We’re baaack… and now, WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS presents Topher Nixon Payne’s EVELYN IN PURGATORY as part of our signature play reading series, The Ethel Woolson Lab, this Monday, July 26, 2010, 7:30 p.m., at Academy Theatre.

Accused by an unreliable student of inappropriate behavior in her New York Public School, Evelyn is dismissed to a small forgotten classroom to await her hearing and her fate. There she encounters colleagues trapped in the same limbo. Paralleling the great diversity of their classrooms, the educators couldn’t be more different. As days turn into weeks and months, fights and friendships reveal their plans, hopes and secrets. It’s like detention for teachers. Not exactly hell, it’s Evelyn in Purgatory.

With Bobbie Elzey, Mark Gray, Megan Hayes, Shelly McCook, Stacy Melich and Matt Myers. Directed by Patricia Henritze with dramaturgy by Suehyla El-Attar. Read the rest of this entry »

Working Title Playwrights has been awarded a $10,000 grant by the Hellen Ingram Plummer Charitable Foundation, a private foundation out of Boca Raton, FL. The support will allow us to fortify and expand our showcase program, the Ethel Woolson Lab.

As you may recall from earlier blog posts, The Ethel Woolson Lab brings together the top playwrights, directors, and actors in the Atlanta theatre community for meaningful collaboration in the creation of new, full-length plays for the stage. 

 We are immeasurably grateful to the Hellen Ingram Plummer Charitable Foundation for this grant, and its recognition of the importance new works bring. This funding will enable WTP to provide arts education through new play and playwright development. The competitively selected playwrights participating in the Lab as well as the public audiences attending these staged readings will benefit. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most popular events in Atlanta theatre history is returning, presented by Working Title Playwrights, with producing partner Onstage Atlanta.

About 100 bold artists will convene at Onstage Atlanta to write, direct, and perform eight short plays in the span of 24 hours.  Performance will be Sunday, May 23, 2010, at 8 pm.

It’s bold.  It’s risky.  The mantra of the 24-Hour Plays has always been: This ain’t theatre for crybabies. Read the rest of this entry »

First, take action at 1:00 p.m., stroll on down from the Rialto to the capitol steps and let your voice be heard regarding funding cuts for the arts in Georgia.

Then, join Working Title Playwrights and the whole Atlanta theater community at a gathering at Manuel’s Tavern to celebrate the life and memory of our dear friend, Allen Hagler. Share memories, tell irreverent stories (you KNOW he’d like that), and hoist a glass in a toast or two. The fun begins at 7:30pm. Spread the word!

Manuel’s Tavern is located at the corner of North and Highland Avenues in Atlanta.

The Georgia House of Representatives is preparing to vote on HB 1049. The Rules Committee meeting has been pushed to this afternoon, at 2 p.m. Those of us who care about and are committed to the arts in Georgia have only until then to make urgent calls and send insistent emails. One lobbyist says, “KEEP THE HEAT ON! We are still not on the Rules agenda—HB1049 will die if we do not make it on the Rules agenda this week.”

HB1049 gives each county in Georgia the ability to invest a fraction of a penny sales tax to support cultural assets and economic development initiatives in their community, when and if they so choose. Click here for more details on how HB1049 works.

Take action now, and share this message with colleagues and friends who support art & culture. Email/Call members of the RULES Committee asking for SUPPORT of HB 1049 (See members & contact information listed below) The message should be brief. Add a personal note on why this is important to you. Read the rest of this entry »

Working Title Playwrights presents Karla Jennings’ THE SMILES, a WTP On-Demand Reading, Monday, March 22nd (tonight!), 7:30 p.m., at Academy Theatre.

With Kate Donadio, Louis Gregory, Tess Malis Kincaid, Mark Kincaid, Bill Murphey, and Mike Niedzwiecki.

When a married, closeted music minister brings a young drug addict home for personal rehabilitation, tragedy leads to a surprising redemption in this triangle of love, lust, and violence.

THE SMILES is based on a murder trial the playwright covered as a reporter for The Raleigh News & Observer. Working on State Desk, she covered many stories in small southern towns, places that, to the reporter,- seemed stranded and bleak, but, to the people interviewed, it was home, it was safe, and it held everything that mattered. The murder occurred in one of those towns.

THE SMILES is an exploration of some of the many forms of desire and attachment, how darkly they can be exploited, how violently they can transform, and how dangerous they can be. THE SMILES received the 2009 national Pillars Playwriting Award. Read the rest of this entry »

Please know that our dear friend Allen Hagler passed away on Friday morning, March 19th.  He was surrounded by his family and went peacefully.

A service will be held on Tuesday, March 23rd, 11am, at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

A celebration of his life is being planned for another date, the details of which will be shared as they emerge.

His family invites all his friends and loved ones to attend the service(s) and asks that in lieu of flowers you send contributions to Hospice of Atlanta, The American Cancer Society or the charity of your choice.

Thank you all for the support you demonstrated along Allen’s journey. Fair thee well, Allen.

Experience Marian X’s ESTHER’S CHILDREN tonight, with Marguerite Hannah, Theroun Patterson, Brenda Porter and Yvonne Singh.

7:30 p.m., Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, GA. Free to Working Title Playwrights members. $5 suggestion all others.

You think you know. You think you do. Turns out you don’t know one damn thing!

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and Esther’s middle-aged children, Pauline, Clarissa, Katherine and Robert, have gathered for the first time since her death a year a go to place a marble headstone on her grave. As children, they were pretty much tossed into the wind by their party girl mother and absentee fathers and left to raise themselves. As such, they have developed survival skills that run the gamut from admirable to questionable and from formidable to dangerous. Read the rest of this entry »

Winter, Shminter. In February we brought you On-Demand Readings of Charlotte Kuehn’s HUNGRY TIME DINNERS and An Evening of One-Act Plays by Bill Wellborn.

Tonight, we’re marching on as WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS presents Hank Kimmel’s DIVIDED AMONG THEMSELVES as part of the new Ethel Woolson Lab, 7:30 p.m., at the Academy Theatre.
DIVIDED AMONG THEMSELVES is a 90-minute, four-woman comedy that reflects and explores the differing views in America toward money, charity, and self-reliance.

With Lorilyn Harper, Stacy Melich, Shayne Kohout and Cara Mantella. Directed by Patricia Henritze with dramaturgy by Suehyla El-Attar.

When four sisters meet in their father’s rent-controlled apartment for the reading of his will, one of them will come out ahead, if she’s willing to stand up for herself. Read the rest of this entry »

Part of the new Ethel Woolson Lab, Monday, March 1, 2010, 7:30 p.m.

When four sisters meet in their father’s rent-controlled apartment for the reading of his will, one of them will come out ahead, if she’s willing to stand up for herself.

With Lorilyn Harper, Stacy Melich, Shayne Kohout and Cara Mantella. Directed by Patricia Henritze with dramaturgy by Suehyla El-Attar. Read the rest of this entry »