He has received the Kennedy Center award for Latino Playwrights twice. Leonard is part of the artisitic core of Blackout Theatre Company, Theatre Roosevelt Improv Comedy, and the Improv Puppet Show Wowie-Ka-Bowzo.  His set, light, costume, and puppet designs have been seen on the stages around Albuquerque.

****SELECTED PLAYS AND ARTISTS FOR THE NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

The finalist scripts have also been selected. These include:

BIRTHDAY, by Carlos Manuel

BORDERLINE, by Jeanette D. Farr

CANDYLAND, by Aleks Merilo

THE RISQUE ROOT, by Kara Dunn

TURTLE BEACH, by Aoise Stratford

THE UNVEILING, by Ellen Sullivan

THE VIEW FROM MATHER POINT, by Natalie Gaupp

WHITE BIRCHES, by Susan Merson

Alternates (in alphabetical order)

ONE GOOD MOMENT, by P. Paullette MacDougal

RECYCLIST, by Ron Pullins

REVOLUTIONS, by Elaine Romero

TANGO IN PARIS, by Kathleen M. McGeever.  

Directors selected to work with these scripts are:

Penelope Walrath Cole

Doug Finlayson

C. David Frankel

Andrea Grapko

Max Hafler

Gina Kaufmann

Bob Nelson

Becky B. Prophet

Dramaturgs selected to work with the scripts are:

Julie M. Gale

Jean Dobie Giebel

Christina Gutierrez

Wade Hollingshaus

Nancy C. Mayfield

Ed Menta

Pam Monteleone

LaRonika Thomas.

Congratulations to these writers and artists.   The New Play Development Showcase of Plays will take place at the ATHE Conference on Sunday, August 3, 9:00 a.m.

****ACTORS NEEDED, FOR VARIED AGE, GENDER, AND ETHNICITY RANGES

Several of the plays selected for the New Play events have larger casts than we anticipated, so the call for actors is still open as we now begin team selection and casting of plays.

Eleven scripts will receive script-in-hand staged readings.  We still need actors for three events:

• David Mark Cohen Award Winner (full-length new play)

• Playworks Award Winner (full-length new play)

• New Play Development Workshop (eight short plays, workshop/showcase performances)

 Those interested should contact New Play’s Program Coordinator, Judith Royer, as soon as possible. Need brief acting resume and photo. Include mailing address and telephone/fax/e-mail numbers for now and for the summer, should that be different from your current information. If you apply by e-mail, please copy and paste all resume and photo materials into the body of the e-mail rather than send by attachment. FAX is fine. If you send by overnight mail, be sure to waive the need for a delivery signature.   Contact Judith Royer, 7847 Flight Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045. Phone, (310) 670-0362; FAX (310) 215-0967 :jroyer@earthlink.net.