Public Readings Announced for Voices at the River
8/1/2010

VOICES AT THE RIVER

A New Play Development Program for Latino and African American Playwrights

JULY 14 - 17, 2010

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West 9th St, 3rd Floor, Downtown Little Rock

The Voices at the River playwrights’ residency program is a nationally competitive program designed to support the work of Latino and African American playwrights across the country and in Arkansas.

Plays to be developed during the Little Rock residency include new works by playwrights Augusto Federico Amador, La’Chris Jordan, Tearrance Chisholm, Elaine Romero, and Hendrix College student Michael Chavez.

Local actors will join actors from across the country for free public readings which will be held in the 3rd floor auditorium at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock. Reservations for the free public readings are encouraged, but not required, and can be made by contacting Sheridan Essman at sessman@therep.org or by calling The Rep Box Office at (501) 378-0405.

Readings are theatrical experiences where the focus is placed on the playwright’s words. Actors are seated with scripts in hand and staging, lights and costumes are downplayed in order to focus on the text itself. Arkansas audiences will have the unique opportunity to hear five new compelling plays read aloud for the very first time and to provide feedback to the creative team after the readings.

On Wednesday, July 14, Arkansas Repertory Theatre will also honor distinguished playwright Ed Bullins with the Voices at the River Legacy Award.

“Ed Bullins has made significant contributions to the American canon of dramatic literature. It’s an honor to recognize his creative spirit and artistic tenacity,” said Rajendra Maharaj, project director for Voices at the River and artistic director of New York City’s Rebel Theatre Company.

RSVP to the Legacy Awards dinner by contacting (501) 378-0445 or bhilkert@therep.org

PUBLIC SCHEDULE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 14

6:30 p.m. | Voices at the River II Legacy Award Dinner, William J. Clinton Presidential Center

Please join us in celebrating all our Voices at the River participants and the courageous achievement and creative spirit of Playwright Ed Bullins.

Ed Bullins is one of the most noteworthy playwrights to come from the Black Theatre movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout his career, he has worked with the New Lafayette Players, was the in-residence playwright for the American Place Theatre and was a staff member at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has written over 30 plays such as In the Wine Tine, Goin a Buffalo and the Taking of Miss Janie, as well as short stories, novels and poetry. He has won numerous awards, including an Obie Award, The Black Arts Alliance Award and the New York Drama Critics Award. He is currently the Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Northeastern University in Boston, where he was previously a professor.

Location: Great Hall, William J. Clinton Presidential Center

Tickets: $60 for Reception and Dinner (Reservations Required). Please RSVP to Bethany Hilkert at bhilkert@therep.org

FRIDAY, JULY 16

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West 9th St, 3rd Floor, Downtown Little Rock

6:00 p.m. | Free Public Reading of Liddy’s Sammiches, Potions and Baths by Tearrance Chisholm

Liddy’s Sammiches, Potions, and Baths is a play about the daughter of a sorceress who seeks to realize her identity through her deceased mother’s spell book. Teaching herself through her mother’s words, Liddy journeys to find the truth about the mother she never got a chance to know. This play lives in the south, on the border between reality and the fantastic, and explores how one begins to put together the ingredients to concoct the truth.

Tearrance Chisholm is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and a graduate from the University of Missouri Columbia with a degree in Fine Arts. A playwright and graphic artist, he feels that the theatre is a synthesis of both his passions. His works have been featured in the Mizzou New Play Series and Endstations Theatre’s New Playwrights Initiative, and he has worked closely with the Kennedy Center’s Playwrighting Intensive.

8:30 p.m. | Free Public Reading of Wetback by Elaine Romero

Tensions arise on the U.S./Mexican border as the Minuteman Militia hold rallies in the park and lobby to deny citizenship to the American-born children of undocumented workers. The play charts the intertwined fates of a privileged Latina high school principal and the Mexican undocumented worker she fires to protect her job. The irrevocable consequences of her choice force her to question her position in the community and herself.

Elaine Romero is the Playwright-in-Residence at the Arizona Theatre Company and has taught at Linfield College and the University of Arizona. Romero’s plays have been developed and produced at such theatres as Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Magic Theatre, the Ford Amphitheatre, New Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Urban Stages, INTAR, the Playwrights’ Center, Women’s Project and Productions, the Working Theater, Su Teatro, the Lark Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Borderlands Theater, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Miracle Theatre.

SATURDAY, JULY 17

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West 9th St, 3rd Floor, Downtown Little Rock

2:00 p.m. | Young Playwright Selection: Free Public Reading of Waking Up to You by Michael Chavez

Michael Chavez’s Waking Up to You is a comical view into the short-lived relationship of a college aged couple. The classic story of boy meets girl is turned upside down as the romance dissipates into a fog of memory.

6:00 p.m. | Free Public Reading of Solterona by Augusto Federico Amador

Maria is a solterona. A spinster. Unmarried and quickly becoming middle-aged, she struggles to find an independent life of her own while caring for her repressive mother, Delores.

Augusto Federico Amador was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Los Angeles, his work has been presented at the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater Projects, the Ricardo Montalban Theater, the John Anson Ford Theater and Playwrights Arena. In New York, his work has been presented at the Ensemble Studio Theater, Terra Nova Collective Theater, Repertorio Espanol and INTAR Theater. Currently, he is a member of the 2010 Emerging Writers group at the Public Theater in New York City.

8:30 p.m. | Free Public Reading of Roses in the Water by La’Chris Jordan

Life in the New Orleans Desire Housing Projects is not easy for Clarice. The dead end job, the drive-by shootings, and the constant struggle to pay the rent have all taken their toll and she wants out. With no other options, Clarice enlists in the U.S. Navy against her mother’s wishes. But will life in the military be any safer than life in the streets? A challenging and timely drama with sharp humor, Roses in the Water touches on the tough choices we are sometimes forced to make.

La’Chris Jordan is an award-winning playwright who was named one of the ‘50 to Watch’ by the Dramatists Guild of America. Roses in the Water recently received a staged reading at the award-winning off-Broadway theatre Urban Stages in New York as part of their New Works for a New Season reading series. Jordan is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and the Northwest Playwrights Alliance.

Voices at the River II is made possible with funding from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts.