Diversionary Theatre's Announces Line Up For 2019 SPARK New Play Festival

Diversionary Theatre, the Nation's 3rd Oldest LGBT Theatre presents The 3rd Annual Spark New Play Festival featuring a program of new plays never before seen in San Diego.

Thursday, June 13- Saturday June 15, 2019. Diversionary Theatre's Black Box Spaces at 4545 Park Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92123.

Tickets are free with a suggested donation fo $15 at the door.
June 13-15, 2019, Spark will present four one-night-only readings of fascinating contemporary works never before seen in San Diego by exceptional playwrights. Talkbacks, a Playwrighting Master Class, and receptions give you the opportunity to mingle and celebrate with actors, directors, and playwrights throughout the weekend. Creative sparks will be flying! All readings are free to the public. There is a suggested donation of $15 at the door.

The SPARK New Play Festival is generously sponsored by Bill & Judy Garrett. Tickets are available at www.diversionary.org or by calling the Box Office at 619-220-0097. Additional information can be found at www.diversionary.org/spark2019

The Gentleman Caller

By Philip Dawkins

Directed by Meg DeBoard

Thursday, June 13 @ 7pm

Black Box Theatre

Before becoming queer icons of the American theatre, Tennessee Williams and William Inge were just two aspiring playwrights sharing a night together. As the liquor flows and confessions begin to spill out, they reveal truths about themselves the public never saw. Based on real-life but closed-door encounters, reconstructed from troves of comments (and elisions) by each man about their relationship, Philip Dawkins gorgeously envisions what might have taken place during those early-career meetings.

Spark Mix & Mingle Reception

Friday, June 14th at 6pm

Fritz Lounge

Spark Mix & Mingle Reception with the Playwrights. A complimentary event with hosted wine and appetizers.

A Kind of Weather

by Sylvan Oswald

Directed by Bea Basso

Friday, June 14 @ 7pm

Black Box Theatre

When Kid's grieving father pops up at his Brooklyn doorstep and asks to move in, it kinda puts a cramp in his sex life. Not to mention the completion of his memoir about his gender transition. As he struggles to keep his professional and romantic deadlines, revelations about his family history begin to subvert his own narrative. A hilarious, time-jumping, tragi-comedy exploring gender identity and its effect on family, A Kind of Weather is about learning to be who you already are.

MASTER CLASS with Georgette Kelly

Visual Playwrighting: Using imagery as a starting point.

Join award-winning playwright Georgette Kelly to learn how to use imagery and visual art to jump start your next play or enhance your current play in development.

Saturday, June 15 @ 11am

Black Box

$25

Georgette Kelly is a playwright with one foot in Chicago and the other in New York. Her work has been produced across the country, and she has participated in numerous artistic residencies, including the 2018-2019 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Her play I CARRY YOUR HEART received the inaugural Hope on Stage Playwriting Award, accompanied by a rolling world premiere, and BALLAST was featured on The Kilroys List and received the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play. Georgette's work has been developed with The Kennedy Center, The National New Play Network, The DC Source Festival, The Alliance Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, and Chicago's DCASE. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and she has participated in residencies at the Tofte Lake Center, the National Winter Playwrights Retreat, and terraNOVA Groundbreakers Playwrights Group. Georgette holds a B.A. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Hunter College, where she studied with Tina Howe, Arthur Kopit, and Mark Bly.

Not Another Sidney Poitier

by Michael Rishawn

Directed by Lamar Perry

Saturday, June 15 @ 3pm

Diversionary Mainstage

This innovative new work is a film inside a play, and follows the ascension of two best friends who rise to fame, despite one being a woman, one being gay, and both being black. But can their ideals and friendship rise with them? This scintillating, resonant story is an unflinching look into the Hollywood film industry, revealing the true cost of playing the game.

F*** La Vie D'Artiste

by Georgette Kelly (Ballast, 2017 Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play)

Directed by Heidi Handelsman

Saturday, June 15 @ 7pm

Black Box Theatre

Zenab, an aspiring French-Moroccan painter is stuck giving tours of the room where Vincent Van Gogh died. When Vincent's ghost begins to speak to her, she finds herself torn between her art and Avery, the American woman she's falling in love with. After race riots break out near Paris, Zenab grabs her easel and joins the fray to paint her own version of France, begging the question: What does it mean when your own country sees you as an outsider?