What It Is
Dragon Productions' Artist in Residence, Jeffrey Lo, will produce three staged readings of plays written by Bay Area playwrights in 2012. The New Play Development Factory seeks to provide an opportunity for local playwrights to hear their new work out loud and to give them time to continue to develop their piece throughout the festival.
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Three full-length new works will have staged readings at the three-week festival, which runs from April 17 to May 6th, 2012. The selected plays will have one staged reading each week of the festival with time for the playwrights to fine tune their piece in between each reading. Each play will get their own director and cast of local talent from throughout the Bay Area. The new works will be directed by up and coming local directors Jeffrey Lo, Cara Phipps, and Heather Noelle Robinson. The playwrights will be on hand at each performance to take audience feedback and discuss their writing process.
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Final Selections Chosen
The New Play Development Factory has chosen the three plays that will be a part of their inaugural festival. Hosted by Palo Alto’s Dragon Productions Theatre, the New Play Development Factory will workshop three original plays by three Bay Area playwrights over a three-week period. Each play is developed with a director and actors who will rehearse and perform a staged reading of the piece at the end of each week of the festival. After each performance, the playwrights will take what they heard during the reading, as well as audience feedback, and will further refine the piece for the following weekend’s reading.
“We’ve tried to set up the New Play Development Factory in a way that puts the focus on the playwrights and what they need to take their work to the next level,” said NPDF producer Jeffrey Lo. “The festival really embodies the Bay Area’s commitment to supporting work from our local artists. Our plan is to make this an annual festival that Bay Area playwrights can rely on as a vehicle for their work.”
The New Play Development Factory’s staged readings will be performed at the Dragon Theatre in downtown Palo Alto on the following days:
Friday, April 20th @ 8pm –
Don’t Be Evil
Friday, April 27th @ 8pm -
Intelligent Men Ask For Directions
Friday, May 4th @ 8pm –
Astonishment
Saturday, April 21st @ 8pm -
Intelligent Men Ask For Directions
Saturday, April 28th @ 8pm -
Astonishment
Saturday, May 5th @ 8pm -
Don’t Be Evil
Sunday, April 22nd @ 2pm -
Astonishment
Sunday, April 29th @ 2pm -
Don’t Be Evil
Sunday, May 6th @ 2pm -
Intelligent Men Ask For Direction
Bennett Fisher's Don't Be Evil directed by Heather Noelle Robinson
In a dark comedy about information technology and advanced interrogation techniques, a computer programmer is arrested after the search engine he designs gives a disquieting answer to an ethical question.
Evelyn Jean Pine's Astonishment Directed by Cara Phipps
In 1895 Paris, the patrons of the Grand Café are shocked by the demonstration of the first motion picture: a train arriving at a station. Maxim, a millionaire, decides to give all his money away. Paul, an anti-materialist poet, decides to masquerade as a wealthy investor. Jeanne, a pregnant housemaid, decides to get rid of her baby and become a telephone operator. And Marcelle, Maxim’s paramour, decides to conjure up a baby out a montage of stories, photographs, postcards and bills.
Tom Bruett's Intelligent Men Ask for Directions Directed by Jeffrey Lo
A raucous comedy about deviance, in 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.
Honorable Mention:
Like Poetry by Kristian O’Hare
Bones by Ross Peter Nelson
Tickets are $10 per show or $27 for a three-pack and will be available online shortly.
