AFFLICTIONS OF A QUIET WINTER by Essential Theatre’s 2011 Playwriting Award Winner Theroun D’arcy Patterson.
A controversial interview sets off a firestorm of events. A former child soldier rises to power in Uganda. A reluctant son defies his fate while his wife embraces her fierce ambitions. An activist shrinks from life while a reporter uncovers an American corruption. Destinies collide, snow beckons a ghost from the past, and a Jackal pulls the strings. Everything in life is a battle for something. What’s  your affliction?

With Daniel Burnley, Eric Mendenhall, Stacy Melich, Olubajo Sonubi, Ko Sonubi, Cynthia Barker, Winslow Thomas, Naima Carter Russell and Amanda Cucher.  Directed by Suehyla El-Attar.

WHERE: Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, Ga
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 12, 2011
TIME: 7:30pm
TICKETS: $5 donation at door. WTP members free.

Don’t miss your opportunity to be a vital part of this play’s development. Your participation in the talkback with the playwright, director and cast immediately following the reading is greatly appreciated.

Working Title Playwrights (WTP) is proud to present this new play as part of its signature series, The Ethel Woolson Lab (TEWL). In TEWL, WTP member playwrights are given the opportunity to develop their competitively selected scripts with a team of professional actors, director and dramaturg over the course of a week culminating in a staged reading for the public. Audience participation in an engaging talkback session with the playwright after the reading is a vital component of the development process.

WHERE: Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, Ga.

TIME:  7:30 p.m.

DIRECTIONS: http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.academytheatre.org&usd=2&usg=AFQjCNHfzILQbv20dQ_HYtbn2Z0ORP4ccw

TICKETS: $10 at door or online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/208910

For more information on this and all WTP programming, contact Jill Patrick at managing@workingtitleplaywrights.com.

Working Title Playwrights’ acclaimed playwriting workshop returns with THE 2012 KICK-ASS SERIES: ACT ONE, First Installment of a Gonzo Playwriting Workshop in Four Parts. Saturdays in October, 15, 22 and Nov. 5 and 12, 11am – 2pm at Ben Franklin Academy-Emory.

And we’re not putting just anyone in the role of ‘Teacher’, Friend. You will fearlessly be led by Dr. Pamela Turner, Regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild and Artistic Director of multiShades.atlanta.

Pamela will introduce a series of tools that you’ll be able to use to jump-start your writing in a significant and meaningful way. The four sessions of this series are designed to motivate you to write kick-ass plays and to find your own unique voice and style along the way. It will start with some basics you didn’t know you needed and then throw in some novel concepts that will kick you towards becoming the writer you were meant to be. Move to the front of the class with:

Part I: DRAIN YOUR BRAIN — Getting Started

Part II: BUILD THE PLAY — Creating Structure

Part III: TRIM THE HEDGE — Developing Story

Part IV: FEED YOUR MUSE — Finding Voice

Each session will include writing, reading, sharing, discussion, and critique. All we ask is that you sign up for the whole four-part series and provide your own writing materials. Space is limited – shine up your apple and reserve your seat today!

FEE: $175 Public / $150 WTP Affiliates

RESERVATIONS: Managing<at>WorkingTitlePlaywrights.com or call Jill Patrick at  404.585.7695

Want to know more about Pamela Turner? Glad you asked!

PAMELA TURNER is a playwright and director with credits in the United States, Europe, and the Pacific. She is the SE regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild and the Contributing Editor of ShowGuide magazine.  Her most recent plays include Male Man (2007 Chester Horn Play Festival, TheatreRats, NYC – Best of Fest), Voices Deux (2007 New Plays Festival, Theatre Decatur, Atlanta); Cosmeticos, (2006 XPT Adult Series, Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta); Funny Valentine (2004, Seven Stages Theatre, Atlanta; 2004 Spoleto Festival USA); The Lady and the Poet (2003 Spoleto Festival USA; 2003 and 1994, Theatre Gael, Atlanta); Valentines Day (2001, Pulse Theatre Ensemble, NYC). Current projects include The Mother/Monster Project (2008, Re-Verb, Atlanta-Los Angeles); Frijoles on the Side (2006, commission, Fly-By Theatre, Atlanta); Burning Man (2006, Stage 3 Theatre Company’s Festival of New Plays, Sonora, California). Burning Man was also a semi-finalist for the 2006 PlayLabs at The Playwrights Center, Minneapolis, and for the 2006 SheWRITES competition at Synchronicity Theatre, Atlanta. Male Man was a finalist for the 2004 Humana Festival Heideman Award. Turner is the Founding Artistic Director of multiShades•atlanta and the Producer of PlayWorks 2000, a national program of new work for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education.

Now, that being said, get to registering! The stage awaits you.

Working Title Playwrights Presents THE 2011 KICK-ASS SERIES: ACT THREE, Third Installment of a Gonzo Playwriting Workshop in Four Parts

August 27-September 17

With Dr. Pamela Turner, Regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild and Artistic Director of multiShades.atlanta

THINK ABOUT IT:

• Christopher Durang says writing can’t be taught
• Paula Vogel says we are all born writers
• Doug Wright says writers mostly learn by writing

BUT THEN THEY ALL SAY:

Talent Aside, Playwriting is About the Craft

THAT’S WHAT “KICK-ASS THREE” IS ABOUT:

• The craft requires an understanding of theatre
• The craft requires structure, rhythm, and arc
• The craft requires writing, hearing, critiquing, and revising

Participants will complete a one-act play starting with an idea they bring to the first class and honed through writing exercises, group critique, and limited dramaturgy. Instruction will focus on the story arc, the influence of setting, and the play of dialogue within the unique “rules” for a one-act play. Students will be encouraged to send their finished script to a pre-selected play competition. **Participants are asked to read the one-act play Bus Riley’s Back in Town by William Inge and to bring a copy to the first class.**

Time: 11 am – 2 pm

Location:  Ben Franklin Academy-Emory

Fee: $175 /WTP Members $150

Registration Deadline: ASAP! See, it starts this Saturday and space is limited, so…

To reserve your space RSVP to Jill Patrick at managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com or call (404) 585-7695.

His play, A THOUSAND CIRCLETS, is a part of this summer’s Essential Theatre Play Festival, opening on June 30th. We are delighted that this fine work has its humble beginnings rooted in WTP’s Monday Night Critique Sessions and our On Demand Reading Series (ahem, mentioned way back in January 2010 right here in this very blog, as some of you may recall). You can catch its premiere performance on July 15th.

So here’s your takeaway: 1) Go see Theroun’s A THOUSAND CIRCLETS and 2) when you think about developing playwrights, think Working Title Playwrights. Our support can have a ripple effect.

The Liars Child by Sharon Mathis

A legacy of violence. Accusations, delusions, and lies. Is killing in the genes? A son must choose between parents, and do an unspeakable wrong for the right reason. In the nightmare of living with his act, Orestes discovers the truth about his family and a promise of peace.

Based on Aeschylus’ “Orestia”, the play is history told by the outsiders- women, children, and servants. As it unfolds inside Orestes’ head, time is fluid; the dead can resurrect; and the living become demons or gods. The story is as old as myth and as new as a dream.

With Joshua David Simpson, Betty Mitchell, Whitney Drury, Naima Carter-Russell, Nadir Mateen, Laura Carson, Sarah Keys Chang, Lauren Broussard, Neal Hazzard, David Fisher and Jared Foust. A talkback with the playwright immediately following the reading will be moderated by Pamela Turner, PhD., Regional Representative Dramatists Guild of America.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 3, 2011
WHERE: Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, Ga.
DIRECTIONS: http://academytheatre.org/Directions.asp
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
COST: WTP Members FREE / $5 requested donation all others

Susan V. Booth –Jennings Hertz, Jr. Artistic Director

Hey! Are you ready to explore the Director/Playwright relationship with Alliance Theatre Artistic Director Susan Booth?

Both from her own experiences as a director of new work, especially with playwrights over several productions, Booth is an expert on creating a rehearsal room that empowers   the playwright to do their best work and also ensures a great production.

At this special master class, Booth will also discuss playwright/director match making as a producer and give types for interviewing directors. Plenty of time for Q and A will be included. You don’t want to miss this, and space is limited, so get to enrolling! How? Email your intentions to managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com.

WHERE: Alliance Theatre 3rd Floor Black Box

WHEN:   4:30-6:00 p.m., Thursday, May 12, 2011
FEE:   WTP members $30, non-members $50

Susan V. Booth, (Jennings Hertz, Jr. Artistic Director) joined the Alliance Theatre in 2001. In the past nine seasons, she has initiated the Collision Project for teens, the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, and created local producing partnerships with Georgia Shakespeare, True Colors and the nine theatre companies that participated in the Alliance’s City Series.

She has also overseen regional collaborative productions with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Pasadena Playhouse, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, as well as commercial partnerships on projects including Come Fly Away; The Color Purple; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; SISTER ACT the Musical; Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring in Da’ Funk; Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL; and this season’s productions of Twist and Bring It On: The Musical.

As a director, Alliance projects have included Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL, Proof, Doubt, Day of the Kings, Intimate Apparel, Jacques Brel, Bluish and Frame 312, and she has directed nationally at theatres including Goodman, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Stage and Film, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre and many others.

She holds degrees from Denison and Northwestern universities and was a fellow of the National Critics Institute and the Kemper Foundation. She has held teaching positions at Northwestern and DePaul University and Emory University. She is a member of Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2003, has been cited as a Lexus Leader of the Arts by WABEFM, and has been named “Best New Visionary” by Atlanta Magazine and Best Local Director in the The Sunday Paper’s Readers Choice Awards and by Creative Loafing. She is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors for Theatre Communications Group (the national service organization for the field) and serves on the board of the Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition.

With Pamela Turner, Ph.D., Southeast Regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild of America and Artistic Director of multiShades.atlanta.

Theatres report the top three reasons for rejecting submissions are:

Plays are under-developed.

Plays are lacking in theatricality.

Plays are trite in subject matter.

Our Gonzo Approach to Playwriting remedy is applied over four consecutive work sessions that look at story, character, conflict, action, image, text and subtext for both dramatic and comedic plays, through writing exercises, group critique, “example mentoring” and the first public reading / feedback session of the 10-minute play you will write through the course of this series.

Work Sessions: May 4, 11, 18, 25  Public Reading: Monday, June 6

Time: 6:00-9:00 pm

Location: Ben Franklin Academy-Emory

Fees: $150 WTP members / $175 public

Registration: By April 30th, 2011 – Space is Limited
Contact Jill Patrick @ 404.585.7695 or email to managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com

Monday, April 18 -

A staged reading in WTP’s New Musical Theatre Development Series in cooperation with The Alliance Theatre Acting Program.  Book and lyrics by Vynnie Meli.  Music by Casey L. Filiaci.  Directed by Jim Sorensen.

With Lowrey Brown, Ingrid Cole, Natasha Drena, Koqunia LaTrice Forte, Nami Lavette, John Markowski, Marcie Millard, Glenn Rainey, Googie Uterhardt and more…

Open to public.
No reservations required.
7:00 p.m.
$5 suggested minimum donation at the door.

Photo by Greg Mooney

It’s not every day that Pearl Cleage, award winning playwright of Blues for an Alabama Sky and Flyin’ West, and New York Times best-selling author of Oprah book club selection What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, sits down with WTP and friends to share her wisdom. However, this Saturday, November 6^th, will be that extraordinary day—from 10:00 a.m. ‘til noon.

Yes!  Working Title Playwrights and The Alliance Theatre present a MASTERCLASS WITH PEARL CLEAGE. And you’re invited!

This will be a unique opportunity to learn about building your career as a playwright and the craft of playwriting from one of America’s greatest living talents, and Atlanta’s own, Pearl Cleage. Ms. Cleage’s newest play, The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years, may currently be seen at The Alliance Theatre.

The cost to you? $30 if you’re a WTP Affiliate. $50 if you’re among the general public. Payment is preferred in advance, but if you use your manners and ask politely, we’ll take it at the door. Repondez s’il vous plait to managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com to secure your space or request more details.