Our Voices

Our Voices 2012 Playwright Nina Morrison's Upcoming Grub Street Class in Playwrighting

Writing The Full Length Play

 

Write a full-length play from start to finish in this workshop for both brand new and experienced playwrights. Students may be at any stage in the process - you may be wondering where to begin, have a few pages written, or have already completed a draft. Conquer the blank page and revisions with interactive

exercises and assignments. Master strategies for creating compelling structure, action and character.  Read visionary new plays and learn how to use them for inspiration. Hear new pages out loud every week, get practical feedback and encouragement, and find out how to get your play produced.

 

10 Sundays from 6:15-9:15pm starting April 15th.

 

All classes at Grub Street’s beautiful new headquarters overlooking Boston

Common.

 

Instructor Nina Louise Morrison holds an MFA in playwriting from Columbia

University.  She is a playwright, director and actor in New York and Boston.

Grub Street is an innovative, rigorous, and welcoming community, and one of

the largest independent centers for creative writing in America.

For more information visit

http://ninalouisemorrison.wordpress.com

 

Register now at http://bit.ly/vJ4c9H 

Our Voices Workshop for Playwrights, March 24, 2012

Playing it Forward!

Using Playback Theatre to Inspire, Support & Empower Women Playwrights from Page to Stage

Facilitated by Kelly DuMar & Conducted by Nancy Capaccio, with Playback Theatre Actors Mary Elizabeth Wheeler, Teresa Dinaburg, Peggy Gavin, Monica Tecca, & Franci DuMar

March 24, 2012

1:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Regis College Black Box

Brief/Intro/Overview:

An experiential workshop for women playwrights using Playback Theatre structures to support, empower, and inspire women playwrights in getting their plays written, developed & produced.

What is Playback Theatre & Why are we using it today?

Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot by Playback Theatre Actors. Whether in theatres, workshops, educational or clinical settings, Playback Theatre draws people closer as they see share their stories & see their common humanity. As writers, we’ll uniquely benefit from the artistic and personal growth aspects Playback Theatre offers, helping us develop our craft, vision and role as writers through the exploration of :

• Basic structures of Playback (fluid sculptures, pairs, chorus, uncast story, interrupting monologues, transforming story, 3 part story, etc.)
• Key artistic elements (timing, the heart of the story, the dramatic moment, use of metaphor, ensemble work, use of music)
• Healing elements (embodied empathy, listening for the unspoken needs, authenticity)
• Improvisational acting & storytelling – discovering possibilities, inspiring creativity

For more information about Playback Theatre for Writers Workshops contact:

Kelly DuMar or Nancy Capaccio              

Our Voices VI PROGRAM

A Celebration of Boston Area Women Playwrights

Regis College Fine Arts Center, Saturday, March 24, 2012

7:30 P.M.  STAGED READINGS ~ THE PLAYS

Six Pairs of Hands – A Musical, (excerpt) by Wendy Lement, directed by Wendy Lement

Fata Morgana, by Nina Louise Morrison, directed by Nina Louise Morrison

Arbitrage Ends in Rage, by Sarah Moon, directed by Sarah Moon

Attention Shoppers, by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, directed by Lydia Anderson

~ BRIEF INTERMISSION ~

I’m in Love with a 60-Pound Lap Dog, by G.L. Horton, directed by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro

Call of Duty, (excerpt), by Ellen Davis Sullivan, directed by Lida McGirr

Wish (excerpt) by Kelly DuMar, directed by Kelly DuMar

An Egg is an Egg is a Jellied Egg, by M. Lynda Robinson, directed by M. Lynda Robinson

~  AUDIENCE/PLAYWRIGHT DISCUSSION  ~

Producers:                           Festival founder Kelly DuMar, Wendy Lement, Regis College Theater Dept. Chair

Stage Manager:                 Stephanie Schmidt

Production Assistants:    Harper Burke, Franci DuMar, Tamar Barsamian

~ SPECIAL THANKS ~

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

Special thanks to Ann Garvin & Image Theater (www.imagetheater.com) & Cleaver Company for donations of food for actors & to all the playwrights who donated food for the reception.  

Also, special thanks to the morning playwrights: Rebecca Saunders, Alexa Mavromatis, Andrea Fleck Clardy & Ann Marie Shea. Many thanks to the Playback Theatre Artists for the afternoon workshop, including: Nancy Capaccio, Mary Elizabeth Wheeler, Teresa Dinaburg, Monica Tecca & Franci DuMar. Finally, many thanks to Steven Hall & Andre Schiff of the Fine Arts Center for their support, past, present, future!

We hope to see you again next year!

Visit us on the Web: http://www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices

Another (Free!) Boston Area Celebration of Women Playwrights to Support on SWAN Day!

I want to share another Boston SWAN Day event you may be interested in supporting! Hooray for women's play festivals in the Greater Boston area in March! One of our Our Voices morning playwrights, Debbie Wiess is helping to organize this "sister" event! (Debbie has a play in this, as well as our evening playwright Geralyn Horton) Details from there notice about the event follow:

 

6th Annual Boston SWAN Day
Support Women Artists Now event
Presented at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Sunday, March 25, 2012, 2-4:30 p.m.

Please join us for an afternoon of readings and performances in celebration of women artists and their contributions to the arts, Sunday, March 25 at 2pm at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BU).  This year's Boston SWAN Day event will present the new short work of 19 area women artists.  The program will be the most diverse ever, including short plays, monologues, poems, short stories, music and dance pieces.

Featuring the work of artists:
Rae Edelson, Heather Campbell, Mary Conroy, Robbie D'Allesandro,
Diva's Daughters, Charlene Donaghy, Athena Edmonds, Geralyn Horton,
Lisa Kenner, Mari Moneymaker, Catherine O'Neill, Gabrielle Orcha,
Miriam Raiken-Kolb, Regina Ramsey, Erin Webb, Debbie Wiess and Wyoma.
 
Some of the area's finest directors and actors are involved.

The Boston Playwrights' Theatre, on the edge of BU's West Campus
 is located at 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.
Pleasant Street T-stop on Green line B train
For directions to theatre: http://www.bu.edu/bpt/directions.html 

Admission is free - Suggested donation of $5 at the door.
 Proceeds will go to The Fund for Women Artists,
one of the founding SWAN Day organizations, to support its efforts.

Reservations are strongly recommended.
For more information or reservations e-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://bit.ly/wNjPwP
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SWANBoston2012

**  Come out and Help us Celebrate the Contributions of Women in the Arts!!  **

Another Women's Play Festival worth attending this spring!

Congratulations to the following playwrights (some of whom are also featured in Our Voices 6 on March 24)who will be produced in the upcoming Image Theater's Fem Noire Festival to take place March 30 & 31, 2012 in Lowell, produced by Ann Garvin (who has previously co-produced Our Voices)

Wife Of Bobbo by M. Lynda Robinson
Zen Mode by Lynda Vernailia
Gay Paree by Andrea Fleck Clardy

Lapse by Gail Phaneuf
One Moment by Deborah Evans Hogan
House Broken by Monica Bauer
The Hollywood Alphabet by Britt Mitchell
The Parting Gift by Leslie Powell
The Waiting Room by Karla Sorenson

For more info about  "the only women’s playwriting
festival in the Merrimack Valley," go to Image Theater.

Our Voices 6 Morning Critique Group - Participating Playwrights & Plays

Our Voices Festival producers, Kelly DuMar and Wendy Lement, are pleased to invite the following women playwrights to be part of the 6^th Annual Our Voices Festival to present an informal reading and discussion with the all the festival playwrights during the 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. morning discussion group on March 24, 2012:

Rebecca Saunders, The Daffodil – A Spring Play

Debbie Weiss, Welcome Inn

K. Alexa Mavromatis, The Quiz

Andrea Fleck Clardy, In the Arms of the Tornado

Ann Marie Shea, Final Witness

We’ll meet in the Black Box Theatre of the Regis College Fine Arts Center, Regis College, Weston, MA, and the time will be shared by the five playwrights. Kelly and Wendy will facilitate.

For more info about the festival, e-mail Kelly DuMar.