Icicle Creek Theatre Festival and ACT Announce Workshop Selections

The Icicle Creek Theatre Festival and ACT- A Contemporary Theatre announce the two plays selected for workshops at this year's Festival (August 20-24): You For Me for You by Mia Chung, and The Whale by Sam Hunter. These new plays will be presented at Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth, WA, on Saturday, August 20, and at ACT Theatre in Seattle on Tuesday, August 23 and Wednesday, August 24.

In You for Me for You, Mia Chung explores the lives of two sisters from North Korea who escape one harsh and unforgiving reality only to enter another very foreign world; a world where a smuggler and a paper balloon can shape a woman's fate. With whimsy and magic, the play journeys through time, space and evolving identities, crossing borders of the mind and heart, and examining what it takes to create and sustain a family and a life in a new world.

Mia Chung's work has been developed by the Magic Theatre, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Mu Performing Arts, the Brandeis Theatre Company, Rites & Reason Theatre, and PlayGround in San Francisco. She received a Creative Arts Council grant for a video project on Aristotle's Poetics, a Sloan commission for a play about science fraud, and had a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is a graduate oF Brown's MFA playwriting program.

The Whale is a poetic, disturbing and strangely beautiful journey through the life of a small-town shut-in named Charlie, whose self-imposed exile is the result of a brutal and disturbing form of internalized homophobia. His fascination with Melville's Moby Dick, and his literal, and figurative connection with the solitary, hunted beast bring poignance and power to this startling and lovely new play. The Whale was recently awarded the Marin Theatre Company's Sky Cooper New American Play prize for best new American play.

Sam Hunter is a graduate of NYU, the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and the American Play-wrights Program at Juilliard. His plays have been developed or produced at London's Arcola Theatre, Montana Repertory Theatre, the Flea, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Missoula Colony, Juilliard New Play Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Page 73, Ars Nova, Lark Theater, the Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Primary Stages, Playwrights Horizons, NNPN National Showcase, Rattlestick, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ontological-Hysteric, LAByrinth Summer Intensive, and 24Seven Lab.

Sheila Daniels, renowned Seattle director and former Associate Director of the Intiman Theatre, will direct You For Me For You. Andrew K. Russell, former Associate Producer of the Intiman, will direct The Whale. Anita Montgomery, Literary Manager of ACT Theatre and director of ICTF's Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in The New World will be the Festival's dramaturg.

Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in The New World by Yussef El Guindi was first developed and workshopped at the Icicle Creek Theatre Festival in 2010. As a part of its 2011 Mainstage season, ACT Theatre will produce the world premiere of the play June 17 - July 17. Tickets for Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in The New World start at $37.50 (adults) and $15/$20 (students/people 25 & under) at acttheatre.org or (206) 292-7676.
More information about the Festival will be announced, including event details and pricing.

About Icicle Creek Theatre Festival (ICTF):
Icicle Creek Theatre Festival creates space, time, and support for playwrights to work alongside professional actors and directors to improve and develop their new plays. Since Icicle Creek Theatre Festival's first year in 2006, every one of the new plays workshopped has gone on to win awards, be further developed by other theatres, or go into full production regionally, off-Broadway, and in London. The mission of Icicle Creek Theatre Festival is to advance the American Theater by offering playwrights unique opportunities to develop and showcase their new works; to encourage aspiring theatre students by providing opportunities to learn from working professional actors; and to contribute to the enrichment of arts and culture in Washington State.

About ACT: A Theatre of New Ideas - Raising Consciousness Through Theatre
Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is the only theatre in Seattle dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. With more than 100,000 people who attend shows annually, ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today's thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.

 

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