Jan McArt Play Reading Series Presents OUR TIME

"What a great opportunity to develop a new work!," says playwright Dan Clancy.

He's talking about Jan McArt's New Play Reading Series at Boca Raton's Lynn University, designed to aid Florida playwrights in the development of new plays and musicals.

Clancy's latest creation, 'OUR TIME,' a new musical for which he wrote the book and lyrics to music provided by Lynn Portas, will be presented for the first time anywhere as a fully Staged Reading, for one night only, at 7:30 PM on Monday, March 9th in Lynn University's Wold Performing Arts Center, as part of this new play reading series.

'OUR TIME' tells the tale of three women in their 50s who decide that they have to make changes in their lives to get "unstuck," so they spend a weekend in Pittsburgh, where each has an experience that teaches her how to make the change. Staged by the series' resident director, Wayne Rudisill, the cast features Leigh Bennett, Patti Gardner, Karen Stephens, Mia Matthews and Matthew Korinko.

McArt, Florida's First Lady of Theater, and head of theater development at Lynn, says "I love this new play reading series because it's so creative, and I'm working hard as ever to make things happen." She started Boca Raton's Royal Palm Dinner Theatre, the first professional theater in South Florida to run year-round, in 1977. That theater, and its spin-offs (Jan's Rooftop Cabaret Theatre and the Little Palm Children's Theatre), ran for nearly 25 years.

An award-winning South Florida playwright, Clancy's plays have appeared off-Broadway, and in American and European regional houses. Island City Stage's production of 'THE TIMEKEEPERS' won six Carbonell Awards last year including Best Play, and it has been seen in New York, as well as in fourteen countries, and been translated into Hebrew, French, and German. Other plays include: 'VOLUNTEER MAN' (OBIE Award, GLAAD nomination for Best Play); 'TWO SISTERS' (Joseph Kesslering Playwrighting Award); 'THE FIRST TIME' (book and lyrics, ASCAP award, with music by Lynn Portas). '108 WAVERLY' (book and lyrics, with music by Lynn Portas) played in New York, Chicago and Palm Springs. 'THE PERFECT DAY' (with music and lyrics by Julie Gold) has been optioned for an animated movie. His play 'PROPOSITION 8' was presented as part of this reading series in 2013, and produced at the Palm Springs Desert Rose Playhouse in 2014 under the title 'POSTER BOYS.' He is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Actors' Equity and ASCAP.

An ambitious, award-winning program, this play reading series gives Florida playwrights the chance to work with a cast and a director for six days - rehearsing, re-writing, rehearsing, rewriting. Then, at the end of that time, they present their new, polished, reworked piece to the public in performance, with actors up-on-their-feet, scripts in hand, employing minimal costumes, sets, lighting, etc., to aid them in the presentation of the new work.

"A number of years before 'A CHORUS LINE' I remember Joe Papp telling me how important the workshop process is, in that it allows the playwright to hear the language and receive feedback from a director, actors, and an audience," says Rudisill. "It's the first step in shifting the play from inside the playwright's head to the stage."

The final show to be presented in this 2014-15 play reading series' season at Lynn University is 'MIRA,' a new play by Michael Leeds, to be directed by Andy Rogow, on April 20th, 2015. The cast will include Todd Bruno, Clay Cartland, Ken Clement, Lindsey Corey, Laura Hodos, Ann Marie Olson, Laura Turnbull and Stephanie White.