Botanicum Seedlings Announce Spring Playreadings & 2nd Annual Izzy Award

"Botanicum Seedlings," The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum's development series for playwrights, announces the recipient of the 2nd annual "Izzy" award. The winning play, The Territory of Dreams by Velina Hasu Houston, was presented as part of last year's spring playreadings. The selections for the 2011 spring readings showcase three diverse female voices: Fengar Gael's The Gallerist on Sunday, June 5; The Versailles by Erica Jones on Sunday, June 12; and Lucile Lichtblau's The English Bride on Sunday, June 19. All readings begin at 11 am, and admission is free.

The Izzy is named for Theatricum's late dramaturg, Israel Baran, who passed away in 2007. To honor Israel's keen mind, sharp tongue, and ear for language (despite the fact that he was frustratingly deaf), the Izzy was established to recognize the Seedlings play that "speaks to us the loudest," and is accompanied by a check for $250.00.

"I am honored to be the recipient of this year's Israel Baran Award," says internationally acclaimed playwright Houston. "To have one's work recognized in its initial phases of development is a vote of confidence for the play. The important developmental support provided by Botanicum Seedlings allowed me to cultivate the play significantly, working with a masterful director and brilliant cast in a setting where risks could be taken."

Botanicum Seedlings continues its history of supporting exciting new plays by women in the upcoming Spring Playreadings. "We don't intentionally look for female playwrights," says Theatricum playwright-in-residence Jennie Webb. "But as it turns out, over half of the plays we support are written by women - this at a time when only 20% of the works on Los Angeles stages are female-authored. We're glad we can do our part to help get fresh voices and unheard stories out there."

The readings open on June 5 with The Gallerist, by Fengar Gael, directed by Sara Israel (an established LA playwright/director, she also acts as The Blank Theatre Company literary manager). This highly theatrical work is set in present day New York, and London shortly after WWI. A Manhattan gallery owner charged with vagrancy and assault claims his crimes were caused by the spirit of a grotesque monkey - the subject of a vivid painting. The Gallerist travels in and out of the past for a wonderfully macabre look at sordid family history and repressed passions, artistic and otherwise. Based in New York, Fengar Gael is an award-winning playwright whose works (Devil Dog Six, Drink Me, The Usher's Ball, Beggar at the Feast and Soul on Vinyl, among others) have been supported by theatres across the country including NJ Repertory, Philadelphia's InterAct Theatre, Sundance Playwrights Lab, New York Stage and Film Company and Kitchen Dog Theatre of Dallas. She is a recipient of the Playwrights First Award, as well as several commissions and a fellowship from the California Arts Council.

On June 12 is Erica Jones' The Versailles, a comic tale of yuppie paradise lost. William Dennis Hunt - actor/director at Theatricum, A Noise Within and Rogue Machine Theatre, among other companies - directs. The Versailles charts the lives of five condominium owners as they fight for their survival and their honor in the aftermath of the real estate boom and bust. The play begins just before most Americans knew the impact the housing market crash would have on their daily lives, and challenges our notions about money, morality and the American Dream. Erica Jones is an LA-area playwright whose plays include Gross Sales, Weave, Turner Money and the French language work Qui Etait Á La Port? Angry Jellow Bubbles, which she co-wrote, was produced at NY's Workshop Theater and in Los Angeles at the Hudson Theater before being presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2009 Erica became the first recipient of the Beverly J. Robinson Memorial Fellowship for Playwrights.

The readings conclude on June 19 with The English Bride by Lucile Lichtblau, directed by Julie Retzlaff (Seedlings' literary manager, she has also worked at Ensemble Studio Theatre and ArcLight Theatre Company in NY, and Pacific Repertory Theatre in Northern CA). Part thriller, part love story, The English Bride explores an aborted terrorist attempt from the point of view of its three characters: a Mossad agent, an English woman and an Arab Israeli man. What is the truth behind the headlines? When the personal and political are so passionately connected, perhaps no one can ever be sure. A graduate of The Yale School of Drama, Lucile Lichtblau has had plays produced at The Vital Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Source and Polaris North in NYC, along with other notable theatres including Stageworks in Hudson, NY where her Car Talk was commissioned and developed. The English Bride was selected to be part of Centenary Stage's Women's Playwrights Series, and won first prize at The Actors Theatre Santa Cruz. Lucile is based in New Jersey.

Initiated in the fall of 2002, the Botanicum Seedlings series acts as an adjunct to Theatricum Botanicum's Summer Repertory Season, commencing each year before the summer activities are underway, continuing with spring playreadings as the season opens, then culminating after the season winds down with a fall workshop production or playreadings.

The Botanicum Seedlings Spring Playreadings take place Sundays at 11 am on June 5, 12 and 19 in Theatricum's intimate S. Mark Taper Foundation Pavilion. Admission to the playreadings is free and open to the public; donations to support this series will be gratefully accepted. The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga, midway between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley. For further information, the public should call (310) 455-3723 or visit www.theatricum.com. The theater is outdoors; in case of inclement weather, please call for alternate performance times.

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