Alliance Theatre Announces National Graduate Playwriting Competition Finalists

Now in its eight year, the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition continues to further the ALLIANCE THEATRE's commitment to new work. For the 2011-12 season, the ALLIANCE THEATRE announces the names of five promising playwrights and their plays as the winner and finalists of the 2011-2012 Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. Five thrilling new scripts will be unveiled early next year through an explosive reading series in Atlanta and New York, all leading up to the ALLIANCE THEATRE's world premiere of the 2012 winning play.

The Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition is open to all playwriting students at accredited MFA programs throughout the country, transitioning student playwrights into the world of professional theatre. Another stellar round of play selections this year resulted in 60 diverse submissions. In conjunction with ALLIANCE THEATRE leadership, submissions were judged by Polly Carl, Director of Artistic Development at Steppenwolf Theatre; Michael Kaiser, President of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and Tarell McCraney, Playwright and 2007-08 Kendeda Graduate Playwright Competition Winner.

The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, the 2012 Winner of the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, will make its world premiere on the ALLIANCE THEATRE's Hertz Stage February 3-26. Written by Yale School of Drama graduate Meg Miroshnik, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls collides the rapidly-changing setting of modern Moscow with the darkly funny world of traditional Russian fairy tales. 20-year-old Annie, who left the collapsing Soviet Union for American shores as a baby, has just been sent back to the city of her birth for the summer to stay with her aunt, a woman who acts an awful lot like the girl-eating witch, Baba Yaga. There, she meets the two Katyas, the tragic Masha, whose boyfriend has recently turned into a bear, and a fairy godmother prostitute named Nastya-and the adventures begin. When the lines between reality and fairy tale start to blur, then vanish, things get seriously dicey. A highly theatrical tour de force!

Along with the 2012 winning play, four additional plays by a talented pool of emerging playwrights were chosen as finalists for the 2012 Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. They include:

Whales by Bob Bartlett, Catholic University
While visiting his family's secluded cottage on the lower Outer Banks of North Carolina, Owen, a typically urban fourteen-year-old boy, and his fisherman father clash until an unlikely and healing communion with an injured whale awakens in Owen a forgotten boyhood and connection with the sea.

We Fight We Die by Timothy J. Guillot, Catholic University
A pack of passionate urban poets, speaking in furious rhythms, echoing the styles of hip-hop and spoken word tell the story of Q, a homeless, virtuosic graffiti artist who has transfixed the local city with his stunning and subversive work. Finally caught by the police, Q must license his talents to the local government in order to avoid jail. Faced by a power hungry mayor, indebted to his one and only friend, Q must decide - defiance or conformity?   Echoing the power and passion of the ancient Greeks, this is a striking look at urban life.

Lost Cause by Alexander Maggio, UCLA
Dartmouth freshman Shawn has a crush on his debate partner, Gillian.  But Gillian has the hots for Conor, a hardcore Confederate re-enactor, and she convinces Shawn to come with her to the Battle of Bentonville State Historic Site in North Carolina to join in the process of "reliving history" as a volunteer in the C.S.A.   There's only one problem:  Shawn happens to be black.  A mad-cap journey through the imagined past and fraught present of the American Civil War.

Shoe Story by Ben Snyder, University of Texas at Austin
An urban fairy tale about love, loss, and the metaphysical significance of a fresh pair of kicks.

The Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition has been a unique component of the ALLIANCE THEATRE since 2003. Each year, graduates of MFA programs across the country submit challenging, innovative works to be considered for producing; in return building a competition that is increasingly diverse, bold, and unpredictable with each round. Results from the Kendeda winners and finalists have been astonishing as these young writers move from the Alliance to national careers. In 2009, Sarah Gubbins's finalist play Fair Use had its critically acclaimed world premiere at Actors Express, which also produced Megan Gogerty's finalist play Love Jerry in 2006. 2009 winner Ismail Khalidi's Tennis in Nablus was recently recommended for consideration for the American Theatre Critics Association's annual ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award. Tarell McCraney's In the Red and Brown Water has gone on to be produced at many theaters around the country and in London including the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey, The Public Theatre in New York, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago and at the Young Vic in London. In the spring of 2011, the ALLIANCE THEATRE produced Spoon Lake Blues by 2007-08 Kendeda finalist Josh Tobiessen, the first time a Kendeda alumni returned to the ALLIANCE THEATRE.