PlayFest!

PLAYFEST!
THE HARRIETT LAKE FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS
February 8-March 17, 2008
"It's What's Next!"
CS LEE of SHOWTIMES HIT SERIES "DEXTER" PLAYS ALAN IN THE CENTRAL FLROIDA PREMIERE OF "OPUS" FOR PLAYFEST 2008Held at the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, PlayFest! is an annual ten-day festival of dynamic and diverse new plays and musicals delivered by national writers, directors and performers via readings, workshops and panels. Our mission is to celebrate and cultivate new plays and musicals, nurture new playwrights and composers, attract new local and national audiences, introduce the community to new theatrical voices and provide a marketplace for local and national theatre professionals.
PLAYFEST includes readings, workshops and productions of new plays (all followed by lively post show discussions). PlayFest also features compelling alternative programming such as an opening night party, Play in a Day, playwright panels and master classes. Come early, stay late, have a drink, enjoy tasty food, and participate in the development of cutting edge new theatre!
PlayFest Prices are as follows:
PlayFest button (festival admission) - $5; Workshops - $8 Readings - $3 PLAYFEST – THE HARRIETT LAKE FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS – 2008!
February 8 to 17, 2008 Presented by the Orlando Shakespeare Theater at The John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center 812 E. Rollins Street, Suite 100 Orlando, Florida 32803 407.447.1700 www.orlandoshakes.org
Opening Night Party
Sponsored by the Orlando Shakespeare Theater's Associate Board
Friday, 2/8/08 -10pm
Shakespeare Center
Free with Button to Opening Night Attendees, Friends of OST, and PlayFest Artists!
A Keynote Address
Writing What Matters
by John Pielmeier – Author of Agnes of God
Saturday, 2/9/08 - 7:30pm
Margeson Theatre
Free with Button
Followed by a one-time only reading of the first act of his new play, Madonna and Child
Madonna and Child contains strong language and mature content
Playwrights' Brunch
Sunday, 2/10 - 10:30am
Mandell Theater
Invitation Only!
Panel Discussion
What Is The Role Of The Critic In New Play Development?
Panel will include Representatives from the American Theatre Critics Association, The Dramatists Guild and Playwrights TBD
Sunday, 2/10 – Noon-1:30pm
Mandell Theater
Free with Button
Play in a Day
Produced by Orlando Fringe Festival Artistic Director, Beth Marshall
Monday, 2/11 - 7pm
Margeson Theater
$5 with PlayFest Button
Drawing held Sunday 2/10 in the Mandell Theatre Immediately following the Panel. Come for the Panel and stay for the selection
Typewriter Plays
Assorted typewriters will be scattered throughout the Shakespeare Center Lobby. Try your hand at a one-page, 2-character play. Typewriter plays will be collected and a winning entry will be selected by a specialized team of judges for a cool prize at the end of PlayFest 2008!
CLASSES
Fringe 101 and 102
Orlando International Fringe Festival Artistic Director, Beth MarshallSunday 2/10 and Sunday 2/17, 2-4pm both days
McLaughlin Rehearsal Hall
Cost $10 + $5 PlayFest Button required
Master Playwriting Class
John Pielmeier, Author of Agnes of GodSunday, February 10 – 2:00-4pm
Cost $50, + $5 PlayFest Button required
Mandell TheaterClassical Adaptation Class
Orlando Shakespeare Theater Artistic Director, Jim HelsingerSaturday, February 16 – Noon-2:00pm
Cost $50 + $5 PlayFest Button requiredStudio B
CENTRAL FLORIDA PREMIERE
FULL PRODUCTION
OPUS
By Michael Hollinger
February 6 to March 9, 2008
Show times vary
The huge hit reading of PlayFest! 2007 becomes the premiere this season. A world-renowned string quartet has only a week to rehearse Beethoven’s “Opus 131” for a performance at the White House. Tempers and partners flare as the pressure increases. The Orlando Sentinel proclaimed, “The audience loved this comic drama.”
Opus contains strong language and mature content.
WORKSHOPS
Admission Cost for Workshops is $8 + $5 PlayFest Button required.
THE BLUE-SKY BOYS By Deborah Brevoort Mandell Theatre
Saturday, 2/9 – 2:30 to 5:00pm Wednesday, 2/13 – 7:00 to 9:30pm Friday, 2/15 – 8:00 to 10:30pm Saturday, 2/16 – Noon to 2:30pm
The engineers behind the first Apollo moon landing are in big trouble. President Kennedy has ordered the United States must beat the Russians to the first manned landing on the moon. Time is running out, so there is only one thing left to do…Blue Sky it! Enter Buck Rogers, Icarus, Galileo, Snoopy, and the Red Baron as the heavenly heroes that inspired these NASA engineers to pursue their boyhood dreams of space exploration.
THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO By John Minigan (past PlayFest author – Breaking the Shakespeare Code) Mandell Theater
Friday, 2/8 – 8:00 to 10:30pm Thursday, 2/14 – 7:00 to 9:30pm Saturday, 2/16 – 5:30 to 8pm Sunday, 2/17 – 8:00 to 10:30pm
Prince Manfred has ruled Otranto for years, despite his fear of a prophecy that he will lose power when the true owner of the castle grows “too large to inhabit it.” When a giant helmet falls from the sky killing son Conrad on his wedding day, followed by enormous body parts appearing throughout the castle, Manfred must scramble to divorce his wife, marry his son’s fiancée and produce a male heir before the prophecy is fulfilled.
THE UNFORTUNATES By Aoise Stratford Mandell Theater
Saturday, 2/9 – 5:30 to 7:30pm Sunday, 2/10 – 7:30 to 9:30pm Saturday, 2/16 – 3:00 to 5:00pm Sunday, 2/17 – 5:00 to 7:00pm
Mary Jane Kelly has a problem. She’s a pound forty behind in her rent, she’s lost her key and her boyfriend has moved out. It’s 1888-not a good time to be poor and unfortunate on the streets of London. Somewhere out there in the foggy shadows of night, one of the history's most notorious criminals, Jack the Ripper, is at work. Mary only has two ways to secure her own front door. One of them is prostitution. The other is selling something she shouldn’t posses in the first place, something she’ll have to betray her murdered best friend and herself to give up.
READINGS
Admission Cost for Readings is $3 + $5 PlayFest Button required.
ALFRED KINSEY: A LOVE STORY By Mike Folie Studio B
Tuesday, 2/12 – 7:30 to 10pm Sunday, 2/17 – 5:00 to 7:30pm
It’s 1953. Famous sex researcher Alfred Kinsey is giving a speech in Troy, NY when he is accosted by a young woman in the audience who is strongly opposed to any scientific study of human sex. Kinsey tries to respond, but plagued with a weak heart since childhood, collapses. The play then travels back and forth in time to examine Kinsey’s life and work. It is a highly theatrical and fictionalized biography, which reveals the raw emotions that often hide beneath the seemingly cold search for scientific truths.
ERRATICA By Reina Hardy Studio B
Sunday, 2/10 – 2:00 to 4:30pm Wednesday, 2/13 – 7:00 to 9:30pm
Professor Samantha Stafford is trying to write a book on Shakespeare in the midst of a host of distractions. One of her students is madly in love with her. Her publicist wants her to do something more commercial. And she is persistently haunted by an entity claiming to be the ghost of Christopher Marlowe. Meanwhile, Jack Hooper, a librarian who just might be a match for Dr. Stafford, has lost a prized manuscript to a mysterious thief.
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME BY VICTOR HUGO Adapted by Suzanne O’Donnell from the novel by Victor Hugo Studio B
Saturday, 2/9 – 5:00 to 7:30pm Saturday, 2/16 – 8:30 to 11:00pm
It is evening in a Parisian tavern, Pomme d’Eve. Pierre Gringoire, celebrated poet and playwright enters and is begged by the patrons to give a speech or recite a poem. Instead, granting a particular request from a mysterious man at the bar, he begins to tell the infamous tale of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
KAFKA’S SHORTS Adapted by David Karl Lee Mandell Theater
Sunday, 2/10 – 5:00 to 6:45pm Sunday, 2/17 – Noon to 1:45pm
Three of Franz Kafka’s most elusive and phantasmagorical short stories, The Hunger Artist, A Report to an Academy and The Country Doctor are brought to the stage. The transformation of the animal and human body and soul are examined amidst swirling snow storms, raging seas and a dark and mysterious circus midway menagerie.
LETTERS TO SALA By Arlene Hutton Studio B
Based on a true story, which has been called "one of the last great wartime narratives."
Presented by Women Playwrights' Initiative
Sunday, 2/10 – 5:00 to 7:00pm Saturday, 2/16 – 3:00 to 5:00pm
In 1940, sixteen-year-old Sala Garncarz volunteered to take her sister's place in a Nazi forced labor camp. During the next five years, in seven different camps, Sala received over 350 pieces of mail. Risking her life, she managed to save every single letter...and then hide them for almost fifty years.
MADONNA AND CHILD By John Pielmeier Margeson Theater
Saturday, 2/9 – 8:30pmImmediately following Mr. Pielmeier's Keynote Address
Reading of Act I only
A brutal murder. An abandoned child. A disenchanted son. A desperate mother. A dying saint. A wayward priest. A passionate detective. A lost masterpiece. And nothing is quite what it seems.
A new play by John Pielmeier tackles faith, art, and the politics of disbelief.
Madonna and Child contains strong language and mature content.
MISS JULIE: FREEDOM SUMMER An adaptation of August Strindberg's original play by Stephen Sachs Studio B
Friday, 2/8 – 8:00 to 10:00pm Saturday, 2/9 – Noon to 2:00pm
Limited engagement! It's the 4th of July, 1964 in Greenwood, Mississippi – just two days after the signing of the Civil Rights Act by President Johnson. Miss Julie, the daughter of a wealthy white Superior Court Judge is drinking and dancing with the servants in the barn. Meanwhile her father's African American chauffer, John, and cook Christine are judging her in the kitchen. But a moment of passion will soon change the lives of all three for eternity.
MISSING CELIA ROSE By Ian August Studio B
Saturday, 2/9 – 2:30 to 4:45pm Thursday, 2/14 – 7:00 to 9:15pm
On a bleak, autumn evening in 1921, a young boy named Geoffrey Pitts discovers that the beloved wife of the Baptist minister, Missus Celia Rose Richards, has stolen the only car in town and vanished without a trace. Neither his parents, his teacher, nor townsfolk know anything about the mysterious flight. With the aid of his friend and confidante, Taffy Prull, Jeffery decides to find Celia Rose and uncover the truth about her disappearance. But in doing so, Jeffrey uncovers hometown secrets that will change life there forever.
TROG AND CLAY By Michael Vukadinovich Mandell Theater
Saturday, 2/9 – Noon to 2:00pm Tuesday, 2/12 – 5:00 to 7:00pm
It’s 1880 and Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse are in the middle of the War of Currents, as Westinghouse’s Alternating Current becomes a serious rival to Edison’s Direct Current. Westinghouse is trying to hold onto his scheming wife, Margueritte, who wants to be an actress, Thomas Edison is using her to get William Kemmler to kill his wife, and Trog and Clay are two foolish, dog-catching hobos at the center of it all. Based on actual events, court transcripts and a little imagination.
WITTENBERG By David Davalos Studio B
Friday, 2/15 – 8:00 to 10:45pm Sunday, 2/17 – 2:00 to 4:45
Set during late October of 1517, this sprightly and audacious battle of wits features university colleagues Dr. Faustus (a man of appetites), Martin Luther (a man of faith), and their student Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (a youth struggling not only with his beliefs but also with his tennis game). Playwright David Davalos brings us the story behind the story of Hamlet in a highly entertaining and accessible exploration of reason versus faith.
PLAYFEST! – THE HARRIETT LAKE FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS FEBRUARY 8 - MARCH 17th, 2008 Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival Lowndes Shakespeare Center 812 East Rollins Street in Loch Haven Park Orlando, FL 32803
PlayFest! Button Required For Admission to All Events! - $5 Readings - $3 Workshops - $8
Please see schedule for other pricing
A Bit On Running Times Because of the fluid nature of new play development, it is difficult to post exact running times for PlayFest productions. We will include roughly considered approximations, which should be accurate within fifteen minutes. All running times include a 10-15 minute post show discussion.
In a nutshell...Readings are a public reading of a play with actors reading from scripts placed on music stands. The audience shares their feedback to the director and playwright, focusing on the development of the play. Workshops focus on getting the play “on its feet.” Actors rehearse, then perform with scripts in hand, rehearsal props, and a minimum of technical design. Audience feedback helps shape the play. Premiere Mainstage Productions are fully produced productions using the best professional actors, designers, directors and production values available. Theatre for Young Audiences Readings are geared towards parents, young audiences and the young at heart. Readings are seated and will use the audience’s imagination as they listen to the story.
Be a Playfest Patron! – It’s NOT too late!!!
It's a pass! It's a ticket! It's a sponsorship! Be a Playfest Patron and receive two all-access reserved seating passes to all events at Playfest plus two tickets to the Southern Premiere of Crime and Punishment and your name recognized in all PlayFest Programs. All PlayFest events are general admission, first-come-first-serve seating except for you. The best seats will be reserved for you in advance to all events you wish to attend, including all readings, workshops, master classes and Crime and Punishment. Patron passes are $1,000 per couple. Call the box office at 407-447-1700 x 1 to be a PlayFest Patron now!
THANK YOU ALL!
Special Thanks to Harriett Lake!
Harriett Lake, local arts patron, has assured the future growth of our new play development program with two major gifts to the Shakespeare Festival. Not only is she the lead donor in the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Playwriting, a million dollar endowment in partnership with the University of Central Florida designed to attract well known playwrights to the festival and UCF, she has also donated an additional $50,000 per year toward the operational costs of The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays for the next four years. Bearing her generous gifts in mind, the new play development program now also bears her name. From the staff, board, and patrons of the Festival, "Thank you, Harriett!" The Shakespeare Festival's commitment to the development of new plays is greatly helped by your generous gifts
To order tickets, call the Box Office 407-447-1700 x 1
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