Happy New Year

Here's wishing one and all a Happy New Year.

The year just ending has been a good one for Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. We have done the heavy lifting of preparing bylaws, preparing a policy manual and otherwise doing the paperwork to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit recognized by the IRS. We elected our first Board of Directors: Bill McCann, Jr. president, James Brown, treasurer and Shan Ayers, secretary. We've held meetings in both Lexingtona and Louisville. We've grown to 14 members. And we held our second international 10-minute play contest.

There have been some disappointments as well, most notably that we had to postpone the Kentucky Festival of New Plays because, unfortunately, the facility we were to have held the festival was not yet ready.

On the plus side 2011 is already shaping up to be a good year: at some point the IRS will-- after working with us to make sure everything is good to go-- approve our application for nonprofit status. We will have our first public staged reading of member plays on February 2-3 2011 at the Lexington Public Library's theatre. We will continue to grow our membership. And hopefully the Bards Town's theatre will be up and running in time for us to produce the festival in April.

Our next meeting will be January 23, 2011 at Common Grounds Coffee House in Lexington from 2-5 pm. Please join us. Meetings are open to the public. We will read the one act and full-length plays of members. Anyone who attends may bring a 10-minute or shorter work that we may read as time allows.

Membership in KPW is open to any Kentuckian interested in the deveklopment of new works for the stage. Dues are $10 per year.

2011 Events and Meetings

The new year will start with a flurry of activities.

Our first meetings will be held on January 23 and February 13th at Common Grounds Coffee House in Lexington, KY. As usual the meeting will be held from 2-5 pm for the purpose of reading the full-length or one act plays of members. Additionally, anyone who wishes to may bring a 10-minute or shorter work and those will be read as time allows.

Meetings and memebership is open to anyone who is a resident of Kentucky and wishes to belong. The only requirement for membership is a desire to encourage the development of new works for the stage; dues are $10 per year (Sep- Aug). Member playwrights are given opportunities to have their full-length and one act plays read aloud and such other benefits of membership as may develop as the organization grows.

The first public reading of new works by member playwrights will be held on February 2 and 3, 2011, from 6:30-8:45 pm, at the Lexington Public Library (main branch) Theatre. The reading is FREE and open to the public.

Kentucky Playwright to be produced in New York

Kentucky(she's moved to Indiana recently, but we still claim her as a Kentuckian!)playwright NANCY GALL-CLAYTON's short play about capital punishment, "Juice," will be produced as part of Looking Glass Theatre's Winter Forum, 422 West 57th Street, New York City, December 2-19. The forum is a semi-annual festival of new works featuring emerging women playwrights and directors. Tickets are $18. Call 212-352-3101, or visit http://thelookingglasstheatre.homestead.com/ForW10.html.

More Pictures from the Reading at Bards Town

The reading at the Bards Town was a rousing success, as you can see. About thirty people showed up to eat, drink and read new plays by four Kentucky Playwrights and three from elsewhere. DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS was actually acted out (no scripts, and with costumes and props), the other six plays were given cold readings by volunteers from the audience.

Our next public reading of new plays will likely be in February 2011 in Lexington. Check back here for the details.

Pictures from Readings at the Bards Town

Bill Forsyth, a member of KPW, took pictures of the reading held at the Bards Town on November 14th. Bill reported taking more pictures but for now the only ones available are above. Left to right (in the left most picture) are Kay Chambers (standing) Bruce McCann (face in the cutout), Bill McCann and Gail Johnson. Kay and Gail both read parts in one or more of the plays.

In the second photo (left to right) are Doug Schutte, one of the owners of the Bards Town, playwright James Hamblin (DIGGING for DIAMONDS) and actor Adam Luckey.