Plays by Anna Ziegler, Tanya Saracho and More Set for 2017 Powers New Voices Festival at The Old Globe
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 06, 2016
The Old Globe today announced it will present the fourth annual New Voices Festival-with a new moniker: the Powers New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by professional playwrights, playing January 13 - 15, 2017.
The Festival will kick off Friday, January 13 at 7:30 p.m. with one of two plays commissioned by the Globe, Arranged by Anna Ziegler, a funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama that explores the hidden connections between seemingly disparate people, illuminating the surprising forces that bind strangers together, directed by Matt M. Morrow.
The Festival weekend will continue on Saturday, January 14 at 4:00 p.m. with Fade by Tanya Saracho, a provocative behind-the-scenes look at the lengths we go to get ahead and whom we're willing to leave behind, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías follows at 7:30 p.m., an uproarious and topical Culture Clash with friendly neighbors turning into feuding enemies, directed by James Vásquez.
The festival concludes on Sunday, January 15 at 4:00 p.m. with the second Globe commission, JC Lee's What You Are, an up-to-the-minute look at a fractured nation desperately trying to reconnect, directed by Edward Torres.
The Powers New Voices Festival will take place in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets to all four readings are free but require reservations, currently available to donors and subscribers only. Reservations for the general public will be available beginning Friday, January 6 at 12:00 noon. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Box Office at (619) 234-5623.
"Now in its fourth installment, our Powers New Voices Festival has become a highlight of the Globe's year and the centerpiece of our burgeoning new play development program," said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "It has also become an important source of work for our annual season and for other stages in town. I know that this year's plays will also make their way to full productions here and elsewhere in the time ahead. The Globe is committed to bringing the best new playwriting to San Diego, and we are thrilled to give our audiences opportunities to see the artistic process in action. I'm very grateful to Paula and Brian Powers for their support, which demonstrates their visionary commitment to the future of the American theatre, and to the idea of the Globe as a thriving center of creativity and innovation."
Plays previously featured in the Powers New Voices Festival, Nick Gandiello's The Blameless and Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew, will be seen in full productions in the Globe's 2016-2017 Season. Anna Ziegler's The Last Match had its world premiere last season in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. Also playing in 2016 on the Arena Stage was tokyo fish story by Kimber Lee, a playwright featured in a previous Festival with brownsville song (b-side for tray), which, along with Jihae Park's peerless, recently made their San Diego premieres at MOXIE Theatre.
Paula and Brian Powers will provide a sustaining gift to The Old Globe of $1 million over five years. The New Voices Festival is being renamed the Powers New Voices Festival through 2021 in recognition of this most significant gift to the Globe and the Powers' belief in the importance of new works for theatre. Paula currently is on the Board of Directors of The Old Globe and serves as the organization's Secretary.
In conjunction with the festival, Arts Engagement will offer an encore presentation of The Living Altar, a series of new works inspired by residents of City Heights and developed by San Diego performing artists, originally presented at the City Heights Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on October 29. This free event will take place on the plaza of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Center on Saturday, January 14 beginning at 1:00 p.m. and is open to the general public. Local artists Gill Sotu and Nadia Guevara will host with a DJ, weaving together the performances with music and dancing. These performances include a variety of works from local artists. The King of Chavez Street, written and performed by Sotu, is a spoken word poetry piece in which young ones gather to share the memories of their ancestors in order to be crowned the best storyteller on Chavez Street. Feliz Diaz by Jonathan Hammond is a humorous and touching reminiscing of Feliz Diaz and his granddaughter, who kept Death at bay. Estrella, written and performed by Soroya Rowley, is a Spanglish song about a beautiful friend, mother, and spirit. The title piece, Living Altar by Veronica Burgess, is inspired by the connection one makes with past loved ones when they are remembered, honored, and celebrated during this time of year. The final two works, both dance theatre pieces, are El Encuentro by Guevara, a story of four generations of family members coming together with memories and music to meet at the altar, a place to reflect, remember, and be inspired; and La Danza de las Abuelas by Erika Malone, inspired by the ancestral stories of Nadia, Baltazar, Esperanza, and Hermalinda. City Heights residents who contributed their stories will be in attendance at the event and festival. This event is supported by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.
Tickets to all four readings are free but require reservations, currently available to donors and subscribers only. Reservations for the general public will be available beginning Friday, January 6 at 12:00 noon. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Box Office at (619) 23-GLOBE. Globe Season Subscriptions offer substantial savings with special subscriber benefits. Single tickets for most shows begin at $29. Subscription packages can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE [234-5623], or by visiting the box office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and younger, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.
The complete Powers New Voices Festival lineup is as follows:
Friday, January 13 at 7:30 p.m.
An Old Globe commission
Arranged
By Anna Ziegler
Directed by Matt M. Morrow
Abe and Julia are high-profile celebrities embarking on a dangerously flirtatious correspondence. Esther and Yoni are shy young Orthodox Jews embarking on an arranged marriage. On the surface, the lives of these two couples couldn't be more different. But Anna Ziegler's funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama Arranged explores the hidden connections between seemingly disparate worlds, illuminating the surprising forces that bind strangers together. Ziegler returns with this exciting Globe commission following the world premiere of The Last Match.
Anna Ziegler's (Playwright) plays include The Last Match (The Old Globe, City Theatre, upcoming in 2017 at Roundabout Theatre Company), Photograph 51 (directed on the West End in 2015 by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman; WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play; previously produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Theater J, among others), Actually (upcoming in 2017 at Geffen Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival), Boy (Keen Company/Ensemble Studio Theatre; Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award nominee), A Delicate Ship (The Playwrights Realm, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Another Way Home (Theater J, Magic Theatre), Dov and Ali (Theatre503, The Playwrights Realm), The Minotaur (Rorschach Theatre, Synchronicity Theatre), and BFF (WET Productions at DR2 Theatre). She has been commissioned by The Old Globe, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, and New Georges. Her plays have been developed at Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cape Cod Theatre Project, New York Stage and Film, The Araca Group, Old Vic New Voices, and Soho Rep.'s Writer/Director Lab, among others. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service; a collection entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One is published by Oberon Books. Ms. Ziegler is a graduate of Yale College and holds an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of the Arts.
Matt M. Morrow (Director) is the Executive Artistic Director of Diversionary Theatre. Prior to joining Diversionary, he was the Associate Artistic Director of City Theatre in Pittsburgh. His credits with Diversionary include the West Coast premieres of Jordan Harrison's Amazons and Their Men, Christopher Shinn's Now or Later, and Bathsheba Doran's The Mystery of Love & Sex. His work with City Theatre includes the regional premiere of Jessica Dickey's Charles Ives Take Me Home, the world premiere of Tami Dixon's South Side Stories, and Kim Rosenstock's Tigers Be Still. Mr. Morrow has developed new work with The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, The Banff Centre, American Conservatory Theater, Center Theatre Group, Lincoln Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73 Productions at Yale School of Drama. He is currently developing Jennifer Haley's Froggy. He served as the John Wells Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama (graduate and undergraduate) and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab.
Saturday, January 14 at 4:00 p.m.
Fade
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Lucia has always dreamed of being a writer on a top network television show. But a major case of writer's block and an ongoing battle with her domineering male co-workers have left her questioning her career path. Enter Abel, one of the office cleaners on the studio's night shift and the only other Latino working in the building. The two strike up a close friendship, and soon the lines between fiction and reality start to blur. Tanya Saracho's Fade is a provocative behind-the-scenes look at the lengths we go to get ahead and whom we're willing to leave behind.
Tanya Saracho (Playwright) was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, and is a playwright, actor, and television writer ("How to Get Away with Murder," HBO's "Looking" and "Girls," and "Devious Maids"). Ms. Saracho is a member of The Kilroy, an ensemble member at Victory Gardens Theater, the founder of The Alliance for Latinx Theater Artists (ALTA), and the former co-founder/artistic director of Teatro Luna. Her plays have been produced at Denver Center Theatre Company, Second Stage Uptown, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna, The Fountain Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Next Theatre Company, and 16th Street Theater. Her plays include Hushabye, The Tenth Muse, Song for the Disappeared, Enfrascada, El Nogalar (inspired by The Cherry Orchard), an adaptation of The House on Mango Street for Steppenwolf for Young Adults, Our Lady of the Underpass, Kita y Fernanda, and Quita Mitos. She is in development with Starz ("Pour Vida"), 20th Century Fox, Two River Theater, and South Coast Repertory. Ms. Saracho is a proud union member of SAG/AFTRA and WGA.
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, where she has directed many acclaimed productions. In spring 2017, she will directed Skeleton Crew at The Old Globe. She has also directed for San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Cygnet Theatre Company, Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, ion theatre company, and Playwrights Project. Her honors include the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle 2015 Director of the Year Award, Theatre Communications Group's New Generations Program fellowship, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, a Women's International Center Living Legacy Award, Van Lier Fund fellowship (Second Stage Theatre), and the New York Drama League's Directors Project.
Saturday, January 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Native Gardens
By Karen Zacarías
Directed by James Vasquez
Pablo, a high-poweRed Lawyer, and doctoral candidate Tania, his very pregnant wife, get their piece of the American dream when they purchase their upscale townhouse. But a disagreement with their next door neighbors Virginia and Frank over a longstanding property line soon spirals into an all-out war of taste, class, and privilege. The back garden becomes the site of a Culture Clash and friendly neighbors turn into feuding enemies in Karen Zacarías's uproarious and topical Native Gardens.
Karen Zacarías (Playwright) has written award-winning plays including The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, the adaptations of Just Like Us and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, and many more. She collaborated on the librettos for Sleepy Hollow and Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises for The Washington Ballet. The 2016 season saw world premieres of her plays Destiny of Desire (Arena Stage), Native Gardens (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Oliverio: A Brazilian Twist (The Kennedy Center), and Ella Enchanted (First Stage). She is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage and is a core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons. She is the founder of Young Playwrights' Theater, an award-winning theatre company that teaches playwriting in local public schools in Washington, DC. Ms. Zacarías lives in DC with her husband and three children.
Previously at The Old Globe, James Vásquez (Director) directed Rich Girl, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show and provided musical staging for The Comedy of Errors directed by Scott Ellis, Boeing-Boeing, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. With The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, he has directed Clybourne Park and last year's world premiere of Keith Reddin's Acquainted with the Night. He received Craig Noel Award nominations for Outstanding Direction of a Musical for the world premiere of Harmony, Kansas and the West Coast premiere of [title of show] (Diversionary Theatre) and won the award in 2010 for Sweeney Todd (Cygnet Theatre Company). His other recent directing/choreography credits include The Addams Family (Moonlight Stage Productions), West Side Story and Cats (San Diego Musical Theatre), Tell Me on a Sunday (Vista's Broadway Theater), Pippin, the West Coast premiere of Birds of a Feather, and Next Fall (Diversionary), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Pageant (Cygnet), as well as developmental workshops at La Jolla Playhouse and Goodspeed Musicals. In 2004, Mr. Vásquez founded Daisy 3 Pictures with Mark Holmes and Carrie Preston. Their first two feature films, 29th and Gay and Ready? OK!, played national and international film festivals, with Ready? OK! winning Best Feature Film awards in Seattle, North Carolina, and San Diego. Their latest feature film, That's What She Said, made its world premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Vásquez is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Sunday, January 15 at 4:00 p.m.
An Old Globe commission
What You Are
By JC Lee
Directed by Edward Torres
The time: Today. The place: A small Nevada town. Don, a middle-agEd White American, does his best to make ends meet even as he struggles to connect with his politically active daughter. When he finds himself embroiled in a racially charged incident at work, his life and his living turn upside down. JC Lee's What You Are, an Old Globe commission, is an up-to-the-minute look at a fractured nation desperately trying to reconnect.
JC Lee (Playwright) writes for theatre, film, and television. His plays have been seen, staged, and developed throughout the U.S. and world, most notably Luce, which received its world premiere at Lincoln Center and was developed in part through the Powers New Voices Festival at The Old Globe. Mr. Lee is a writer and producer on "How to Get Away with Murder" and is currently working on an adaptation of The Nutcracker for Warner Brothers with director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. He is currently under commission from both The Old Globe and Second Stage Theatre. Mr. Lee is a graduate of The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. He is a native of New York City currently living in Los Angeles. @jclee1230 on Twitter.
Edward Torres (Director) returns to The Old Globe after directing the critically acclaimed California premiere of Water by the Spoonful. Most recently he directed the world premiere musical La Canción (Repertorio Español), Macbeth (The Public Theater's Mobile Shakespeare Unit), Mosque Alert (Silk Road Rising), White Tie Ball by Martín Zimmerman (Teatro Vista), The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Goodman Theatre), and How Long Will I Cry?: Voices of Youth Violence (Steppenwolf for Young Adults). He directed the world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz's The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Victory Gardens Theater, produced in association with Teatro Vista), which was named Best Play of 2009 by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Time Out Chicago; was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and earned Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Production - Play and Best Director - Play. He also directed subsequent productions to critical acclaim at Off Broadway's Second Stage Theatre (2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, Obie Award for Best New American Play) and at Geffen Playhouse.
The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for over 80 years. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's education and community programs. Numerous world premieres such as the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, Allegiance, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.
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