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.

As Hank Kimmel, our WTP Board President said, “The feedback from our Ethel Woolson Lab has always been resonantly positive, and, thanks to the Plummer Charitable Foundation, we have the chance to do a lot more through the program.”

This fabulous news comes on the heels of an eventful month for WTP, during which we produced a wildly-popular 24-Hr. Plays Festival (where plays were written, directed and produced within 24 hours); hosted a standing-room-only Playwrights Slam at the Decatur Arts Festival; and developed and presented a playwrights’ educational workshop with Celise Kalke of the Alliance Theatre. Whew!

Mark your calendar now, so you can have an opportunity to see how the Hellen Ingram Plummer Charitable Foundation grant is supporting Working Title Playwrights as well as theatre in Atlanta. Plan to attend the Ethel Woolson Lab public staged readings coming for the remainder of the year:

July 27, 2010 – Topher Nixon Payne’s EVELYN IN PURGATORY
Sept 21, 2010 – Theroun Patterson’s AMERICAN DISMANTLE
Oct 26, 2010 – Glen Slattery’s VON WHO?
Dec 14, 2010 – Patricia Henritze and Shawna Tucker’s ANTONY+CLEOPATRA REDUX

All readings will take place at Academy Theatre—you know the one—at 7:30 p.m. with $10 tickets available at door. 

THANK YOU, Hellen Ingram Plummer Charitable Foundation. You indeed help us make new plays happen! 

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.

Betty Hart will moderate a talkback with the playwright following the reading. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

WHEN: Monday, March 22, 2010
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, Ga.
Directions: http://academytheat re.org/Directions.asp
PRICE: FREE to WTP members, $5 suggested donation all others.

For more information please contact Jill Patrick, WTP Managing Artistic Director, at 404.441.2716 or via e-mail to managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights<dot>com.

For those of you who still want to contribute somehow, we ask that you please consider:

1. Sharing your good will with the Atlanta Community Food Bank (or whomever else you might feel inclined to help) with contributions of canned foods or money. As Olivia told me, “God knows that (a) folks have already been UNBELIEVABLY generous with us already and (b) that there are still tons of needy folks out there every day who also need tending to.”

2. Writing to Grady Hospital’s new CEO, Mr. Michael Young, and let him know how you appreciate the quality of care being given to (Patrick) Allen Hagler and encourage him to stay the course on reforming the state’s primary health care system. What you may not know, is that while we have (relatively few) complaints about the quality of care Allen is receiving – genuinely, the staff across the board has been positive, helpful and good at what they do – the fact is the system itself is so flawed that one mistake made by one person will cause a 2-hour appointment to last twelve hours or longer; that nurses are so understaffed some clinics wait for every patient to check in before they start triaging; and that some bathrooms and clinics (particularly in first floor clinics) are so filthy one questions whether a sick person will only get sicker the longer they stay in Grady … and considering how long they have to wait now, it does not seem conducive to healing.

I was told by someone working with Allen’s team of doctors, that Mr. Young is determined to implement positive change by having all Grady employees get their health care through Grady beginning in 2010. This has been met with opposition from many working within the system, but the belief is (I’m told) that once Grady employees start having the same waiting periods, in the same conditions as the public dependent on them, the system will begin functioning more proactively.

Michael Young, CEO
Grady Health System
80 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE
Atlanta, GA 30303

One last note from Olivia…

“I am humbled beyond words at the generosity that the theater community continues to shower down upon Allen/us. (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU…….) “Thank You” is so inadequate at this point but still, please convey my sincerest gratitude to all of these folks who continue to reach out through you.”

So, THANK YOU!

Allen Hagler and Jo Howarth as G.W. and Latrelle, SORDID LIVES

And it just doesn’t stop! Yes, Sir, we’ll have some more…

Del Shores – internationally known playwright (“Sordid Lives,” “Southern Baptist Sissies”), actor, & director of film & TV – has offered to auction a DVD of “Sordid Lives: The Series” signed by himself and the entire cast (including Leslie “Brother Boy” Jordan) in support of Allen and our efforts to love on him. He’s doing this on his Sordid Lives Facebook site – which has over 15,000 fans!

Please note that Del Lives in LA and has never met Allen. In fact, when he made the offer he didn’t even realize that Allen played “GW” in Process Theatre’s production of “Sordid Lives” last year. He reached out simply because Allen is an actor in need. To quote Topher Payne, “You gotta love sweet Southern boys.”

To get more details and bid, go to the designated Sordid Lives Facebook page now. Thanks, Del!

If you weren’t able to make it, then you missed the opportunity to enjoy a wealth of food, drink and generosity, as friends and family of Allen Hagler gathered together to hear new plays by Curt Shannon and David Fisher in concert readings directed by Betty Hart. In addition, the dynamic duo of Johnny Drago and Emma Crandall wowed the crowd with back-handed compliments that some of us are still wincing from today (but in a happy, codependent way).Food was provided by Feast, Saba, Savage and The James Joyce Pub; Colleen Hilker, Jo Howarth and Perry Patrick.

Hooch was provided by Paris, Decatur and Bob Smith and Daphne Mintz, who swears she is no longer unhappy with her husband (today).

Space was provided by Academy Theatre.

Invaluable volunteer help was provided by Kim Brundidge, George Devours, Connie Melton, Robert Drake, Jim Walsh, Lainey Welsch and Jared Foust.

A cornucopia of donated gedunk made this silent auction and raffle a delightful mix of original art(s) and first edition and autographed copies, hand crafted jewelry, sweaters, knitted caps (Allen will soon be wearing a raspberry cap made by Josie Burgin-Lawson, thanks!), tickets from just about every theater in town, switch plates, thigh masters and more! If you came without a sense of humor, surely you left with one intact.

We haven’t stopped working for Allen’s cost of living. There were a number of items left out of the auction that will become available to purchase/bid on via an online auction. Stay tuned for more details.

We’ll keep collecting contributions via pledgie.com.

If I’ve missed anyone in my acknowledgments, I humbly apologize. Feel free to give yourselves a shout out in response to this missive. I just wanted to get something out to everyone, letting you know I HEART HEART HEART YOU ALL. Your love for Allen and your generous spirits are making his life that much simpler. Overwhelming, maybe, as he had no idea, but simpler.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

WTP’s Ethel Woolson Lab presents John Drago’s THE BIRDWATCHERS at Academy Theatre, Sept. 26, 2009, 2 p.m.

A parable about the inevitable confrontation between the beauty and the horror of life, THE BIRDWATCHERS tells the story of a mother’s struggle to accept the death of her beloved though estranged son, driven from the family home in small-town Georgia some time ago by an unyielding daughter desperate for her own salvation from addiction.

When a stranger from Atlanta arrives bearing the shattering news of the boy’s death, and describing a classical form of divination wherein the behavior of the birds is used to understand the will of the gods, a chain of events is set in motion which forces the family to face the evil, awful things both in the world and at home. A doppelganger of the lost boy, an unexpected gift from the past, and a sudden accumulation of birds in the front yard lead mother and daughter to a devastating explosion of irrevocable lies and the ultimate destruction of the boy’s sainted memory.
This workshop reading is directed by Melissa Foulger, dramaturgy by Addae Moon and performed by Daniel Burnley, Clifton Guterman, Megan Hayes and Jo Howarth. A talkback moderated by Betty Hart will immediately follow the reading.

TICKETS: $10 at door. Reservations requested. Call 404.441.2716.

The Ethel Woolson Lab replaces WTP’s former Summer Reading Series and Playwrights Salon, making it WTP’s only competitively selected play development series. The workshop is week-long with actors, director and dramaturg culminating in the staged reading for the public. John Drago’s THE BIRDWATCHERS is the second of three Ethel Woolson Labs to be presented in 2009. The first was Sherry Paulsen’s LADIES IN WAITING presented in August 2009.

Sharon Mathis’ one-woman one-act, HE/SHE AND ME: A LOVE STORY about surviving change, was chosen to be part of the 2009 New Orleans Fringe Festival in November! Everything changes when Pat’s longtime soulmate Sam becomes Sheila. Pat tries tap dancing, Buddhism, shopping and crying in her search for the essence of love. WTP gave this dynamic one-woman show a First Draft On Demand workshop reading last month and you have one opportunity to see it fully produced right here in Atlanta before it heads to the bayou when Academy Theatre gives it its first full production in September. Tickets are a mere $12 – so bring your friends! Call Academy for reservations 404.474.8332 or e-mail academytheatre(at)mindspring(dot)com.

Vynnie Meli’s new musical, PLAGUED – A LOVE STORY, developed through Working Title Playwrights, is one of twelve new musicals chosen for production with the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival. These twelve were competitively selected out of more than 300 submissions and Vynnie’s play will receive six performances in October. Aurora Theatre is graciously holding a Broadway or Bust Cabaret benefit to help bring Vynnie’s musical to NYC on Monday, August 24, 7:30 p.m. $40 per ticket- and that’s tax deductible! Call Aurora to RSVP 678.226.6222.

Sherry Paulsen’s LADIES IN WAITING is the recipient of Working Title’s first ever Ethel Woolson Lab. Sherry, along with director Ellen McQueen, dramaturg Kim Brundidge and a cast that includes Bethany Ann Lind, Enisha Brewster, Dina Shadwell, Lynne Ashe, Mike Niedzwiecki and Emma Yarbrough, are workshopping throughout the week to present a smart, fresh script for a staged reading for the public on Saturday, August 22, 7:30 p.m. at Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, GA. Call 404.441.2716 or e-mail to managing(at)workingtitleplaywrights(dot)com for reservations. Tickets are only $10, which goes toward paying the amazing creative team helping Sherry bring her funny, poignant coming-of-age story to life.

Working Title is proud to have been part of the development of these three newly award-winning plays and congratulates their authors and wishes for their continued success!