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Fall 2010 Reading Series Staged readings are $10 to $20 sliding scale for non-members. Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010 Drapetomania In 1850s Louisiana, Dr. Samuel Adolphus Cartwright has the cure of what ails the slave's heart and mind. And with just the right sprinkling of God and Science, he – and he alone – will solve the mystery of a slave's wanton desire to escape his much beloved plantation. Richard Cartwright writes plays and short stories. He's currently writing The Blues House and Snitch, two plays in his six-play cycle about his hometown of Oakland, California. His play The Gilley Room had a staged reading at PCSF in May 2009. Thursday, Nov. 11 Intelligent Men Ask for Directions Patrick and his pregnant wife Lacy are kidnapped on their way home from the hospital. Patrick, a sensitive, intelligent man, must assert himself and evaluate his moral standing in order to save his baby, his wife and his liver. As a playwright and lyricist, Tom Bruett’s work has been produced at The Player’s Theatre, NJ Rep, ReGroup Theatre, the Mergatroyd Festival, and PianoFight, among others. He is currently a featured writer for the Shortened Attention Span Festival in NYC. Tom is currently the FutureWorks Fellow at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA. BFA Hartt School. For more information on Tom Bruett, check out www.TomBruett.com. Tuesday, Nov. 30 Love in the Time of Caller ID When Dennis' girlfriend, Julie, mistakenly takes his phone after a party, she finds a long list of women's numbers stored in it. To divert her suspicion from him, Dennis convinces his friend, Vincent, to tell Julie that she has his phone. But the complications are just beginning as more phone exchanges occur, and everyone's wireless wires get crossed. Love in the Time of Caller ID is a comedy in the classic tradition of mistaken identities, but updated for our time, when identities reside in hand held devices, and everyone is just one phone call away. After earning his Bachelor's Degree from UCLA's Playwrighting program in 1982, Rod McFadden took a brief hiatus (26 years) from writing. But in early 2009, he returned to writing full time, choosing to focus again on playwriting. He has completed half a dozen one-acts and one full-length play, with staged and developmental readings at Broadway West, Playwrights Center of SF, and Pacifica Table Readers. Rod serves on the Board of Directors for the Playwrights Center of SF, as well as teaches in the masters program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Thursday, Dec. 2 La Fee Verte When France bans absinthe in 1914, three addicts – a struggling poet, a depressed bartender, and a hypocritical priest – must deal with the consequences...and the Green Fairy isn't making things any easier. Set in a Parisian cafe, this full-length comedy explores the human need to find meaning in life. Bridgette Portman joined PCSF in Fall 2009. To paraphrase Chekhov, academics is her lawful husband, but writing is her paramour. Her first full-length play, The Widow of Sisyphus, received a staged reading through PCSF in Spring 2010. Her short comedies Necromance and Support Group for the Mortally Challenged have been staged by PianoFight Productions in San Francisco and Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha, NE, respectively. Thursday, Dec. 9 Home$ickness The housing bubble blew biggest in 2005. Bankers' accounts grew exponentially, homeowners' credit ratings plummeted. Appetites were insatiable as anything seemed possible. Everyone was in deep until ...POP! Actor/Writer/Director Jaene Leonard trained at David Mamet's Atlantic Theater in New York City. In NYC, she worked as contributing writer, head writer and actor in Yankee Rep's End of the Line. She produced and acted in an evening of her one-acts and a workshop production of Chic Band on NYC's Lower East Side. A scene from Chic Band was published in Smith & Kraus' Best Stage Scenes 2000. The first of her Arizona Plays Trilogy was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference in 2009. As Is - No Warranty, a play about the 80s heyday of the car business, received a staged reading last summer with the Berkshire Playwrights Lab. Tuesday, Dec. 14 Debt Debt is a dark comedy rooted in present day US economic, personal and social angst. Lawyers, failed actors, adulterers, and psychics battle over fish and cake to decide who will burn. In a society built on debt alone, love, finances, sex and dinner parties become trials in which everyone is a defendant. Elizabeth Hersh has had readings of her plays in Seattle, Arcata California and New York. She is currently an MFA student in Creative Writing at SF State. She works as both a writer and designer for collaborative ensemble generated pieces including: Mercy Ride with the Room of Our Own Project, Cussing at the Moon and Friend's Enemy with Nebunele Theatre, all of which premiered in Seattle. Other full length plays include: Amboy, Debris and Bad Hotel. Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011 Concepción Like a volcano, war simmers before it erupts—its aftermath lingering long after men have gathered to sign peace accords. In Concepción, the Castaneda women try desperately to continue their daily lives while their world disappears amidst the turmoil of conflict. Concepción and her patrón, Don Mario, bear witness to these women's lives. While one sees promise in the future, the other laments the death of the past. Mary Ann Rodgers is a local actor, director, and teacher. She will direct David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Rabbit Hole, for Ross Valley Players in the spring of 2011. This is her first play. Thursday, Jan. 13 The Lady Scribblers Few know that for a brief time in the 1690s, female playwrights dominated the London Stage. Filled with cross-dressing young women, rhyming couplets, sex, and combat, The Lady Scribblers imagines the events of those years when Mary Pix and other female playwrights led an Actors' Rebellion to create a new golden age for women and the Theatre. This historical comedy celebrates the best of 17th century English Comedy, and introduces you to some of the women you never knew were part of it. Michaela Goldhaber was Artistic Director of Flying Fig Theater in New York City from 2002-2008, during which time she produced eight plays about women's lives, three of which she directed. Since returning to the Bay Area, she has written two new plays. Michaela is a member of the Central Works Writers Group in Berkeley, and has studied playwriting with Gary Graves and Lisa D'Amour. Thursday, Jan. 20 Merchants The family business is collapsing. Can Mercedes' head-in-the-clouds performance art be merchandised to keep them all in the black? A performance artist must balance family obligations with her artistic integrity and the pull of the past. Susan Sobeloff's plays were performed in SF Theatre Festival, the Monday Night series at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco and as part of Woman's Will Playfest. Her plays also received staged readings with Butterfield 8 Theatre's New Work Series and at Berkeley's Central Works Theatre. Currently, Susan is a member of the Central Works writers group where she's in deep water with the mermaids of "Mermaidology." |