Aurora Theatre Company Announces GAP Winners

Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as prize winners by a committee of local directors for the ninth annual Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theater: #therevolution by Kristoffer Diaz; Technicolor Life by Jami Brandli; Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman; and Welcome Home by Stephen Brown. The selected GAP plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 10-March 3, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged Bay Area Premiere of Johnna Adams' provocative new play, Gidion's Knot (January 31-March 2), directed by Jon Tracy.

Each of the four prize-winners will receive a $1,000 award and travel and accommodation expenses; their work will also be considered for further development and production during Aurora Theatre Company's regular main stage season. Each GAP reading will be followed by an audience discussion of the contemporary issues raised in the work. For information on GAP events (free and open to the public) and Gidion's Knot, the public may call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Aurora Theatre Company's Artistic Director Tom Ross states, "The ninth year of The Global Age Project has brought the diverse perspectives of many new playwrights to our attention. We are excited to have the opportunity to present readings of fresh new works from Pulitzer Prize finalist (and author of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, presented by Aurora in 2012) Kristoffer Diaz, as well as rising stars Jami Brandli, MJ Kaufman, and Stephen Brown. We received over 360 script submissions, more than double the submissions we received last year, with subject matters focused primarily on home front issues, including parent and child relationships, sexual faithfulness, sexual identities, and bullying; we also received a number of relevant yet surreal political allegories. Lead by GAP co-producers M. Graham Smith and Deborah Taylor, this year's GAP script reading committee and the GAP Director's Council sessions were filled with strongly expressed opinions and no holds barred excitement; I believe that our GAP audiences will feel the same way."

The Global Age Project is a discovery and developmental vehicle established to encourage playwrights to address life in the 21st century and beyond. Seeking forward-thinking unproduced work from both established and emerging playwrights, the festival celebrates the diversity of perspectives, styles, voices, concerns, and stories that make up the world today, and provides a development opportunity for plays that directly respond to our complicated present and our possible future. Writers are encouraged to submit works that explore and/or examine the changing state of human relationships in this new century; plays need not be about science or technology. Submissions that transcend traditional forms of theater presentation are encouraged.

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