Next meeting of Kentucky Playwrights

The new year is here. So resolve to join us this year in supporting new works for the stage. Kentucky Playwrights Workshop's first meeting of 2012 will be held this Sunday-- January 8, 2012-- from 2-5 pm at Common Grounds in Lexington. If you have questions or concerns please email us at ky.playwright@yahoo.com See you on Sunday!

AUGUST Meeting of KPW; Civilian TIX on Sale

The August meeting of the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. will be held Sunday August 14, 2011 at Common Grounds Coffee House, Lexington, from 2-5 pm. Anyone interested in the development of new work for the stage is invited to attend.


Tickets for CIVILIAN, which will be presented as part of the New York International Fringe Festival 2011-- at The Bleecker Theatre 45 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012-- went on sale July 22, 2011. Get your tickets today! Don't miss this opportunity to see University of Kentucky students perform OFF BROADWAY!

Performances are: SUN, August 14 @ 7:30p; WED, August 17 @ 5:15p; SAT, August 20 @ 2:00p; TUE, August 23 @ 9:00p; SUN, August 28 @ 4:00p

Update About KPW

Despite-- or perhaps because of-- a lack of posting on this blog Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. is busy. The meeting last week in Berea, at the Tourism Commission office, involved reading and discussing two short plays and a short scene from a third. Additionally, we gained yet another member which brings us, I believe, to 17 members.

Upcoming meetings will be in Louisville on June 10th and in Lexington August 14th and September 11th. The Louisville meetings will be held at the Highland Krogers on Bardstown Road. The Lexington meetings will be held at Common Grounds Coffee House. All meetings begin at 2:00 pm and are open to the public.

The September meeting will be the organization's Annual Membership meeting when members of the Board of Directors are selected and we will discuss a meeting locations and schedule for the coming programmatic year (September 1 through August 31).

Beginning next fall KPW hopes to begin sponsoring or co-sponsoring classes in playwriting. First up will likely be a course on writing either the solo performance piece or the one minute play. As more information becomes available it will be posted here on the blog and/or discussed at meetings. Suggestions of other playwriting topics may be sent to ky.playwright@yahoo.com

April Meeting

The April meeting of Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. will be held on Sunday April 10, 2011 at Common Grounds Coffee House, Lexington, KY. The meeting will run from 2-5 pm and consist of readings of members one act or full-length plays. As time allows 10-minute or shorter works by members or guests will be read and discussed. Additionally, Herman Farrell, Dramatists Guild regional representative will attend and speak briefly about the Guild. Members and non-members of KPA are welcome to attend the meeting. Membership in KPA is open to any Kentuckian who is interested in the development of new works for the stage.

Six New Plays to be Read on Sunday

Six new plays will be given first readings at the next meeting of 517 Playwrights on Sunday February 13, 2011. The readings of new scripts, all by Kentucky playwrights-- will take place from 2-5 pm at Common Grounds Coffee House in Lexington. Among the plays are two short one acts by Heidi Saunders, a 30 minute one act by Bill McCann and three related 10-minute plays by George McGee. The meeting is open to both the members and the public. If you have an interest in the development of new works for the stage, please join us.

February Meeting

The February meeting will be held at Common Grounds Coffee House on Sunday February 13, 2011 from 2-5 pm. Members with one-act or full-length plays that they would like to have read should let Bill McCann know in advance of their interest in having a play read. Members or visitors with 10-minute or shorter works may simply bring those to the meeting and they will be read and commented on as time allows.

The public reading of plays tenatively scheduled for February 2 and 3 at the Lexington Public Library Theatre has been cancelled. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may create.

Please join us for the February 13 regular meeting at Common Grounds. Hope to see you there.

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.

Meeting Schedule for the first Quarter of 2011

There will be no meeting in December 2010.

Instead our first meeting of the new year will be Sunday January 23, 2011 at Common Grounds Coffee House in Lexington. The second meeting will be Sunday February 13th, also at Common Grounds. For March it would be good to get out of Lexington and hold a meeting elsewhere; city and location to be determined.

The January meeting will involve readings of members' plays in progress. If you have either a one act or full-length play that is ready (or will be ready) for reading please send a note to ky.playwright@yahoo.com so that your play reading can be scheduled. If you have a 10-minute or shorter play that you would like to have read, simply bring it to a meeting and it will be read as time allows.

In either February or March of 2011 we will schedule a public (music stand) reading of members' works at the Lexington Public Library Theatre. Watch the blog for more details.

Next Meeting of 517 Playwrights

The next meeting of 517 Playwrights will be Sunday October 10, 2010 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Common Grounds Coffee House, Lexington, KY. Please join us to hear new plays read.

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!

A Better Picture

Another picture from the June 13th meeting of
517 Playwrights. Left to Right are: James Brown,
Bill McCann, Jr., Steve Taylor, and Kathi E. B.
Ellis. Bill Forsyth was the photographer. (An un-
known coffee drinker/blogger is in the background.) Please come join us for our next meeting on July 11th, 2:00 pm at Common
Grounds Coffee House.

Picture Us: 517 Playwrights

Members of 517 Playwrights gathered at Common Grounds Coffee House on Sunday June 13th included: (l to r) Bill McCann, Jr, Steve Taylor, Kathi E. B. Ellis, and James Brown. The photo was taken by yet another member, Bill Forsyth. Missing are Shan and Trish Ayres and Jim Betts. New members are always welcome. The next meeting will be Sunday July 11th at Common Grounds at 2:00 pm. Anyone who has an interest in encouraging the development of new works for the stage is welcome to join us.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of 517 Playwrights will be Sunday July 11th beginning at 2:00 pm at Common Grounds Coffee House in Lexington. The meeting will last until 5:00. The focus of this meeting will be to decide on the winning KENTUCKY plays for this year's 10-minute play contest as well as to read and discuss member plays.

Please not that we have changed the meeting time back to 2:00 from 1:30 in order to allow members who are travelling from out in the state-- we now have members from both Louisville and Berea-- to have time to make it to Lexington after attending church or other Sunday morning activites.

Next Meeting: June 13th

The next meeting of 517 Playwrights will be Sunday June 13, 2010, from 1:30 - 4:30 at Common Grounds Coffee House. We will meet on the third floor for the purpose of reading new plays by members and dicussing the 2nd Annual 517 Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest. If you would like to have a script read please bring one script per character (to a maximum of five copies) so that readers may have their own script.

Next Meeting: March 14th

The next meeting of 517 Playwrights will be Sunday March 14th 2010 at Common Grounds Coffee House. The meeting will begin at 1:30 and end about 4:30 pm. Bring a script or two that you would like to hear read aloud; bring at least one script per speaking character. See you there.

For more information about 517 Playwrights please check us out on Meetup.com

A reminder

The next meeting of 517 Playwrights is Sunday February 21, 2010 at Common Grounds on High Street in Lexington, KY. We will be starting a little earlier than ususal: 1:30 pm. Please join us to read some plays and discuss some business.

We are now on MeetUp

517 Playwrights is now a member organization on MeetUp. There are meetups across the US and around the world for every sort of interest one can imagine including board gamers, singles, hikers and tah dah... drum roll please... playwrights. Information about our meetings and events will now be posted on MeetUp. You can get there by typing in the "MeetUp" into Google (etc.) and then typing in playwrights and the zip code for the location of the meeting (40507) or simply 517 Playwrights. You can RSVP to meetings or events, you can learn more about the organization-- you can see a picture of Bill McCann as Charlie Martin in On Golden Pond-- and you can learn about our members. Please sign up (it doesn't cost you anything!) and help our membership grow.