The Baltimore Playwrights Fest Announces 5th Public Reading Of MARATHON

The Baltimore Playwrights Festival (www.baltplayfest.com) announces the fifth public reading "Marathon" of their 30th Season, to take place on Saturday, February 12th at the Andrew White Student Center of Loyola University of Maryland, 4501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21210. Beginning at 11:00 a.m. plays to be read are The Cleansing by Terry Kenney , followed by The Patron Saint of Jellybeans, by Courtney Sender, at 1:00 p.m., and Fallout, by Bob Bartlett at 3:00 p.m. After each reading there will be a discussion of the script with the playwright, director and actors. The event is free, and the general public is encouraged to attend.
The Cleansing, by Terry Kenney, asks the question, "When an orderly civilization fails, how can a typical family manage to stay alive and resolve conflicting moral values?"

Terry Kenney has lived in Baltimore for 15 years after leaving the ever crowded (so called) freeways of Southern California for life in the I-95 corridor. He became involved with Baltimore community theatre about seven years ago when a friend called to ask if he would do two lines in Mobtown's production of Romeo & Juliet in Patterson Park. He didn't realize that meant more than 100 hours of rehearsals, set up, tear down, and even digging ticks out of a fellow cast member's body. But it was good. Since then he has acted, directed, produced, built sets, designed sound, recorded, filmed, and written plays in the Baltimore area and beyond.

The Patron Saint of Jellybeans follows Jean Gorner, a renowned journalist on the cusp of publishing the pinnacle work of her career: an autobiography that will catapult her to journalistic celebrity. But only days prior to publication, her teenage son, Ethan, dies in a tragic roller coaster accident. Suddenly, Jean's omission of Ethan from her professional autobiography takes on unprecedented weight. Even as her agent, her publisher, her husband, her town, and the media portray Ethan as a talented and promising life cut off too early, Jean struggles with the memory of Ethan as a mediocre student, a JV soccer benchwarmer, and an insignificant figure in her own globetrotting life. As a mourning mother, Jean must grapple with what omitting her son means about her family; as a professional journalist, she must decide whether to sacrifice the truth of Ethan's life in order to claim a heroic place in the profession she has always put first.
Courtney Sender is a first-year MFA student in fiction at the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. She graduated from Yale University in May 2010 with a B.A. in English. Her recent writing honors include selection for the Yale Playwrights Festival (2010), first place in the Connecticut Poetry Award (2009), and fiction publication in the Yale Daily News Magazine (2010).

FALLOUT, by Bob Bartlett, is the story of Sheldon and Bick who, like many Americans, were happily raising their son and working in the manufacturing industry until the worst economic downturn since the great depression forces them to move home with a parent who hardly approves of their family. The play is inspired by For Many Americans, Nowhere to Go But Down by Paul Schwartzman, a feature article appearing on the front page of The Washington Post on August 6, 2009.

Bob Bartlett lives in Accokeek, Maryland and is a member of the theatre faculty at Bowie State University where he teaches directing and a variety of theatre courses. His plays have been performed at DCAC, Flashpoint, Source Theatre, the Capital Fringe Festival, and the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival. His play Whales recently premiered at Catholic University of America and is a regional semifinalist for The David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award. He also directs plays at venues throughout the Baltimore area. Bob holds an MA in English from Bowie State University, and an MFA in Playwriting from Catholic University of America.

The Baltimore Playwrights Festival has presented 266 scripts by 158 playwrights, produced by 25 different companies, over the past 29 Years. Further information can be found at www.baltplayfest.com .

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