Center For Performing Arts Bonita Springs Will Hold January Staged Reading Series Event

Having presented more than 40 playwrights in 2019, Center for Performing Arts kicks off the new year with a celebration of Southwest Florida Playwrights in the January 10 edition of their Staged Reading Series. The event will feature short plays, a solo play excerpt, and the 40-minute one-act play Inn Trouble by Sarasota's Pamela Schueler, a door-slammer and comedy of errors with a noir feel.

Renowned solo artist and playwright Janina Birtolo will direct a scene from her play Amelia's View Through Pilot Eyes, featuring local theatre stalwart Skyler Moore. Inspired by visual artist Jo-Ann Lizio's "Pilot Eyes," the play tells how early female pioneers of flight came to take to the skies. For all of them, flying was a way to feel free and in control of destiny.

In keeping with the upcoming deadline to the Center's Stage It! International 10-Minute Play Festival the following week, three short plays that garnered critical acclaim from last year's judging panel will be featured. The plays include Appoholic by Bob Bouland of Bradenton, Florida; Burnt by Craig Moeckly of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Coming Through also by Schueler.

The evening will offer an opportunity to experience short plays versus the traditional one-act. The selection from Birtolo's solo play will be performed versus the staged reading style utilized in the other works. A talkback will take place immediately following the event where audience can meet the playwrights in attendance and chat with actors and directors.

Producer Frank Blocker has assembled a crew of directors including Gary Obeldobel (I Hate Hamlet, Remember Me? and Legally Blonde) along with Toni Palumbo, Leslie Sanderson and Ruben Dario Vasquez. The cast of one dozen includes Joel Banow, Don Fox, Melissa Hennig, Nance Jones, Rita Meehan, Tony Marici, Skyler Moore, Luis Pages, Ellen Rodwick, Kevin Sandel, Mari Sherkin, and Bob Stabile.

Staged Reading Series: Celebration of Southwest Florida Playwrights, January 10, 2020, 7:30pm, Admission $20, Center for Performing Arts Moe Auditorium and Film Center, 10150 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, Florida, 239-495-8989, www.artcenterbonita.org.

BIOs:

JANINA BIRTOLO (Amelia's View Through Pilot Eyes), Naples, Florida
Janina has been a freelance writer and television producer since the 1980s. In 2000, she began researching and writing one-woman shows based on historical characters. She currently has 12 fulla?'length programs of women ranging from Catherine the Great to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She has won numerous awards for her plays, articles and TV productions. For more information, visit www.janinabirtolo.com.

BOB BOULAND (Appoholic), Bradenton, Florida
Bob is a writer, producer and director. He started out writing sketch comedy and short plays like Appoholic. Bob has made several short comedy films. His first film Barely Inspired (BarelyInspired.com) premiered in the 2019 Sarasota Film Festival. Bob has written a full-length stage play, performed stand-up, improv and sketch comedy. He also writes for the House Sketch Comedy Team at Florida Studio Theater in Sarasota.

M. DEWES, S. PICKERING, V. SWENSON and E. TILLY (Te Hā Tangata), Wellington, New Zealand
Te Hā Tangata was a Human Library on Homelessness Project facilitated in Wellington, New Zealand, by Massey University, Ngāti Kahungunu and Te Pūaroha Compassion Soup Kitchen, with support from UNESCO. These stories were written by participants in the project and they want them shared with the world so that as many people as possible can begin to better understand the real experiences of people living with housing deprivation. The three stories featured here were written by V. Swenson, S. Pickering and M. Dewes, then crafted into play format by Elspeth Tilley, a multi-award-winning playwright who was the storytelling process facilitator for the Te Hā Tangata project and still works as a creative writing coach with participants.

CRAIG MOECKLY (Burnt) White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Craig lives in Minnesota with his wife and two daughters. Occasionally, during the long winter nights, he writes. Craig is delighted for the first staged reading of one of his scripts.

PAMELA SCHUELER (Inn Trouble and Coming Through), Sarasota, Florida
Pamela was born in New York City and holds university degrees in Visual Arts, English and Arts Education. She followed up at the Art Students League in NYC, attending Master classes in painting and sculpture. She is an accomplished writer, painter and photographer. She taught painting at university level, and held painting workshops in the US and France. In Austria, she wrote articles and photographed for English language glossies, and later wrote an "expat" comedy produced in Brussels, Belgium, by the American Theatre Company. Her 10 minute play, Coming Through, was selected as a winner of the Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival and published in the accompanying book. In Thailand, she researched, wrote and took most of the photographs for her book, 'Klongs: Thai Waterways and Reflections of Her People', supported by Rangsit University in Bangkok. Her travels have taken her from North America to Latin America, South America, Mexico, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Polynesia. She loves languages and is fluent in German and French (and has fun with Afrikaans and Thai.) Pamela is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, The Playwrights Center and the Sarasota Area Playwrights Society.

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