Gary Garrison News

 In order to continue its strong feminist story-telling tradition, Artemisia Theatre has announced an entirely virtual 2021 season. The new season includes two World Premiere theater productions and eight audio performances airing on its podcast We Women.

Audible has announced  its latest Emerging Playwrights Fund class.

Roland Tec has partnered with Bishop Arts Center in Dallas and their Executive Producing Director Teresa Coleman Wash and by late June the call was going out to screenwriters, playwrights and solo performers all across the country to write and submit a monologue for their Zoom festival. 

Some of the books on this list provide insight on directing for musicals and plays, from a business standpoint. Others include written pieces and essays from other producers, to help inspire you to get your foot in the door. Whether you are brand new, or just want to learn more about the business, there is something on this list for you!

Starting January 28, five full-length new American plays will be presented free to the public over the next 3 months 

REPETITION by Doug Devita; directed by William Spinnato featuring Christopher DeSantis, Alex O'Shea, and Ellyn Stein; performing at Secret Theatre, 4402 23rd Street, Long Island City, NY on Saturday, February 1 at 3:00pm; Sunday, February 9 at 3:00pm; Sunday, February 16 at 7:00pm; Thursday, February 27 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20 ($22 at the door) https://secrettheatre.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=75

Season to kick off in November with THE SUFFRAGE PLAYS by Shaw and Evelyn Glover and conclude in June 2020 with World Premiere of Lauren Ferebee's EVERY WAITING HEART

Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) presents Boston Theater Marathon XXI, featuring 50 ten-minute plays, written by 52 New England playwrights, and produced by 50 New England theatres in ten hours.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts more than 120 outstanding theater students from colleges and universities across the nation as part of the 50th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which runs April 16-20, 2019 in multiple locations throughout the Center. The Center also announced the national awardees for the KCACTF. Selected awardees and representatives will be brought to Washington, D.C. for an expense-paid trip to participate in the National Festival. These student artists from across the United States have been recognized for their outstanding work from the eight regional festivals that were held January 8 through February 28, 2019.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) concludes its 2018-19 season with Dead House by Beirut Balutis. Running from April 18-28, this new drama is directed by Adam Kassim.

Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) has announced the second-ever recipients of the DGF Writers Alliance Grants. These Grants provide $5,000 to both a non-profit theater's production of a new work and $5,000 to the writer or group of writers whose work is being produced. Gary Garrison, who serves on both the DGF Advisory Board and the Writers Alliance Grant selection committee, said: "The DGF's Writers Alliance Grant is the perfect combination of support for both writer AND theater. It acknowledges that the writer has a story that should to be told while also smartly pointing to the theater that should be telling it."

To start off the new year, the Provincetown Theater is proud to premiere Winter Play Dates, a three month reading series of new American full-length plays. Beginning January 15, Winter Play Dates performs every other Tuesday night at 7pm thru March 29, 2019 at the Provincetown Theater (238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA 02657).

Following the success of the premiere performance in October, we are pleased to announce an encore performance. Coming up in the United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City, November 15th, 7:30 pm

The United States, above all other countries, is beset with an epidemic of random killing, usually by a weapon which seems to have held a mythic aura in the American psyche since the arrival of the first Europeans. The gun is the weapon of choice for Americans who want to do harm, especially semi-automatic assault rifles which can be modified to be even deadlier than their makers' intentions. Most of us are exposed to the biggest massacres through the major media, the most recent of which are listed in the footnote below. If the scope, circumstances, and number of dead and wounded are not sufficiently shocking, it is important to know that multiple and mass shootings, if not consistently a daily occurrence, occur regularly several times a week. These are only reported locally, because the limited body counts don't merit national attention. Only a few days passed without an incident during the month of September, 2018, and not seldom multiple mass shootings occurred in one day, as one can see on Gun Violence Archive. It is only too true that we are living in an age of random, senseless mass murders.

Six directors and 30 actors from the Chicago theatre community will collaborate to create staged readings of six new feminist plays in the Artemisia Fall Festival 2018, to be performed September 24-26 and October 1-3 at The Edge Theater at 5451 N. Broadway. Artemisia Founding Artistic Director Julie Proudfoot and Literary Manager Sharai Bohannon have curated the festival from submissions solicited from writers, agents and literary managers across the US with whom the company has had working professional relationships. One play from the six to be performed will be chosen for further development by Artemisia Artistic Director Proudfoot, who will work closely with the playwright over the next two years to develop their feminist story for a full production in Chicago.

Greenwich Entertainment announced today its acquisition of Jeremy Workman's documentary The World Before Your Feet.  The film, which had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, was directed by Workman (Magical Universe) and executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Café Society).  Greenwich will release the film theatrically later this year.

Artemisia launches its 2018-19 Theatre Season with six ground breaking and all-new feminist plays featured in Fall Festival 2018. This year's playwrights were chosen after a dedicated search by Artemisia's Artistic Staff and their remarkable new works are not to be missed! Each play is staged only once by Chicago's excellent pool of talent. From this unique lineup, one play will be chosen by Artistic Director, Julie Proudfoot, whose dedicated development process with the playwright will be shared directly with Artemisia's audience and lead to the play's exciting premiere production in Chicago. This year's festival follows diverse and fascinating female characters, all on a journey of empowerment.

PlayGround's Festival of New Works features the premiere of the full-length play BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour opening with a press night on Wednesday May 16, running through June 16, (previews May 14 & 15). BRIGHT SHINING SEA is a co-production with Planet Earth Arts and one of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays featured this season.  In Julianne Jigour's Bright Shining Sea, six characters find their lives intertwined as they face the personal challenges caused by environmental degradation. Bright Shining Sea confronts destruction-personal and environmental-but presents connection and compassion as the means by which hope is possible. Julianne remarks "It asks us to view the Earth holistically, to recognize our interconnectedness, and to do what the current administration won't-to take responsibility for our planet, for each other, and for future generations.