Dates Announced For THE FINISH LINE COMMISSION: February 2021

Cygnet Theatre announces the second virtual play reading for The Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission. Playwright Aurin Squire will workshop his play RUN/FIRE, which will be directed by Lamar Perry. The reading will be streamed online from February 8 - 14, 2021. A third commission will take place in the spring of 2021 and will be announced in the near future.

Led by Associate Artistic Director Rob Lutfy, The Finish Line Commission supports the theatre's commitment to new theatrical works, written by groundbreaking local playwrights as well as nationally recognized playwrights. Rare for a national new play program, all of the plays selected each year have never before been produced. Director Rob Lutfy states, "Bill and Judy Garrett understand that the biggest thing that we can do as a theatre community is to continue to find ways to support the theatre makers. While we cannot gather in person, we must still find ways to adequately compensate artists for their work and continue to find ways to amplify BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) voices. We have stayed true to the mission of the program: to provide the time, flexibility, energy and resources to enable playwright's to push their play to the final draft. This program has always been about the process and not the product. We started off the Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commissions with a play by Angelica Chéri directed by Reginald Douglas. It was incredible to see the work accomplished in a week of work and can't wait to see what happens with Aurin's piece."

Plays awarded The Finish Line Commission will be given a week-long workshop culminating in a public reading (this year the readings will not be public), a financial reward, and an assurance that the play will have a shot at a world premier production at Cygnet.

The Finish Line Commission is made possible thanks to the contribution of long-time donors Bill and Judy Garrett. "Playwrights are masters of helping us see the world through new and different eyes. 2020 has been an extraordinary year for all of us - with a pandemic, thousands of deaths, school and social upheavals, fear and occasional acts of overwhelming generosity - and it will be refreshing to view it all through the perceptive eyes of some of our most observant playwrights.", explained Judy Garrett.

The Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission provides:

• Financial support to the playwright, actors, director, & dramaturg.
• Actors, a director and a dramaturg.
• Finishing Commission grant for a mid-career playwright.
• A Finish Line Commission grant for a local playwright and right of first refusal.
• Online reading of the play
• Not included for 2020-2021 due to pandemic restrictions:
• Rehearsal space.
• Public in-person readings of all plays.
• A series of public forums around the festival.
• Housing, roundtrip travel and a vehicle for the week-long stay.
• Two designers of the playwright's choosing to create a "dream design."

The Bill and Judy Finish Line Commission workshop will take place at the end of January and will be available to the public as a streamed reading February 8 - 14. Tickets are on a pay-what-you can scale of $5, $15, $25 and $50. For more information and tickets visit CygnetTheatre.com or call the box office at 619-337-1525.

ABOUT THE PLAY

RUN/FIRE by Aurin Squire Workshop held in January 2021 Streamed February 8-14, 2021 Directed by Lamar Perry (Artistic Associate, The Old Globe)

When a college student is implicated in a crime spree, his attempt to seek justice sets off a chain reaction that ripples across the entire town. What is real and what is not gets called into question in this timely play that forces us to ask, "Who are we to ourselves and to each other?"

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