Artistic Directors Vivienne Benesch and Ethan McSweeny are pleased to announce the four writers at the center of CTC's new play development work in Summer 2011: Kate Fodor will be in residence as the very first recipient of the Chautauqua Play Commission. Her residency will correspond with the New Play Workshop Festival that will feature fully staged readings of plays by Michael Golamco, Michael Mitnick and Molly Smith Metzler.
Chautauqua Play Commission
The commission is offered in conjunction with the Chautauqua Writers' Center and made possible by the generous support of the John C. Court Family Foundation. "Vivienne and I have always been passionate about new play development," says McSweeny, "and we're very proud of the forum we've been able to provide for some tremendous voices in the American theater-
Kate Fodor very notably among them. Now, thanks to the John C. Court Family Foundation, we're able to elevate that commitment to a whole new level."
A two-time CTC/NPW alumni, Fodor has also received the Kennedy Center's
Roger L. Stevens Award, the National Theater Conference's Barrie Stavis Award, a
Joseph Jefferson Citation, an After Dark Award and most recently a McKnight National Residency & Commission. Her newest play Rx (NPW '09) will be produced Off-Broadway as part of
Primary Stages' upcoming season, directed by
Ethan McSweeny. Her play 100 Saints You Should Know (NPW ‘07) was produced Off-Broadway at
Playwrights Horizons (also directed by McSweeny) and was named among the top 10 in both Time Out and Entertainment Weekly.
The Chautauqua Play Commission will take place over a sixteen-month period encompassing two Chautauqua seasons. In the first, the playwright will spend two weeks on the Institution grounds in residency with the Chautauqua Writers' Center familiarizing themselves with Chautauqua and its environment, culture and aesthetic. In the second season, the playwright will return to Chautauqua with a new work to be presented by CTC as a premiere workshop or full production.
NPW Festival
Thanks to a generous gift from the Roe Green Foundation, the popular CTC/NPW play reading series is expanding into a two-week festival of three new plays to be presented in repertory. It will be a wonderful opportunity for audiences and artists alike to participate in an exciting, multi-faceted dialogue about play development.
Molly Smith Metzler, who made a splash last season at Chautauqua with Close Up Space, is back with Carve, her searing look into art and ownership. CTC audiences will be familiar with Metzler's biting dialogue and brilliant characters, but the psychological landscape of Carve investigates new and fascinating territory. Metzler is thrilled to be coming back to work at Chautauqua.
"I am so lucky to have CTC as an artistic home," says Metzler. "and what a beautiful, friendly, challenging, awesome home it is. My workshop last summer with
Ethan McSweeny was one of the best experiences of my career. I can't wait to come back and work on Carve with the incredible Chautauqua audiences!"
Metzler's plays include Elemeno Pea (just produced at this year's prestigious Humana Festival in Louisville), Close Up Space (scheduled for a NY Off-Broadway run this winter), Carve and Training Wisteria.
Michael Mitnick comes to Chautauqua for the first time with the theatrical Elijah. This stirring tale follows a poor music student from Brooklyn as he arrives in Paris in 1922 and becomes an accidental Don Juan overnight. Currently a playwriting student at the renowned Yale School of Drama, Mitnick's play Sex Lives of Our Parents is being produced by
Second Stage in NYC this June. Other recent plays include Babs the Dodo, Learning Russian and Spacebar: A Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman,
Also making his Chautauqua debut will be Michael Golamco, who gives audiences a truly different vantage point on creativity with his play build. In this sharp and dark comedy, two Silicon Valley whizzes use-and misuse- technology to try to get back everything they've lost.
Golamco is an LA-based playwright and screenwriter. The New York premiere of his play Year Zero opened at
Second Stage in May 2010. It previously received an acclaimed run at the
Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago and was the Grand Prize Winner of
Chicago Dramatists' Many Voices Project. His play Cowboy Versus Samurai has had several productions since its premiere in NYC, including in Canada and Hong Kong. He is the recipient of the 2009 Helen Merrill Award and is a member of
New Dramatists.
"The Festival will kick off during the Institution's week on "A Case for the Arts", says Benesch, "and what better case is there than the celebration of these important voices in American Theater."
Tickets may be purchased by calling the Chautauqua Institution box office at (716) 357-6250, or by visiting the Chautauqua Theater Company website at
www.CTCompany.org
.png)
.png)
