Gary Garrison News

Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) concludes its 2018-19 season with Dead House by Beirut Balutis. Running from April 18-28, this new drama is directed by Adam Kassim.

Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) has announced the second-ever recipients of the DGF Writers Alliance Grants. These Grants provide $5,000 to both a non-profit theater's production of a new work and $5,000 to the writer or group of writers whose work is being produced. Gary Garrison, who serves on both the DGF Advisory Board and the Writers Alliance Grant selection committee, said: "The DGF's Writers Alliance Grant is the perfect combination of support for both writer AND theater. It acknowledges that the writer has a story that should to be told while also smartly pointing to the theater that should be telling it."

To start off the new year, the Provincetown Theater is proud to premiere Winter Play Dates, a three month reading series of new American full-length plays. Beginning January 15, Winter Play Dates performs every other Tuesday night at 7pm thru March 29, 2019 at the Provincetown Theater (238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA 02657).

Following the success of the premiere performance in October, we are pleased to announce an encore performance. Coming up in the United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City, November 15th, 7:30 pm

The United States, above all other countries, is beset with an epidemic of random killing, usually by a weapon which seems to have held a mythic aura in the American psyche since the arrival of the first Europeans. The gun is the weapon of choice for Americans who want to do harm, especially semi-automatic assault rifles which can be modified to be even deadlier than their makers' intentions. Most of us are exposed to the biggest massacres through the major media, the most recent of which are listed in the footnote below. If the scope, circumstances, and number of dead and wounded are not sufficiently shocking, it is important to know that multiple and mass shootings, if not consistently a daily occurrence, occur regularly several times a week. These are only reported locally, because the limited body counts don't merit national attention. Only a few days passed without an incident during the month of September, 2018, and not seldom multiple mass shootings occurred in one day, as one can see on Gun Violence Archive. It is only too true that we are living in an age of random, senseless mass murders.

Six directors and 30 actors from the Chicago theatre community will collaborate to create staged readings of six new feminist plays in the Artemisia Fall Festival 2018, to be performed September 24-26 and October 1-3 at The Edge Theater at 5451 N. Broadway. Artemisia Founding Artistic Director Julie Proudfoot and Literary Manager Sharai Bohannon have curated the festival from submissions solicited from writers, agents and literary managers across the US with whom the company has had working professional relationships. One play from the six to be performed will be chosen for further development by Artemisia Artistic Director Proudfoot, who will work closely with the playwright over the next two years to develop their feminist story for a full production in Chicago.

Greenwich Entertainment announced today its acquisition of Jeremy Workman's documentary The World Before Your Feet.  The film, which had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, was directed by Workman (Magical Universe) and executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Café Society).  Greenwich will release the film theatrically later this year.

Artemisia launches its 2018-19 Theatre Season with six ground breaking and all-new feminist plays featured in Fall Festival 2018. This year's playwrights were chosen after a dedicated search by Artemisia's Artistic Staff and their remarkable new works are not to be missed! Each play is staged only once by Chicago's excellent pool of talent. From this unique lineup, one play will be chosen by Artistic Director, Julie Proudfoot, whose dedicated development process with the playwright will be shared directly with Artemisia's audience and lead to the play's exciting premiere production in Chicago. This year's festival follows diverse and fascinating female characters, all on a journey of empowerment.

PlayGround's Festival of New Works features the premiere of the full-length play BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour opening with a press night on Wednesday May 16, running through June 16, (previews May 14 & 15). BRIGHT SHINING SEA is a co-production with Planet Earth Arts and one of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays featured this season.  In Julianne Jigour's Bright Shining Sea, six characters find their lives intertwined as they face the personal challenges caused by environmental degradation. Bright Shining Sea confronts destruction-personal and environmental-but presents connection and compassion as the means by which hope is possible. Julianne remarks "It asks us to view the Earth holistically, to recognize our interconnectedness, and to do what the current administration won't-to take responsibility for our planet, for each other, and for future generations.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) presents Boston Theater Marathon XX, featuring 50 ten-minute plays, written by 51 New England playwrights, and produced by 50 New England theatres in ten hours.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts more than 120 outstanding theater students from colleges and universities across the nation as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which runs April 9-14, 2018 in multiple locations throughout the Center. The Center also announced the national awardees for the KCACTF.

PlayGround's Festival of New Works features the premiere of the full-length play BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour opening with a press night on May 16, running through June 16, (previews May 14 & 15). BRIGHT SHINING SEA is a co-production with Planet Earth Arts and one of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays featured this season.

The Dramatists Guild Institute is proud to announce the continuation of its second year of continuing education classes for writers.  The Dramatists Guild, after years of discussion, designed a curriculum of classes that would combine their playwriting and musical theater writing seminars into a variety of extended educational classes - anything from a long weekend to something more rigorous that is six to ten weeks in duration. The classes, taught through the Dramatists Guild Institute, are offered to Guild and non-Guild members, with Guild members receiving a significant reduction in tuition. All classes are taught by prominent educators and master teachers.

PlayGround's 2018 season concludes with the PlayGround Festival of New Works from May 10-June 17, 2018 at San Francisco's Potrero Stage, the company's newly-renovated home. Featured in this year's PlayGround Festival are premieres of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays: BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour opening on May 16, a co-production with Planet Earth Arts, and SCAPEGOAT by William Bivins opening on May 23, a co-production with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, both originally developed at the 2016 Festival and highlighting two timely issues. In William Bivins's Scapegoat, one man tests art's ability to create change in the face of another police shooting of an unarmed Black man. In Julianne Jigour's Bright Shining Sea, six characters find their lives intertwined as they face the personal challenges caused by environmental degradation.

An array of award-winning teaching artists are lined up to share their craft and art with theater enthusiasts, theatre artists and writers in 2018. PlayPenn, the new play development organization based in Philadelphia, is proud to announce their Winter and Spring 2018 Education Series, led by award-winning playwright and University of Pennsylvania playwriting professor Jacqueline Goldfinger, which features both face-to-face courses in Philadelphia and online workshops that can be taken from anywhere in the world.

PlayGround's 24th season begins October 16, 2017 and runs through June 17, 2018 in Berkeley and San Francisco. The Season opens October 16, 2017 - March 19, 2018 in Berkeley with its acclaimed Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. In the spring, PlayGround's season continues with the PlayGround Festival of New Works from May 10-June 17, 2018 at San Francisco's Potrero Stage, the company's newly-renovated home. A highlight of this year's PlayGround Festival are premieres of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays: SCAPEGOAT by William Bivins and BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour, both originally developed at the 2016 Festival.

PlayGround's 24th season begins October 16, 2017 and runs through June 17, 2018 in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Random Acts is pleased to announce casting for the one-night event reading of SLACK by Caitlin Turnage. Directed by Random Acts Artistic Director Bryan Renaud, the reading will feature artistic associates Tommy Rivera-Vega, currently appearing in LA HAVANA MADRID from Teatro Vista and Goodman Theatre; Ben F. Locke, now leading Metropolis Arts Centers' production of PETER AND THE STARCATCHER; and Shannon Webber, who appeared as Carol in Random Acts' smash-hit LADIES NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will co-present the 12th annual MFA Playwright's Workshop (MFAPW) in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays.