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2010 Conference

June 7 - 19, 2009 at the Alpine Playhouse in McCall Idaho (map)

Featuring 2010 Guest Artist Eric Coble

 

The Schedule

All staged readings start at 7:30pm at the Alpine Playhouse unless otherwise noted

FREE OF CHARGE

Wednesday, June 9: THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN by Eric Coble

Thursday, June 10: From McCall-Donnelly High School

ONE FLEW OVER THE CHICKS NEST by Andy Barsness

THE STORK by Sean Kirkpatrick

Friday, June 11: KANDAHAR by Jeni Mahoney

Saturday, June 12: GILGAMESH’S GAME by Jen Silverman

Wednesday, June 16: THE CUSTODIAN by Gloria Kohl

Thursday, June 17: From McCall-Donnelly High School

THE COFFEE SHOP by Tim Daniels

ORSON & THE GRAVEYARD by Elizabeth Bennett

LESSONS IN PLAGIARISM

Friday, June 18: LEMONADE by Mark Krause

Saturday, June 19 at 2:00pm: AUTHENTIC by Jacob Coakley *

Saturday, June 19 at 7:30pm: MILO AT THE MOVIES by Tom Diggs, Music & Lyrics by Mark Gaylord

*Sit-down Reading @ Central Idaho Historical Museum, 100 State Street

 

SPECIAL EVENT :

Saturday, June 12th from 11:00am-2:00pm

The Odd Perspective: Finding the Way Into a Story

An Intensive Playwrighting Workshop with Guest Artist Eric Coble

McCall-Donnelly High School, 401 Mission Street

 

The 2010 Plays

THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN by Eric Coble Determined to spend her final years at home, Lillian defies her children’s best attempts to evict her by laying down one final ultimatum: let her be, or she’ll burn the place to the ground. Will the return of a prodigal son, in the midst of confronting his own crossroad of the soul, dampen Lillian’s resolve or will this final showdown fan the flames higher?

KANDAHAR by Jeni Mahoney The suicide of Alexi Finn rattles his friends and neighbors, but perhaps none more than his buddy Hof; especially when Finn’s unrequited love for Hof’s wife, Ginger, is exposed. Trapped in a suburban sprawl of lawn darts and love affairs, Ginger and Hof discover that the most dangerous game is indeed life, and the most lethal opponent… one’s own heart.

GILGAMESH’S GAME by Jen Silverman From the moment she heard his voice, Joan became obsessed with the promise of Gil’s seductive and dangerous game. Abandoning all, she joins Gil in embracing her deepest fears and weakness - from scorpions to electrocution —in order to vanquish them. But when Gil’s daughter Mim discovers The Game, she wants to play too, forcing all three to confront fears and weaknesses beyond their wildest imaginings… and perhaps beyond their control. Game on.

THE CUSTODIAN by Gloria Kohl* For David Parker, everything is going according to plan – having raised his brother Mitch and put himself through school as a custodian – his dream of becoming an English teacher is finally within reach. But just as he is about to celebrate his success, it starts to crumble, leaving David to untangle one mystery after another: Where does Mitch keep disappearing to? Why has their mother suddenly shown up after fifteen years? What must David sacrifice to keep his dream & his family alive? (*Sit-down Reading / Central Idaho Historical Museum, 100 State Street .)

LEMONADE by Mark Krause Ever hear the one about the unfunny comedian and his garbage sculpting wife?  They strive for the American dream while struggling to pay their bills, escape eviction and cope with friends who increasingly seem like strangers.  Life, they tell their kids, is sort of like Dad’s monologues: no matter how fearlessly you struggle you’re only as good as your punch line.

AUTHENTIC by Jacob Coakley* Margaret obsessively tapes every moment of her collegiate life for copyright protection. But when a fellow student enlists her help in tracking down the end of a long-lost Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, Margaret finds herself at the center of an international battle that forces her to confront her own past and asks: What is the value of our stories, and what do we lose when we insist on owning them? (*Sit-down Reading / Central Idaho Historical Museum, 100 State Street .)

MILO AT THE MOVIES by Tom Diggs, Music & Lyrics by Mark Gaylord Milo and Dexter thought they’d make a killing in vaudeville, but thanks to silent movies they’d have better luck getting arrested than getting on stage. So when Milo’s gumption lands the duo an unexpected gig, the brothers figure they’ve struck gold: good dough and a pretty dame to boot! As long as they can avoid the censor, the cops, the fiancé and each other, they’ll be fine.

 

The 2010 Playwrights

Jacob Coakley (Authentic) A Las Vegas-based writer, Jacob Coakley is the editor of Stage Directions magazine and freelance theatre writer for the Las Vegas Weekly . Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Jacob worked in information technology for Manhattan Theatre Club and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where he programmed their first website in 1995. He is a member of IATSE, and has designed sound for Impact Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., and The Asylum Theatre in Las Vegas. He is an alumnus of The Artists Development Lab at San Francisco's Z Space, a member of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, and an associate member of the Dramatists Guild.

Eric Coble (Guest Artist - The Velocity of Autumn) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and bred on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. His plays include “Bright Ideas”, “The Dead Guy”, “Natural Selection” and “For Better”, and have been produced Off-Broadway, throughout the U.S., and on several continents, including productions at Manhattan Class Company, The Kennedy Center, Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Alliance Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, South Coast Repertory, and The Contemporary American Theatre Festival.  Awards include an Emmy nomination, the AT&T Onstage Award, National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, an NEA Playwright in Residence Grant, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants.

Tom Diggs(Libretto, Milo at the Movies) has had worked produced at major regional theatres including East/West Players, Intiman Theatre, The Seattle Rep, Theatre Masters, Atlantic 2, and Moving Arts (L.A.). His play, Harper Lee’s Husband, was a part of the 2005 Pittsburgh New Works Festival, The Vital Theatre’s Vital Signs, and was a finalist for a Samuel French Award. Nu Shu, was part of the Kennedy Center’s New Works Festival in April 2006. Yorkshire Faerie Tale won the Aurand Harris Award at NETC in 2006, was developed at PlayWorks, and part of the 2008 TRU musical reading series.  Fair and Decent was commissioned by The Kennedy Center and The National New Play Network and opened the 2007-2008 Luna Stage season where it  was nominated for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Love in the Time of Reagan was developed in New York City with a Bridgeworks/id theater, the Lark Theatre, and 24Seven Lab. Tom graduated from NYU’s Tisch of the Arts in 2007 with an MFA in Dramatic Writing. He was named a Dramatist Guild Fellow for 2007-2008 and is currently a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Workshop.

Mark Gaylord (Composer/Lyricist, Milo at the Movies) was the creator of Chatham Songs, a one-act musical produced at Class1Acts by MCC, which also developed his full-length work Birdwatchers, with book by Anna Theresa Cascio.  He wrote music and lyrics for an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, which enjoyed a workshop directed by Carey Perloff at ACT in San Francisco.  As a performer, Mark appeared in the Hal Prince revival of Showboat in Vancouver, at the Public Theatre in Love's Labour's Lost, and in many Shakespeare festivals across America.  He is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Workshop and holds an MFA from the University of Washington and a BFA from SUNY Fredonia. 

Gloria C. Kohl (The Custodian) began writing plays after graduate studies in English at the University of Chicago . Her first success was a staged reading of Descriptions Ltd. at Playwright's Horizons in 1978. In the late 80's Gloria co-founded and served as artistic director for Common Stage Theatre in Woodstock , NY , an Equity Waiver company that produced new works by women and was self-sustaining for five years. Gloria's work has had several staged readings and a few full productions. In 1999, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival New Works program selected her play, Water, Power and Light, for a two week development workshop culminating in a staged reading; and in 2000, her full length play, The Postcard, was published in Amazon All-Stars, an anthology of lesbian plays. But she feels her biggest accomplishment to date has been writing The Custodian and being selected by Seven Devils for this year's Playwright's Intensive. Gloria lives in Boulder , Colorado with her partner and her extravagantly loved dogs, Oboe and Cello.

Mark Krause (Lemonade) is a playwright, screenwriter and cartoonist. His full-length plays include LEMONADE, THE INVENTORS, THE BACK STORY, WHAT YOU WILL, THE EXILE and THE AGE OF ANDY.  His plays have been developed, read or produced at Maieutic Theatre Works (New York City) Boston Theatre Works, Dayton Playhouse (Ohio), Theatre Conspiracy (Florida), Abingdon Theatre Company (New York City), JET Theatre (Michigan), Tarragon Theatre (Toronto), Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver), CanStage (Toronto) and Fusionfest at the Cleveland Playhouse. LEMONADE was one of 14 plays out of 960 submissions chosen by David Hare as a finalist for the 2010 Yale Drama Series.  WHAT YOU WILL won the 2009 Dorothy Silver Award. His plays have also been shortlisted for the Princess Grace Award, the Playwrights First Award, the BHTG’s Harris Award (twice) and the Panowski Award.  His screenplay THE BOAT was a 2004 Nantucket Film Festival finalist. As an actor, Mark has performed at theatres across Canada. Mark’s cartoons are published in The Dramatist and he is a member of the Dramatists Guild. He currently divides his time between New York and Toronto.

Jeni Mahoney (Kandahar) Jeni’s plays including The Feast of the Flying Cow… and Other Stories of War, Mercy Falls, The Martyrdom of Washington Booth, Running in Circles Screaming, Come Rain or Come Shineand Light have been variously presented at the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Center, InterAct Theater (Philadelphia), Source Theater Festival (D.C.), L.A. Theater Center, MidWest New Play Festival (Chicago), Lark Theater’s Playwrights Week, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYU’s hotINK Festival, And Toto Too (Denver), Village Rep, and London’s Greenwich Playhouse among others. Published plays include: Come Rain or Come Shine in Best Short American Plays 2005-2006 (Applause); Throw of the Moon (written with Ben Sahl) and American Eyes in Plays and Playwrights 2001 (NYTE); Light in Great Short Plays: Volume 6 (Playscripts.com) and Best Short American Plays 2007-2008 (Applause) and Running in Circles Screaming in the recently released anthology Best Short American Plays 2006-2007 (Applause). When not writing, Jen is Head of the Playwriting Program at New York University’s Playwrights Horizons Theater School/Tisch undergrad, a curator for NYU’s hotINK Festival, co-Artistic Director of id Theater and Artistic Director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Jeni is a member of Dramatists Guild of America. Upcoming events include the West Coast Premier of Running in Circles Screaming (Circus Theatricals) in May 2010, and a return to her alma mater, Ohio University to serve as a guest artist at the Seabury Quinn, Jr. New Play Festival.

Jen Silverman (Gilgamesh's Game) is entering her last year as an MFA candidate in playwriting at the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and received her BA from Brown University. Her plays include: Lizardskin, developed with New Georges in NYC, New York Stage & Film/ Powerhouse Theatre Company at Vassar College and produced in the NYC International Fringe Festival in 2006; The Education of Macoloco, produced by FUSION Theatre Company in New Mexico, LiveGirls! in Seattle, Circus Theatricals in LA, and a 2009 winner of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival, published in “Off Off Broadway Festival Plays, 34th Series”; Crane Story, developed with New Georges, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in San Francisco, 2009 HotINK International Festival in NYC and The Playwrights Realm in NYC; Akarui (Bright), produced in the 2009 Iowa New Play Festival, and produced as part of Cornell College’s 2010 spring mainstage season; Nila, which received its first workshop at The Lark’s Playwrights Week 2009; and Gilgamesh’s Game, workshopped with New Georges in NYC and given a workshop production in the Iowa New Play Festival. Jen is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a 2009 playwright in residence at the Hedgebrook International Women’s Writers Residency, and the recipient of the 2010 Marcus Bach Fellowship. She will be returning to Japan this summer as a recipient of the Stanley International Research Fellowship to research and write a new play about South African immigrants in Japan.

 

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