Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice, a festival of ten-minute plays by Austin Script Works members

  • May 12, 13, 14 & 16 @ 8pm, and Sun. May 15 @ 3pm
  • Blue Theater, 916 Springdale Road (map)
  • $12 – general; $10 – Student/Senior/ACoT/ASW
  • information/reservations: 512-454-9727 or via email at (info -at- scriptworks.org)

In Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice, chalk is cheap, life is precious, and love just may be about to fall on your head. Austin Script Works offers you eight plays in a showcase of regional playwriting talent.


Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice is our seventh annual ten-minute play festival, producing works selected from submissions created during a wild 48-hour writing retreat, called the Weekend Fling, sponsored by Austin Script Works. During the Fling, writers are given three rules and two days to write their hearts out and create a ten-minute play.

This year, each play had to include:

  1. chalk;
  2. a broken expectation; and
  3. the Chinese proverb, “Talk doesn’t cook rice.”

These ingredients were graciously provided by current Michener Center faculty member Alice Tuan ; SITI Company member J. Ed Araizo ; and Zach Scott Artistic Director Dave Steakley.

This year’s selection committee culled eight scripts from the submissions. The selection committee included Alley Theatre Resident Dramaturg Amy Steele, Pro-Arts Artistic Director Boyd Vance, and (non-submitting) Core members Cyndi Williams and Skipper Chong Warson.

Part of Austin Script Works "Out of Ink" Series, Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice features scripts by member playwrights Lowell Bartholomee, Abi Basch, Vicki Cheatwood, Deni Krueger, Isabella Russell-Ides, Steven Salzman, Hank Schwemmer, and C. Denby Swanson.

Austin Script Works is a playwright-driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and protect the writer’s integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. The "Out of Ink" series was initiated to give the general public a chance to experience the finest dramatic writing coming out of Austin Script Works and to heighten the visibility of member writers in the local theatre community. Austin Script Works is funded in part by the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission, the Austin Writer’s League, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Marchbanks Family Foundation and private donors.

For more information contact: C. Denby Swanson or Christi Moore at 512.454.9727 or via email at (info -at- scriptworks.org).