Penfold Theatre Launches New Reading Series

Penfold Theatre Company (Penfold) has announced a new FREE reading series Homegrown: New Works by Local Playwrights hosted at the Round Rock Public Library, 200 E Liberty Ave. This new series gives the public an inside look at new work in development. The first two readings, Greyhound Famous and Anton Chekhov is a Tasty Snack, will take place in April with an additional reading in August to be announced at a later date.

Homegrown: New Works by Local Playwrights pulls back the curtain for an intimate view of the playmaking process. Collecting scripts in development by rising stars in the Central Texas playwriting community, Penfold nurtures local voices with an up-close evening of laughter and surprise through a series of play readings in the intimate setting of Round Rock Public Library's beautiful new downtown campus.

"One of Penfold's priorities is to invest in local artists and build community around their work," says Penfold's Producing Artistic Director Ryan Crowder. "Readings are crucial for playwrights because a play is not meant to exist on the page. Hearing the words spoken by actual actors and listening to the way the audience responds - that's invaluable information for a writer. Plus, as we look forward to producing original work in our new Round Rock home, it gives audiences a rare glimpse at the process involved in bringing a play to life."

April Series Offerings Are:

Greyhound Famous

by Tony Faia

Directed by Rosalind Faires

Friday April 12, 2024 | 7pm-8:30pm

Round Rock Public Library | 200 E Liberty Ave. | Round Rock, TX | 78664

FREE; RSVP requested at penfoldtheatre.org/event/greyhound-famous/

Climb aboard Greyhound Famous, a hilarious and riveting travel log based on the real-life Mary Jo Pehl's memoir “Employee of the Month and Other Big Deals” about her time before and after achieving D-list celebrity on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Lacking confidence and direction, we'll follow Mary Jo across the country on a disastrous book tour in search of something more.

Anton Chekhov is a Tasty Snack

by Jenny Connel Davis

Directed by Liz Fisher

Friday April 19, 2024 | 7pm-8:30pm

Round Rock Public Library | 200 E Liberty Ave. | Round Rock, TX | 78664

FREE; RSVP requested at penfoldtheatre.org/event/anton-chekhov-is-a-tasty-snack/

A small Austin theater company with big ambitions decides to mount the best dang production of Chekhov's The Seagull that this town has ever seen. But as the rehearsal process draws on for months, art imitates life imitating art and the whole cast goes increasingly around the bend. A wildly fast-and-loose adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, this hilarious new comedy embraces the absurdity of making theater.

The August Homegrown: New Works by Local Playwrights reading will be announced later this Spring.

Information on Homegrown: New Works by Local Playwrights is available at penfoldtheatre.org.

Ticketing Information:

FREE, but donations are accepted and RSVPs are suggested. You may RSVP for both readings at penfoldtheatre.org or individually at penfoldtheatre.org/event/greyhound-famous/ or penfoldtheatre.org/event/anton-chekhov-is-a-tasty-snack/. Donations made at the event will help support the opening of Penfold Theatre's new home in Round Rock this fall. For more information on the new venue, please visit: penfoldtheatre.org/new-venue.

About the Directors and Playwrights for April

Tony Faia (Playwright) was born in New Orleans. He received the John Ed Bradley award for short fiction while attending Louisiana State University, and received his MFA in Screenwriting from The University of Texas at Austin. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 2021 family film The Adventures of Thomas and Felix, and was most recently story consultant for the PBS documentary Big Chief, Black Hawk about the youngest Masking Mardi Gras Indian Chief in New Orleans. He lives in Austin with his wife and children. Greyhound Famous is his first stage play.

Rosalind Faires (Director) is an Austin-based director and actor. She was the 2016 recipient of Capital T Theatre's New Directions fellowship and was nominated for Outstanding Direction by the Austin Critics' Table Award for her production of Marie Antoinette. Regional directing credits include: The Thin Place (assistant director, ZACH), Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (TexARTS), Out of Ink 2023 (ScriptWorks, Hyde Park Theatre), a four-actor adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Penfold Theatre), the world premiere of Running Bear (Hyde Park Theatre), A Miracle on 34th Street Classic Radiocast (Penfold Theatre), Ghosts (Gateway Theatre Project), Tiny Beautiful Things (Austin Playhouse), Sense and Sensibility (assistant director, Dallas Theater Center) and Macbeth (Rude Fusion). She received dual degrees in Plan II Honors and Theatre and Dance from The University of Texas at Austin and will be pursuing an MFA in Directing at Northwestern University in the fall.

Jenny Connell Davis (Playwright) is the in-house writer at Emmy-award-winning Baobab Studios, developing the stories that they iterate across tv, film, books for kids, graphic novels, Roblox and NFT games, and VR.

Jenny's short films have screened at festivals worldwide, including SxSW and Toronto. She adapted bestselling novelist Jennifer Weiner's first YA novel, The Littlest Bigfoot, for screen; it's under development with Fox/Disney. Her YA+ comedy, RUSH, was purchased and developed with Amazon Studios; her adaptation of her own play, Dragon Play, is in development with Iconoclast Films/Anonymous Content. Her first pilot script, Amicus a soapy supreme court drama, sold to Sony. 

Her stage plays been developed or produced with the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights' Center, Icicle Creek, ACT in Seattle, the Araca Group, The Gift Theatre, Stage Left and ATC in Chicago, Ars Nova, Asolo Rep, NAATCO, Theater Mitu, New York Stage and Film, Shrewd Productions, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Impact Theatre in Berkeley, Chance Theatre, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation. 

Recent plays include the critically acclaimed The Messenger, with a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere across the United States, award-winning Matinicus: A Lighthouse Play (a one-woman play about real-life heroine Abigail Burgess, premiere: Chance Theater), As I See It, a historical drama about painter Alice Neel and poet Frank O'Hara, and Anton Chekhov Is A Tasty Snack, a comedy about the performing of Chekhov's The Seagull, which is – itself – an adaptation of The Seagull.

She has been a finalist or semi-finalist for Seven Devils, BAPF, the Nicholl (twice), and the Heideman Award, has been an honorable mention on the Kilroys list (2014, 2015, 2016) and for the Jane Chambers Award (2014), and has been twice nominated for both the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Lark/PONY fellowship. In addition to Palm Beach Dramaworks, she has been commissioned The Chance Theater, Penfold Theater, and Ars Nova. 

Jenny is the Playwright-in-Residence at Palm Beach Dramaworks, an Affiliate Artist with the Playwrights' Center, former member of the Ars Nova Play Group, and a recipient of grants from Ars Nova, ScriptWorks, The Playwrights' Center, and the Network of Ensemble Theatres. Jenny was the 2014-2015 Hot Seat Local Writer in Residence at Baltimore's Center Stage Theater, where she helped organize their new Playwrights Collective, the 2016 Resident Playwright at Chance Theatre in Anaheim, CA, and an inaugural member of the Hyde Park Theater Playwrights Group in 2019/2020.

Jenny trained as an actor at Court and Steppenwolf theaters in Chicago, and in playwriting at UT Austin.  She has taught acting at UT Austin, and playwriting at several institutions, including The Playwrights' Center.  Agent: Verve Talent, Management: Good Fear.

Liz Fisher (Director) is an interdisciplinary theatermaker based in Austin. Her directing work frequently explores applications of mixed realities, immersive theatre strategies, and game mechanics in new play development and reimaginings of classic texts for companies and academic institutions like Fusebox Festival, Shrewd Productions, Street Corner Arts, Scriptworks, Pittsburgh Public, The Tank (NYC), the National Women's Theatre Festival, Heartland Theatre Company, St. Edward's University, Mary Baldwin University, and the University of Texas at Austin. She has been a featured speaker at SXSW Interactive and other conferences and organizations on her work in building audience engagement via integrations of network technology and live performance. She works as a technology consultant and creative director, helping organizations like Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies design and implement performance platforms. She is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Theatre, the Kennedy Center's Stage Directors and Choreographers National Directing Award, a fellowship to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, as well as multiple B, Iden Payne and Austin Critics Table Awards. SDC Associate Member. MFA: Texas State University. HFor more information, visit www.lizfisher.net

About Penfold Theatre Company

Penfold Theatre Company has served the Austin-Round Rock metro area for over 15 years by telling intimate stories of hope and empathy. The company has reemerged from the pandemic with a particular focus on reimagining classics, which is reflected in the season line-up, as well as in several new initiatives.

In addition to the professional plays and musicals Penfold is known for (Penfold in the Park and the annual holiday radiocasts) new company initiatives include a five-year New Play Commission Series, a new Great Plays in Great Places Series and an Arts Leadership Apprenticeship in partnership with Texas State University.

The aim is that these new programs will have increased impact on the City, Sector and Penfold: City, by investing in Central Texas artists and creating community and dialogue around their work; Sector, by consciously reimagining the classical repertoire for a modern, diverse, local audience; and Penfold, by telling transportive stories that rekindle a sense of shared humanity, empathy and hope.

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