The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center Announces HVWC New Play Reading Series

The Hudson Valley Writers' Center is pleased to announce the inaugural HVWC New Play Reading Series for 2011, consisting of three new works presented at the Writers' Center in Sleepy Hollow (Westchester), NY. Full submission guidelines and deadlines are available online at www.writerscenter.org or http://bit.ly/HVWCPlayReading or by calling the Writers' Center. Winners will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a public reading at the historic Writers' Center overlooking the Hudson River.

The purpose of the series is to help develop and bring attention to great new plays. The open and blind submission policy demonstrates the Centers' commitment to finding the best scripts by established and/or emerging writers. The reading committee consists of active NYC producers. Finalist scripts will be read and the winning selections made by Jane Dubin, (Tony Award-winning producer), Craig Lucas (Two-time Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award nominee), as well as, Howard Meyer, (founding Artistic Director of Axial Theatre) and Josh Hecht (Drama Desk award-winning director). Each public reading will be followed by a panel discussion with the artists involved in the production to assist in the play's further development.

Producers, theatre companies and writers are invited to submit new works that are commercial as well as "non-traditional" or experimental. The plays will be selected through a nation-wide blind search process. There will be a $25 application fee for each entry. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2011.

Jane Dubin, and Howard Meyer, will act as curators of the series.

DUBIN is the President of Double Play Connections, a theatrical production and management company committed to supporting emerging artists and playwrights in the creation and development of new works. Recent shows include: The 39 Steps (winner of two Tony Awards); The Norman Conquests (winner Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Best Play Revival); Groundswell (The New Group); Beebo Brinker Chronicles (37 Arts; 2008 GLAAD Media Award for Theatre). Ms. Dubin is on the Board of Directors of the non-profit theatre company, Houses on the Moon, and is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women.

HECHT is a Drama Desk Award-winning director of new work. His productions have been seen in New York at MCC Theater, The Cherry Lane, New World Stages, the DR2, regionally at the Humana Festival, The Guthrie Theater, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Boston Center for the Arts and internationally at the Dublin Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, among many others. His productions have also been nominated for the GLAAD Media Award and the IRNE Award (Boston). He is a member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and is formerly the Director of Playwright Development at MCC Theater and the Director of New Play Development at WET. He currently teaches the 3rd Year MFA students at The New School for Drama and is on staff at ESPA and the Play Development Collective.

LUCAS is a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee (Prelude to a Kiss and Dying Gaul) and two-time TONY nominee (Prelude to a Kiss and The Light in the Piazza). Other plays include Missing Persons, Blue Window, Reckless, God's Heart, Stranger, Small Tragedy, Prayer for My Enemy, the Singing Forest and Love & Irony. He wrote the book for The Light in the Piazza and has recently completed a new opera, Two Boys. His screenplays include Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless and The Dying Gaul, which he also directed. Among his many prestigious awards, he has won the L.A. Drama Critics Award, the American Theater Critics Award for Best American Play, and has twice won the Obie Award for Best Play (Prelude to a Kiss and Small Tragedy).

MEYER is a critically acclaimed playwright and the founding Artistic Director of the Axial Theatre. Since its inception in 1999, Axial Theatre has produced over 40 new plays. Recent directorial credits include: the NYC premiere of Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye (New York Theatre Workshop, Rattlestick Playwright's Theatre, co-produced by Kevin Spacey); the original workshop of Craig Wright's The Pavilion (Playwright Center); Adam Rapp's Train Story, Linda Giuliano's The Last Delivery, and his own Cherrie & Jerry and Lost in Paradise (Axial Theatre). Meyer's WELCOME, This Is A Neighborhood Watch Community was directed by Josh Hecht at Axial Theater and was developed at The Barrow Group, Naked Angels and The Hudson Valley Writers' Center.

The Hudson Valley Writers' Center, Inc., is a non-profit corporation dedicated to nurturing a community in which literary writers and those who love literature celebrate and further the creative process. The Center presents public readings by established and emerging writers, offers a variety of writing workshops in many genres, organizes educational programs for school children and people with special needs, and publishes new works of literature under the imprint of Slapering Hol Press.
The Hudson Valley Writers' Center - advancing the art and craft of writing for over twenty-five years!

For more information about The Hudson Valley Writers' Center, the New Play Reading Series, and for an updated schedule of readings, workshops and events, visit our website, www.writerscenter.org, or call 914-332-5953. The HVWC is located at the restored historic Philipse Manor railroad station, 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow, NY, 10591. The HVWC New Play Reading Series is made possible, in part, through the support of a challenge grant from ArtsWestchester.