Key City Public Theatre | The Olympic Peninsula's Premier Regional Theatre

March 7 - 24 -- Festival closed -- Thank you all!

The 17th Annual Playwrights' Festival

New. Original. Local. Developing works by local, regional and national playwrights

"This is an event that now rivals any and all other artistic festivals held in Jefferson County in its scope and level of excellence." -- PT Leader 2011

"An ambitious, exceptionally accomplished, vital and passionate voice for new writers and new writing..."

-- Review of 2013 Festival by Jerry Kraft here on SeattleActor.com

Complete PDF of this year's Festival Program

A theatre-lover's feast of week-long events, including...

Local One-Act Productions (Fri & Sat evenings, Sun matinees)

Directed by Denise Fleener:

Judith Glass-Collins -- iCHAT
Deborah Wiese -- ASSAULT WITH A NOT SO DEADLY WEAPON

Directed by Zach Hewell:

            Angela Amos -- SOLVO MAE MAE
            Susan Solley -- TWO ANGELS WALK INTO A BAR
            D.D. Wigley -- DIPTYCH: WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Winning Playwrights Deborah Wiese, Susan Solley,

Angela Amos, Judith Glass Collins.

Not in photo: D.D. Wigley.

Regional Playwrights Plays-In-Progress

David Natale -- THEIR FATHER'S HOUSE (Week of March 10: Sun & Wed evenings, Sat matinee)
a new solo show

Richard Broadhurst -- MISS LILLIAN: PORTRAIT OF A PRESIDENTIAL MOTHER (Week of March 17: Sun & Wed evenings, Sat matinee)
Directed by James Rocco. Featuring Carol Swarbrick (*)

Read more...

Special Guest Playwright Events

Plus special events with guest playwright Jack Heifner -- author of the play Vanities, which ran for five years in New York and became one of the longest running plays in Off-Broadway history. Mr. Heifner is Playwright-In-Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas where he teaches play, film and television writing each spring.

Mr Heifner will be giving our Annual Playwriting Workshops on March 16 - 17, and attending a special program of his play-in-progress "Hate Mail" on Thursday March 14. "Hate Mail" will also play on Thursday March 21.

Read more...

Here, There & Everywhere

And on Tuesday evenings -- The fifth annual "Here, There & Everywhere" program -- readings of short works by women playwrights from around the world.

Read more...

"Courageous Acts"

Directed by Zhaleh Almaee. Student Showcase performed Thursday March 21 at 8:00 p.m. at the Pope Marine Building.

Students: Collin Brown, Jeannie Ceis, Ash Devine, Mary Mason, Pam McWethy, Kimberly Parker, Michele Podesto, Claire Ragland, Velda Thomas, and Rosie Wilcox.

Winners of the P T Arts Commission's One-Act Play Competition

will all receive world premiere full productions

(Fri & Sat evenings, Sun matinees)

One-act productions directed by Denise Fleener and Zach Hewell

Time: About two hours, including short breaks between each of the five short plays.

Ages: Over 18, please, due to language and sexual situations.

"Assault With a Not So Deadly Weapon"

by Deborah Wiese

Directed by Denise Fleener

Frankie - Catherine McNabb
Frankie Too - Denise Fleener
Maybelline - Sharon Wenzler
Woman on Duty - Kristin Wolfram
Hitchhiker - Jack Reid

"iChat"

by Judith Glass-Collins

Directed by Denise Fleener

Blue - Catherine McNabb
Red - Sharon Wenzler

"Solvo Mae Mae"

by Angela Amos

Directed by Zachary Hewell

Mae Mae - Katie Kowalski
Emma - Kristin Wolfram
Stanie - Brandon Chappell

"Diptych: What You Wish For"

by D.D. Wigley

Directed by Zachary Hewell

Man - Micheal Cavett
Woman - Jennifer Ewing
Voice - Ensemble (TBD)

"Two Angels Walk Into a Bar"

by Susan Solley

Directed by Zachary Hewell

Crissy - Jennifer Ewing
DeeDee - Katie Kowalski
Joleen - Karen Anderson
Sam - Micheal Cavett
Damien - Caleb Peacock
Ace - Henry Feldman
Soldier - Brandon Chappell

Plays-In-Progress

by Regional Playwrights

"Their Father's House"

a new solo show by David Natale (at right)

(Week of March 10: Sun & Wed evenings, Sat matinee)

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"Hate Mail" by Jack Heifner (at left)

(Two Thursday evenings; March 14 with Mr. Heifner in attendance)

Featuring Heather Dudley Nollette and Scott Nollette

More about Mr. Heifner's visit and events...

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"Miss Lillian: Portrait of a Presidential Mother"

by Richard Broadhurst, directed by James Rocco.

Think you know who Lillian Carter was? Think again!

(Week of March 17: Sun & Wed evenings, Sat matinee)

Featuring Carol Swarbrick (*)

(*) Performing by Special Appearance Agreement with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers

Richard Broadhurst (Playwright of "Miss Lillian") is a 40 year veteran of theatre, film, and television. M r. Broadhurst began his career in New York City where he lived for 20 years. He was a founding member of the American Renaissance Theatre Company, where he first began his journey as a writer. M r. Broadhurst has had plays produced in New York City, Minneapolis, MN; Los Angeles, CA; Sacramento, CA; and numerous other theatres around the country.

Mr. Broadhurst has been a guest playwright at the prestigious William Inge Theatre Festival and a semi-finalist to attend the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Conference. Richard has also been a resident playwright at the Sacramento Theatre Company and has been commissioned to write a number of plays for theatres throughout the country. Mr. Broadhurst has also written for and worked with a diverse group of actors, including: Ed Asner, Noah Wyle, Jason Alexander, Denise Crosby, Donna McKecknie and others. Mr. Broadhurst has also written extensively for film and has had several projects optioned by DreamWorks, Revolution Studio, and Happy Madison Films. In addition to his writing, Mr. Broadhurst is a member of all three acting unions and (on occasion) is still called upon to act when his schedule allows it.

JAMES A. ROCCO (Director of "Miss Lillian") is Vice President of Programming and Producing Artistic Director of The Ordway in Saint Paul, MN. At The Ordway he is responsible for producing, presenting and booking the Music Theater (1900 seats), The McKnight Theatre (300 seats) and the soon to be Concert Hall (1100 seats). During his time at The Ordway he has booked distinctive Broadway touring shows like Spamalot, August, Osage County, Next To Normal and others; He produced Love, Janis (numerous awards and citations), The Rocky Horror Show, The Sound of Music, Cabaret (Co-pro with 5^TH Avenue Theatre, (numerous awards and citations), Cinderella, Joseph, Grey Gardens and others; He was the Executive Director of The World We Create, an Emmy Award Winning documentary about Ordway’s Flint Hills International Children’s Festival; He created and instituted the successful ORDWAY EXTRAS SERIES and brought his own BROADWAY SONGBOOK SERIES®, to the Ordway, it has become an audience favorite. He represents The Ordway as a member of The Broadway League, Five Cent Productions and the Independent Producers' Network, where he has participated as a producing partner on Memphis, The Addams Family, Legally Blonde, The Color Purple, and Edward Scissorhands.

Prior to arriving at The Ordway, Rocco worked extensively as a writer, director and/or choreographer all over the globe including Broadway, London and Tokyo. He is a member of SDC, AEA and ASCAP. He was the Producing Artistic Director of Lyric Theater of Oklahoma from 1995-1997 and the Interim Artistic Director of Stage One, a theatre dedicated to new musical development from 1997-1998. He served on the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's New Works committee and commissioned the holiday musical A Country Christmas Carol as well as participating in the creation of the off-Broadway cult hits Nite Club Confidential andStreakin’! His re-envisioned stage version of Singin’ in the Rain has been seen around the world. He has consulted with the US Air Force and Retired General John Brooks, to create the Air Force extravaganza Born of a Dream, (from conception to the Kodak Theatre in LA and later to DVD.) More recently he moonlighted as a consultant for DREAMWORKS.

CAROL SWARBRICK (Actor in "Miss Lillian") has spent her career performing, mostly onstage. She has been fortunate enough to have lead roles on Broadway in SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, the revival of Eddie Cantor's WHOOPEE!, the original 42ND STREET (starring Jerry Orbach!) and the revival of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. At The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, she has played "Mrs. Lovett" in SWEENEY TODD, "Martha Watson" in WHITE CHRISTMAS, "Vera Charles" in MAME and many other roles. In addition, she has starred in television shows, (among them: "The Bold and The Beautiful", "Night Court", "The Jeffersons", "General Hospital" and several episodes of "Murder, She Wrote"), commercials and in feature films, such as "Big Business", "The Big Day", "Norma Jean and Marilyn" and recently, "The Whole Truth". Port Townsend audience members have seen - and heard - Ms. Swarbrick in her solo turns with The Port Townsend Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Dewey Ehling. She earnestly believes that presenting Lillian Carter to today's audience has become "the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow" in her career.

The 5th Annual "Here, There & Everywhere"

Directed by Mara Lathrop

Our annual celebration of women playwrights

from around the world in honor of International Women's Day

(Two Tuesday evenings -- plus a benefit performance

for The Fund for Women & Girls on Friday March 8 at 5:30 p.m. more...)

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this event. We raised $1,435 for The Fund for Women and Girls!

The Cast

Emily Huntingford

Erin Lamb

Heather Dudley Nollette

The Program

HELPLINE by Anita Chandwaney, Chicago, IL, USA

OVER THE EDGE by Catherine Frid, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

THE SECOND COMING OF NATALYA MATRESHA by Emma Gibson, Australia

THE HAPPY FACTORY by Karen Jeynes, Cape Town, South Africa

LOVE, JANIS by Katherine Koller, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

ROSA AMEN by Conchi León, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

STORIESTORE by Saviana Stanescu, Bucharest, Romania & New York

DELTA FANTASTICA by Mandi Symonds, London, UK

The Playwrights

Anita Chandwaney is a performer, playwright and director. Her first full-length play Gandhi Marg won 2nd place in the 75th Annual Writers Digest Stage Play Competition. Its world premiere staged reading was held by Chicago’s Rasaka Theatre Company, followed by Rasikarts in Toronto. Of her short plays, Judging Jaya was part of Rasaka’s “Desi Women of the Diaspora” at Remy Bumppo’s 2007 thinkTANK and the 2007 Kriti Festival. Success and the City was seen with The 24 Hour Project, and Instant Recall was in Rasaka's Culture Clash.

In Chicago she’s worked as an actress with Lookingglass, Organic, Remy Bumppo, Pegasus, Collaboraction, Stage Left, Silk Road, Live, Center Theatre and Rasaka – for which she was Founding Executive Director and co-producer of the Jeff Citation-winning The Masrayana. In NYC she worked with Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwright’s Horizons and Open Eye New Stagings.

Catherine Frid’s recent plays include Homegrown (SummerWorks Festival, Ontario Justice Education Network, 14 cross-Canada readings to protest arts cuts, Panamerican Routes Festival), GuineaPigging (Alumnae Theatre), Emma (Big Ideas Festival), Solitary (InspiraTO Festival), Dead Cat Bounce (Toronto Fringe, Unhinged Festival) and Buff (New Ideas Festival, Arts & Letters Club). The Tango Player opened the InspiraTO 10-Minute Festival. Other short plays include Fetish and Quest (Asphalt Jungle Shorts, Shadowpath Theatre) and The Mess (She Speaks, International Women’s Day, Arts & Letters Club).

Catherine is a member of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada, Playwrights’

Workshop Montreal and the International Centre for Women Playwrights.

Emma Gibson is a writer and performer living in Canberra, Australia. Her previous credits include Love Cupboard (2010) and Widowbird (2012) at the Street Theatre in Canberra. Widowbird was one of 100 scripts selected from around the world to be presented as a staged reading at the Women Playwrights International Conference in Stockholm in August 2012. Her short works have been performed across Australia. Also this March, Emma is writing and performing a monologue series, Dead Beauty Queens at the "You Are Here festival" in Canberra. Her research-informed play The Pyjama Girl will be produced by HotHouse Theatre in November 2013.

Karen Jeynes is a playwright – she writes other things too, like TV shows and radio plays and articles and book reviews and movies, but theatre will always be her first love. Her plays include “Everybody Else (is Fucking Perfect)”, “Wake up and smell the coffee”, “Kiss Kiss”, “I’ll Have What She’s Having”, and “Laying Blame”. She serves on the boards of Women Playwrights International and the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She is Resident Dramaturg for Boschwhacked Productions. She is passionate about nurturing new plays and playwrights, and runs courses and workshops, and teaches
scriptwriting. She has unnatural obsessions with reality television, Good Omens, chaos theory and Nutella. She’s currently completing her MA in Adapting Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” for the stage at UWC. She runs www.thatwordsite.com, a home for wordnerds.

Katherine Koller lives in Edmonton, Alberta, and her one-act plays have been produced across Canada. Coal Valley: the Making of a Miner is included in The Alberta Advantage (Playwrights Canada Press, 2008). The Seed Savers premiered at Workshop West Theatre in Edmonton and is included in her collection, Voices of the Land: The Seed Savers and Other Plays (Athabasca University Press, 2012). Katherine also writes fiction, and for dance, ballet, opera, radio and film, and teaches in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Her website is www.katherinekoller.ca

Conchi Leon was born in Mérida Yucatán. She is a member of the National System of Creators of Art. She has studied Direction for children`s theater, dramaturgy, protocol, literature and journalism. As a professional actress she has been involved in over seventy productions. Her plays have been published by the U.N.A. M., the National Institute of Theater in Argentina and the National Drama Center of Madrid. Her play “Mestiza Power” forms part of the Didactic Anthology of Mexican theater which contains the most relevant plays of the past twenty years. It was translated into English by Virginia Grisi for the Lark Development Center, and has been performed in Perú, España and E.E.U.U.

Saviana Stanescu (www.saviana.com) is a Romanian-born award-winning playwright. Productions include: Aliens With Extraordinary Skills (Women's Project, NYC; Sacramento, California; Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Mexico City; published by Samuel French), Waxing West (La MaMa Theatre, 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-length Script), For a Barbarian Woman (Fordham/EST). Her plays have been developed at: Lark Play Development Center, NYTW, New York Stage & Film, Long Wharf, EST, New Group, PS122, HERE. She holds an MA in Performance Studies (Fulbright) and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, Tisch. Currently Saviana is a Professor of Playwriting & Theatre Studies at Ithaca College.

Mandi Symonds' play 'Turning the Pebbles' was commissioned by Monstrous Regiment and performed at the Young Vic Theatre London.She co wrote and performed in 'T'aint Nobody's Biz-ness if I do' laying Billie Holiday. Her self penned one woman show 'The Men I've Had' performed at the Young Vic studio Theatre, Jermyn Street Theatre and the Kings Head Theatre London. Mandi co-founded 'Shorts' a new writing event at the Landor Theatre London, she wrote and performed 'Delta Fantastica' for the first performance and has since written a play 'Jacob's Ladder' and a monologue 'Gloria's Tale' for this event.

March 8 performance is a benefit for "The Fund for Women and Girls"

This year's benefit performance on International Women's Day (Friday, March 8) supports the Fund for Women and Girls, an endowed fund of the Jefferson County Community Foundation that provides grants for programs benefiting women and girls in our county. It is well known for producing the annual Port Townsend Wearable Art Show, a fabulous fashion fundraiser. Recent grants have supported OlyCAP's transitional housing for families, the Women in Transition workforce development program, and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center's Girls In Real-Life Science project. The Fund is a voice amplifying the most pressing issues impacting women and girls, and engaging donors and other partners to invest in solutions. "When women and girls thrive, we all prosper," say Fund leaders.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this event. We raised $1,435 for The Fund for Women and Girls!

Previous "Here, There & Everywhere" programs: 2009 2010 2011 2012

Special guest: Playwright Jack Heifner visits KCPT

Renowned playwright Jack Heifner is visiting Port Townsend as part of Key City Public Theatre's 17th Annual Playwrights' Festival.

Mr. Heifner is author of the play Vanities, which ran for five years in New York and became one of the longest running plays in Off-Broadway history. He is is Playwright-In-Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas where he teaches play, film and television writing each spring.

Mr Heifner will be giving our Annual Playwriting Workshops on March 16 - 17, attending a special program of his play-in-progress "Hate Mail" on Thursday March 14, and participating in our Playwrights' Luncheon at noon on Friday March 15.

--- Playwrights' Luncheon ---

Please join us for a playwrights' luncheon with Jack Heifner at noon on Friday March 15 at Alchemy Bistro & Wine Bar. This lunch has limited seating, so reserve your spot by calling the KCPT office at 360.379.0195. This is a great opportunity to meet and chat with Mr. Heifner informally before the playwriting workshops.

This lunch offers a pre-fixe menu of soup or salad AND choice of three entree options (one veggie). All meals come with choice of iced tea, soda, or coffee. Cost per person is $18 (gratuity not included).

--- Annual Playwriting Workshops ---

The first workshop, on Saturday March 16, is sponsored by the Port Townsend Arts Commission and is free and open to the public. The Saturday workshop is at Key City Playhouse from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This workshop (3 hours) is introductory, concentrating on the fundamentals of writing for the theatre. It will involve a series of short writing exercises to give the participants experience in the most important elements of playwriting (dialogue, plot, characterizations, etc.). Bring lots of paper, writing implements and a willingness to let go. Pre-registration is recommended.

Note that registration for Saturday only is FREE. To register, call or email us as shown below.

The second workshop, on Sunday March 17, is fee-based and is an advanced follow-up to the first workshop. The four-hour Advanced Playwriting Intensive workshop on Sunday starts at 10 a.m. at the KCPT uptown offices at 1128 Lawrence Street. Attending the Saturday workshop is a prerequisite for this Sunday event.

This workshop (4 hours) is a continuation of Saturday's workshop, and includes advanced and experimental exercises in writing for the stage. This session focuses more on structure and storytelling. The cost for the advanced workshop is $75 for KCPT members and $85 for non-members. Space is limited for this advanced session.

To register for these workshops -- Saturday only (free) -- or both Saturday and Sunday (for a fee)...

e-mail info@keycitypublictheatre.org or call 360-379-0195.

Festival Tickets

Individual tickets are now available online here on our Festival Calendar.

Would you rather purchase tickets by phone or in person? Here's full ticket information...

Festival Ticket Prices:

-- One-Act Productions (Fri & Sat evenings, Sun matinees)... $15.00

-- Jack Heifner event... $20

-- All other Festival performances............ $10.00

-- Students at all performances.... $10.00

Playwrights' Festival Passes

You can save money by getting Playwrights' Festival Passes. There are three types of passes:

Festival Patron Pass — Unlimited admissions to all events including Guest Playwright events — $75
Behind-the-Scenes Pass — Unlimited admissions to all events (except Guest Playwright events) — $60
New Works Pass — One admission to any five events (except Guest Playwright events) — $50