Capital Stage to Present New Works Festival PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION

Capital Stage presents its annual new works festival PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION with staged readings of four brand-new plays. As Sacramento's leader of bold, thought-provoking theatre, Capital Stage created Playwrights' Revolution to identify and develop new plays and playwrights.

Each year, a handful of never-been-produced-plays are carefully selected from hundreds of submissions and presented as staged readings with Capital Stage professionals.

PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION will run from July 26 - 29, 2016. Admission is a suggested donation of $10.

Performances for PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION will begin Tuesday, July 26 and will continue through Friday, July 29. Showtimes will be Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday and Friday at 7:00 PM. Tickets for the staged readings are a suggested donation of $10.

THE PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS:

WISDOM FROM EVERYTHING by Mia McCullough

Tuesday, July 26 at 7pm

In contemporary Jordan, 19-year-old Syrian refugee Farsana marries an older Jordanian doctor in hopes of finally getting the education that war has stolen from her, but instead she finds herself embroiled in her new husband's bizarre plot to redeem himself. Wisdom From Everything is the story of one young woman trying to better herself in a world where she has very little agency, few rights, no country, and very little support.

Mia McCullough's plays have been produced at theatres around the country including Steppenwolf, Chicago Dramatists, and Stage Left (Chicago), The Old Globe and Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company (San Diego), Red Fern (NYC), InterAct (Philadelphia), Actor's Express (Atlanta), and the Victory Theater (Los Angeles). Mia has been the recipient of several awards including a Jeff Award for Best New Work, the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, and the ATCA Osborn Award (all for Chagrin Falls), and has been a finalist for many others including the Steinberg Award (Chagrin Falls & Impenetrable), the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (Since Africa), and the Jane Chambers Award (Impenetrable). Some of her plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing, Smith & Kraus, and Chicago Dramatists. Mia taught playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University for ten years, and she also writes screenplays, makes films, and dabbles in stand-up comedy. Most recently she's been working on a play commissioned by The Goodman Theatre as part of the Playwrights Unit and she wrote and published a book on the creative writing process called Transforming Reality: Overcoming the Difficulties and Dilemmas of Creative Writing (available at lulu.com and Amazon). She lives just outside Chicago with her husband and son.

A SMALL OAK TREE RUNS RED by Lekethia S. Dalcoe

Wednesday, July 27 at 7pm

Shackled, bound, and trapped within someplace between reality and make believe, lies swollen bellied and bloodied Mary Turner, the accused murderer Sidney Johnson, and the loving husband Hayes Turner. They are haunted by voices a mob in the abyss in which these characters are trapped. Sidney has reluctantly been given the task to force Mary to remember her past in order to move on. In this world, entangled in history and unforgivable acts against humanity, to forget is to forever perish, just like the countless stories before them; trapped within old newspapers and forgotten memories.

Lekethia S. Dalcoe's recent playwriting history includes, A Small Oak Tree Runs Red which has been commissioned by the Congo Square Theatre in Chicago for its 2015-2016 Power of Her season; directed by Tony nominated actor/director Harry Lennix. Please visit www.congosquaretheatre.org for more information. A Small Oak Tree Runs Red has also been produced at the Venus/Adonis festival (2015) in New York and as a staged reading for the Keep Soul Alive playwriting series at The National Black Theatre (NBT) in New York. Other plays include: Black Bars (2014),Charmed Love (2013), and Prophecy of the Sand (2007), that has been produced and staged at PraireView A&M University's Black Box Theatre and produced at the 2007 TETA Playfest Festival in Houston, TX and Gardenias which is currently in the works.

DOLPHINS AND SHARKS by James Anthony Tyler

Thursday, July 28 at 7pm

Isabel, Yusef and Xiomara work at a knock-off version of Kinko's in Harlem. Promotions are rare. Raises are rarer. But when Yusef is given the chance to work his way up by spying on his co-workers, friendships are tested and loyalty turns out to be less valuable than cold hard cash in this searing new play about disadvantaged people colliding in a capitalistic society.

James Anthony Tyler is an award-winning playwright who holds a MFA in Film from Howard University and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University where his concentration was Playwriting. His play hop tha A was featured in Asolo Rep's 2016 Unplugged New Play Festival. His play Dolphins and Sharks was presented in LAByrinth Theater Company's Up Next and Barn Reading Series and was a finalist for the 2016 O'Neill Playwrights Conference. His play Some Old Black Man was presented at Berkshire Playwrights Lab and will receive a full-production in the summer of 2017 that will star Tony Award-winning actor Roger Robinson. He is a proud member of Harlem's Emerging Black Playwrights Group, a 2014-2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow, a 2016-2017 Arts Nova Play Group Resident, a 2016 Working Farm Playwrights Group Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm. He was awarded The Playwrights Center's 2015-2016 Many Voices Fellowship, a 2016 Theatre Masters Visionary Playwrights Award and is currently a Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Fellow at The Juilliard School.

THE SECRETARY by Kyle John Schmidt

Friday, July 29 at 7pm

The Secretary is a play about a small town gun company dedicated to arming women for self-protection. With names like The Bridesmaid, The Babysitter, and The Mallwalker, each of the company's guns is inspired by a woman who used a gun and saved a life. When the local high school secretary stops an active shooter in her office with six bullets, the company's owner responds by naming her latest gun after the reluctant hero: The Secretary. But as production starts on The Secretary, guns start going off around town . . . and no one seems to be pulling the trigger.

Kyle John Schmidt is a writer from Montezuma, Iowa. His plays have been produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville (Take 10 Apprentice Showcase and the Humana Festival), Crashbox Theatre, the Kid Magicians, Play-in-a-Bar, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, University of Texas New Theatre, and the David Mark Cohen New Works Festival. His full-length plays have been finalists for the Humana Festival, PlayPenn, the Lark's Playwrights' Week, and the Princess Grace Award. His play Poor Sports was read at Stage West Theatre in Fort Worth as part of their New Play Readings Festival and he is currently a member of Nashville Repertory Theatre's Ingram New Play Lab. Furthermore, Kyle was co-winner of the 2010 Heideman Award, a recipient of the Theatre Masters Award, is published by Playscripts, and featured in the anthology, The Best American Short Plays 2010-2011. He received his MFA from the Michener Center for Writers.

IF YOU GO:

Capital Stage presents PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION

An Annual New Works Festival

At Capital Stage, 2215 J Street, Sacramento CA 95816

July 26-29, 2016

Performance Times & Prices:
Tuesday at 7pm, Suggested Donation of $10
Wednesday at 7pm, Suggested Donation of $10
Thursday at 7pm, Suggested Donation of $10
Friday at 7pm, Suggested Donation of $10

TICKETS:
Phone: 916-995-5464
Online: capstage.org
Box Office: 2215 J Street

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