|
spring 2011 Reading Series This page contains events that are part of the later-development developmental and staged reading series, programs for plays that are closer to theater-ready, having progressed beyond scene nights and the Staged Rehearsal and Saturday Read-Through series.
All readings are free to PCSF members. Tuesday, May 10, 2011 Japanese Demons (and how to Date them) Japanese Demons (and how to date them) combines traditional Japanese folk tales with modern dating anxiety. As Akira tells us the fairytales he learned as a child, we see them blending with his own experiences of finding love, losing love, and being stuck in the limbo between finding and losing love. Akira's journey takes him through ten folk tales and eighty years of Japanese-American history as he attempts to make sense of the life that he wants to lead. Kirk Shimano was named after Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise – his fate as a nerd has been sealed ever since. Shimano’s Tripped was produced as a Ram’s Head Original Winter One Act and was later featured in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. His Billy’s Got Issues was published in Masque, a journal of queer art and literary expression. Shimano currently works as a Technical Director at Industrial Light & Magic. Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Friar Lazaro, or the King of Terrors Set in a Spanish mission in 19th-century California, Friar Lazaro tells the story of a young padre whose religious doubts lead him to madness and murder. Lazaro, tormented by the possibility that that nothing lies beyond death, begins to murder ill Indians in order to witness their dying visions. Unsatisfied, he turns on the other inhabitants of the mission, including the Indian woman he once loved. Can anyone stop "the King of Terrors" before it is too late? Bridgette Portman joined PCSF in Fall 2009. Her first full-length play, "The Widow of Sisyphus," received a staged reading through PCSF in Spring 2010 and was a finalist in the 2011 O'Neill Playwrights Conference. A full-length comedy, "La Fee Verte," received a developmental reading in Fall 2010. Her short comedies "Necromance" and "Support Group for the Mortally Challenged" have been staged by PianoFight Productions in San Francisco and Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha, NE, respectively. Recently, her short piece "Paul der Krake" was featured in PCSF's Sheherezade festival. Tuesday, May 24, 2011 Smithereen In a bleak future, people with environmental illness and uninsurable disabilities unite, forming an online community powerful enough to dream of change. Dorie, who co-founded Alt Universe, is forced by her teenage daughter Emma to confront her thirst for revenge and her eagerness to trade life for virtual experience. Leah Halper's plays have found audiences with Monday Night PlayGround at the Berkeley Rep, City Lights Theatre, Playwrights Center SF's Sheherezade, Pear Avenue Theatre, Ross Valley Players, and Actors Theatre Santa Cruz. Her PlayGround-developed play Ready was a Heidemann Award finalist in 2008, and she was awarded an Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowship in Playwriting in 2001. Thursday, May 26, 2011 Something Like Adultery Solidly of the early mid-life crisis genre, Something Like Adultery is an examination of a lust-fueled existential crisis where Gabe Matthew's must weigh the pull of his dreams against the reality of his obligations and the entropy of his existence. Also, there will be some funny parts too. Stan Arma is a relative noob to the theatre, having trained mostly in screenwriting. So he kind of knows what he's doing - but any guidance offered would be appreciated. Stan's father took him to 'Kiss of a Spiderwoman' when he was a boy, failing to explain it was not 'Bride of Spiderman.' That's all you need to know about him. He produced a reading of another of his plays in NYC. Thursday, June 2, 2011 Claire Akerman Finds God An extremely religious mother is trying hard to hold on to her two daughters and keep them under her veil of Catholicism. She is faced with choosing her faith or her family when her daughter comes home with a non-Catholic. Only when she boycotts her daughter's wedding does she discover her true struggle. Christa Butler is, and has been, a teacher, an aspiring actress and a full-time mother. She joined PCSF in Fall 2009. This is her first play. She is currently working on her second full length play and a one act. Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Glickman's Third Act One man with a selective memory. Three women who can't forget how he changed each of their lives. Throw in a little cheating, a lot of passion, and the explosive consequences of a lifetime of secrets: this is no ordinary mid-life crisis! The clock is ticking and it's time for Joe Glickman to make a choice. Behind door 1: more of the same. Behind door 2: the painful facts and an uncertain future. Does either way lead to a truly meaningful "third act"? AJ Baker is thrilled that PCSF and Three Girls Theatre Company (3GT) are co-producing this staged reading of Glickman’s Third Act, which started with a development reading at PCSF in 2010 and is now scheduled to be the first full production of 3GT’s 2012 inaugural season. Baker serves on the Playground Board of Directors and is an ongoing participant in the Will Dunne Dramatic Writing Workshop. In 2011 she co-founded 3GT, where she is a Resident Playwright and Managing Director. Tuesday, July 12, 2011 The Pennsylvanian Pixie returns home eight months after her mother's death to help her brother, Macon, stop their father from committing suicide. When she arrives, however, she discovers a house falling off its foundation, a brother enthralled by a false prophet, an unexpected visitor and a secret about her mother. In this collapsible home, the battle to save each other is on, but saving one may destroy them all. Jennifer Lynne Roberts' play Beekeeper (PCSF staged reading, Fall 2009) received its world premiere at Virago Theatre Company, Alameda, CA, in 2011. Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Crossing the Chasm Lance Patterson has been unemployed for over a year, and his prospects seem to be getting worse each day. But when he meets Gwen, a young battered woman in need of help, Lance finds renewed purpose in his life. He sets out to rescue her, by getting her enough money to leave her abusive boyfriend and return home to her parents. But in his quest to save Gwen, Lance's moral compass goes astray. Can his worthy ends justify the means he chooses? And when someone ends up dead, shot in an alley, how far will Lance and his wife, Susan, go to save what's left of their life together? Rod McFadden studied Playwrighting at UCLA, but then took a brief 26 year long hiatus from the theatre. He reconnected in early 2009, joining the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco. His first play, a one-act entitled "Petty Theft," was featured in a PCSF Staged Reading in Spring 2011. When not writing plays, Rod sometimes takes the stage, appearing in PCSF's original production, Sheherezade X: The Year in Review. |