Fireside Festival Presents Readings Of New Plays 3/15- 3/18

Performance Network Theatre presents staged readings of new plays from local playwrights at the Fireside Festival of New Works. The Festival runs Sunday, March 15 through Wednesday, March 18 at 8 pm. Plays include: BLACKWATER BALLAD (lyrics and libretto by Joseph Zettelmaier, music by Brian Lillie), THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Barton Bund and Walouisa Hubbard), THE TOYMAKER'S WAR (Jennifer Fawcet), THE STRAWBERRY & THE KAISER (Lizzi Wolf ) and JARVIS BECOMES POE (Jake Christianson). Admission for all shows is a pay-what-you-can donation.

The Fireside Festival is an exciting, affordable way to see brand new plays produced by Performance Network, Ann Arbor's home for professional theatre. See partially staged readings of new works on the theatre's main stage as well as in the Second Stage, an alternative black box performance space

BLACKWATER BALLAD
Lyrics and libretto by Joseph Zettelmaier, music by Brian Lillie
Sunday, March 15 at 8pm
A musical retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in the bayous of New Orleans in 1932. Traveling musician Orlandus Duval arrives in the small town of Blackwater Creek and captures the heart of the sheriff's daughter Euralie. Their secret plans to wed are dashed by betrayal and murder, forcing Orlandus to make the hardest of choices. His only hope lies in the swamps with the hoodoo people.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
By Barton Bund and Walouisa Hubbard. In collaboration with Blackbird Theatre.
Monday, March 16 at 8pm
A new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic novel re-imagined for a contemporary audience with all roles played by women. An examination of male and female ideas of beauty and corruption through Wilde's words. In the story, a great artist has immortalized handsome, young Dorian Gray on canvas. The beauty and magic of the portrait bewitches Dorian and drives her to madness. Dorian never grows older, yet the painting shows his/her face and body growing old and decrepit, a reflection of the decay of the soul within. A story of relationships, addiction, and murder. The script is in development for an April 2009 production at the Blackbird Theatre.

THE TOYMAKER'S WAR
By Jennifer Fawcet
Date TBA
A story about journalists, children and the stories we tell about war. In 1995, Sylvie was an idealistic young journalist who went to Bosnia to write the story that would launch her career. Stumbling upon an isolated village of children, she met Milan, a young Bosnian Serb toymaker turned soldier, and his little sister, Lejla and her imaginary world of dolls and dragons. Outside this world of make-believe however, very real violence was brewing and soon one horrific act of brutality sparked a massacre. Now, thirteen years later, Milan is on trial for crimes against humanity and Sylvie is a world-famous journalist implicated for her possible involvement in the slaughter that befell that tiny village. Her career in ruins and haunted by memories of the past, she must finally face what really happened in Bosnia and the actions taken in the name of revenge and love.

THE STRAWBERRY & THE KAISER
by Lizzi Wolf
Date TBA
Anna is the perfect Daddy's Girl-serving as her father's nurse, assistant, apprentice, and guinea-pig-until she meets Daisy. Finding herself in love with another woman, Anna must struggle against her father's old-world values and psychoanalytic theories. Through a series of confrontations, family secrets are revealed and long-buried memories are unearthed. Anna ultimately learns to assert her emotional and intellectual independence from her father, and to stand up for her right to love and be loved on her own terms. Inspired by the relationship between Anna Freud-daughter of Sigmund Freud--and her life partner, Dorothy Burlingham. Together, Anna and Dorothy developed the field of child psychology.

JARVIS BECOMES POE
by Jake Christianson
Date TBA

Tickets are "Pay What You Can" and can be ordered at the Performance Network Box Office at 734.663.0681 or by coming to the Performance Network Theatre (120 East Huron St., Ann Arbor) Monday-Saturday 11-6 or one hour before a performance.

 

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