ScriptWorks

RUBY by Raul Garza
Sunday, January 28 at 6:30pm
Austin Playwrights Studio
5555 N. Lamar, Bldg. K, Ste. 125

Tapping virtual reality, vanguard brain doctor Belén seeks to reinvent brain trauma therapy. But is her unconventional approach a legitimate scientific advancement? Or just a cruel opportunity to play God? Incorporating science, the soul, magical realism, and poetry, Ruby leads us to ask, “Where should I be?” and “How can I get there?”

Raul Garza is an Austin-based writer who tells stories that resound with culture and sense of place. His full-length play Fantasmaville received the National Latino Playwriting Award, and earned a B. Iden Payne Award nomination for Outstanding Original Script. His short play MyHEB garnered FronteraFest 2015 Best of Fest recognition. Raul’s full length plays include Sanctuary, Cura, Confessions of a Mexpatriate, Ruby, There and Back, and El. His short story “In the Room” won the 2014 Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. “Running Bear” and “LeBaron” were cited for Honorable Mention by the 2017 and 2014 Texas Observer Short Story Contest. When not writing, Raul teaches yoga, devours pop culture, and serves as creative director of TKO Advertising.

FronteraFest is a five-week long performance festival that ScriptWorks co-produces with Hyde Park Theatre annually. We commission four pieces for the Short Fringe, which appear weekly on Weds. nights. Every year, several of our members are involved in FronteraFest. Below are the members who are taking part this year. For the full festival line-up and to purchase tickets visit Hyde Park Theatre.

SHORT FRINGE

We just celebrated our 20th Anniversary Season! Check out this video to learn about our journey.

Three for FronteraFest
Sunday, December 17 at 6:30pm
Austin Playwrights Studio
5555 N. Lamar, Bldg. K, Ste. 125

THE LINKLATER QUESTION by C. M. Gill
Is the idea of “true love” a bullshit fairy tale that can’t possibly survive the harsh realities of time and “everyday” life? Or, can we truly and deeply connect romantically with another person and stay in love with – and steaming hot for – them year after year after year? These and other questions are up for debate in The Linklater Question. Yes, that Linklater. His Before movies are just too damn thought provoking to ignore, so, really, he had this coming, but, what with the soul searching, puns, and humor that will ensue, perhaps what we’ll have is an homage. Or, perhaps not. You decide . . .

C. M. Gill is a playwright, novelist, and writing instructor living in Austin, TX.  When she’s not writing or teaching, she can be found about town hiking the Greenbelt, playing board games with her nephews, or attempting to play the flute.  Her pug, Dempsey, wants to know where the hell she goes every day without him, and her cat, Oberon, predicts she’ll obey more of his royal edicts in 2018…

TEXAS BOOK OF BEASTS by Jeff Irvin
Series of extremely short skits dealing with gnats, gnus, bats, okra, raccoons, quail, pickups, skinks, javelina, daddy-long-legs, burghers, toads, ocelots, shoats, warts, mosquitoes, Neiman Marcus, diaramas, and minnows.

Jeff Irvin is the author of The Sword in the Styrofoam, a series of three melodramas published by IE Clark that have been performed all over the US (and even once in Australia).  There was a reading of a full length version of the current Short Fringe Play at ScriptWorks in 2016.

MEAT by Sean Sweeney

A man cooks meat for his girlfriend who refuses to eat it.

Sean Sweeney is new member of ScriptWorks and is participating in his first FronteraFest.

The Weekend Fling is ScriptWorks’ annual 48-hour playwriting event where members use their incurable writing habit to create a ten-minute play in 48 hours.   Muses are provided in the form of three rules/elements that MUST appear in the play.  The Fling is FREE, but you must be current (or get current) on your member dues to participate and put your play into consideration for Out of Ink.  The Fling is happening in cyberspace this year and the ingredients will be emailed to all members around 6 pm. You do not have to live in Austin to participate or have your play produced in Out of Ink.

FLING SALON
Sun, November 19, 5:30 pm-?
Gather at the Austin Playwrights Studio* to read the fruits of your fling!  To be read, your play must be typed, and NO MORE than 10-minutes long (a timer will be used), and you must bring the appropriate number of copies for actors and stage directions.  In addition to snacks and wine, SW will provide a company of actors and casting will happen on the spot.

*Austin Playwrights Studio (aka Warren’s place) is in the office park behind Half-Price Books on North Lamar, 5555 N. Lamar, Bldg. K, Ste. 125.  The best place to enter is from the back side of the Half Price Books complex. Go south on Guadalupe from Koenig and take the 4th driveway on your right.  There’ll be a building with a red awning on your left that says 5426 on it. Continue on and look for Bldg. K on the right.  The door to the space says Suites K 123-126, so you won’t see the actual suite number from the parking lot. If you have trouble, call Christi at 512-589-4055.

FINDING OUT by Jason Rainey
Sunday, October 29 at 6:30pm
Austin Playwrights Studio
5555 N. Lamar, Bldg. K, Ste. 125*

In this full-length play, friends in their 20s grapple with newfound puzzles of adulthood—careers, apartments, sickness, and self-exploration (both the physical and emotional kinds). What they find out is that the answers are not nearly as important as the questions, especially when all they need is a game of Connect Four to restore order.

Jason Rainey has been a member of ScriptWorks for almost ten years. This is his first Salon reading.

*Austin Playwrights Studio is in the office park behind Half-Price Books on North Lamar, 5555 N. Lamar, Bldg. K, Ste. 125. The best place to enter is from the back side of the Half Price Books complex. Go south on Guadalupe from Koenig and take the 4th driveway on your right. There’ll be a building with a red awning on your left that says 5426 on it. Continue on and look for Bldg. K, the second building on the right. The door to the space says Suites K 123-126, so you won’t see the actual suite number from the parking lot. If you have trouble, call Christi at 512-589-4055.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN MOVED TO SEPTEMBER 26TH!

FRONTERAFEST 101
A primer in self-producing for the fringe
A workshop taught by Christina J. Moore

Tuesday, September 26, 7:30 – 9:30pm
Hyde Park Theatre
511 W. 43rd St.

COST:
$5 SW members; $10 general

INFO/RESERVATIONS:
512.454.9727; info@scriptworks.org

or pre-register here

The FronteraFest 101 workshop, led by ScriptWorks Executive Artistic Director and FronteraFest Producer Christina J. Moore, will guide participants through the process of preparing a piece for FronteraFest. From resources for finding actors, directors, and rehearsal space to the ins and outs of the technical rehearsal, we’ll cover it all.

CHRISTINA J. MOORE is a director and producer whose work has been seen at The State Theatre, Zach Scott, Mary Moody Northen Theater, Vortex, Capitol City Playhouse, Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre, Different Stages, and ScriptWorks (formerly Austin Script Works), which she helped found in 1997. FronteraFest 2018 will mark her seventeenth year as producer of the festival under the joint enterprise of Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks.

The AUSTIN ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns for its fourth year, in partnership with ScriptWorks. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by 40 of Austin’s established and emerging playwrights and directors plays four performances only as a Series A/B schedule. Series A: Sunday, August 27^th & Monday, August 28^th at 8pm and Series B: Tuesday, August 29^th & Wednesday, August 30^th at 8pm.  All performances are at Hyde Park Theatre (511 W 43^rd St, Austin, TX, 78751).

Tickets, priced at $20, are available here:

(Enjoy a $5 discount if you buy tickets for both series in the same transaction)

The 4^th ANNUAL AUSTIN ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL will feature brand new one-minute plays by:

SERIES A:

Kimberly Belflower, Allison Orr Block, James Burnside, Katherine Catmull, Martha Lynn Coon, Jenny Connell Davis, Trey Deason, Amparo Garcia-Crow, Charlie Gill, Aimée Gonzalez, Ava Love Hanna, Christine Hoang, Julie Holden, Kirk Lynn, Tristan Mercado, Nadine Mozon, Candyce Rusk, Sarah Saltwick, Eva Suter, and Anne Maria Wynter.

Directed by Jenny Connell Davis, Marian Kansas, Ellie McBride, Elizabeth V. Newman, and Brandon Sterrett.

SERIES B:

Rita Anderson, John Boulanger, Raul Garza, Tyler Kosmak, Lindsey Lane, Max Langert, Daria Miyeko Marinelli, Paz Pardo, Jason Rainey, Nettie Reynolds, Sheila Lynch Rinear, Jelisa Jay Robinson, Greg Romero, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Hank Schwemmer, Lisa B. Thompson, Megan Thornton, Cindy Vining, and Jennine DOC Wright. 

Directed by Delanté Keys, Christina J. Moore, Patti Neff-Tiven, Jess Shoemaker, and Brianna Smith.

(bolding indicates SW members)

THE ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) is America’s largest and longest running grass roots theatre company, founded by Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D’Andrea . #1MPF is a social barometer project which investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue, consensus building, and a performance of 50-100 short moments generated by each community. #1MPF works in partnership with theatres and/or social organizations sharing playwright, educational, or community-specific missions across the country. #1MPF represents playwrights of different age, gender, race, cultures, and points of career. The work attempts to reflect the theatrical landscape of local artistic communities by creating a dialogue between the collective conscious and the individual voice.

In each city, #1MPF works with partnering organizations to identify programs or initiatives in each community to support with the proceeds from ticket sales. Supported programs have ranged from educational programming, youth poetry projects, theatre programs in prisons, playwright residencies and memberships, playwrights salaried commissions, community access projects, arts workshops and other social and artistic initiatives.

Annual partnerships have been created with theaters in over 20 cities including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Trenton, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, Anchorage, Honolulu, St. Louis and more, with partnering institutions including Primary Stages, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New Georges at New York City Center, Z-Space, A.C.T., Trinity Rep, Victory Gardens Theater, Cornerstone Theatre Company, The aPlaywrights Foundation, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Actor’s Express, InterAct Theatre, Mixed Blood, Walking Shadow Theatre, Passage Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Salvage Vanguard & ScriptWorks,  ACT Seattle, Perseverance Theatre, Round House Theatre, Honolulu Theatre For Youth and others.

Notable #1MPF contributors have included: David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Neil LaBute, Tina Howe, Donald Margulies, Nilaja Sun, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Robert Schenkkan, Lydia Diamond, Phillip Kan Gotanda, Kristoffer Diaz, Rajiv Joseph, Samuel D. Hunter, Karen Hartman, Robert Askins, Colman Domingo, José Rivera, Craig Lucas, Mike Daisey, Greg Kotis, Michael John Garcés and over to 1400 celebrated, emerging, and midcareer playwrights.  For more information visit: www.oneminuteplayfestival.com