The Old Lady Project Presents Readings At Piven Theatre, Saturday, November 4

The Old Lady Project (OLP), a City of Evanston Parks and Recreation program, supported in part by the Illinois Art Council, a state agency, and founded by Angela Allyn and Joan Mazzonelli, encourages play or musical and screenplay development for female-identifying characters over age 50, a demographic mostly unseen in mainstream media.

On Saturday, November 4, 2023, OLP will present staged readings of The Matter with Family by Amy Tofte and Women of a Certain Age by Steve Duprey from 3-5 p.m., and Elephants' Graveyard by Marjorie A. Williamson from 7:30-9:30 p.m., at Piven Theatre, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston, IL, 60201 (CTA Purple Noyes stop, some lot and street parking). Tickets for each session are $10, available at tinyurl.com/bdf4jpwz and at the door (advance purchase is encouraged as space is limited). Mazzonelli directs all three readings, and actors include Ana Maria Alvarez, Elaine Carlson, Carmen Carvello, Chuck Greenia, Marssie Mencotti, Ann Stuart, and Patricia Tinsley.

In Amy Tofte's one-act The Matter with Family, two sisters are caught in a relationship crisis, as two other sisters attempt to help. Steve Duprey's comedy Women of a Certain Age follows four college friends, now in their sixties, when one of them is "gifted" with an abandoned baby. Margaret and Smitty are two elderly friends in Marjorie A. Williamson's drama Elephants' Graveyard, who compare life choices: an adventurous but solitary life versus being swallowed up by family and community.

The first submission cycle received over 600 scripts from 30 countries, winnowed down by a national panel of 16 actors, directors, producers and technicians, aged 20-75. OLP will open the 2024 submission cycle for any length or genre on November 5th at https://filmfreeway.com/OldLadyProject. Selected authors will retain all rights, except for the initial staged reading, which OLP will finance and produce. Priority is given to works with multiple mature female roles, and to new work with no production history.

Submissions in 2023 came from countries including the United States, Brazil, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, India, Australia, Ireland, Ukraine, China, Iran, Morocco, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Spain, Malaysia, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Netherlands, Monaco, Israel, Austria, Belgium, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Germany, Bangladesh, Albania, and Egypt. Allyn said, "The entire population is aging and people want to see their demographic reflected in stories. I can put one little drop in this ocean." Mazzonelli added that the benefits of working with older women include that "they have a broader outlook. They know how to work cooperatively, and have a lot of humor."

Steve Duprey has been directing theater for 45 years, after receiving a Masters in Directing from Syracuse University. He currently teaches theater and communications at the college level, and received an Excellence in Playwrighting Award from the Theatre Association of New York State for Women of a Certain Age.

Amy Tofte is a Dramatists Guild playwright and screenwriter who won the 2015 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl screenwriting fellowship. Her play Righteous Among Us won the 2020 Todd McNerney Playwriting Award, and she received her MFA from CalArts. Upcoming productions include the short opera The Course We Set (Boston Opera Collaborative) and the play Cardboard Castles Hung on Walls (Wild Imaginings in Waco, TX). She has been in residence at the Autry Museum of the American West, Brush Creek, The Kennedy Center and Yaddo, with work produced and developed throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and twice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Marjorie Williamson is a St. Louis-based writer, with an English degree from University of Missouri, whose plays include There Goes the Neighborhood, Cash Flow, Evolution, and a one-act version of Elephants' Graveyard. Her work has been produced by Durango Arts Repertory Theatre (Colorado), Dubuque Fine Arts Players (Iowa), Bonita Springs Center for the Arts (Florida), and Pan Theater (Oakland). Awards include Grand Prize, Durango Arts Ten-Minute Play Festival; and First Place, Dubuque Fine Arts Players' National One-Act Playwriting Contest.

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