ScriptWorks

$10 BOY by Allison Orr Block
Sunday, May 20th at 6:30 pm
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St.

On September 17, 1976, a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer. Shortly afterward, a grand jury found the policeman to be innocent of criminal charges, deeming the boy’s death accidental. In a pursuit for justice and an attempt to change the ways of a small police department in Morrow, Georgia, the boy’s father sought the help of W. Fred Orr II, a civil trial attorney (and the playwright’s father). Surprisingly, the suit took two trials for a jury to come to a decision – devastating both the boy’s father and his attorney. Haunted by the trial her father would never discuss, Baby dives into a journey to understand how the outcome came to be. In her discovery, she finds evidence of a fragile justice system, fake news and a father that loved her more than she knew. Part documentary theatre, $10 BOY is a compilation of trial depositions, courtroom transcripts, interviews, letters, Facebook posts, and the playwright’s conversations with her deceased father.

Allison Orr Block holds two theatre degrees: a B. A. in Theatre Performance from California State University, Northridge and an M.F.A. in Drama / Theatre for Youth from The University of Texas at Austin. As a playwright, Allison has had productions in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Austin, and New York City. Allison first became a member of ScriptWorks in 1998! She has received Seed Support funding for two projects: Lizelle and $10 Boy.

PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, THE START OF THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FRIDAY, MAY 18. 

An Online Workshop with Caridad Svich
Five weeks: May 18-June 15 
Cost: $200 General/$150 ScriptWorks Members
 
Nationally recognized playwright Caridad Svich, of Salvage Vanguard Theatre’s Fugitive Pieces, Thrush, and Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (a rave fable), guides you through a group and individual writing process to write a fast first draft of a new play in five weeks.
 
Open yourself to diving into character work and structuring new writing, reading different models and applying them to thinking about live performance using methodology geared toward creative visualization, dreaming and re-mapping dramaturgical strategies for the stage.

Enrollment is limited, so claim your spot today right HERE! (Payment plan available. Contact us!)
 
ABOUT CARIDAD SVICH:
 
Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement. She is a playwright, translator, lyricist, poet, essayist, editor and educator. Her plays have been seen across the US and abroad. Among them are Iphigenia Crash Land Falls…, The House of the Spirits, Jarman (all this maddening beauty) and De Troya, which premiered at Cara Mia Theatre in Dallas last spring. Her play Red Bike is the recipient of a 2018 NNPN Rolling World PremiereShe is editor of three books published by TCG: Audience Revolution, Innovation in Five Acts and Out of the Fringe as well as volumes from Manchester University Press, Smith & Kraus, Eyecorner Press and more. Visit her at www.caridadsvich.com
 

Tuesday, May 8, 7-10pm
Ground Floor Theatre, 979 Springdale Rd.

$40 General/$25 ScriptWorks members
Purchase Admission HERE

KJ Sanchez, founder and CEO of American Records and author of documentary plays such as ReEntry and X’s and O’s will conduct a three-hour workshop on documentary play-making. She will cover identifying your subject, interview techniques, and models for script development and production.

ABOUT KJ Sanchez:
KJ is the founder and CEO of American Records, dedicated to making theater that chronicles our time, theater that serves as a bridge between people. She is also an Associate Professor at UT Austin and head of the MFA Directing program.
She is the director, co-author and producer of ReEntry, which has been performed at theaters across the country as well as over 50 military bases and hospitals in the US and abroad, the author of X’s and O’s, a documentary about American Football and is currently writing a documentary play about the US Refugee Resettlement Program. As a playwright, KJ’s been produced at (select list) Berkeley Rep, Playmakers Rep, Asolo Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theater Company, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Frontera Rep, Round House, Cornerstone Theater Company and Off-Broadway at Urban Stages and Here Arts. Her plays are published by Playscripts.com. KJ has directed across the country, including Off-Broadway. As an actor KJ performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and internationally including the Toga-Mura Festival in Japan and the IberoAmericano Festival in Bogota, Columbia. (She is also the voice of many characters on the cartoons Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go.) KJ is a Fox Fellow, Douglass Wallop Fellow, and a recipient of the 2014 Rella Lossy Playwright Award and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Career Development Program. She is an Associate Artist with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Civilians in New York as well as a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect.

ScriptWork’s 20th Annual Ten-Minute Play Showcase
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St.
April 26-28 and May 3-5, 2018 at 8 PM
Tickets:  $16 general admission, $14 students/seniors/ScriptWorks
April 26 is a Pay-What-You-Wish preview

RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION HERE

Mementos of long-lost loves, articles of clothing, a painting, and the brain of a deceased president are a few of the lost things to be found in this year’s Out of Ink production thanks to one of the three contributed rules or ingredients used to write the plays. ScriptWorks members employed these elements to create their ten-minute masterpieces over 48 hours during the Weekend Fling.

In honor of ScriptWorks’ 20th Anniversary Season and the 20th Out of Ink, we enlisted our original rule-contributors to reprise their roles this year. Casting director Vicky Boone, Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires, and playwright Sherry Kramer provided the following ingredients:

1) An object lost 20 years ago is found.
2) At least one character must experience a reversal of fortune.
3) The play must include a folk dance.

At the end of the Weekend Fling, the plays were read in a ScriptWorks Salon at the Austin Playwrights Studio.  A selection committee chose eight plays for production in Out of Ink, from the thirty-two plays that were submitted.  The committee was comprised of non-applying ScriptWorks members Stephen Bittrich and Sheila Lynch Rinear, and lighting designer Jennifer Rogers.

The Lost & Found scripts were written by:
Robin Anderson, Martha Lynn Coon, Pelita Dasalla, Ava Love Hanna, Max Langert, Sandy Maranto, Briandaniel Oglesby, and Megan Thornton.  The plays will be performed by an ensemble of actors including David Barrera, Roxy Becker, Karina Dominguez, David DuBose, Matrex Kilgore, Cherry Mendoza, Mindy Rast-Keenan, Jaime Romero (aka Althea Trix), Taji Senior, Nguyen Stanton, Rommel Sulit, and Vincent Tomasino. They’ll be directed by Ellie McBride, Christina J. Moore, Rudy Ramirez, and Sharon Sparlin. Designers for the project are Lowell Bartholomee, Pam Friday, and Patti Neff-Tiven.

EVERYTHING’S GOING TO BE OKAY by Max Langert
Sunday, April 29 at 6:30pm
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St.

Rebecca, a woman in her 70s, finds a savagely wounded young man in her living room one day, and promptly calls her old flame to ask him to come over and do something about it. When he arrives and nonchalantly covers the body with a blanket, Rebecca asks him what he’s been up to and why he brought a bottle of wine.

This is a play about relationships, about loss, about the triviality of everyday interactions, about ice cream, about loneliness, and about what makes a place feel like home.

Max Langert has had plays produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Nashville. He’s a regular participant in FronteraFest and has been a featured storyteller at Testify, Austin Bat Cave and Listen To Your Mother. He’s got cute, wacky kids, enjoys cloudy weather, and writes ScriptWorks’ weekly newsletter.

THE EVOLUTION OF DARWIN by Steve Warren
Sunday, March 25 at 6:30pm
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd. St.

In this romantic comedy, an unsuccessful playwright suddenly finds success when he secretly adapts a woman’s real-life failing marriage for the stage, but when he develops feelings for this woman, he must choose between her and his writing career.

A former Navy pilot and high school English teacher, Steve Warren now dedicates his time to writing for stage and screen.  His play REBEL YELLS, winner of Northern Kentucky University’s YES Festival, has been produced in nine theatres across the country and was nominated for 11 Austin Circle of Theatre Awards.  GONE TO TEXAS, the musical for which he wrote the book, has been produced multiple times in several Texas theatres and was given a reading at New York’s York Theatre.

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

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.