Strand Theater Company Launches Reconfigured Friends & Neighbors Festival

Strand Theater Company Artistic Director Jayme Kilburn has announced the lineup for the third-annual Friends & Neighbors Festival, running June 1-19, 2011. A forum for bringing fresh new work from emerging playwrights to Baltimore audiences, this year's slate features seven plays, six by women. In year's past, local artists were invited to bring their own projects to the Strand for one-week stands. This year, the format has been changed to a pseudo-repertory schedule, with five evenings of entertainment presented on a rotating basis for three weeks.

Each play will be presented in a workshop staging, meaning each play or double-bill of one acts will have received a maximum of 20 hours of staging time, share the same scenic elements, feature basic costuming and lights, and have a props budget of just $20. And the schedule each week rotates to allow the greatest access for audiences. Individual performance tickets are $5 for all shows; a full-festival pass can be purchased for just $20.

The Strand is inviting loyal audiences to have their voices heard, too, by inviting all full-festival passholders to choose one play or double-bill to receive a full production in the upcoming fourth season. Kilburn explains, "The Strand is committed to presenting new plays by new voices, but it can be challenging for a theater of our modest resources to provide adequate opportunity to develop and rehearse a new piece, let alone attract an audience for it. By 'test-driving' a potential future project in Friends & Neighbors, we're better able to serve the play and the playwright. And we hope letting our most faithful friends have a voice in picking a future production will deepen their connection with us and help build advance word of mouth for one of these exciting plays."

THE PLAYS
A Blessed Unrest by Karuna Lynne Elson,?directed by Mattie Rogers
Life gets even more complicated for the newly quadriplegic dancer Jacob when he falls in love with Patience, his married physical therapist. Luckily, his idol Martha Graham shows up to choreograph his recovery.

Blood-bound and Tongue-tied by Jacqueline E. Lawton, directed by Aaron Heinsman
This provocative and poetic adaptation of Oedipus Rex follows Jocasta, an African American woman whose decision to pass for white leads to great love and great devastation in mid-20th century Texas.

Glitter and Spew by Alison Luterman, directed by Natalia Leimkuhler
Three linked short plays form a three-ring-circus meditation on media exposure, shame, and personal responsibility in 21st-century America when a politician gets caught toe-tapping in the men's room.

Such Good Neighbors by Susan Middaugh, directed by Da'Minique Williams
Awakened by a fight going on between their next-door neighbors in the middle of the night, a married couple in their 60s argue whether to intervene or go back to sleep.

Unlimited Nights by Sean Pomposello, directed by Da'Minique Williams
Young lovers Scott and Lucy are awakened late one evening by a phone that ominously rings over and over again. This annoyance has become a common occurrence each time Scott goes out for drinks with the boys, and Lucy is beginning to question his fidelity.

Since We're Here by Zoe Speas, directed by Danielle Young
An S&M role-play goes awry when Sarah accidentally bites the hand of her "date" and former economics teacher, Adam. When a hotel employee recognizes Sarah, the pair realizes they are stuck together for the rest of the night and must come to terms with what brought them together.

2 Pens Elijah by Barbara Sperber, directed by Irene Williams
An unlikely bond is formed through a mutual love of poetry when Elijah takes Marin captive to remedy an injustice that's been done to him by her husband. The line between victim and victimizer blurs when he challenges her to a poetry striptease.

THE SCHEDULE

Week One
Wednesday, June 1 at 7pm: Glitter and Spew and A Blessed Unrest
Thursday, June 2 at 7pm: Blood-bound and Tongue-tied
Friday, June 3 at 7pm: Unlimited Nights and Such Good Neighbors
Saturday, June 4 at 7pm: 2 Pens Elijah
Sunday, June 5 at 3pm: Since We're Here
Week Two
Wednesday, June 8 at 7pm: 2 Pens Elijah
Thursday, June 9 at 7pm: Since We're Here
Friday, June 10 at 7pm: Glitter and Spew and A Blessed Unrest
Saturday, June 11 at 7pm: Blood-bound and Tongue-tied
Sunday, June 12 at 3pm: Unlimited Nights and Such Good Neighbors
Week Three
Wednesday, June 15 at 7pm: Blood-bound and Tongue-tied
Thursday, June 16 at 7pm: 2 Pens Elijah
Friday, June 17 at 7pm: Unlimited Nights and Such Good Neighbors
Saturday, June 18 at 7pm: Since We're Here
Sunday, June 19 at 3pm: Glitter and Spew and A Blessed Unrest

THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Karuna Lynne Elson's plays have been produced in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Nebraska. Currently, Karuna Lynne writes for the Passage Theatre of NJ as a member of the Playwrights Unit, where five of her short plays have been recently produced, including Crazy, Crazy on You. Her play Stolen Glorie was the winner of the Great Platte River Playwrights Festival of 2001. Her plays have also been published by Meriwether Publishing Company and Playscripts, Inc.

Jacqueline E. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. Her plays include Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; A Delicate People; The Devil's Sweet Water; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention (Discovery Theater commission); Mad Breed (Active Cultures commission); and Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius (National Portrait Gallery commission), which received two sold-out public readings featuring Avery Brooks. Lawton is a three-time semi-finalist for the Playwright's Center PlayLabs and a two-time grant recipient from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Alison Luterman's first full-length play, Saying Kaddish With My Sister, was produced by the Jewish Ensemble Theatre of Michigan in 2008. Several of her works have been produced in New York and San Francisco, including the No Nude Men Theatre Company. Luterman has published two collections of poetry as well as several personal essays. Currently she works as a poet-in-the-schools, as a playwright-mentor, and with Poetry Out Loud. She also performs improvisational movement, music, and spoken word with Wing It! ensemble in Oakland, California.

Susan Middaugh has been writing plays since 1990. Middaugh's plays have received productions with Baltimore's Vagabond Players and Theatrical Mining Company. She has been produced by the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and has twice been a semi-finalist in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition. A resident of Baltimore, Middaugh is a member of the Dramatists' Guild, the Playwrights Group of Baltimore, and the American Association of Community Theatre.

Sean Pomposello is a screenwriter, playwright, former writer for HBO, and longtime Madison Avenue ad guy. Many theaters have staged his plays, including Theater for the New City, Naked Angels, The Impact Theater, John Chatterton's Short Play Lab at The Royal Theatre, Variations Theatre Group, and Manhattan Repertory Theatre. Both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship and Monterey County Film Commission have recognized his screen work. His previous full-length play, Bitch, anchored Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival and was featured in Portland, Oregon's Pulp Stages Pulp Diction reading series.

Zoe Speas is a senior acting/playwriting student at The College of William and Mary. She has had two plays produced with the William and Mary Theatre. Roles with WMT include Helena in All's Well that Ends Well, Angellica in The Rover, and Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Zoe has acted professionally with the Richmond and Virginia Shakespeare Festivals. She will act as an apprentice this summer at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia before graduating in the winter.
After thirty years as a poet, Barbara Sperber started writing plays seven years ago. She was inspired by a quotation from playwright David Hare: "A playwright is a poet disguised as an architect." Since then, going to theatre and writing plays has held a child-like fascination for her.

THE THEATER COMPANY.
The Strand Theater Company is a community theater dedicated to providing opportunities for women artists, writers, designers, and directors. With a focus on producing works new to Baltimore, the Strand hopes to foster a love of theater for a new generation of patrons.

Since launching in 2008, the Strand has presented 12 full-length plays, including five world premieres; offered 75% of the artistic positions on its productions-as playwrights, directors, designers, stage managers, and actors-to women; provided affordable theater space to many organizations and independent artists; and played an integral role in the revitalization of the Station North Arts & Entertainment District.
To learn more about the Strand Theater Company, visit www.strandtheatercompany.org.

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