Page on the Stage
The Outrageous New Play Festival Series
Summer Theatre Fun Coming June 30th
Monsoon season is coming and we have some terrific fun in the works. Beowulf Alley Theatre at 11 S. 6th Avenue, Downtown Tucson, is launching a new summer program for playwrights. Page to the Stage: The Outrageous New Play Festival Series.
Picture this: Three Tucson playwrights presenting their unpublished plays for public viewing after several weeks of working with actors and directors to give their words on the page a place on the stage.
From Wednesday to Sunday evenings each week with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays, June 30 to July 18, playwrights will work with minimal sets, lighting, sound effects, props, and costumes to create an intimate environment where their words are the focus and the audience is the judge.
Plan to spend time engaging with playwrights, directors and actors as they workshop three new stories on our stage. The schedule of each play’s presentation dates and times are listed on our website, http://www.beowulfalley.org/html/page_on_the_stage.html, and included below. Tickets for a single play presentation are $12 or buy the series of three plays for $30 and may be purchased online or by phone at (520) 882-0555.
You’ll have the opportunity to see one play or all three and could even achieve that in a single weekend. And, just for fun, you can support your favorite plays in our “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,” fun-draiser to help us develop seed money for next year’s Play on the Stage program.
Who knows? We might even discover a play this summer to fully mount at the end of our 2010-2011 subscription season. Anything can happen!
Play #1, The First Third by John Vornholt, directed by Dave Sewell:
On December 1, 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Selective Service held a nationwide draft lottery on prime-time TV in an attempt to make the draft more fair. Almost all deferments were canceled, and every able-bodied man between the ages of 19 and 26 faced a certainty of being drafted to go Vietnam if his birthday fell in the First Third of the capsules drawn. On this fateful night, we join five college seniors as their lives and futures are determined by a TV game show, hosted by retiring General William B. Hershey.
The cast includes: Ryan Amstutz, Sukhdan Baron, Michael Guyll, Jeff Scotland, Joshua Silvain and Royce Sparks.
Performance Dates
· Evenings at 7:30 - Wed., June 30; Sun. eve. July 4; Fri. July 9; Thurs., July 15; and Sat eve, July 17 plus
· Matinees at 1:30 - Sat. July 3 and Sun. July 11
Play #2, The Language of Flowers by Gavin Kayner, directed by Steve Anderson:
Think of this: It's the dead of night. Two sisters, one channeling Emily Dickinson - the second trapped in a delusion that her doll is a living baby - drag a body across the floor and stuff it into the refrigerator. They swear each other to secrecy. At dawn an escaped convict breaks into their home, into their private lives and all hell breaks loose. Of course, it's a love story. And a mystery. Waiting to be plucked.
The cast includes: Kristina Sloan, Brian Taraz and Robin Van Auken
Performance Dates
· Evenings at 7:30 - Thurs., July 1; Sat. July 3; Wed, July 7 at 7:30p; Sun., July 1; and Fri., July 16
· Matinees at 1:30 - Sat. July 10 at 1:30p, Sun. July 18.
Play #3, A Work of Art by Jonathan Northover, directed by Lydia Borowicz:
London, England, in the world of high art as inhabited by Danny, Helen and Gornstoun and Helen’s Aunt Brailey, an eccentric gallery owner with a taste for good art. That is, as long as everyone realizes that it’s good. Led by bouts of arson, the exploitation of underage Chinese artists and a level of violence that can only derive from love, the plot centers around the disappearance of a unique original painting by the famous 19th century artist, Anton Von Holk Koopercheck. This is not just a play. It is an essential study of how far we might go in pursuit of a new idea, especially if it’s been done before. A study of our fascinating with originality, even if it doesn’t exist. And a study of not just what’s on the surface of art, but what’s supposed to be on the surface.
The cast includes Chelsea Bowdren, Sean Dupont, Stephen Frankenfield, Cynthia Jeffery and Steve McKee.
Performance Dates
· Evenings at 7:30 - Fri., July 2; Thurs., July 8; Sat., July 10; Wed. July 14; and Sun. July 18
· Matinees at 1:30 - Sun., July 4 and Sat, July 17
Parking is available at the City Garage at Pennington and Scott, just two blocks from the theatre, weekends - just $2 weeknights after 6 p.m. and a flat $2 all day on weekends. Street parking at meters is FREE after 5p weekdays and all day on weekends. Thanks to Pima County, the lot across the street from Beowulf Alley at Broadway and 6th Avenue is FREE Monday through Friday after 5pm and all weekend.
We hope that you’ll join us for some very exciting summer fun in our air-conditioned theatre.
