MTA Theatre Festival Invites Frank Blocker As Guest Playwriting Judge

The Mississippi Theatre Association (MTA) has selected playwright Frank Blocker as their guest judge for the 2012 MTA Theatre Festival. Blocker will assist with final selection of both the Youth and Adult Competitions, and will attend the festival to adjudicate staged readings of the winning scripts.

Blocker is currently starring in FEARLESS MORAL INVENTORY: 12-step Walk Up at Stage Left Studio in Manhattan, which recently extended its Sunday evening performances through the end of the year. FEARLESS features another “MTA” more familiar to New Yorkers, as Blocker includes a handful of subway characters in his edgy comedy. The play premiered in November to rave reviews and is an unlikely follow-up to his last solo performance, SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOVEL, which garnered a 2009 Drama Desk Award nomination.

In addition to his duties as judge for the MTA Theatre Festival, he will present SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOVEL in performance. GOTHIC has been described as “a book, that’s a play, that’s really a movie.” Blocker will also participate in workshops and roundtable discussions as well as provide live critique and feedback.

This year, the MTA festival takes place at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport. The festival travels to different locations each year. Recent sites include Mississippi State University’s Riley Center and Ole Miss’s Gertrude Ford Center for the Performing Arts. The 2012 festival runs from January 12-15.

The Mississippi Theatre Association began in the mid-50s as a community theatre organization, but has since grown to establish theatre festivals, expand educational opportunities for youth, and serve as a convention resource to college theatre festivals under the wider aegis of the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (ACTF), and American Association of Community Theatres. MTA provides workshops for high schools and community theatres. Stephen Cunetto, MTA Executive Director since 2003, serves as a central point of contact for the organization. BancorpSouth and the Mississippi Arts Commission are the festival sponsors. In 2003, MTA established a scholarship program for high school students pursuing a degree in theatre at a Mississippi institution. In 2004, MTA established College/University High School Senior Auditions, allowing high school seniors to audition for multiple colleges and universities during the annual convention. In 2008, MTA added the playwriting competition element to the festival. The competition is open to current and former previous Mississippi residents. The winner of the adult playwriting competition wins a $500 cash prize and a staged reading at the festival; the winner of the youth competition wins a $250 prize and a staged reading at the festival. Previous years’ judges include Mark Dunn, Gary Garrison and Judith Ly.

For more information about the organization and the 2012 festival, visit www.mta-online.org. To learn more about Frank Blocker and his work, visit www.frankblocker.com.

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