TheatreWorks Announces COME FROM AWAY Composers & More for 2017 New Works Festival

Continuing its commitment to developing new works, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will gather playwrights and composers from across the nation for its 2017 New Works Festival at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre, where the public can attend performances, participate in a panel discussion with the artists, and share in the journey of developing new works for the American theatre. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Director of New Works Giovanna Sardelli has announced a stellar line-up which includes staged readings of two musicals, three plays, and other special events.

Among the musical highlights for 2017: the Tony Award-nominated Come From Away composers are coming to Palo Alto to rework their Fringe hit musical, and local audiences will get a sneak peek of a penetrating new work about the original bad girl group The Shangri-Las. Plays include outside/inside looks at Hollywood, an airline disaster, and a modern Faust. The popular festival runs August 11 - 20, 2017 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. Festival passes ($65 general/$49 season subscribers) and single event tickets ($20) can be purchased online at theatreworks.org or by calling (650) 463-1960.

TheatreWorks' 16th Annual New Works Festival once again offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new musicals and plays in their early stages of development. Presented this year are two musicals: My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, a comic love story about a mother and the woman who changed her life by recent Tony-nominees (Come From Away) Irene Sankoff and David Hein; and Past, Present, Future: The Shangri-Las by David Stenn, a musical journey of the ground-breaking 1960s tough girl group and their mysterious end. Audiences will also see three play including: 3 Farids by Ramiz Monsef, a rollicking Hollywood comedy that rockets from casting calls to movie shoots to gala openings as three Arab-American actors combat the type-casting of Tinseltown; Tiny Homes by Stephanie Zadravec, a dramatic look at the deeply personal impacts of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17; and Deal with the Dragon, a darkly camp comedy with a Faustian twist by actor/author Kevin Rolston. Other events include a keynote address from famed clown and Cirque du Soleil star Jeff Raz, a bold late-night sketch event inspired by real-life internet interactions, and an open rehearsal of a new play in progress. For two busy weeks in August, patrons can applaud, debate, and help shape new works, and interact directly with the writers at a Meet the Artists Panel.

The Festival line-up is as follows:

READINGS OF MUSICALS:

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE: THE SHANGRI-LAS

Featuring the songs of the Shangri-Las

By David Stenn

8/13 @ 7pm • 8/17 @ 8pm • 8/20 @ 7pm

Composed of two sets of sisters, groundbreaking 1960s "bad girl" group The Shangri-Las charted the heartbreak of teen hood. After gigs with the Beatles and the Stones, their mysterious end is solved for the first time in this American musical journey.

David Stenn's (Book) television credits span from Hill Street Blues to Boardwalk Empire. He is the author of two biographies, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild and Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow, both edited by Jacqueline Onassis. His documentary Girl 27 exposed Hollywood's best-suppressed scandal. Past, Present, Future is his first theatre piece.

MY MOTHER'S LESBIAN JEWISH WICCAN WEDDING

Book and Music by David Hein and Irene Sankoff

Directed by David Leon Lowenstein

8/12 @ 8pm • 8/16 @ 8pm • 8/19 @ 8pm

From the acclaimed, Tony-nominated authors of Broadway hit Come from Away, this comic and touching love story is based on Hein's mother's true story and is a musical valentine to a woman who changed everything in her life, and her family along with it.

Irene Sankoff & David Hein (Book, Music & Lyrics) are a CanadIan Married writing team. Their show Come From Away was nominated for seven Tony Awards this year, including Best Musical, and took home the Tony for Best Direction. It has also won five Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Musical and Outstanding Book of a Musical, as well as four Helen Hayes Awards including Outstanding Musical Production. My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, their first show, was the hit of the Toronto Fringe, where it was picked up for a commercial run by Mirvish Productions.

David Leon Lowenstein (Director) is revisiting My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding after directing/choreographing its SALT Award winning production at The Finger Lakes Musical Theater Festival in 2012. He is the co-creator/choreographer of SHOUT! The Mod Musical (Best Musical Nomination in London, What's On Stage?), which ran Off-Broadway and is currently in regional theaters across the country. He also choreographed the Drama Desk Award winning Howard Crabtree's Whoop-Dee-Doo!

READINGS OF PLAYS:

DEAL WITH THE DRAGON

Written and Performed by Kevin Rolston

Developed with and Directed by M. Graham Smith

8/13 @ 3pm • 8/19 @ 12pm

A Faust for now, this modern look at the bargains that people strike to survive is both a grown-up fairy tale laced with terror and a darkly camp comedy. Wittily blending and subverting a coming-out story, ancient fable, and sordid confessional, it is a big-themed and sophisticated solo show for mature audiences. Last year's workshop production at A.C.T.'s Costume Shop was hailed by KQED Arts as, "Sly, shocking, and won't let you go. Gave me more after-the-fact pleasure than any other play this year."

Kevin Rolston (Writer/Performer) returns to TheatreWorks as a playwright, after performing as an actor in Opus and Snow Falling on Cedars on the main stage, and in How to Write a New Book for the Bible and Up North in the New Works Festival. His first play, Crystal Christian, enjoyed a workshop production at Magic Theatre in August 2008. He was the lead writer of This Many People, which performed in the 2010 San Francisco Queer Arts Festival. Deal with the Dragon is his first one-man play.

M. Graham Smith (Development Partner/Director) is an O'Neill National Directing Fellow, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Fellow, and a Resident Artist at San Francisco's Crowded Fire. He has directed at venues in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. He teaches at A.C.T.'s actor-training programs, Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, and at Barcelona's premiere Meisner Technique program.

TINY HOUSES

By Stephanie Zadravec

Directed by Giovanna Sardelli

8/15 @ 8pm • 8/19 @ 4pm

This breakthrough play for our times starts with the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17 shot down over Ukraine in July 2014. Set in the days and weeks that followed, in tiny houses around the globe, this intriguing, tense, often funny drama explores the lives touched-and changed-by one of the defining events of our times. Contains mature language.

Stefanie Zadravec's (Playwright) work has been produced/developed at Two River Theatre, Theatre@Boston Court, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, JAWfest, Play Penn, The Lark, SF Playhouse, Working Theater, NY Stage & Film, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Keen Company, and Women's Project Theater, among others. Her plays include Colony Collapse (Kilroys List, Helen Merrill Award), Honey Brown Eyes (Helen Hayes Award), The Electric Baby (Francesca Primus Prize) and The Boat (NYSCA grant). Stefanie is a New Dramatists Resident and recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Writer Award.

Giovanna Sardelli (Director) is the Director of New Works for TheatreWorks as well as a freelance director working at theatres across the country. She most recently directed the World Premiere of Rajiv Joseph's Archduke at the Mark Taper Forum and will be directing the World Premieres of his play Describe the Night for the Alley Theatre and the Atlantic Theater, and An Entomologist's Love Story by Melissa Ross for San Francisco Playhouse - all of which came out of TheatreWorks' New Works Festival.

3 FARIDS

By Ramiz Monsef

Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh

8/18 @ 7:30pm • 8/20 @ 3pm

From comic casting calls to explosive movie shoots and glittering opening nights, Hollywood's clueless mystique confronts a trio of Arab American actors trying to surmount the stereotypes of Tinsel Town. Bold physical comedy highlights this journey to the hilarious but intractable City of Angels. Contains mature language.

Ramiz Monsef (Playwright) is the co-author of the musical The Unfortunates, which was produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and A.C.T. in San Francisco. 3 Farids was part of The Bushwick Starr reading series is NYC. Also an actor, Monsef has appeared on TV and in theatres across the country.

Pirronne Yousefzadeh (Director) directs and develops new work in New York and regionally. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and recipient of the Sagal Fellowship (Williamstown), Denham Fellowship (Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation), and Drama League Fellowship, among others.

SPECIAL EVENTS:

Keynote Address

THE SECRET LIFE OF CLOWNS

with Cirque du Soleil star

Jeff Raz

8/11 @ 8pm

More than one million people saw Cirque du Soleil's Corteo with Jeff Raz in the starring role. Every night after the show, Raz rushed to keep up with his "day job" as the director of the only school for professional clowns in the United States. Now the author of a new book The Secret Life of Clowns, the acclaimed actor/director will share a behind-the-scenes peek at the world of big-time circus and insights into his ongoing celebration of all that is different, and odd, about each of us.

Jeff Raz has performed nationally and internationally in circuses (Cirque du Soleil, Pickle Family Circus, and more) and plays, including La Bête at TheatreWorks and The Comedy of Errors on Broadway. He is also a playwright, director, producer, and consultant. His book The Secret Life of Clowns will be launched this summer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Late Night Special Event

BLOGOLOGUES

Bay Area Premiere

Created and Performed by Jen Jamula and Allison Goldberg

8/18 @ 10pm

One of New York's most acclaimed comedy shows, Blogologues is a bold, Internet-inspired, sketch-based extravaganza that brings Tinder messages, Amazon reviews, fake news, astonishing tweets, and much more to life on stage and completely verbatim. A goldmine of NSFW (Not Safe For Work) online laughter.

Allison Goldberg and Jen Jamula are performers whose work has been recognized by Good Morning America, NPR, Newsweek, Forbes, WIRED, and more. They are co-creators of Blogologues, a sketch comedy show that brings to life Craigslist posts, Yelp reviews, Tinder messages, and other ridiculous text from the internet. Since then, the duo also created How To Break Up By Text, a comedy/therapy show which airs out and analyzes audience text breakups on the spot; 2 Girls 1 Show, a webseries, and accompanying podcast, 2 Girls 1 Podcast, with the Daily Dot, where Jen and Alli meet the people behind the internet posts; and No Text Weekend, a movement and festival that encourages people to talk instead of text. The pair was featured on the cover of Time Out New York as two of the "top ten funniest women in NYC." They graduated from Yale University.

A Next Generation Event

WAITING FOR NEXT

Open rehearsal of a new play in progress

By Jeffrey Lo Directed by Leslie Martinson

8/12 @ 4:30pm

For those who have ever wondered how a "play in progress" actually progresses, TheatreWorks' Associate Artistic Director Leslie Martinson and playwright Jeffrey Lo invite audiences along as they guide their cast through multiple versions of key scenes in a new dramatic comedy about fate, friendship, and growing up. Version one is the latest draft. Version two will be a revision hot off the press. And yet-to-come Version three will only be written after the team hears from the New Works audience.

Jeffrey Lo (Playwright) is a Filipino-American playwright and director. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley, and Theatre Bay Area's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped by City Lights Theatre, San Jose Stage, BindleStiff Studio, and Exposition Review.

Leslie Martinson (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director and Casting Director for TheatreWorks, where her directing credits include The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, Calligraphy, Proof, Water by the Spoonful, the Regional Premiere of Time Stands Still, the 2012 West Coast Premiere of Time Stands Still, and the company's acclaimed 2010 production of Superior Donuts. A graduate of Occidental College, she also works with Theatre Bay Area and Stand & Deliver Group.

MEET THE ARTISTS

8/20 @ 12pm

The Festival's featured playwrights and composers share their anecdotes and insights into creating brave new works for American theatre. Audiences are invited to bring questions and become a part of the conversation with writers who are shaping the theatre landscape of tomorrow. This event will include a special presentation by the winners of 1440 Countdown, TheatreWorks Education Department's 24-hour playwriting festival for high school students.

The 2017 New Works Festival is presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's New Works Initiative, which has received a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts this year. The program seeks out new material and serves as a collaborative matchmaker for writers and composers. The Festival has launched many new works onto TheatreWorks' main stage and to national productions, including Broadway's Tony Award-winning Best Musical Memphis. TheatreWorks 2017/18 season kicks off in July with last year's Festival favorite, The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga.

Award-winning stage director Giovanna Sardelli was appointed TheatreWorks Director of New Works in May 2014, and has helmed four well-received productions for the company's main stage including Crimes of the Heart, The Lake Effect, and the World Premieres of Rajiv Joseph's The North Pool, and Matthew Lopez' Somewhere. Sardelli most recently directed the World Premiere of Joseph's Archduke for the Mark Taper Forum, and will be directing the World Premieres of his play Describe the Night for the Alley Theatre and the Atlantic Theater, and An Entomologist's Love Story by Melissa Ross for San Francisco Playhouse - all of which came out of TheatreWorks' New Works Festival. She has staged World Premieres of plays by Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Rosen, Joe Gilford, Jeff Augustine, Lauren Yee, and Zoe Kazan among others, and the West Coast Premiere of Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man, receiving an NAACP nomination for Best Director. She has worked Off-Broadway at many theatres and has directed numerous productions for Dorset Theatre Festival, where she is Resident Director, as well as Actors' Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, Hartford Stage, and others. Sardelli has also developed plays at centers around the country including the Sundance Theatre Lab, The O'Neill Theater Center, Playwrights' Center, New York Stage & Film, Ensemble Studio Theatre.

With some 100,000 patrons per year, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity. It often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first looks at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country.

For Festival Passes ($65 general/$49 for season subscribers) and single event tickets ($20), the public may call (650) 463-1960 or visit theatreworks.org.

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