Schedule Announced for Arkansas Rep Theatre's Voices at the River, Begins 7/14

Arkansas Repertory Theatre announced today the schedule for free public readings during Voices at the River. The Voices at the River playwrights' residency program is a nationally competitive program designed to support the work of Latino and African American Playwrights across the country and in Arkansas.

Voices at the River brings together actors, directors, dramaturges and playwrights from across the country for a two-week intensive process developing five new works that will then be ready to be produced in theatres across the country.
Plays to be developed during the Little Rock residency include new works by playwrights Augusto Federico Amador, La'Chris Jordan, Tearrance Chisholm, Elaine Romero, and Hendrix College student Michael Chavez.
Local actors will join actors from across the country for free public readings which will be held in the 3rd floor auditorium at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock on Friday, July 16 and Saturday, July 17, 2010. Reservations for the free public readings are encouraged, but not required, and can be made by contacting Sheridan Essman at sessman@therep.org or by calling The Rep Box Office at (501) 378-0405.
Readings are theatrical experiences where the focus is placed on the playwright's words. Actors are seated with scripts in hand and staging, lights and costumes are downplayed in order to focus on the text itself. Arkansas audiences will have the unique opportunity to hear five new compelling plays read aloud for the very first time and to provide feedback to the creative team after the readings.

On Wednesday, July 14, Arkansas Repertory Theatre will also honor distinguished playwright Ed Bullins with the Voices at the River Legacy Award.
"Ed Bullins has made significant contributions to the American canon of dramatic literature. It's an honor to recognize his creative spirit and artistic tenacity," said Rajendra Maharaj, project director for Voices at the River and artistic director of New York City's Rebel Theatre Company.
RSVP to the Legacy Awards dinner by contacting (501) 378-0445 or bhilkert@therep.org.

VOICES AT THE RIVER PUBLIC SCHEDULE

Wednesday, July 14

William J. Clinton Presidential Center Great Hall

6:30 PM

Legacy Awards Reception
7:00 PM

Legacy Awards Dinner honoring Ed Bullins and Voices at the River participants

Ed Bullins is one of the most noteworthy playwrights to come from the Black Theatre movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout his career, he has worked with the New Lafayette Players, was the in-residence playwright for the American Place Theatre and was a staff member at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has written over 30 plays such as The Taking of Miss Janie, In the Wine Time and Goin' a Buffalo as well as short stories, novels and poetry. He has won numerous awards, including an Obie Award, The Black Arts Alliance Award and the New York Drama Critics Award. He is currently the Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Northeastern University in Boston.

Tickets for the Legacy Awards dinner are $60. Please RSVP to Bethany Hilkert at (501) 378-0445 or bhilkert@therep.org.

Friday, July 16

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West 9th St, 3rd Floor, Downtown Little Rock
6:00 PM

Liddy's Sammiches, Potions, and Baths, by Tearrance Chisholm, is a play about the daughter of sorceress who seeks to realize her identity through her deceased mother's spell book. Teaching herself through her mother's words, Liddy journeys to find the truth about the mother she never got a chance to know. This play lives in the south, on the border between reality and the fantastic, and explores how one begins to put together the ingredients to concoct the truth.

Tearrance Chisholm is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and a graduate from the University of Missouri Columbia with a degree in Fine Arts. A playwright and graphic artist, he feels that the theatre is a synthesis of both his passions. His works have been featured in the Mizzou New Play Series and Endstations Theatre's New Playwrights Initiative, and he has worked closely with the Kennedy Center's Playwrighting Intensive.

8:30PM

Wetback, by Elaine Romero, follows tensions arising on the U.S./Mexican border as the Minuteman Militia hold rallies in the park and lobby to deny citizenship to the American-born children of undocumented workers. The play charts the intertwined fates of a privileged Latina high school principal and the Mexican undocumented worker she fires to protect her job. The irrevocable consequences of her choice force her to question her position in the community and herself.

Elaine Romero is the Playwright-in-Residence at the Arizona Theatre Company and has taught at Linfield College and the University of Arizona. Romero's plays have been developed and produced at such theatres as Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Magic Theatre, the Ford Amphitheatre, New Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Urban Stages, INTAR, the Playwrights' Center, Women's Project and Productions, the Working Theater, Su Teatro, the Lark Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Borderlands Theater, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Miracle Theatre.

Saturday, July 17

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West 9th St, 3rd Floor, Downtown Little Rock
2:00 PM

Waking Up to You, by student playwright Michael Chavez, is a comical view into the short-lived relationship of a college-aged couple. The classic story of boy meets girl is turned upside down, as the romance dissipates into a fog of memory.

6:00 PM

Solterona, by Augusto Federico Amador, is about a spinster, or solterona, named Maria. Unmarried and quickly becoming middle-aged, she struggles to find an independent life of her own while caring for her repressive mother, Delores.

Augusto Federico Amador was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Los Angeles, his work has been presented at the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater Projects, the Ricardo Montalban Theater, the John Anson Ford Theater and Playwrights Arena. In New York, his work has been presented at the Ensemble Studio Theater, Terra Nova Collective Theater, Repertorio Espanol and INTAR Theater. Currently, he is a member of the 2010 Emerging Writers group at The Public Theater in New York City.

8:30 PM

Roses in the Water, by La'Chris Jordan, follows the uneasy life for Clarice who lives in the New Orleans Desire Housing Projects. The dead end job, the drive-by shootings, and the constant struggle to pay the rent have all taken their toll and she wants out. With no other options, Clarice enlists in the U.S. Navy against her mother's wishes. But will life in the military be any safer than life in the streets? A challenging and timely drama with sharp humor, this play touches on the tough choices we are sometimes forced to make.

La'Chris Jordan is an award-winning playwright who was named one of the ‘50 to Watch' by the Dramatists Guild of America. Roses in the Water recently received a staged reading at the award-winning off-Broadway theatre Urban Stages in New York as part of their New Works for a New Season reading series. Jordan is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and the Northwest Playwrights Alliance.
"We are pleased to see so much good work submitted for Voices at the River," said Robert Hupp, Arkansas Rep's producing artistic director. "We've chosen for readings four plays that demonstrate the caliber of contemporary dramatic literature being created across the nation. Also selected for participation is a young Arkansan college student who will be mentored throughout the process by a professional team assembled for the development process.
Voices at the River is underwritten by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

In 1974, the trustees of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller's estate endowed the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to continue the work of The Rockwin Fund. Governor Rockefeller set up The Rockwin Fund in 1954 and, on an annual basis from 1956 until his death in 1973, funded projects and programs he believed were important to improving the quality of life in Arkansas. The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation whose mission is to improve the lives of Arkansans by funding programs and projects that improve education, economic development, and economic, racial and social justice. During the past 35 years, the foundation has awarded more than $90 million in grants. Additional information about the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation can be found on its website at www.wrfoundation.org.
About the Arkansas Repertory Theatre

Founded in 1976, Arkansas Repertory Theatre is the state's largest nonprofit professional theatre company. A member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT D), The Rep has produced more than 280 productions, including 40 world premieres, in its historic building in downtown Little Rock. Producing Artistic Director Robert Hupp leads a resident staff of designers, technicians and administrators in the creation of eight to 10 productions for an annual audience in excess of 70,000 for MainStage and SecondStage productions, educational programming and touring. The Rep produces works that range from contemporary comedies and dramas to world premieres and the classics of dramatic literature. For more information, visit www.therep.org.

 

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