Geva Theatre Center Hosts Whats Next: Festival Of New Theatre 6/10-6/21

Geva Theatre Center is gearing up for the What's Next: Festival of New Theatre (formerly known as Hibernatus Interruptus) which offers audiences the rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a play in progress as well as the chance to talk to the playwrights about their work. Over the eleven days, each of the plays in the festival will undergo an intensive workshop and will then be presented in script-in-hand performances.

No sets, No costumes, Just hot new scripts and great performers and your imagination!

Script-in-hand performances mean that there are no sets and no costumes. Just hot new scripts and a great company of performers, directors and dramaturgs. The playwrights will be on hand to answer questions and to get feedback from audience members. Several playwrights and adaptors are locally based. David Lamas is a senior at Brighton High School and his play, Lágrimas (Tears), was selected from entrants to the Young Writers ShowcasE. Craig DeLancey has had three plays featured as part of Geva Regional Writers Showcase and his play, Build, was selected from this season's showcase. The adaptors of Dracula - The Shape of Evil are also Rochester-based. Darren and Heather Stevenson are co-founders of acclaimed PUSH Physical Theatre which made its Geva debut last season as part of TheatreFest and are currently appearing on the Nextstage in Time Remix. Danny Hoskins, writer of Dracula - The Shape of Evil is a Rochester based actor, director, teacher and playwright.

Stage and screen veteran Jenny O'Hara joins The Cast of Sirens for her debut at Geva Theatre Center. Audiences will know Ms. O'Hara from her appearances as a recurring character in "Big Love" and "King of Queens" and her guest appearances on "The Closer," "House," "Nip/Tuck" and "Grey's Anatomy." Ms. O'Hara also appeared in Mystic River directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon; The Matchstick Men directed by Ridley Scott and Angie starring Geena Davis.

Festival Schedule

Wednesday, June 10 at 7pm: Clementine in the Lower Nine

Thursday, June 11 at 7pm: Lágrimas and Build
Saturday, June 13 at 7pm: Clementine in the Lower Nine
Thursday, June 18 at 7pm: Sirens
Friday, June 19 at 7pm: Dracula - The Shape of Evil
Saturday, June 20 at 7pm: Sirens
Sunday, June 21 at 3pm: Dracula- The Shape of Evil

Clementine in the Lower Nine

by Dan Dietz
Directed by Karen Coe Miller

When Hurricane Katrina blew, Clem's family scattered. A year later, her husband returns home but what has happened to their little girl? Sometimes the most devastating storms blow inside the home....

Lágrimas (Tears)

by David Lamas

Directed by Heather Denyer

News of Castro's heart-attack brings back memories of a fatal day in a Cuban man's childhood. A short play by a Rochester teen writer.

Build

by Craig DeLancey
directed by Jean Gordon Ryon

Are your actions driven by your beliefs or your DNA? What would it take for you to abandon your ideals? And just who would you be then? A tight drama of ambition and betrayal by a Rochester writer.

Sirens

by Deborah Zoe Laufer

Directed by Casey Stangl

Sy wants to make new friends, so he posts his wedding photo on Facebook. Just two problems. 1. The photo is 25 years old. 2. He's cropped his wife out of the picture. A zany comedy about falling back in love with the person you've been married to for 25 years. Featuring stage and screen star Jenny O'Hara.

Dracula - The Shape of Evil

Written by Danny Hoskins

Adapted and Directed by Darren Stevenson, Heather Stevenson, Danny Hoskins

Will you let him in? Can you lock him out? The classic tale of seduction, desire and madness, told as you've never seen it before in a new adaptation featuring Rochester's own PUSH Physical Theatre.

Tickets for all Festival events are free, but reservations are recommended.

Tickets go fast, so call now at 232-Geva or reserve online at www.gevatheatre.org.

A FreeGeva event!

For further information, or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Dawn Kellogg, Communications Manager, (585) 232 1366 x 3059

Craig DeLancey is a philosopher and writer. He teaches philosophy at the State University of New York at Oswego. He is pleased that Build is his third play to be in the Geva Regional Writers Showcase. Mr. DeLancey's other plays include Feeding Mr. Why, performed in the Sydney Short & Sweet Festival, The Blood in the Wing, which took second place in the Theatre Oxford Annual 10-Minute Play Contest, and True Story 'Bout a Dead Bitch, which was performed in the Sydney One-Act Festival and won Best Play there. He has also published numerous short stories.

Dan Dietz's plays include Dirigible, Blind Horses, Tilt Angel, tempOdyssey, Americamisfit, and The Sandreckoner, which was featured in Geva's The Hornet's Nest series last season. They have been seen in New York, L.A., and points in between. tempOdyssey received a rolling world premiere from the National New Play Network in 2006-07, premiering at Curious Theatre (Denver), Studio Theatre (Washington, DC), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis) and New Jersey Rep. The play was also named a finalist for the 2007 PEN USA Literary Award in Drama. Mr. Dietz has been honored with a James A. Michener Fellowship, a Josephine Bay Paul Fellowship, and the Austin Critics Table Award for Best New Play. He has been a finalist for the Heideman Award four times, and his short play, Trash Anthem received the Heideman Award in 2003. Mr. Dietz's work has been developed and presented at the Kennedy Center, The Public Theater, the Guthrie Theater, CenterStage, the Playwrights' Center, and the Summer Play Festival, among others. He is a two-time finalist for the Princess Grace Award, a two-time nominee for the Weissberger Award, a nominee for the ACTF/Steinberg Award, a nominee for the Oppenheimer/Newsday Award, and a four-time finalist for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Mr. Dietz was awarded an NEA/TCG Theatre Residency with Salvage Vanguard Theater to develop a new play about the life of Charles Babbage. His work has been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service, Stage & Screen, Smith & Kraus, and Heinemann.

Danny Hoskins is an actor, director, teacher, and playwright originally from Rochester. As an actor, Mr. Hoskins has worked regionally at The ALLIANCE THEATRE Company, the Hartford Stage Company, the Festival Theatre of St. Croix, the Trustus Theatre and The Wings Theatre in NYC. He has toured nationally with his one man show, The Hamlet Project, and internationally in the Sibiu InterNational Theatre Festival in Sibiu, Romania with Pineapple Productions, a company he co-founded. For the past two years, Mr. Hoskins has returned to Rochester and has performed with Blackfriars Theatre, JCC CenterStage, and Rochester Children's Theatre. He serves on the Board of Directors at Blackfriars, where he's directed Take Me Out, Misery, and The Pillowman. He also teaches acting at SUNY Brockport and the University of Rochester. As a playwright, he premiered a workshop production of his musical Raise Your Sword at JCC Centerstage last fall. Mr. Hoskins holds an MFA from the University of South Carolina.

David Lamas is a 2009 graduate of Brighton High School. He has many interests including various athletics, as well as a passion for creative expression. He has also written poems and short stories. In high school, his interest in creative writing was aided by guidance from Judith Shomper, English and Modern Drama teacher. Mr. Lamas' play, Lágrimas (Tears) was selected for a reading in Geva Theatre Center's Young Writers Showcase in May and subsequently at this season's Festival of New Theatre. This fall, he will be attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he hopes to continue to pursue all of his interests, as he attempts to determine what his life's work will become.

Deborah Zoe Laufer's play End Days was awarded the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg citation in March, 2008. It received its New York City premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre in March, 2009 through an Alfred P. Sloan grant, and will be published by Smith & Kraus in The Best Plays of 2008. The Last Schwartz was published by Smith & Kraus in Women Playwrights, the Best Plays of 2003. It premiered at Florida Stage where it was nominated for a Carbonell Award for Best New Work, and it enjoyed a six-month run at The Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles. Out of Sterno premiered at Portland Stage in Maine in March of 2009, supported through a grant from The Edgerton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The acting editions of End Days, The Last Schwartz, and Out of Sterno are published by Samuel French. Ms. Laufer collaborated on Brink for this year's Humana Festival, which was commissioned by The Actors Theatre of Louisville. Other plays workshopped and produced around the country include: The Gulf of Westchester, (Florida Stage/NNPN commission), Fortune, Random Acts, and Miniatures. Her newest play, Sirens, was part of Florida Stage's 1st Look Festival in March, 2009. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, a two-time recipient of the LeCompte du Nouy grant from The Lincoln Center Foundation, and a member of The Dramatists Guild.

Husband-and-wife team, Darren and Heather Stevenson, founded PUSH Physical Theatre out of a desire to "push" the boundaries of conventional theatre. The company has been called "a cross between fine art sculpture and the movie, The Matrix," but its co-founders currently (and with tongue firmly in cheek) characterize it as: "like regular theatre...but more painful." Its physical feats can be awe-inspiring, but the cherry on top of this acrobatic sundae is PUSH's ability to grab hold of audiences' emotions through exceptional storytelling. Born and raised in England, Darren met Heather, a New Jersey native, during their mutual studies at The Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Their shared love of theatre and performance planted the seeds for their relationship and eventual collaboration. After founding the Studio School of the Arts in Atlanta, Georgia in 1997, the Stevensons and their two children relocated to Rochester and started PUSH Physical Theatre in 2000. The award-winning company toured England, Mexico and the U.S., and has been featured on NPR and PBS. Popular Young Audiences Rochester teaching artists, PUSH made its Geva Theatre Center debut in 2008 with a sold-out Rochester Theatrefest run. "By far, their performances...were the highlight of the entire Theatrefest season - so much so that I invited them back," says Geva Theatre Center Artistic Director Mark Cuddy. "They are a treasure." PUSH's return engagement to the Nextstage (May 29 - June 7) is Time Remix, a new program that includes two world premieres: "Flight 1549" and "Time."

Geva Theatre Center is Rochester's leading professional theatre and the most attended regional theatre in New York State. Founded in 1972, Geva attracts over 160,000 patrons annually, including more than 16,000 students. The 552-seat Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage offers a wide variety of shows, from musicals to American and world classics.

The 180-seat Ron & Donna Fielding Nextstage is home to Geva's own series of cutting-edge drama, comedy and musical theatre; Geva Comedy Improv; What's Next - Geva's wide range of new play programming and the Hornet's Nest - an innovative play-reading series facilitating community-wide discussion on controversial topics. The Nextstage also hosts visiting companies of both local and international renown.

Geva Theatre Center offers a wide variety of educational, outreach and literary programs, nurturing audiences and artists alike. For the past thirteen years the organization has been led by Artistic Director Mark Cuddy.