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.

Tonight, 16 writers will meet at 10 pm at Onstage Atlanta.  Paired randomly, they will have until dawn to come up with eight 12-minute scripts.  Eight directors will come in at 9 am and cast their plays from sixty headshots submitted by our brave thespians.  Then it’s a marathon day of rehearsing, staging, costuming, and setting tech for an 8:00 pm curtain on Sunday, May 23rd.  The show ends at 10 pm, exactly 24 hours after the writers first convened.

The Atlanta 24-Hour Plays were introduced in ten years ago as a benefit for Synchronicity Performance Group and Plain Sight Productions, produced in conjunction with Horizon Theatre’s New Horizon series.  The event was an immediate success, serving to introduce a legion of rising artists to the Atlanta community, and forging new partnerships and collaborations.  Working Title Playwrights and producer Topher Payne are honored to continue this extraordinary event with the support and encouragement of Synchronicity and Plain Sight.  Our 2009 revival of the series was an unprecedented success for Working Title, and now the excitement continues.

Come play! Join us on Sunday night at Onstage Atlanta in Suburban Plaza, 2597 North Decatur Road, Decatur (next to Big Lots) and see what we’ve cooked up.  The show starts, ready or not, at 8:00 pm on Sunday, May 23rd. Tickets are $15.  Box office and bar will open at 7 pm.  There are no reservations for the event, so get there early!

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.

Working Title Playwrights is proud to partner with Alliance Theatre Education and others to present Atlanta with this special upcoming event you can see here, or fly to Denmark!

Roberta Carreri is a master performer and teacher who has, for 33 years, been a member of the Danish theatre company Odin Teatret, directed by Eugenio Barba. Born in 1953 in Milan, Italy, Roberta has performed around the world in such Odin performances as Brecht’s Ashes, Kaosmos, Mythos, Andersen’s Dream, Judith, and Salt. Ms. Carreri gives workshops for actors all over the world that focus on the actor’s physical presence and the sonority of the voice. She has trained in physical theater practices from Japan, China, Bali and India.

TRACES IN THE SNOW is work demonstration that explores through physical presentation and narrative. Ms. Carreri’s professional autobiography, since 1978. The performance includes fragments of the performance “Judith” and explanations of Ms. Carreri’s approach to physical and vocal training.

Every performance tells a story. The characters belonging to the world of fiction become credible reality for the spectator thanks to the actor’s technique. In TRACES IN THE SNOW the technique itself becomes the protagonist. The actress carries on a dialogue with the secrets which precede and follow the building of a character and the creation of a performance – and its process, she exposes these secrets. The tension which characterises every drama is also present in this performance/work demonstration, due to the confrontation between the actress’s two forms of behaviour: daily and scenic.

You can check out the Odin Teatret’s Video Archive here.

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!

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!