Our Voices

Our Voices VII Was a Wonderful Success!

Our Voices VII PROGRAM

A Celebration of Boston Area Women Playwrights

Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College, Sunday, March 17, 2013 

7:00 P.M.  STAGED READINGS ~ THE PLAYS

Enjoy Your Flight by Dorothy Abram, directed by Dorothy Abram

Snapshots of My Sister by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro, directed by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro

Just Like Tetraphobia by Cassie M. Seinuk, directed by Chris Anton

Double Solitaire by Hortense Gerardo, Directed by Hortense Gerardo

Talking by Shari D. Frost, directed by Shari D. Frost

You’ll Be Safe by Kelly DuMar, directed by Kelly DuMar

Jacks & Queens by M. Lynda Robinson, directed by M. Lynda Robinson

~  AUDIENCE/PLAYWRIGHT DISCUSSION  ~

 

Produced By:                    Festival founder, Kelly DuMar, Hortense Gerardo, Playwright

Production Assistants: Harper Burke, Franci DuMar, Tamar Barsamian

~ SPECIAL THANKS ~

Many thanks to our exceptionally talented and generous directors & actors!

Special thanks to afternoon playwrights: Debbie Wiess, Mary Beth McNulty, Geralyn Horton, Cecelia Raker, Obehi Janice, Lida McGirr & Judith Boyajian Strang-Waldau

 

Special thanks to Co-Producer Frank DuMar & The Cleaver Company for financial support that makes the festival possible & to all the playwrights who donated food for the reception.  

Special thanks to Playback Theatre Actors for the afternoon workshop: Mary Elizabeth Wheeler, Michelle Mount & Franci DuMar.

Finally, many thanks to Nora Hussey of Wellesley College Theatre Arts for hosting us!

We hope to see you again next year for Our Voices VIII!

Announcing Our Voices VII, Sunday March 17, 2013, Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College

This day-long event provides artistic support for local women playwrights, including: Afternoon play readings with feedback for the playwrights; an afternoon writing workshop for participating playwrights to engage their creativity; an audience/playwright reception prior to the evening performances of new plays performed by talented Boston-area actors.; and a talk-back following the plays.

Our Voices VII, which is free and open to the public, will be produced by Kelly DuMar, playwright & festival founder, Hortense Gerardo, playwright, with the generosity of Nora Hussey, Director, Wellesley College Theatre Studies Program. For more information, contact Kelly DuMar [email protected] or (508) 647-0596.

Selected Playwrights:

Afternoon: 12:00-2:00 Workshop Presentation of Plays for Discussion

Mary Beth McNulty, Making Babies, Geralyn Horton, Granny Wears Combat Boots (excerpt), Cecelia Raker, Song for a Windy Night in the Suburbs, Obehi Janice, Red Drink, Lida McGirr, Puppets (monologue), Judith Boyajian Strang-Waldau, Women of Ararat, (excerpt), Debbie Wiess, Proust and Joyce at the Majestic (excerpt)

Evening: 6:30-8:30 – Public Readings Staged for Audience

Dorothy Abram, Enjoy Your Flight (monologue), Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro, Snapshots of My Sister, Kelly DuMar, You’ll Be Safe (monologue), Shari D. Frost, Talking, Hortense Gerardo, Double Solitaire, M. Lynda Robinson, Jacks & Queens, Cassie M. Seinuk - Just Like Tetraphobia

Wellesley College http://new.wellesley.edu/about/visit/directionsmaps

Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre http://wellesleysummertheatre.com/Contact%20Us.html

Please join us! No reservations required, first come, first served. The theatre is wheelchair accessible and there is ample free parking.

Our Voices VII - A SWAN Day Celebration, March 17, 2013

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Search Events | Update Account | Add New Event | Edit Event | Logout You are logged in as pilar           Our Voices VII Annual Festival of Boston Area Women Playwrights Kelly DuMar Art Form: Theater Event: Performance Date: March-17-2013 6:30 PM Address: Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre   Alumnae Hall, Wellesley College Wellesley, MA,  02030, US Free Event:   Reservations Not Needed Website:  http://www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices Description:  Our Voices VII An Annual Celebration of Boston Area Women Playwrights, March 17, 2013 Noon-10 p.m. Playwrights, Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College. An Evening of Staged Readings of New Plays performed by talented Boston-area actors. This day-long event provides artistic support for local women playwrights, including: Afternoon play readings with feedback for the playwrights; afternoon writing workshop for participating playwrights to engage their creativity; audience/playwright reception prior to the evening performance; and a talk-back following the plays. The festival, which is free and open to the public, is produced by Kelly DuMar, playwright & festival founder, Hortense Gerardo, playwright, with the generosity of Nora Hussey, Director, Theatre and Theatre Studies Program. For more information, contact Kelly DuMar at [email protected] or (508) 647-0596 or go to http://www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices\r\n

Call for Submissions to the 7th Annual Our Voices Celebration of Boston Area Women Playwrights

Announcing Our Voices VII  

An Annual Celebration of Boston Area Women Playwrights

March 17, 2013  Noon-10 p.m.

Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College

 *Note: The date & venue are new!

Dear Boston Area Women Playwrights ~

Our Voices is an annual festival of Boston area women playwrights, now in its 7^th year. This day-long event, culminating in an evening of staged readings of pre-selected plays, will take place on a Sunday, March 17, 2013 at the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College (where it began!) from 12:00-10:00 p.m. (The deadline for short play submissions is February 6, 2013 (see below for guidelines.)

The Our Voices Festival is free and open to the public, thanks to the generosity of our past hosts and supporters: The Wellesley College Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Turtle Lane Playhouse, Newton, Regis College Fine Arts Center Black Box, Weston, The Cleaver Company, Inc. and Image Theatre of Lowell. Over the past seven years, Our Voices has presented the work of nearly 100 Boston area women playwrights.

Our Voices aims to nourish women playwrights by providing a supportive, inspirational environment for developing our unique voices and sharing our vision by presenting plays in process with talented actors and directors in front of an audience. What began as an evening of staged readings became a day-long event three years ago. This year, Our Voices also includes an afternoon workshop – Playback Writing for Playwrights - for all participating playwrights to engage their creativity, get to know each other on a deeper level, and explore the creative process. An audience reception in the lobby of the theatre will be held after the workshop, just prior to the presentation of staged readings, encouraging a warm, inviting atmosphere of inspirational theatre.

Our Voices & SWAN Day Partner Up! This year, Our Voices will partner with another annual festival for women writers, SWAN Day, a the Boston Playwrights Theatre, 949 Comm. Ave., Boston, on Saturday, March 16, at 2:00 p.m. PLAYWRIGHTS MUST SUBMIT SEPARATELY to these festivals. We’ll coordinate submissions to involve the maximum number of playwrights and won’t select the same piece for both. All SWAN Day writers are invited to participate in the Our Voices workshop, reception and evening of readings. To Submit to SWAN Day, e-mail [email protected]

Our Voices VII will be co-produced this year by festival founder, Kelly DuMar and playwright Hortense Gerardo, with the generous help of the Wellesley College Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre.

 

Submission Guidelines for Boston area Women Playwrights

 

For Staged Readings, March 17, 2013, 7:00 p.m., Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College.

Please read and follow these guidelines carefully!

• E-mail submissions only of short plays, scenes or monologues, 10 minutes or less – sorry, nothing longer can be considered, and playwrights should submit only the selected portion if the piece is from a longer work.  We hope to include as many playwrights as possible. Limit, two submissions per playwright.
• Selected playwrights must be willing to participate in the afternoon workshop as well as tech rehearsal, reception & evening of readings
• Include your contact info, title of your piece, and development history (if any). 
• No published scripts.
• Selected playwrights will be responsible for arranging for a director & actor(s) & any prior rehearsals
• No set items, minimal tech requirements; lights up, lights down.  We’ll have a designated volunteer to read any and all stage directions.
• Content is open
• There is no budget at all to pay playwrights, actors or directors!  This is an all volunteer festival with a spirit of building networking and community support.
• Deadline:  Please send in MS word or pdf to [email protected] no later than midnight, February 6, 2013. Selected playwrights will be notified by February 16, 2013 and a required production meeting will soon follow.

For more information, contact Kelly DuMar ([email protected]), (508) 647-0596

Or visit: www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices

Our Voices Playwright Ellen Davis Sullivan's Play in BTM 2012

Ellen's 10-minute play, Frosty, is being performed Sun., May 20, 2012, in the 2-3 p.m. time slot of the Boston Theater Marathon. at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Congratulations, Ellen!

Buy tickets online to Boston's best theatres and plays | Boston Theatre Scene

Our Voices 6 Playwright Andrea Fleck Clardy's interview for "Voices of the BTM XIV on Boston Playwright's Theatre Alumni Blog

Voices of BTM XIV: Andrea Fleck Clardy (From Playwrights' Perspective Blog, Boston Playwright's Theatre)

Andrea Fleck Clardy

Although I am old enough to have a grandchild taller than me, I only got around to writing plays fairly recently. So I still feel like a fledgling, thrilled with an adolescent euphoria when one of my plays is chosen for production.  I don’t altogether like writing plays. It’s hard to get started, tough to get the character’s voice clear in my head. What I love is the rewriting, getting the tone right bit by bit, finding the pace, hearing the characters say lines I did not consciously invent. A play that started out being about death and keeping secrets evolved into a play about the deepest sort of friendship. This is the second time I’ve had a play selected for the Boston Theater Marathon. Between the first and the second times, I took a playwriting course taught by Kate Snodgrass, the CEO and Fairy Godmother of the BTM. She focused on subtext, the meaningful message that is never explicitly conveyed. So I’ve been pondering the subtext of the Boston Theater Marathon itself.

The text is exciting, if somewhat chaotic. I’ve sat through the whole ten hours when I didn’t have a play in the Marathon, thrilled by the crazy quilt of wildly different work. Gifted people from fifty-three theatre companies do whatever it takes to make the new play they chose come alive and grab our hearts in ten minutes flat.

So what is the subtext? What is the meaning that underlies all the exciting bits and pieces? I think it’s a collective amazement and delight at the Boston theatre community strutting our stuff. Look what we can do! New England playwrights yearn to be in the Boston Theater Marathon so we can be intimately involved in that collaborative celebration. It is what makes those of us watching and listening to our own plays and each other’s stay a few hours longer and scribble still more notes in the margins of our programs. It’s what makes us lean forward in our seats.   

-- Andrea Fleck Clardy

We hope you’ll join us on Sunday, May 20 for Boston Theater Marathon XIV (and for the Warm-Up Laps on May 19!). Click here for tickets and complete event details. See you there!

Posted by Alexa at 12:00 AM

Labels: Andrea Fleck Clardy, Boston Theater Marathon XIV, short plays

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Our Voices Playwright Kelly DuMar's One-Act Play for Youth to be performed at Middle School Drama Festival

Kelly DuMar's one act play for youth, The Adventures of Rocky & Skye, will be performed by Cameron Middle School at the upcoming Mass. Educational Theatre Guild Drama Festival, April 28, 2012, in Lynnfield, MA, directed by Maura Kate Moore.

About The Adventures of Rocky & Skye:

Comedy. 2-16 males, 2-21 females (4-37 performers total). 30-35 minutes. Suitable for all ages.  The play may be performed equally effectively by age-appropriate actors (varying by scene from elementary through middle school age), or by older (high school, college or adult) actors.  It is also ideal for scene study and classroom use, and individual scenes and monologues are well-suited for competition.  Professional rights should be negotiated directly with YouthPLAYS at [email protected].

The Adventures of Rocky & Skye premiered at Summer Shorts 4:  Celebration, produced by Youth Education on Stage (Williston, ND), where it won second place.  "Cloud Jumping" and "The Baby Artists" (scenes in the play) will be published in the Smith & Kraus anthology Winners Competition Series Vol. 2:  Award-Winning 90-Second Comic Scenes Ages 4-12 (ed. Janet Milstein). 

Prefer to print your perusal script?  YouthPLAYS is happy to provide printable PDF files of our plays for customers who would prefer to evaluate material offline.  Just click the Place an Order button above and select the Printable Perusal option.  A printable copy of this play is $5.50.  Our non-printable perusals will, of course, continue to be free.

Synopsis

Through a series of short, fast-paced scenes, a quartet of characters grow up before the audience's eyes, as we witness the friendship, fun and social skirmishes Rocky, Skye, Ratani and Grant, encounter on their journey from kindergarten through middle school.  Whether they’re debating whose father can reach the moon first, kissing and telling, picturing unlikely future careers, double dating or waiting for the last bell of middle school to ring, these charming characters inspire us to laugh and appreciate the extraordinary moments of ordinary life.

Read an Excerpt

If you are unable to read PDF files, click here to download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

 

Our Voices Playwright Debbie Wiess Upcoming Events May, June 2012

FROM OUR VOICES PLAYWRIGHT Debbie Wiess - A number of upcoming events:

It has been a very busy spring and there are a number of upcoming events at which I am presenting work, both theatre pieces and poetry, in English and French.  Most will take place in the metro Boston area, 3 the first part of May and 1 the second half of June.  In addition, at least one of my bilingual short plays will be in the next showcase put on by the Little French Church Players in NYC mid-June.  And one of my short plays will be taped for broadcast on local Boston-area cable.  Perhaps this will give those of you further afield a reason to visit!

First up will be the 3rd Annual Cambridge Poetry Jam on Sat May 5.  From 11am to 4pm at the Cambridge Public Library main branch, located at 449 Bway, a wide variety of local area poets will share their work.  I will be reading my poem THE LITTLE GREY MOUSE/LA PETITE SOURIS GRISE in both English and French sometime between 12-1pm, the multilingual segment of the program.  The poem, based upon actual events, was written last summer originally in French and then English.  The poem will be published this spring in English in the Boston Bagel Bards Anthology.

The following day, Sun May 6, during the Somerville Artists Open Studios one of the three trolleys providing transportation for the weekend-long event, and called the Spoken Word Trolley, will have performances and readings from 12-6pm.  I was invited to curate one of the six hours of programming and will be presenting 3 of my short plays in a series called CONVERSATIONS ON A TROLLEY, as well as my mouse poem in English.  Music from a 3-woman band will round out my hour, which goes from 2-3pm though the timing could slip.  The trolley makes several stops throughout Somerville, taking anywhere from 20-30 mins to complete its loop.  The easiest way to catch it is at the stop by the Davis Square T station, across the street from the Somerville Theatre.  Signs should indicate the location.  All are welcome to get on and off whenever they want to along the route to visit the artists' studios.  Though with the entertainment on the bus you may be tempted to stay on board!

Later that week, on Wed May 9 my short French play L'ART DE LA RENCONTRE, a 12-minute long play set in an art gallery in Paris during an opening will have a production during the art opening of French artist Denis Lefèvre in the gallery space of the French Cultural Center at 53 Marlborough St in Back Bay Boston.   The opening goes from 6:30-8:30pm and my play will go up around 7pm.  This will be the play's first production in Boston in French.  Last year it had a reading at the Boston SWAN Day event in English.  The play was put on bilingually last Sept in NYC and in English in TX last Feb.  Please call to rsvp at 617-912-0400.  Lefèvre's art will be up the month of May.

The above mentioned 3 May events are free and open to the public.  They should all be very original presentations of my work in unusual venues and at interesting occasions. 

In June, over the second weekend, Fri-Mon, June 8-11, there will be 4 presentations of the Little French Church Players Show, held at the Church of St-Esprit at 111 E. 60th Street (between Lexington and Park) in NYC.  My bilingual French/English play IN A BEDROOM AFTER A PARTY, which was written for this show, will be in the program of short pieces and scenes.  

Two weeks later, Fri and Sat, June 23 and 24, my short play WELCOME INN will be presented in a program of staged readings by Theatre One in its Fourth Annual "Slice of Life" Festival of New Work.  The festival takes place at the Alley Theatre in Middleboro, MA, about an hour south of Boston.  This will be the 3rd year that my work has been selected for this festival.  The 2-character play takes place in a hotel lobby where appearances can be deceiving.

I'll send out more info later on about the June events when the details are available.

Also for those in Newton, MA this weekend my short play LET'S PLAY CLUE! will be taped for future broadcast with an interview with the author/director (me) and actors.  So look out for that on NewTv in the coming months as the show will be broadcast over a 4 week period.  This new play was recently presented in a staged reading at this year's Boston SWAN Day event at the end of March.

Hope all of this gives you the chance to catch some of my work this spring!  Let me know if you are able to come out.  And please do pass this announcement to others who could also be interested!

Hope all is well!  A bientôt !

Debbie

Ellen Davis Sullivan, "Call of Duty," Program, Our Voices 6, 2012

Call of Duty

By Ellen Davis Sullivan

(Staged Reading, Evening Program, March 24, 2012)

Lis Adams (Sarah) - Lis enjoys performing with many area theater groups in the Boston area, playing everything from tap dancing nuns to murderous little old ladies.  Most recently she appeared as Kate in the Vokes Players Production of The Cripple of Inishmaan.  Daytimes she is Director of Education at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House in Concord, Mass.

Geralyn Horton (Mother) –Geralyn was cast in her first acting role at age 5, and hopes to be taking curtain calls at age 99.   New plays are her vocation, and women writers her Cause.  More about her than you really want to know is on her web site www.stagepage.info. 

Kerrie Miller Tilney (Beth) - has devoted four decades to teaching, tech-ing, acting, directing, and dancing in theater productions in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Locally, Kerrie has performed with Concord Players, Hovey Players, Playwrights’ Platform, CentaStage, Winchester Players, and others.  Favorite roles include Maggie (The Man Who Came to Dinner), Christine (The Bad Seed), Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing) and Jesse Mae (The Trip to Bountiful). When she’s not acting, Kerrie can be found at the computer writing educational material for national publishing companies.

 

Owen Mortner (Jason) – Owen began acting with the Watertown Childrens’ Theater three years ago at age 8.  His favorite roles include: Lampwick (Pinocchio), Schroeder (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown), the Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland) and the lead role of the Prince (Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper).  Most recently Owen played a screenwriter in Poe, Poe, Poe.

Lida McGirr (Director) - Lida began her acting career as a 7- year-old singing and dancing leprechaun at Nathan's on Coney Island. She spent her early twenties as one of three start-up members of the Little Theater on 26th Street. Since moving to Boston, she's won an EMACT DASH Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, appeared as Dean Kenny in the Elliot Norton Award-winning Spinning Into Butter, received rave reviews for her portrayal of Shirley Valentine at the Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham and most recently was Mrs. Banks in Barefoot In the Park at the Zero Point Theater in Watertown. She has directed a short opera protesting the cancellation of Saturday's at the Met, productions for libraries and private functions, as well as many local community theater productions including TCAN's award-winning A Piece of My Heart nominated for four EMACT DASH Awards. Her short plays have been performed in festivals, retirement centers, a romance novelist convention, a bakery, and board meetings throughout New England.

 

Ellen Davis Sullivan (Playwright) - Ellen’s full-length play Louisa At Last was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2011 Ohio State – Newark New Play Contest and was given a public reading as part of The Provincetown Theatre Company’s 2011 Winter Reading Series.  Her locally produced plays include Koi (2010 Boston Theatre Marathon; published in the Marathon anthology by Smith and Krause), Her Honor (2009 Playwrights’ Platform Festival of New Plays) and Recessed! or When the Mortgage Goes Upside Down (Zero Point Theater 2012 Winter Festival). Most recently her ten-minute play Frosty was picked for the 2012 Association for Theater in Higher Education’s New Play Development Workshop.  Her published short stories include Yiddish Land, winner of the 3^rd place prize in Moment Magazine’s 2007 fiction contest.

Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich Program Our Voices 6, 2012

 ATTENTION SHOPPERS

By Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich

Directed by Lydia Anderson

With Jaime Carrillo, Lydia Anderson and Emily Lazaro

A widow in the war in Afghanistan roams the aisles of a military commissary, searching for answers from a decorated officer who can’t stop following her.

Lydia Anderson. Directing work includes: Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich’s “Rox-N, Miss Thang” for Boston Theatre Marathon; short plays by Victor Shopov and John Grenier-Ferris for Fringe Wars and Have You Read?; Abraham by Hrotsvit of Gandersheim with the Claremont School of Theology. Dramaturgical work includes: The Baltimore Waltz, Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls, Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh, The Mistakes Madeline Made, and Hideous Progeny with Holland Productions; Infinite Story with Exquisite Corps Theatre; the upcoming Polaroid Stories, a co-production with Happy Medium Theatre, Boston Actors Theatre, and Heart & Dagger Productions.

Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich. Plays include The Next Big Thing, Sister Sister, The Woman With Orange Hands, The Body Clean, Still Life, Boy Girl Boy Girl, Double Vision, Absolute Flight: A Reality Show With Wings, Big City, Hitting the Wall, Three a.m., Rox-N Miss Thang, June In White, and 4EVER. Her work has been produced or developed in New York at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Rattlestick, Roundabout, Women’s Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Georges, The New York International Fringe Festival (and the extended off-Broadway series, Fringe NYC Encore Series), and The Sumer Play Festival; Regionally, at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Trinity Rep, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Hangar Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Six Figures, Boston’s New Theatre, LA’s Elephant Theatre, and Chicago’s Collaboraction Theatre.

Jaime Carrillo. Jaime holds a B.A. with honors in Theater Arts from Brandeis University.  He has performed regionally and abroad, including in Dublin, Winnipeg, Mexico City, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The historic Living Theatre recently featured his plays Una Vida deCalidad and Coat Check Casanova.  Jaime is participating in IATI Theatre’s upcoming new voices program in New York City.