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.

There will be a talkback with the playwright immediately following the reading. This series is made possible through a grant from the Hellen Ingram Plummer Charitable Foundation.

Tickets are $10 at the door or available for purchase online. Call (404) 949-7160 or email rsvp<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com.

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! 

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.

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.

Again, please keep your message brief — example:
Subject: Support HB1049
Message: With strong bi-partisan support, please help us get HB 1049 on an upcoming agenda for the Rules Committee.  Support HB1049 this year because it provides our county with an economic development tool kit that will not only stabilize the cultural industry but will support a range of economic development initiatives so desperately needed in our own community.

Members of the Rules Committee:
Jan Jones (R, Fulton)
Email -jan.jones@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5072

Bill Hembree (R, Douglas County)
Email -bill.hembree@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5141

Jerry Keen (R, Glynn County)
Email -jerry.keen@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5052

Edward Lindsey (R, Fulton)

Email -  edward.lindsey@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5024

James Mills (R, Hall County)
Email – james.mills@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5099

Wendell Willard (R, Fulton County)
Email -wendell.willard@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5125

Terry Barnard (R, Evans, Liberty & Tattnaill Counties)
Email -terry.barnard@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5138

Tim Bearden (R, Carroll & Douglas Counties)
Email -tim.bearden@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0287

Tommy Benton (R, Barrow, Hall & Jackson Counties)
Email -tommy.benton@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0177

Mark Burkhalter (R, Fulton County)
Email – mark.burkhalter@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7146

David Casas (R, Gwinnett County)
Email – david.casas@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0254

Jill Chambers (R, DeKalb County)
Email – jill.chambers@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.3949

Mickey Channell (R, Greene, Oglethorpe, Putnam& Wilkes Counties)
Email -mickey.channell@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7856

Mike Coan (R, Gwinnett County – Lawrenceville)
Email -repcoan@charter.net

Phone – 404.656.6801

Jim Cole (R, Jasper, Jones, Lamar and Monroe Counties)
Email – jim@votecole.com

Phone – 404.651.7737

Sharon Cooper (R, Cobb County)
Email – sharon.cooper@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5069

Katie Dempsey (R, Floyd)
Email -

katie.dempsey@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0213

Karla Drenner (D, DeKalb)
Email – dren16999@aol.com

Phone – 404.656.0202

Earl Ehrhart (R, Cobb County)
Email -earl@ehrhart.4emm.com

Phone – 404.463.2247

Gerald Greene (D, Calhoun, Clay, Early, Miller, Randolph & Seminole Counties)
Email – gerald.greene@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0314

Bob Hanner (D, Chattahoochee, Lee, Quitman, Stewart, Terrell & Webster Counties)
Email – bob.hanner@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7859

Carolyn Hugley (D, Muscogee County)
Email – carolyn.hugley@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5058

Mike Jacobs (R, DeKalb County)
Email – repjacobs@comcast.net

Phone – 404.656.0152

John Lunsford (R, Butts, Henry & Newton Counties)
Email - john.lunsford@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0213

Judy Manning (R, Cobb County)
Email – judy.manning@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7857

Fran Millar (R, DeKalb County)
Email – fran.millar@wellsfargo.com

Phone – 404.656.5064

Greg Morris (R, Emanuel, Montgomery, Toombs, Treutlen & Wheeler Counties)
Email – greg.morris@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.657.8441

Howard Mosby (D, DeKalb & Henry Counties)
Email – howard.mosby@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0287

Butch Parrish (R, Bulloch, Candler, Emanuel and Johnson Counties)
Email – larry.parrish@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.463.2247

DuBose Porter (D, Johnson & Laurens Counties)
Email – dubose.porter@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5058

Nikki Randall (D, Bibb County)
Email – nikki.randall@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0109

Tom Rice (R, Fulton & Gwinnett Counties)

Email – tom.rice@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5912

Jay Roberts (R, Ben Hill, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Telfair, Tift & Wheeler Counties)
Email – jay.roberts@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7153

Austin Scott (R, Tift & Turner Counties)
Email – austin.scott@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0188

Jay Shaw (D, Berrien, Clinch, Lanier & Lowndes Counties)
Email – jay.shaw@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7859

Donna Sheldon (R, Gwinnett County)
Email – donna.sheldon@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5025

Bob Smith (R, Clarke, Morgan Oconee & Oglethorpe Counties)
Email – bob.smith@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.0126

Lynn Smith (R, Coweta and Heard Counties)
Email – lynn.smith@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.7149

Calvin Smyre (D, Muscogee County)
Email – calvinsmyre@synovus.com

Phone – 404.656.0116

Ron Stephens (R, Chatham, Liberty  & Bryan Counties)
Email – ron.stephens@house.ga.gov

Phone – 404.656.5099

Len Walker  (R, Gwinnett & Walton Counties)
Email – lwalker107@gmail.com

Phone – 404.656.5146

You support a strong, vibrant arts community in Georgia, don’t you? Well, here’s a great chance to demonstrate this in a tangible and most important way. Thank you in advance!

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.

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.

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.

Over the past year, the loss of their mother, as well as life in general, has worn their facades thin, tested them for durability and come up shaky. Esther’s children no longer know where the edge is, putting carefully shaped, colored and secreted soul wounds at risk of exposure. Curiously, the most estranged of the four is in motion while the leader of the pack is in stasis. They need one another, but will they be able to end their internecine childhood wars and put the future in their sails? Or, as Salman Rushdie writes in the opening lines to The Satanic Verses:

“To be born again,” sang Gabriel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Tat-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you will not cry?”

A talkback with the playwright moderated by Betty Hart will follow the reading.

For reservations or more information, please call (404) 441-2716 or e-mail to managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com.

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.

DIVIDED AMONG THEMSELVES starts when four sisters meet in their father’s rent-controlled apartment for what they think will be the reading of their father’s will. Instead of being final, the father’s will gives the women one hour to work it out on their own, requiring them to come together in a way they never have before. Limited by time and history, the sisters struggle to find middle ground. Each has led her life differently, and, while trying to figure out what’s best, their views of life diverge, clash, and change.

As the eldest (a rabbi) tries to hold the family together, the second eldest (a real estate developer) is out to destroy. The decision hangs in the balance of the two youngest sisters: a seriously-in-debt tennis pro; and a torn spiritualist. As the grandfather clock proceeds to the fatal hour, the lines between measured compromise and ruthless self-interest begin to blur.
We hope to see you tonight, Monday, March 1, 2010, 7:30 p.m. at Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, GA.
DIRECTIONS: http://academytheat re.org/Directions.asp
PRICE: $10 tickets at door. Reservations requested. 404.441.2716 or e-mail to managing<at>workingtitleplaywrights.com.

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.

Divided Among Themselves starts when four sisters meet in their father’s rent-controlled apartment for what they think will be the reading of their father’s will.  Instead being final, the father’s will gives the women one hour to work it out on their own, requiring them to come together in a way they never have before. Limited by time and history, the sisters struggle to find middle ground. Each has led her life differently, and, while trying to figure out what’s best, their views of life diverge, clash, and change.

As the eldest (a rabbi) tries to hold the family together, the second eldest (a real estate developer) is out to destroy. The decision hangs in the balance of the two youngest sisters: a seriously-in-debt tennis pro; and a torn spiritualist. As the grandfather clock proceeds to the fatal hour, the lines between measured compromise and ruthless self-interest begin to blur.

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.
WHEN: Monday, March 1, 2010, 7:30 p.m. \
WHERE: Academy Theatre, 119 Center St., Avondale Estates, Ga.
DIRECTIONS: http://academytheatre.org/Directions.asp
PRICE: $10 tickets at door.  Reservations requested. 404.441.2716 or e-mail to

managing@workingtitleplaywrights.com

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.  The 2010 Ethel Woolson Lab recipient(s) will be announced at the end of Hank Kimmel’s DIVIDED AMONG THEMSELVES.

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