Theatres Across the Nation to Produce Rolling World Premiere of BLACKBERRY WINTER
By: Sally Henry Fuller Sep. 04, 2015
The National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces Blackberry Winter by Steve Yockey as its 52nd Rolling World Premiere. The play, originally commissioned and developed by Out of Hand Theater in Atlanta, GA, will receive seven productions with eight NNPN Member Theaters, a record number of partners for a Rolling World Premiere. This is Mr. Yockey's fourth RWP with the Network and includes Core Members Salt Lake Acting Company (UT, September 18-October 25, 2015), Actor's Express in a co-production with Associate Member Out of Hand Theater (Atlanta, GA, November 6-22, 2015), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA, March 28-April 17, 2016), and Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX, May 20-June 26, 2016), as well as Associate Members Capital Stage Company (Sacramento, CA, March 19-April 17, 2016), Oregon Contemporary Theatre (Eugene, April 15-May 7, 2016), and Forum Theatre (Silver Spring, MD, May 22-June 11, 2016). ABOUT BLACKBERRY WINTER
Years of success, meticulous planning, and an eye for detail have in no way prepared Vivienne Avery for her mother's slide into the grip of dementia. Initially hiding behind insomnia-fueled baking and a polite smile, stories about her mother leave Vivienne's inner turmoil quietly laid bare on stage. Blackberry Winter juxtaposes these stories, large theatrical gestures, and a childlike Alzheimer's "creation myth" to recount one woman's witnessing of the inevitable.
ABOUT STEVE YOCKEY
Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles based writer with work produced throughout the country, Europe, and Asia. His plays Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, CARTOON, Subculture, Very Still & Hard to See, The Fisherman's Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, and Niagara Falls & Other Plays are published and available from Samuel French. He was one of two writers selected for the US/Australia playwright exchange in February 2013, sponsored by the National New Play Network and Playwriting Australia. Steve holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He currently contributes issues to the Zenescope comic book series Grimm Tales of Terror and writes on HBO's The Brink. newplayexchange.org/steve-yockey ABOUT SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY
Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC)'s mission is to engage and enrich community through brave, contemporary theatre. For 45 years SLAC has made significant contributions to its local arts community and to the American theatre as a whole through commissioning, developing and producing new plays. Daring to produce work that would otherwise not be seen in Utah, SLAC has earned a loyal following of savvy, adventurous play-goers. www.saltlakeactingcompany.org
Actor's Express (Atlanta, GA) offers original voices and new perspectives that reflect Atlanta's diverse and evolving community. Founded in 1988, The Express has proven itself the most adventurous producing theater in Atlanta, by offering audiences a diverse and artistically challenging program of both World and Southeastern premieres. www.actors-express.com ABOUT OUT OF HAND THEATER
Out of Hand Theater makes shows, games and public art, for venues including parks, homes, businesses and theaters. Through annual free public arts events and original works, we embrace new audiences, celebrate community, and create moments of mass intimacy. We collaborate with scientists, artists, businesses, schools and civic organizations to create events reflecting their work, we train others to unlock their creativity and to innovate, and we bring free public art to thousands of people every year. outofhandtheater.com ABOUT CAPITAL STAGE COMPANY
Capital Stage Company's mission is to be a dynamic leader in the evolution of the contemporary live theatre landscape in the Capital region and to passionately engage audiences in the art of live storytelling with bold, innovative plays performed by professional artists, in an intimate, up-close setting. With a strong commitment to expanding the base of working artists in the greater Sacramento region, we shall develop a company of actors, directors, writers, designers, and technical staff who are dedicated to bringing bold, lively productions of contemporary and classic plays to our community. capstage.org
Celebrating our 30th Anniversary, New Repertory Theater has established itself as a leading Boston theater company that produces electrifying, compelling and poignant productions. These plays reflect our world, presenting images of many times and places, but always exploring ideas that have vital resonance with our lives - here and now - creating shows that are provocative, intelligent and entertaining. www.newrep.org ABOUT OREGON CONTEMPORARY THEATRE
Oregon Contemporary Theatre creates bold entertainment, challenges expectation, inspires curiosity, encourages dialogue and supports positive change. We believe theatre can transform audiences, students, artists, our community and the world around us. octheatre.org ABOUT KITCHEN DOG THEATER
It is the mission of Kitchen Dog Theater to provide a place where questions of justice, morality, and human freedom can be explored. We choose plays that challenge our moral and social consciences, invite our audiences to be provoked, challenged, and amazed. We believe that the theater is a site of individual discovery as well as a force against conventional views of the self and experience. It is not a provider of answers, but an invitation to question. Since theater of this kind is not bound by any tradition, Kitchen Dog Theater is committed to exploring these questions whether they are found in the classics, contemporary works, or new plays. kitchendogtheater.org ABOUT FORUM THEATRE
Forum Theatre produces adventurous, relevant, and challenging plays from a diversity of voices that inspire discussion and build community -- and that are accessible, affordable, and entertaining. Since Forum Theatre's inception, we have aimed to be both the home for stories that provoke discussion and the place to host that discussion. We want our plays to be a conversation with the audience. We tell stories about who we are as a local, national, and global community. forum-theatre.com ABOUT NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK
The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 160 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks, and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the regional theater landscape. NNPN's programming allows its members and their affiliated artists to create, grow, and share new work across the country and around the world, and it strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, The New Play Exchange, launched in January of 2015, is already changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it. NNPN's 31 Core and 69 Associate Members - along with the more than 250 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater. nnpn.org
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