online!

Playhouse Hosts 18th Annual
2008
New Works Festival


Four original, full-length plays selected from those submitted to the 2008 Long Beach Playhouse 18th Annual New Works Festival will be given DIRECTED, STAGED READINGS this Spring. The FESTIVAL is part of the Playhouse’s ongoing commitment to help established and emerging PLAYWRIGHTS develop new work.  To date, 16 NEW WORKS have evolved from STAGED READINGS into FULL PRODUCTIONS at the Playhouse.
The STAGED READINGS will be held at the

Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage Theatre
5021 East Anaheim Street
Long Beach, CA 90804

There is a suggested donation of $5.00 with a post-performance discussion. The PLAYWRIGHTS receive written critiques by three renowned DRAMA CRITICS, a videotape of the READING, an HONORARIUM, and consideration for a full production.

The READINGS are scheduled for the last SATURDAY of the month:
PERFORMANCE & DISCUSSION: 2—5 PM

Suggested donation: $5.00

MARCH 29, 2008
APRIL 26, 2008
MAY 31, 2008
JUNE 28, 2008

These four plays were selected for the 2008 readings:
#1 - Aging with Grace by Frank Farmer
Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 2pm
Directed by Jo Black-Jacob
The daughter of a retired screenwriter convinces her widowed father to sell his beachfront home in the Florida Keys and move into a retirement community. He balks when he discovers that the buyer is the widow of an influential film critic who wrote scathing reviews of his work. As escrow closes, he refuses to move out even as Grace Murdock moves in. It's a rocky relationship that challenges the notion that you're never too old to find true love...again.
 
#2 - Beastly Beauty by Paco Jose Madden
Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 2pm
Directed by Darlene Hunter Chaffee
An intelligent and virtuous young woman whose face is horribly disfigured vies for the love and affection of a handsome prince against her vain and beautiful sister.  Set against the backdrop of an aristocratic court on the eve of the French Revolution, Beastly Beauty tells the story of beauty that is more than skin deep.
 
#3 - Acceptable Risk by Paula Fell
Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 2pm
Directed by Caprice Spencer Rothe
An Economic Comedy: John hasn't told his wife Rene that he borrowed money from a shark-- but then Lou shows up to "help" him pay it back. Lou is one of those hyphenated types: Financial Planner-Hitman.
 
#4- The Jesus Hickey by Luke Yankee
Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 2pm
Directed by Luke Yankee
This modern day fable about the seduction of celebrity funneled through the window of religious fanaticism is funny, bawdy, outrageous, and touching. The life of an impoverished Irish family is irrevocably changed when the daughter goes "down to the embankment" with a young man. Though she's been warned repeatedly about what happens to girls who do, no one could have foretold what could happen when the love bite on her neck appears in the image of Christ.
 

2008        18TH ANNUAL NEW WORKS FESTIVAL FINALISTS

PLAY PLAYWRIGHT
Acceptable Risk Paula Fell
Assisted Living Rich Rubin
Aziza Damon Chua
Beggar at the Feast Mary Fengar Gail
Black Men Smile at Me Kirsten Fatland
The Funniest Joke in the World Gavin Kayner
It was Never the Czar Warren Holleman
The Rigors of Happenstance Richard Martin Hirsch
Separation Anxiety Jeremy Sony
The Sing Sing Suite Jay Huling
The Quality of Light, by Richard Martin Hirsch,  which was given a staged reading in the March, 2005—15th Annual New Works Festival, had its WORLD PREMIERE, directed JO BLACK-JACOB,  at LBPH March, 2006, and received CRITICS PICK in Backstage West,
  PICK OF THE WEEK in the LA Times and LA Weekly,
and an OVATION NOMINATION for BEST NEW PLAY of 2006!
  In March, 2007, Backstage West Garland Awards gave Hirsch as playwright, and D. J. Harner and Patrick Rafferty as Lead Actors
HONORABLE MENTION.
For more information about the New Works Festival, send inquiries to:

Jo Black-Jacob, New Works Director
Long Beach Playhouse
5021 East Anaheim Street
Long Beach, CA 90804

562–494–1014 Ext. 507
Information about the Festival and Play Submission Forms (either PDF or Word) can be obtained from the Playhouse Playsubmit page on the website at www.LBPH.com or call the Playhouse.