Young Playwrights' Lab and Festival To Be Held 7/19-23

Fill your Young Artist's week with the magic of creation!

The Overtime Theater is known for producing new and original works from local writers. As part of its outreach to the community, the Overtime Theater also will cultivate young writing talent in San Antonio.

The Young Playwrights' Lab (July 19-23) is a five-day intensive workshop for kids ages 11-16. Local arts educators, including James Venhaus and Christie Beckham, will give workshops in acting, directing, writing and improvisation to culminate in an original short play by each student. Each play then will be performed by a seasoned team of actors on the Overtime's main stage in the Young Playwrights' Festival on Saturday, August 7, at 6 pm.

Young Playwrights' Lab Schedule:
Location: The Overtime Theater, in the Blue Star Complex, 1414 S. Alamo, #103, San Antonio, TX 78210.

Playwrighting Lab: Monday, July 19 - Friday, July 23, 2010, from 9 am to 4 pm. Classes will include The Writer's Table, Theater History, Acting, Directing, Improvisation, and Puppetry. (A detailed schedule and more information will be available on July 1.)

Performance of Plays: Saturday, August 7, 2010, 6 - 8 pm. Performances will be open to the public ($10/ticket) on Saturday, August 7, beginning at 6 pm.

Fee: $150 includes classes, t-shirt, snacks and production supplies. Students will provide their own sack lunches.

Information and Registration: www.theovertimetheater.net, (210) 557-7562. Please go to http://www.theovertimetheater.net/register_ywl.php to register online or to download the registration form and mail in with payment.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFO & OVERTIME THEATER HISTORY
Christie Beckham is a Dallas native. Her career has included regional and international theater and tours, improvisation and sketch comedy, television and feature films. Notable stage roles include The Daughter in Bedbound, Lily in The Skriker and Matt Damon in Matt and Ben. Overtime regulars may also remember her as Angel in The Happy Couple and Jan in the Pan in The Brain That Wouldn't Die: A New Musical. She attended Texas Christian University and continued her training at the Moscow Art Theater, the National Theater Institute, the Globe Theater in London and the Michael Chekhov School of Acting and Movement. Christie has worked as an administrator for three successful theater companies and is now serving as Executive Director of the Overtime Theater.

James Venhaus is a playwright, actor, director and educator. His plays include the award winning one-acts The Temple of Dionysus and Inside the Loop, full-length plays The Happy Couple and Weird Sisters, 10-minute plays The First Christmas, Concourse 'E', Santa's Little Helper, Amy's Last Shift, and Three Kings, and plays for young audiences Romeo and Juliet at Verona High and The Top Hand of Lone Tree Ranch. His work has been performed off-off Broadway at 13th Street Repertory Company, and in theatres across the country including Ground Zero Theater Company, Audacity Productions, and Junior Players (Dallas), SUNY Brockport (New York), Killing My Lobster (San Francisco) and Loyola University (New Orleans). He holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from Southwestern University and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Austin College. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife and daughters.

About the Overtime Theater:
In business since 2006, the Overtime Theater is dedicated to providing innovative and accessible entertainment at an affordable price. The shows are all new, original works, or new adaptations of old classics. The Overtime Theater specializes in world premieres of works never before seen on stage! In just three years, the Overtime has produced almost 30 new shows. Recently the Overtime Theater was voted "Best Theatre Company" in the "Best of San Antonio" 2010 Readers' Poll held by the San Antonio Current.

In 2008 and 2009, the theater produced three original musicals: Sheer Bloody Lunacy!, Pirates Vs. Ninjas, and The Brain That Wouldn't Die: A New Musical. Other notable productions have included The Good Samaritan, Poet Faustus, Sob! Choke...LOVE!, Lear, What Will Happen, and most recently, the world premieres of Buddha Swings, Action Philosophers!, and The Hard Bargain. The Overtime Theater also collaborates with local visual artists and The Bent Easel Gallery, giving local artists a prominent space in which to display their works in the Blue Star Complex.

The Overtime Theater is making the transition from a for-profit, single-proprietorship business to non-profit status. This decision has been made to extend the Overtime's mission of "art for the people" to the greater community, including through planned, low-cost classes in acting, comedy improv skills, and art workshops by working professionals.

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