Boston Playwrights' Theatre Presents BOSTON THEATER MARATHON XX On May 6

Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) presents Boston Theater Marathon XX, featuring 50 ten-minute plays, written by 51 New England playwrights, and produced by 50 New England theatres in ten hours.

For two decades, the Boston Theater Marathon-to be held on Sunday, May 6-has brought together playwrights, directors and theatres in an effort to foster collaboration between artists and producers. Many playwrights have enjoyed full-length productions with collaborating theatres because of relationships forged during the Boston Theater Marathon.

This year's Marathon is dedicated to Jack Welch, a champion and friend of Boston theater who died last year. Welch was a founder of StageSource, the arts service organization for the New England theater community, and was managing director and editor at Baker's Plays from 1976 to 2002.

The event will also commemorate its twentieth anniversary with revivals of several plays from past BTMs, including Game On (from BTM XIII) by Gary Garrison, sponsored by SpeakEasy Stage Company; Annie Desmond Gets A Tattoo (from BTM XI) by Kirsten Greenidge, sponsored by Company One; What the Market Will Bear (from BTM II) by Melinda Lopez, sponsored by Huntington Theatre Company; Oral Report (from BTM I) by Jack Neary, sponsored by Acting Out Productions; and The Mutton Bandit Molloy (from BTM IV) by Ronan Noone, sponsored by Imaginary Beasts.

Net proceeds from ticket sales to the Boston Theater Marathon will benefit the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, which provides financial support to theatres and theatre artists in times of need.

The Boston Theater Marathon is supported in part by the Boston University Center for the Humanities.

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THE PLAYWRIGHTS, PLAYS, AND THEATRE COMPANIES OF BOSTON THEATER MARATHON XX

Still by Miranda Adekoje/Our Place Theatre Project

Not A Playground by Rosanna Alfaro/The Umbrella

Ocean View by Raymond Arsenault/Liars and Believers

Elephant by Brysen Boyd/Moonbox Productions

Like it Is by Alan Brody/Underground Railway Theater

Roxy Rhodes and the Lost Temple by Meg Brown/Theatre on Fire

Automated Auto by Robert Brustein/Suffolk University Theatre Department

The Mother Lovin' Train by Cynthia Chapman/Israeli Stage

After Class by Andrea Fleck Clardy/Fort Point Theatre Channel

Churchill on the Beach by Andrew Clarke/Centastage

Birdhouses by Sean Crawford/Cohasset Drama Club

Swimming in Captivity by Brandon M. Crose/Hub Theatre Company

Last Christmas by William Donnelly/Battleground State

Data Driven by Owen Doyle/Pilgrim Theatre

Nevertheless She Persisted by Richard Dresser/American Repertory Theater

On the Beach by L.H. Finigan/Boston College Theatre Department

The Complaint Department by Peter M. Floyd/Greater Boston Stage Company

Camouflage by Brenda Foley/Wilbury Theatre Group

Second Look (from BTM XIV) by Patrick Gabridge/Firehouse Center for the Arts

Game On (from BTM XIII) by Gary Garrison/SpeakEasy Stage Company

Virtuous Reality by Hortense Gerardo/Gloucester Stage Company

Turk, Turk, Turk by Deirdre Girard/Wheelock Family Theatre

Annie Desmond Gets A Tattoo (from BTM XI) by Kirsten Greenidge/Company One

Burning by Jayne Hannah/Gamm Theatre

Questions You Never Thought You'd Ask by Marc Harpin/Target Stage Company

Play Title by Duke Harten/Northeastern University Theatre Department

The Whole Shaker of Salt by Charles Hertz/Actors' Shakespeare Project

Will of Men by Terrence Kidd/Hovey Players

A Conversation by Susan Kosoff/Cape Cod Theatre Company

Off the Rails by Bill Lattanzi/New Repertory Theatre

What the Market Will Bear (from BTM II) by Melinda Lopez/Huntington Theatre Company

My Husband's Keeper by Anne Marilyn Lucas/Marblehead Little Theatre

Running in Circles Screaming by Jeni Mahoney/Titanic Theatre Company

Second Look by Nicholas Malakhow/Open Theatre Project

Set in Stone by K. Alexa Mavromatis/Wellesley Repertory Theatre

Parents Weekend by Michael McClung/Playwrights' Platform

Dying Backwards by Scott McCrea/Tide Take Productions

This is Marriage: Part III by Charlotte Meehan/Sleeping Weazel

Oral Report (from BTM I) by Jack Neary/Acting Out Productions

We the Sisters by Laura Neill/Fresh Ink Theatre Company

The Mutton Bandit Molloy (from BTM IV) by Ronan Noone/Imaginary Beasts

El Oso by Alexis Scheer/Off the Grid Theatre Company

Duet for Shy People (from BTM I) by Richard Schotter (Michael Kosarin, composer)/Boston Children's Theatre

A Little Night Stand Music by Cassie M. Seinuk/Lyric Stage Company of Boston

Brickwork by Kate Snodgrass/Boston Playwrights' Theatre

Great Escapes by David Susman/Actors Studio of Newburyport

Tea by Lisa Taddeo/Happy Medium Theatre

Hatched by Michael Towers/Emerson Stage

Personal Demons by Maryanne Truax/Boston Theater Company

Despite Everything by Madison Wiser/Nora Theatre Company

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ABOUT THE BOSTON THEATER MARATHON

The Boston Theater Marathon (BTM) is an award-winning all-day marathon of new ten-minute plays. The plays are chosen from close to 400 entries from New England playwrights, and the selected plays are produced by New England theatre companies that donate their time to this event. Generously supported over the years by the Boston University Center for the Humanities and by individual donations, the BTM gives net proceeds to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, an organization helping area theatre artists and companies in crisis.

Thanks to a generous gift of space from the Huntington Theatre Company, the Boston Theater Marathon is held each spring at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in Boston's South End.

In 2000, the BTM received a special Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for "Enlivening Local Theatre."

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ABOUT THE THEATRE COMMUNITY BENEVOLENT FUND

The Theatre Community Benevolent Fund (TCBF) is a non-profit theatre community organization administered by StageSource for the benefit of its individual and organizational members and the theatre artists who are or have been employed by those organizations who face dire need and require financial assistance. TCBF provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner to individual and organizations facing extreme illness, catastrophic acts of nature, and other events such as vandalism/theft, and who have limited or no resources with which to handle such occurrences.

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ABOUT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS' THEATRE

Founded in 1981 at Boston University by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) is an award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new works. At the heart of BPT's mission is the production of new plays by alumni of its MFA Playwriting Program, the latter in collaboration with Boston University's renowned School of Theatre. The program's award-winning alumni have been produced in regional and New York houses, as well as in London's West End. BPT's productions have been honored with numerous regional and Boston awards, including 12 IRNE Awards for Best New Script and five Boston Critics' Association Elliot Norton Awards.