community + cultural info
Carnegie
Mellon's School of Drama
Hosts 2003 Summer New Play Festival
PITTSBURGH?Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama will once again
host the 2003 Summer New Play Festival beginning Friday, July 11, 2003.
Six new plays will be performed over two weekends in the Helen Wayne Rauh
Theatre at the Purnell Center for the Arts on the Carnegie Mellon
campus. Tickets are free to the public and will be available one half-hour
prior to curtain at the box office. For additional information, contact
412-268-2407. Seating is limited. The 2003 Summer New Play Festival is
sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
The 2003 Summer New Play Festival will showcase three plays each
weekend, performing the work of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Dramatic
Writing Program alumni and students. The festival is designed to help writers
prepare their scripts for productions in regional theatres around the
country as well as New York City. "The annual Carnegie Mellon
University Summer New Play Festival offers the audience an exciting and diverse
theatrical experience through comedy, drama and everything in between
with these six new works," said Rob Ripley, festival producer.
The festival has become a crucial step in the development process for
writers because they have the chance to see what an audience responds
to in their plays. Through moderated response sessions following each
performance, the audience gets the rare opportunity to offer
impressions about the works presented. New work is the cornerstone of American
theatre and Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama provides this unique experience
to regional audiences.
The featured plays are:
"The Baby Is Blue," written by Matt Schatz and directed by Stuart
Carden, is a play about a popular song that haunts the lives of four
intertwined
characters and unearths a dark past.
"The Gods Return To Inspiration," written by John Cassel and directed
by
Aine Donnelly, is a story about a plague-stricken town of Inspiration.
The
town, which turned its back on the gods, has a chance of salvation
through
a young girl who hears voices.
"Pinhole of Joy," written by Tara Meddaugh and directed by Denise
Pullen,
is about a wife who demands her husband to satisfy her obsession for
human
hair.
"Be All You Can Be," written by Sloan MacRae and directed by Denise
Pullen,
is about an abandoned ward of a veterans hospital. Three veterans from
three different wars are left in the ward to fight to decide which one
is
the real American hero.
"The Rendezvous," written by Kyle Wilson and directed by Stuart Carden,
tells a story about Pittsburgh's finest semi-notable gay memoirist and
his
dilemma. He tries to convince his graduate student to have a date with
him
outside his bedroom.
"Among Cannibals," written by Robert Ripley and directed by S. Caden
Hethorn, is about one man?s search for his memory, which leads him on a
hilarious romp through his family history.
The School of Drama is the nation's oldest degree-granting theatre
program
and is one of five schools within Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine
Arts.
The College of Fine Arts is a community of nationally and
internationally
recognized artists and professionals organized into five schools:
Architecture, Art, Design, Drama and Music, and their associated
centers
and programs.
For more information about the School of Drama or the College of Fine
Arts
contact Eric Sloss at 412-268-5765, by email at
ecs@andrew.cmu.edu or
visit
www.cmu.edu/cfa. The complete schedule is listed below.
FRIDAY, JULY 11
2:00 The Baby Is Blue
8:00 Pinhole of Joy
SATURDAY, JULY 12
2:00 Pinhole of Joy
8:00 The Gods Return To Inspiration
SUNDAY, JULY 13
2:00 The Gods Return To Inspiration
8:00 The Baby Is Blue
FRIDAY, JULY 25
2:00 Be All You Can Be
8:00 The Rendezvous
SATURDAY, JULY 26
2:00 Among Cannibals
8:00 Be All You Can Be
SUNDAY, JULY 27
2:00 The Rendezvous
8:00 Among Cannibals
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