Local Theater Company to Present Three New Plays During Local Lab 2017 New Play Festival

Local Theater Company will welcome three playwrights from across the country to Boulder for Local Lab 2017: New Play Festival. The 3-day festival of new plays and workshops will be held at Dairy Arts Center Friday-Sunday, March 17-19, 2017. Festival passes are now available at www.localtheatercompany.org and are selling quickly.

Now in its sixth year, Local Lab festival-goers help playwrights shape their scripts. Following professionally-staged readings, attendees participate in discussions with the playwrights, offering important feedback as the writers move the scripts forward into full productions either at Local Theater Company, or at regional and off-Broadway theaters across the country. Festival-goers also attend parties with the writers and directors and engage in a collaborative writing project using SmartPhones.

New this year, attendees can also add a 3-day devised theater workshop to their festival pass, allowing them to work alongside Local-affiliated artists to create a new performance piece in an abandoned hospital in Boulder.

"After reading hundreds of scripts from some of our country's most respected playwrights, we chose three gripping plays that address of-the-moment issues in our world right now," said Pesha Rudnick, artistic director. "At Local Theater Company, we are fiercely committed to bringing stories to the stage that challenge the world we live today. We're looking forward to a riveting weekend of important stories and conversations with artists and attendees about how we move forward as a nation, and world."

This year, Local Theater Company is also pleased to partner with Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play On! with the presentation of a translation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The program commissioned 36 playwrights and paired them with dramaturgs to translate 39 of Shakespeare's plays into contemporary modern English. This will be the first public reading of the new translation.

Local Lab serves as the first step in Local's development pipeline, with the possibility of readings culminating in a full production, as was the case with last year's critically-acclaimed world premiere production of The Firestorm at Dairy Arts Center, and the 2015 world premiere of James McLindon's Faith. Playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent, developed at Local Lab in 2013, premiered last year off-Broadway at Primary Stages to rave reviews, receiving a New York Times Critics' Pick.

Festival passes are available now at www.localtheatercompany.org or by calling the Dairy Arts Center at 303-444-7328. Festival Passes are $99 and include all readings, a panel conversation with the playwrights, and all food and beverages at parties. The 3-day series of workshops around "Pain Management" can be added for an additional $36.

Local Theater Company was launched in Boulder, Colorado, in 2011 by longtime collaborators Pesha Rudnick and Megan Mathews with a sold-out production at Chautauqua Auditorium of Stories by Heart featuring John Lithgow. Specializing in original works of exceptional quality, Local engages audiences through innovative performances that spark camaraderie, learning, and contemplation, and provide a resourceful environment for theater artists to take creative risks, and develop their work.

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