Victory Gardens Selects 6 plays for Ignition!

Six new plays to debut in a summer festival of staged readings, August 7-10 at the Victory Gardens Biograph

Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago's #1 presenter of new plays, has announced the six plays selected for IGNITION:Emerging Writers of Color, a summer festival launched by a grant from the Ford Foundation, to be held August 7-10, 2008 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.

IGNITION has a dual goal: to introduce exceptional new writers under the age of 40 to Victory Gardens and to jump starting future productions of the winning plays around the country. The six plays were selected out of 120 submissions from throughout the U.S. and internationally. The six plays chosen for IGNITION and their performance times are:

The Imagine Man
by Christopher De Paola (Chicago)
Thursday August 7th, 7:30p

In an unnamed country, it is illegal to buy and sell real estate. That doesn't stop Daniel from brokering dangerous deals for people desperate to fulfill their dream of home ownership.

A Better Babylon
by Michael Lew (New York)
Friday August 8th, 7:30p

In 1960s UC Berkeley, a wave of student radicalism engulfs a young Chinese couple, a black protester, and a Chicana biologist. Personal dreams collide with political conscience, testing the limits of mentorship, friendship, and love.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
by Kristoffer Diaz (New York)
Saturday August 9th, 3:00p

Macedonio Guerra is a pro wrestler who has discovered the next big thing: an impossibly charismatic hip-hop-influenced Indian kid from Brooklyn. His boss has the perfect idea for their characters: terrorists. An in-depth comic look at pro wrestling, geopolitics, and refrigerator crispers.

Bathing Van Gogh
by Brian Tucker (New York)
Saturday August 9th, 7:30p

Bathing Van Gogh is a generational glance at four friends negotiating a dying friendship and coping the best they can-with drugs, booze, sketchpads, and jazz.

Year Zero
by Michael Golamco (Los Angeles)
Sunday August 10th, 12:00p

Year Zero is a comedic drama about young Cambodian Americans in Long Beach, California - about reincarnation, redemption, and everything that we try to leave in the past... but we can't leave behind.

Fati's Last Dance
by France-Luce Benson (Pittsburgh)
Sunday August 10th, 3:00p

Can an aging Ballet diva, a princely break dancer, a reality show reject, and a Brazilian Guru move a sleeping beauty off the couch and into the spotlight? Fati's Last Dance, a touching, off-beat comedy tells the story of a young Haitian woman's journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance, and her family's gracefully awkward steps towards overcoming grief.

All six winning playwrights are coming to Chicago to participate in the festival, and leading theater artists of color from Chicago and nationally are being tapped to direct and perform the new play readings. Directors include Andrea J. Dymond (Resident Director, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago), and Diane Rodriguez (Associate Producer and Director of New Play Production, Center Theater Group, Los Angeles). Additional directors will be announced.

In addition to the six festival participants, Victory Gardens Theater has named six finalists. The finalist plays are Dirty by Carla Ching (New York), Holly Down in Heaven by Kara Lee Corthron (New York), The Great White Way by Sigrid Gilmer (Los Angeles), Native Speaker by Nambi E. Kelley (Chicago), West of the Willow Tree by Janine Nabors (New York), and How Far? Too Far? by Tania Richard (Chicago). Victory Gardens Theater looks forward to developing relationships with these exciting emerging writers.

An IGNITION Festival Pass, offering entry to every reading and special event, is only $20. Single tickets to individual readings and select special events are $5. For tickets, information, and the complete IGNITION schedule of events, call the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater box office, 773.871.3000, or purchase tickets online at http://www.VictoryGardens.org

In addition to the readings, IGNITION will boast an invitation-only pre-festival kick-off event on Wednesday, August 6, a late night party with music on Friday, August 9, break-out sessions, and a celebrated keynote speaker to be announced.

Following the festival weekend, two of the plays will be selected for intensive workshops during Victory Gardens' 2008-2009 season.   "Victory Gardens' goal is to produce one, if not both, of the final scripts in a subsequent season," said Sandy Shinner, Associate Artistic Director, Victory Gardens Theater. "We're also involving directors from around the country to set up an ongoing network of interested theaters to jumpstart future productions of these important new works around the country."

Victory Gardens began accepting submissions for IGNITION in February 2008. The festival was open to all playwrights of color under 40 years old. Submitted plays weren't required to deal specifically with race issues, but did need to include a diversity of perspectives. Submissions had to be previously unproduced, and in English or primarily in English. Victory Gardens defined "emerging writer" as a writer who had not yet had a full production at a major regional theater. Shinner, Victory Gardens Artistic Director Dennis Zacek, and Literary Manager Aaron Carter led a team of four script readers who collectively reviewed all submissions, to help narrow the final number down to six winning plays.

Victory Gardens Theater, founded in l974, is the recipient of the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theater. For 34 years the theater's mission has been to develop new plays for the American Theater. Victory Gardens is a leader in its commitment to inclusion and diversity, and has been recognized by the Ford Foundation for translating this core value into mainstage productions by writers of color each season. The theater has a 14-member Playwrights Ensemble whose membership also reflects the diversity of the mission. Victory Gardens' home is the newly renovated historic Biograph Theater, a 299-seat theater with State of the art equipment.

Victory Gardens is designated an Established Regional Arts Institution by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), and is partially supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, a CityArts Program IV Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. For more information, visit http://www.VictoryGardens.org

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