Acron Productions Kicks Off Season with AN ARMY OF ONE Reading, 10/30

Acorn Productions announces that the company will kick off their 2009/2010 season of dramatic readings of new scripts by Maine playwrights with AN ARMY OF ONE, by Laura Emack. This full-length play follows the story of booksmart high school senior Joan, who poses as a potential enlistee to expose hardball recruiting, but ends up responding to her country's call by a committed emissary she cannot dismiss. The script will be brought to life by actors from Acorn's "Naked Shakespeare" Ensemble as well as students studying their craft in the Acorn Academy Academy. This reading is the first of a series of five events that will take place over the next few months to assist Acorn's staff in choosing the one play that will be given a full production at the St. Lawrence Arts Center next spring as part of the Maine Playwrights Festival.

The reading takes place on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at the Acorn Studio Theater.  Admission is free with a $5 suggested donation.

Playwright Laura Emack is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and scripts whose work has been performed in New York City, Omaha, Nebraska, and throughout Maine. Her short play "Vilification" was featured in the 2007 "Bad Plays Festival" in Greenwich Village. She has also had work presented at Penobscot Theater's "Northern Writes" festival as well as the "Wonderland One-Act Play Festival in Manhattan." Ms. Emack is also represented in the book At Play: An Anthology of Maine Drama, published in 2004. An Army of One was given a staged reading in Levant, Maine as well as the 2006 Great Plains Theater Conference in Omaha. Laura is currently a resident of Prospect, Maine. The piece plays as a modern American tragedy depicting the willful undoing of a spirited, flawed heroine as she attempts to rise above her circumstances.

The Maine Playwrights Festival (MPF), currently in its ninth year, serves as a creative incubator to assist playwrights with the development of new work. Each year, playwrights from all across the state submit their pieces for consideration by Acorn's reading committee. This year, 17 full-length plays were received from 16 playwrights. Acorn plans to choose 5 pieces to receive dramatic readings and will use the responses from both audience and actors to select the final play that will be part of the festival in April 2010. This year's edition of MPF will run over 3 weekends from April 16 to May 2, 2010, and feature 3 rotating evenings of plays to be directed by Acorn's Producing Director Michael Levine, veteran actor and director Harlan Baker, and internationally-touring performing artist and educator Julie Goell. The full length play chosen through the reading process will be joined by an line-up of short 10 to 15 minute plays, and a third grouping of 3 or 4 one-act plays. Acorn is still accepting short plays and one-acts from playwrights; an application is available to download at the company's website www.acorn-productions.org.