Huntington Theatre Company's 2019 Summer Play Workshop Begins

The Huntington Theatre Company's annual Summer Workshop began rehearsals July 9 and will conclude in public readings of four new plays on July 20 and 21, 2019. The workshop allows selected members of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program two weeks to focus on developing new plays. The workshop and public readings will take place in the South End at the Huntington's Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston.

This year's workshop features new work by Mia Chung, Lila Rose Kaplan, Nina Louise Morrison, and Kate Snodgrass. Readings are free and open to the public.

The Huntington Playwriting Fellows (HPF) program forges a bond between a community of local artists and a nationally prominent producing theatre through artistic collaboration between writers. Huntington productions of plays by Fellows include The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess; Sonia Flew, Becoming Cuba, Mala, and Yerma by Melinda Lopez; Milk Like Sugar and Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge; Stick Fly and Smart People by Lydia R. Diamond; The Atheist, Brendan, and The Second Girl by Ronan Noone; Ryan Landry's "M" and Psyched; Before I Leave You by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro; The Cry of the Reed by Sinan Ünel; and Shakespeare's Actresses in America by Rebekah Maggor.

The Huntington's 2019-2020 season will include three plays by Huntington Playwrighting Fellows, We All Fall Down by Lila Rose Kaplan (begins performances January 10, 2020); Our Daughters, Like Pillars by Kirsten Greenidge (performances begin March 20, 2020) and an adaptation of Toni Morrison's esteemed novel, The Bluest Eye by Lydia Diamond (performances begin April 24, 2020).

"The summer workshop program is a cornerstone of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program," says Huntington Director of New Work Charles Haugland. "In summer workshop, playwrights have the opportunity to explore their work in three dimensions with great collaborators and to experiment with plays outside the pressure cooker of production. I can't wait to see what each of these playwrights discovers over the course of these workshops, and I hope audiences will come out and see readings of work in development by New England area playwrights."

MORE ABOUT THE PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS OF THE 2019 SUMMER WORKSHOP

The Vault
by Nina Louise Morrison
Directed by Portia Krieger
Saturday, July 20 at 3pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP HERE

On the run from a polar bear, lost tourist Pamela finds shelter inside a strange cave in the ice, and quickly discovers she isn't alone. Engaging in a tense back and forth with a mysterious Norwegian woman, Pamela reveals she might know more about the cave than she initially let on-and she isn't leaving without a fight. Inspired by the arctic Global Seed Vault, Nina Louise Morrison's claustrophobic eco-thriller explores just how far one would go to save humanity when the climate apocalypse comes

Nina Louise Morrison is a theatre generator: playwright, director, deviser, dramaturg, and teacher. She is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow, Huntington Playwriting Fellow alumnus, Richard Rodgers Fellow, Shubert Foundation grantee, and winner of the Boston Project. Her plays - including The Vault, Forever Home, Born Naked, and Google Doll - have been developed by the Huntington, Fresh Ink, Company One, SpeakEasy Stage, Flat Earth, Project: Project, and Rhombus. Training: MFA Columbia University, National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, New Actors Workshop, and Oberlin College. She teaches at University of New Hampshire, Northeastern University, and Grub Street.

Redux
by Kate Snodgrass
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Saturday, July 20 at 7pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP at HERE

Mid-negotiation, Patricia changes the terms of her and her husband Justin's "conscious uncoupling." She wants full custody of their 15-year-old daughter Beth. But Beth hasn't shown up for school that morning. And Patricia's blouse, why is it splattered with red paint? Jumping off from Greek inspiration, K.L. Snodgrass' Redux grapples with modern day marriage and everything that comes after

Kate Snodgrass is the Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights' Theatre and of the Boston Theater Marathon (which she co-founded). She is a Professor of Playwriting at Boston University. A playwriting fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company, Snodgrass is the author of the Actors' Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award-winning play Haiku, which has been anthologized, translated, and performed around the world. The BPT production of her play The Glider was nominated from the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award. The Glider and her play Observatory each won the IRNE award for Best New Play (2005 and 1999). She was StageSource's 2001 Theatre Hero and the recipient of the 2012 Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence.

Untitled
by Mia Chung
Directed by Ken Prestininzi
Sunday, July 21 at 3pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP HERE

Ed, Nidia, and Ryan-three seniors at MIT-prepare to find their places in post-college life. With all the privilege of youth, education and topnotch brainpower (and all the customary angst and anxiety as well), they weigh personal decisions about what they value, who they are, and who they want to become.

Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can premieres in Steppenwolf's 2019-2020 season; Page 73 produced the world premiere (NYC, Fall 2018). Her play You for Me for You premiered at The Royal Court (London), the National Theatre Company of Korea (Seoul), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre (DC); and is published by Bloomsbury Methuen. Her awards, commissions, and residencies include: Clubbed Thumb, EST/Sloan, Huntington Theatre, Ma-Yi, NEA, NYTW, Playwrights' Center, South Coast Rep, SPACE, and New Dramatists. She was recently awarded a 2019 Helen Merrill Playwriting Award.

Spa Gods
By Lila Rose Kaplan
Directed by Rebecca Bradshaw
Sunday, July 21 at 7pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP HERE

For all of time, the goddess Mona has created life - a baby, a flower bud, a poem, an org*sm - and now she's going on strike, unwilling to make new things for a world possessed by anger and hate. Mona's assistant hopes this is just a little disruption, something that can be fixed by a soothing massage in a luxurious day spa. But when the gods of war and death show up looking for Mona, comedy and catharsis ensue in Lila Rose Kaplan's delightful new play about exfoliating scrubs and the end of the world.

Lila Rose Kaplan writes fantastical heartfelt plays that shine light on the stories we don't tell about women. Her plays have been produced by Second Stage, New Victory Theatre, South Coast Rep, A.R.T., Merrimack Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center and more. Her plays have been developed by Arena Stage, EST, Center Theatre Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Theatreworks, PlayPenn, The Orchard Project, and The Lark. Upcoming: WE ALL FALL DOWN premieres at The Huntington Theatre Company in January 2019. Lila Rose lives in Somerville, MA with her marine biologist husband and her curious daughter.

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