Marin Theatre Company Announces Steve Yockey As Part Of Artistic Staff For 2009-10 Season

Marin Theatre Company is pleased to announce that playwright Steve Yockey has joined its artistic staff for the 2009-10 season through the National New Play Network's Emerging Playwright's ResidenCy Grant program. He is one of three NNPN Emerging Playwrights this season nationwide.

Steve Yockey's plays include Octopus, which was successfully co-produced in San Francisco in 2008 by Encore Theatre and Magic Theatre; Skin, co-produced by Encore Theatre and Climate Theatre in 2009; and Cartoon and Sleepy at Impact Theater in 2007. A co-world premiere of his new play Large Animal Games will open this November at Berkeley's Impact Theatre and Dad's Garage Theatre in Atlanta.

"I met Steve when I became the Artistic Director of Actor's Express in Atlanta in 2003 and have continued cultivating a relationship with him after making the move to MTC," says Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis. "The NNPN Emerging Playwrights Residency is a perfect way to broaden our relationship and to help Steve expand and deepen his relationship with the Bay Area theater community."

As part of his residency, Steve will contribute to MTC in several areas. His play Bliss will receive a workshop production through MTC's New Works staged reading series in October, directed by Jasson Minadakis. Drawing on his strong dramaturgical background, he will read scripts submitted for our Sky Cooper New American Play Prize and David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, as well as plays under consideration for our subscription season and play development series. As part of MTC's Expanded Programs, Steve will teach drama classes in Marin in-school and after-school programs and conduct student matinee workshops. He taught playwriting classes this summer in the MTC Summer Theatre Camp.

Under separate commission from MTC's Theatre for Young Audiences, Steve has adapted Aesop's Fables for a school tour production. The comedy titled Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop's Fables mashup will tour Bay Area schools in early 2010

ABOUT STEVE YOCKEY

Steve Yockey is a roaming member of Out of Hand Theater. His projects with the company include HELP! and Cartoon. In January 2008, Actor's Express Theatre in Atlanta presented the world premiere of Octopus, followed that spring by an extended run in San Francisco, co-produced by Encore Theatre Company and Magic Theatre. He regularly works with Dad's Garage Theatre Company where they produced the short play cycle Sleepy, a work commissioned to inaugurate the second stage "Top Shelf" series, as well as the adults-only Skin, both directed by Kate Warner. Dad's Garage and Berkeley's Impact Theatre will co-produce the world premiere of his new play, Large Animal Games, this November. Steve's other plays include Afterlife, Bellwether, Heavier than..., and Bliss. In addition to his commission for MTC, he is currently working on a commissions for South Coast Rep and New York University's graduate acting program. His work has been produced and developed by The Boston Court, Reykjavic City Theatre, The Lark Play Development Center, The Kennedy Center, and The Public Theatre. Steve is a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He recently completed a Coca-Cola Artists Residency teaching dramatic structure at Emory University.

MTC New Works presents Bliss by Steve Yockey | Directed by Jasson Minadakis | October 12 and 13, 2009. Scott and Jeremy are a happy couple with satisfying work lives, great friends, and a brand new downtown loft. In fact, everything is looking pretty perfect until Scott's long-absent mother unexpectedly surfaces in the dead of night. With the best of intentions, she inadvertently dredges up years of hidden history and sets off a survival battle for the couple amidst the downward spiral of anxiety, ghosts of the past, and an army of dead-eyed Teddy Bears.

MTC Theatre for Young Audiences presents Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop's Fables mashup by Steve Yockey | Directed by Josh Costello | February 22 - March 28, 2010. Edna and Irwin are the best Aesop's Fables touring team around, but the "animal magic" is starting to wear thin. Can these astoundingly mismatched personalities really survive as a duo? More importantly, will they even make it through today's performance? MTC brings live theater to Marin County elementary schools, and to its Lieberman Theatre for four family matinees.

ABOUT MTC

Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premiere mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a five- to six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in two intimate theaters-a 231-seat proscenium and a 99-seat thrust. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American Playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, numerous new play readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging playwrights, and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year.

 

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