Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Louise Penberthy Play to be Produced

Louise Penberthy, the author of No More Than Reason, is an actor, playwright, and director. Recent productions include “Miss Hannah Comes Back” at Pierce College in Tacoma, Washington, and her short play “The Cougar in the Coffeehouse” in the Erotic Shorts Festival at the Little Red Studio in Seattle. Louise lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

No More Than Reason , a winner of 517 Playwrights 2nd Annual 10-Minute Play Contest, will be produced November 19 and 20 as part of the Kentucky Festival of New Plays at the Bards Town, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY. The festival is sponsored by the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. and the Bards Town Theatre.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Organizational Meeting Held

A meeting to formally organize the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. was held on the afternoon of August 15, 2010 at Common Grounds Coffee House in Lexington, KY. At that meeting the KPW adopted Bylaws, a policy manual and the membership elected a Board of Directors and approved dues for 2010 - 2011 of $10. Members who pay their dues on or before September 30, 2010 will be recognized as KPW's "Founding Members."

Individuals elected to the first Board of Directors are: Shan Ayers, Berea (Secretary); James Brown, Lexington (Treasurer) and Bill McCann, Jr., Lexington (President). The Board members will serve until the Annual Meeting of Active Members in September 2011, or until their successors are elected or appointed.

Membership in the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. is open to any Kentuckian interested in the production of new works for the stage.

KPW is organized as a non-profit corporation under the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Membership and Board Meetings are open to the general public. Copies of the Bylaws as amended and approved at the Organizational meeting on August 15th are available upon request by sending a request to ky.playwright@yahoo.com

Advertising Rates for Program Announced

Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. announced advertsing rates for this year's Kentucky Festival of New Plays that will be held November 19 and 20 at The Bards Town, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY:

business card: $35

1/4 page ad: $60

1/2 page ad: $100

full-page ad: $175

To advertise or for more information write ky.playwright@yahoo.com

This year's Kentucky Festival of New Plays features eight 10-minute plays by five Kentucky playwrights as well as three plays by playwrights from across America.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Brian Walker to Participate in Kentucky Festival of New Plays

Brian Walker a Louisville based playwright,is the author of Linda and Kirk and the Mouse Incident a 10-minute play, that will be featured in this year's Kentucky Festival of New Plays. Brian is the artistic director of Louisville, Kentucky based Finnigan Productions and has written and produced several full length plays in the Louisville area, including: Smoke this Play, Great American Sex Play, dirty sexy derby play and ZOMBIE!. Walker is the creator and co-producer of Finnigan’s Festival of Funky Fresh Fun, an annual 10-minute play festival celebrating independent theatre artists in the Louisville area.

Among his other plays Brian Walker's short play,Purple Cool-Aide Cult from Purpletown, was an official Play-Lab selection at 2009’s Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, NE. and his full length play, The Kings, was part of the Juneteenth Legacy Theatre’s 2009 Juneteenth Jamboree at Actors Theatre of Louisville; and it waS also part of the 18th Annual R. Joyce Whitley ARENAfest Festival of new plays in Cleveland, OH in May 2010.

Brian was awarded the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship Emerging Artist Award for playwriting by the Kentucky Arts Council in July 2010. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights’ Center, The Kentucky Theatre Association The Kentucky Playwrights Workshop and the Theatre Alliance of Louisville.

Linda and Kirk and the Mouse Incident will be one of the eight 10-minute plays performed as part of the Kentucky Festival of New Plays to be held November 18-21 at The Bards Town Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY. sponsored by the theatre and the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Couple to Headline New Plays Festival

Berea residents and playwrights Shan and Trish Ayers, are headlining this year's Kentucky Festival of New Plays November 18-21, 2010 at The Bardstown Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road in Louisville, KY.

Trish Ayers, author of the 10-minute play JUDGING QUILTS in this year's festival is co-artistic director and resident playwright of Mountain Spirit Puppets with her husband Shan Ayers. Her plays have toured the United States and Japan. She has been a guest artist at Iowa State and Western Illinois University and has won numerous playwriting awards from the Appalachian Writers Association and was a finalist in the 2009 Heartland Ten-Minute and One-Act Play Festival.

Ms. Ayers originated the Kentucky Women Playwrights’ Seminar, which has twice been funded by the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW). Currently she is editing the full-length play, “Taking Stock” with funding from the KFW Individual Artist Grant. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild.

Shan R. Ayers, author of the play DRAPED IN HONOR, holds an MFA and is a Professor of Theatre at Berea College. He teaches courses in design, script analysis, theatre history and playwriting. Twice he has taught playwriting for the Kentucky Institute for International Studies summer program in Japan and will be again in the 2011 summer program in Italy.

The Kentucky Festivla of New Plays is in its second year; in 2009 the festival was known as the Midway Festival of Plays and was produced at the Thoroughbred Communuity Theatre, Midway, KY.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

James Hamblin: Digging for Diamonds

James Hamblin, co author of DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS’ is an actor, writer and director from Georgetown, Kentucky. He has a BA in Communications from Georgetown College, and spent 2 years in the MFA Acting program at the University of Florida.

James has performed off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and throughout New England. He has worked in independent film and television, and works as a writer, director, actor and teacher all over the country. Locally, James is very proud of his work with Lexington Children’s Theatre.

DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS, by George Mcgee and James Hamblin, will be presented November 18-21, 2010 at the Bards Town Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY as part of the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc’s Kentucky Festival of New Plays.

Monday, August 9, 2010

George J. McGee: DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS

George J. McGee, co-author of ‘DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS’ is from Georgetown, Kentucky. He holds a B.F.A from Illinois Wesleyan University, in Drama, and a M.F.A. from Florida Atlantic University, in Acting and Directing. He is a Professor and Director of Theatre at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky.

McGee was a member of the Chicago based sketch comedy group, ‘The American Dream’, and was the Artistic Director of the Palm Beach Children’s Theatre. He has appeared in film, network television, commercials and industrials. He has recently appeared in Ed Smith’s film, ‘Surviving Guthrie’, and his short film, ‘doc doc’, has been selected for screening at Ireland’s 2010 International Film Festival. His 2008 play, ‘A Fence for Martin Maher’, written with award winning Irish playwright, John Mc Ardle, toured Kentucky and the Republic of Ireland. McGee is also an actor, performing as ‘Kentucky’s Greatest Statesman, Henry Clay’, for the Kentucky Humanities Council’s, Chautauqua program.

McGee is married to Cathy Gorman McGee they are both originally from the Chicago land area, but now live in Georgetown, Kentucky.

DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS, by George McGee and James Hamblin, will be presented November 18-21, 2010 at the Bards Town Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY as part of the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc’s Kentucky Festival of New Plays.

Candidates for the KPW Board of Directors

The following individuals-- listed alphabetically-- are candidates for election to the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. at the meeting to be held on Sunday August 15, 2010 at Common Grounds Coffee House, begining at 2:00 pm.

Board members elected at this Sunday's meeting will be responisble for the financial and administrative management of the KPW until thier successors are elected or appointed. Term of office is one year. From among themselves the Board will elect a president, secretary and treasurer to serve until the Annual Meeting 0f Active Members in September 2011.

Candidates for the Board are:

Shan R. Ayers, a Professor of Theatre at Berea College, holds an MFA in Theatre Design. He has been on the faculty at Berea College since 1984. He joined 517Playwrights this past Spring. Shan currently teaches playwriting courses at Berea and has twice taught playwriting while abroad with the Kentucky Institute for International Studies. He has also served as the playwriting judge for the Appalachian Writers Association and as a judge for the Berea Arts Council's Ten Minute Play Festival during their Quilt Extravaganza. He is currently reformatting and editing a collection of short plays written by Kentucky women playwrights. Shan's play, DRAPED IN HONOR, was selected for this year's Kentucky Festival of New Plays.

James Brown joinied KPW in February 2010. He will be producer of this year's festival of new plays. In addition to KPW James is a playwright and actor who is also working on an MFA in creative writing. James' play HIGHER EDUCATION was produced this past winter at the Lexington Public Library Theatre. Most recently, ames was in BCTC's play A FEW GOOD MEN in which he played Major Markinson.

Bill McCann, Jr. is co-founder (with Greta Fields) of 517 Playwrights and a Founding Member of Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. In addition to doing much of the work necessary to beocome an IRS sanctioned non-profit Bill has served as Contest Coordinator for both of the 517 Playwrights 10-minute play contests. This year Bill is also serving as Executive Producer (chief fundraiser) for the Kentucky Festival of New Plays. Beginning on August 16th Bill is going to be starting work on a MA in Theatre at the University of Kentucky. Bill is a playwright and actor. Most recently Bill played Charlie Martin in ON GOLDEN POND with the Little Colonel Playhouse in Pewee Valley, KY. His play, THERE IS NO WRIGLEY FIELD, will be in the Kentucky Festival of New Plays.

Steve Taylor attended the very first meeting of 517 Playwrights in 2008 and has been an active and enthusiastic member since writing the initial draft of the organization's Bylaws and helping KPW become incorporated as a non-profit. For both play contests Steve has been a judge; this year he also submitted two scripts for consideration. In addition to his work with KPW Steve is a playwright, a lawyer and, with a partner, an owner of a small press that specializes in publishing poetry.

Additional nominees will be accepted from the floor the day of the election.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

KPW Founders Meeting: August 15, 2010

We will officially "Found" (establish) Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. at our meeting on August 15, 2010 at Common Grounds Coffee House, Lexington, KY. beginning at 2:00 pm. If you have an interest in writing or developing new plays for the stage (and live in Kentucky) then Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. needs you!

At our August 15th meeting we will be doing the arcane but oh so necessary work of formally establishing KPW as a viable on-going organization; we will adopt Bylaws, establish dues for the coming year ($10 is the recommendation), adopt a policy manual and elect Board members. Currently the organization has 12 members who reside in Berea, Georgetown, Lexington, Louisville, and Whitesburg. Based upon the procedure that is to be recommended to those who attend the meeting we need a quorum of six (6) of the current members to be present in order for us to do business. So-- please attend the meeting.

If you have an interest in joining us, please do so. But if you have never been to a meeting before then PLEASE contact us at ky.playwright@yahoo.com and request the materials to be discussed and voted on at the August 15th meeting. Only individuals who have received the materials AT LEAST 72 hours in advance of the meeting may be allowed to vote; anyone wishing to attend the meeting however may do so.

Well, it is hard to believe but KPW is about to burst into bloom-- join us!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Rose-Mary Harrington

Rose-Mary Harrington, author of THERE IS NO DASH, is from Ashland, Oregon. She holds a B.A. from New College of Speech and Drama, England and an M.A. from the University of Arizona in Theatre/Playwrighting.

Ms. Harrington's efforts have been generously rewarded, they run the gamut from Pulse Ensemble in New York to the Kennedy Center and to being awarded honors by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Rose-Mary was the 2009 recipient of the Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama.

Rose-Mary is the mother of five muses, she has seven grand children. She is now able to field her very own soccer team, having played and coached soccer. She reluctantly admits to being an armchair soccer hooligan.

Rose-Mary is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

THERE IS NO DASH, by Rose-Mary Harrington, will be presented November 18- 21, 2010 at The Bards Town Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY as part of the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc.'s Kentucky Festival of New Plays.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

And the Winners are...

The winners of this year's 2nd Annual 517 Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest are:

Draped in Honor -- Shan Ayres-- Berea, KY
Judging Quilts -- Trish Ayres -- Berea, KY
There is No Dash -- Rose-Mary Harrington-- Ashland, OR
Nephrology -- Sara Ilyse Jacobson -- Baltimore, MD
There is No Wrigley Field -- Bill McCann, Jr. -- Lexington, KY
Digging for Diamonds -- George McGee and James Hamblin, Georgetown, KY
No More Than Reason -- Louise Penberthy -- Seattle, WA
Linda and Kirk -- Brian Walker -- Louisville, KY

The winners will be produced November 18 -21, 2010 at The Bards Town Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY as part of the Kentucky Festival of New Plays sponsored by the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Contest Winners Selected

Winning plays have been selected from the more than 180 submissions in this year's 2nd Annual 517 Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest. Five Kentucky and three non-Kentucky playwrights have had scripts selected for production as part of this year's Festival of New Kentucky Plays that will be presented November 18- 21, 2010 at The Bards Town Theatre in Louisville, KY. The winning scripts will be announced once each of the winning playwrights has agreed to participate in this year's Festival.