Archives -- "Here, There & Everywhere" -- 2009
KCPT reading of women playwrights salutes Women’s History Month
"Here, There & Everywhere"
Key City Public Theatre presents “Here, There & Everywhere,”
a reading of short works by women playwrights both local and
international on Saturday, March 14 at the Key City Playhouse,
419 Washington St. The program begins at 2:30 p.m. and is a
benefit for the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Program of
Jefferson County.
Monologues and ten-minute plays by writers from Port Townsend to
Romania will highlight the event directed by DJ Adams and
featuring local actors David Speck, Michelle Hensel, Denise
Fleener, Heather Paulson, Charles Duncan, Cheron Dudley,
Patricia Earnest and Sarah Ohman.
The program is made possible by a generous grant from the
International Centre for Women Playwrights, which is sponsoring
similar readings around the world this month.
“It is a pleasure to partner with the International Centre for
Women Playwrights to bring eight exciting and talented world
voices to our stage. This is a wonderful way for KCPT to help
Port Townsend celebrate Women's History month.” says Denise
Winter, KCPT Artistic Director.
Local playwrights include Mara Lathrop (“FantasyLand”) and
Judith Glass Collins (“Of Poisoned Pens and Palates”). Also
representing Washington is Shane Shipley of Issaquah (“The
Governor & Her Mother”).
Other pieces by American writers are Kathleen Coudle King of
Grand Rapids, North Dakota (“Plantanos”), Carolyn Gage of
Portland, Maine (“The Parmachene Belle”), and Constance Congdon
of Amherst, Massachusetts (“True North”).
International playwrights are Margaret McSeveney of Glasgow,
Scotland (“Marilyn”) and Lucia Verona of Bucharest, Romania
(“Don Juan’s Wife”).
A reception with some of the playwrights will follow the
performance. The box office and lobby bar will open one hour
prior to the curtain.
Suggested donation is $10. Tickets will be available at the
door, or by calling the KCPT offices at 360-379-0195.
Playwright Bios
Judith
Glass Collins’s play "Veterans’ Day" won the 12th Annual
Playwright’s Festival and was produced by Key City Public
Theatre in 2008. "Veterans’ Day" was also given a staged reading
at the Darien Players Unplugged in Connecticut, Summer, 2008. In
January, 2005, Judith performed her one woman, autobiographical
piece "Clearing the Aisle" in San Francisco, California. Judith
comes to playwriting through her early years as an actor and her
more recent work as a drama therapist.
Constance
Congdon’s best known play “The Tales of the Lost Formicans,” has
been produced in Helsinki, Brixton, Manchester, Cairo, Tokyo and
Berlin with more than 200 productions throughout the U.S.
Congdon’s many works include “Lips,” “Dog Opera,” “The
Automatapieta,” and “SO FAR: The Children of the Elvi” which had
its Northwest premiere at KCPT in 2006. Congdon’s verse version
adaptations of Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” “The Imaginary Invalid,”
and “The Miser” are performed regularly at U.S. regional
theatres. Congdon began writing in 1975 and received her MFA in
playwriting from the University of Massachusetts in 1981. She is
a professor of playwriting at Amherst College and has taught at
the Yale School of Drama.
Carolyn
Gage is a lesbian-feminist playwright, performer, director and
activist. She is the author of fifty-five plays and seven books.
Her play "Ugly Ducklings" was nominated by the American Theatre
Critics Association for the ATCA/Steinberg Award for best new
play of the year produced outside New York. Her work has been
featured in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio,
and has been widely published and performed. Information about
her touring work and her plays are online at
www.carolyngage.com.
Kathy
Coudle King has written more than 40 plays and enjoyed
productions across the U.S., venturing into Canada in 2008. She
holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, but it wasn't until
she began working at the Univ. of ND Women's Center in graduate
school that she turned her attention to writing plays
illuminating issues facing women today. She lives and teaches
college writing and women studies in Grand Forks, ND.
www.dakotalit.com
Mara
Lathrop’s plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, Los
Angeles, Seattle, Toronto, Rome and elsewhere. Her work has been
developed at the National Playwrights Conference, the Ojai
Playwrights Conference and Seven Devils Playwrights Conference.
She is the recipent of the Richard Hugo House New Play Prize,
was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and has
received Fellowships from Artists Trust and the Washington State
Arts Commission.
www.maralathrop.com
Margaret
McSeveney is co-writer with Elizabeth Roberts of the critically
acclaimed WALLACE’S WOMEN, produced by Theatre Alba at the 1998
Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her monolouge MARILYN was presented
at the International Women Playwrights Conference in Athens. She
is a member of Broadside (Women Playwrights in Scotland) and the
International Centre for Women Playwrights. She also
writes poetry and short stories.
Shane
Shipley (http://www.shipleyplays.com)
has written more than 20 plays that have been performed
internationally. Her most recent work, "StarCrossed" recently
completed a rolling world premiere from New England to Los
Angeles. Shipley is the recipient of the Dramalogue "Play
of the Year" Award for the comedy "Caryatids" and was a nominee for an NAACP Image Award for Writing in Television. Shipley holds an MFA from Brandeis.
Lucia
Verona writes comedies, some of which were produced or awarded
major prizes, novels and short stories, and she is a translator
from Hungarian, French and English. She also writes book reviews
and other culture-related articles for magazines. As a member of
the Romanian
Writers’ Union, she is currently president of the playwriting and theatrical criticism section of the Bucharest Writers’ Association. She studied at the Music Academy in Bucharest.
Women playwrights fundraiser a successKCPT event supports Jefferson County Domestic Violence Programs
On
March 14th, Key City Public Theatre celebrated Women’s History
Month by presenting "Here, There & Everywhere" — a program of
monologues and short plays by women playwrights around the
world. Through the efforts of many volunteers and a generous
grant from the International Center for Women Playwrights, the
event was a success. KCPT wants to thank everyone who gave so
generously and helped raise $818.00 for the Domestic
Violence/Sexual Assault (DVSA) Program of Jefferson County.
“Here, There & Everywhere” featured three playwrights from
"Here" (Western Washington), three writers from "There" (across
the United States) and two writers from "Everywhere" (Europe).
Many of the playwrights donated the rights to perform their
works in support of DVSA. Five local women-owned businesses also
donated food and services to support the cause.
The afternoon included a post-play discussion moderated by KCPT
Artistic Director Denise Winter on the topic "Women Raise Their
Voices" with Cheryl Bozarth (Executive Director of the Domestic
Violence/Sexual Assault Program), and three of the featured
playwrights (Shane Shipley, Judith Glass Collins and Mara
Lathrop).
The
afternoon performance sold out Key City Playhouse. Plans are
already underway for making this an annual event.
Photos (from the top of this article):
Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Program Manager
Beulah Kingsolver accepts a check from Key City Public Theatre
Artistic Director Denise Winters. “Here, There & Everywhere”
raised $818 for DVSA programs in Jefferson County. Photo by
Eligius Wolodkewitsch.
Playwrights Mara Lathrop of Port Townsend, Shane Shipley of
Issaquah, and Judith Glass Collins of Marrowstone Island discuss
their works presented at “Here, There & Everywhere.” Photo by
Mark P. Saran.
Cheryl Bozarth, Executive Director of Jefferson County Domestic
Violence/Sexual Assault Programs participated in the post-play
discussion at “Here, There & Everywhere.” Photo by Mark P.
Saran.