Yale Rep Announces Drama Series Events

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA/Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Dean, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Deputy Dean, Managing Director) announce two events in connection with the 2010 YALE DRAMA SERIES, the annual playwriting competition jointly sponsored by Yale University Press and Yale Repertory Theatre and funded with generous support from the David C. Horn Foundation, on Monday, September 20.
 
Yale School of Drama presents "A Conversation with David Hare" at the Yale University Art Gallery McNeil Lecture Hall (entrance at 201 York Street) at 3:30PM, sponsored by the Yale University Office of the Secretary. Olivier Award-winning playwright and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter David Hare, the judge of the 2009 and 2010 competitions, will participate in a moderated discussion that is free and open to the public. No reservations will be taken for this event: arrive early for best seating.
 
Please note: The Yale University Art Gallery is closed on Monday. Please enter the McNeil Lecture Hall through the entrance at 201 York Street. 
 
Yale Repertory Theatre presents a reading of blu by Virginia Grise, the 2010 winner of the Yale Drama Series selected by David Hare, at the Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street) at 7:30PM. The reading will be directed by Daniel Jáquez. The reading is free and open to the public. Reservations are strongly encouraged. Please call (203) 432-7087 or email dramaseries@yale.edu.
 
The cast of the reading includes Raul Castillo, Sarah Nina Hayon, Gio Perez, Nancy Rodriguez, Juan Villa, and Carmen Zilles.
 
Soledad, the ex-wife of a career gang member, works two jobs to support her three children. In an attempt not to follow in his father's footsteps and avoid prison, her eldest son, Blu, joins the military and dies in Iraq. Memory, history, and Chicano culture collide as Soledad weathers the poverty, gang violence, and racism of her environment with the help of her partner Hailstorm.
 
On selecting blu as the winner of the 2010 competition from more than 950 submissions, David Hare said, "Virginia Grise is a blazingly talented writer and her play blu stays with you long after you've read it."
 
In addition to the reading at Yale Repertory Theatre, Virigina Grise will receive the David C. Horn Prize of $10,000 and blu will be published by Yale University Press.
 
BIOGRAPHIES
VIRGINIA GRISE (PLAYWRIGHT) is a Chicana cultural worker and theatre artist from San Antonio, Texas.
She has performed nationally and internationally at venues including the Jose Marti Catedra in Havana, Cuba, and the University of Butare in Rwanda, Africa. Her published work includes The Panza Monologues (Evelyn Street Press), an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués entitled Conversations with Don Durito (Autonomedia Press), and blu (Yale University Press, forthcoming). Her play blu is a recipient of the Yale Drama Series Award, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Art's Latino/a Playwrighting Award, and ALLIANCE THEATRE's Kendeda Award. blu will premiere at the Playwrights Arena in Los Angeles in 2011. Virginia holds her MFA in Writing for Performance from the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied with multidisciplinary artist Carl Hancock Rux.
 
DANIEL JÁQUEZ (DIRECTOR) is Artistic Director and Choreographer of Calpulli Mexican Dance Theatre (calpullidance.org), Associate Artist at The Miracle Theatre in Portland, Oregon, and at The Immediate Theater in NYC, as well as an Advisory Board member for The Lark's US/Mexico Word Exchange. From 2003 to 2006 he was Director-Producer of INTAR Theatre's NewWorks Lab. His directing credits include, New York: Atlantic Theater Company, Primary Stages, Queens Theatre in the Park, Carnegie Hall, INTAR Theatre, Vital Theatre Company, The Kirk, The Lion, HERE Arts Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre; regional: The Miracle Theater, South Coast Rep, Freehold Theatre, Teatro Bravo, The Intiman, McCarter, Artists Repertory Theatre, Office of the Arts at Harvard, American Repertory Theatre Institute, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston Playwrights, Greensboro Community Theatre; international: the Moscow Art Theatre Studio in Russia. He has worked with playwrights Andrea Thome, Maria Alexandria Beech, Mariana Carreño, Henry Guzman, Midgalia Cruz, Chantal Bilodeau, Monica Silver, Silvia Peláez, Magdalena Gómez, William S. Gregory, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Nilo Cruz, Eddie Sanchez, J. Holtman, Carmen Rivera, Noemí Martínez, Robert Brustein, and Milan Stitt, and composers Fred Ho, Arturo O'Farrill, Sinuhe Padilla, and Ernesto Villalobos to develop new performance theatre pieces. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab; NoPassport, a Pan-American theatre coalition; and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
 
David Hare (YALE DRAMA SERIES JUDGE) is a playwright who has had ten of his plays presented on Broadway, including Plenty with Kate Nelligan (which was subsequently filmed with Meryl Streep); The Secret Rapture with Blair Brown; Skylight with Michael Gambon and Lia Williams; Amy's View with Judi Dench; The Judas Kiss with Liam Neeson; The Blue Room with Nicole Kidman; Via Dolorosa (in which he also performed); and The Vertical Hour with JuliAnne Moore and Bill Nighy. His play about the diplomatic process leading up to the Iraq war, Stuff Happens, was presented at the National Theatre in London, at The Public Theater and, for one night only, in Central Park in New York. His recent play about the financial crisis The Power of Yes played a sell-out season at the National Theatre. His many screenplays include Damage with Juliette Binoche, Jeremy Irons, and Miranda Richardson; The Hours with Meryl Streep, JuliAnne Moore, and Nicole Kidman; and The Reader with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. The last two films were nominated both for Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards. His production of Joan Didion's play The Year of Magical Thinking with Vanessa Redgrave played recently on Broadway and at the National Theatre. In 1997 the French government honored him as an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres, and in 1998 the British government knighted him for services to the theatre.
 
 
Yale Repertory Theatre is dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics and has produced well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Eleven Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, the Yale Center for New Theatre is an integrated, artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development and production of new plays and musicals at Yale Repertory Theatre and across the country. Professional assignments at Yale Repertory Theatre are integral components of the program at Yale School of Drama, the nation's leading graduate theatre training conservatory. www.yalerep.org  
 
 
Founded in 1908, Yale University Press is one of the largest and most distinguished American university presses. It publishes over 320 books a year in a wide range of disciplines, including history, literature, drama, art and architecture, American studies, philosophy, politics, religion, reference, music, and the sciences. www.yalebooks.com 
 

The David Charles Horn Foundation was established in 2003 by Francine Horn to honor the memory of her late husband. David Horn was the publisher and CEO of Here & There, the leading international forecasting and reporting publication for the fashion industry. Ms. Horn created the Foundation to support new initiatives in the literary and dramatic arts to commemorate her husband's lifetime commitment to the written word. www.dchornfoundation.org