NHTP's 4th Annual Intelligent Theatre Festival to Feature Works by Female Playwrights

NHTP's fourth annual Intelligent Theatre Festival continues with the 2015-16 Season theme of plays by and about women. Each playreading is followed by an audience discussion.

On Friday, March 18 at 7 pm, NHTP presents Charm by Kathleen Cahill. Directed by Meghann Beauchamp, this contemporary magic realism script explores the life of forgotten Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller, read by Colleen A. Madden, along with her better known counterparts Emerson, Thoreau and Hawthorne. Saturday, March 19 at 7 pm, director Genevieve Aichele leads a cast of 25 community actors in Clare Boothe's classic play The Women, a scandalous classic from 1937 with an all female cast. Wrapping up the weekend with comedy, Jes Marbacher directs Kathleen Somssich and Genevieve Aichele in Neil Simon's hilarious female version of The Odd Couple.

The NHTP Intelligent Theatre Festival was created in 2013 to engage artists and audiences in a collaborative conversation about the art of playwriting and theatre;

to showcase scripts that NHTP is unable to present in a fully realized production; and to offer community members and professional artists the opportunity to work and learn together. NHTP also presents at least one script each year in collaboration with another community organization.

This year, NHTP celebrates Social Work Month in collaboration with the UNH Social Work Department in a playreading of Body and Sold, Boston playwright Deborah Fortson's poignant script about human trafficking, which is part of a National Campaign to raise awareness about trafficking of American children and teens. NHTP actors CJ Lewis, Teddi Kenick-Bailey, Dominique Salvacion and Bailey Weakley will read along with student actors from the UNH Social Work, Theatre and Community Leadership programs. Following the reading of Body and Sold, there will be a special panel discussion with a Survivor, a Law Enforcement Detective, and representatives from the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute, Homeland Security, and Families in Transition.

The UNH playreading of Body and Sold will be held at Hennessey Theater, Paul Creative Arts Center at UNH at 6 pm. General admission is $10, or $5 for students and alumni. Proceeds will go to support the National Campaign and Families in Transition.

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