3rd Annual GreenHouse New Play Festival

 

Mentions/Awards/Kudos:

HotCity acquires new annual sponsor of the new play festival events:

 

Fox Charitable Performing Arts Foundation will be offering a $3000 yearly grant to support new play programming.

Critics' Reviews

Reported by Sarah Boslaugh - KDHX

The GreenHouse New Play Festival, presented by HotCity Theatre at the Centene Center this past weekend, included some of the most interesting theatre performed in St. Louis this year. Five new plays, chosen from over 300 submissions, were presented in staged readings to an involved and theatrically-savvy audience, who did not hesitate to share their suggestions and criticisms during the talkback sessions which followed each performance. Cockeyed by William Missouri Downs was selected as the Festival winner: it will be given another staged reading this fall, after an intensive 10-day workshop, and will also be presented in a full production as part of the 2009 HotCity Mainstage season.

The other finalists were Intelligent Life by Lauren Dusek, Eat It Too by Jennifer Barclay, Right Place Right Time by Lia Romeo, and Song of Extinction by E.M. Lewis. Although only one play could be the Festival winner, each of the finalists had something important to say, demonstrated command of theatrical technique, and was given a thoughtful production. In fact, the whole Festival experience was a welcome breath of fresh air in the life of this sometimes beleaguered theatre critic. It's simple reality that as a critic you end up watching a lot of dull plays, unimaginative productions and bad performances. In that context, an entire weekend of imaginative new works and well-prepared productions, performed before an actively-involved audience, is a welcome change of pace as well as a reminder of what attracted you to the field in the first place.

Don't assume that "staged reading" means a training exercise or incomplete performance. On the contrary, staged readings are an excellent way to get to the heart of a play, because they place the focus on the playwright's words, without the distraction of technical elements such as costumes, sets, and lighting. The shorter rehearsal period (for these plays the limit was 11 hours, including the performance, due to Equity rules) also means that better actors and directors may be available for a staged reading than for a full production. This was certainly the case at the Festival: there wasn't a weak link in any of the casts, and two last-minute substitutions filled in without missing a beat. The secret seems to be out, because the Festival readings drew larger crowds than I have seen at many fully-staged productions recently, and the hall was nearly full for the opening-night performance.

The Greenhouse program (this is only the second year it has been organized as a New Play Festival) has a good track record of choosing plays which win other honors and become part of the theatrical repertoire. Dan Rubin's Demons...and other Blunt Objects won the 2008 Kevin Kline award for Outstanding New Play or Music. The Probe by Chuck Harper won the 2007 Kevin Kline award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Play and was performed at the 2007 Prague Fringe Festival. Skin in Flames by Guillem Clua has been performed in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Salt Lake City and is published in the Estreno Contemporary Spanish Plays series.

One final note: Song of Extinction was not eligible to be chosen Festival winner due to some unexpected good fortune for playwright E.M. Lewis. She recently learned (long after the Festival finalists had been selected and cast) that her home theatre company received a grant which will allow them to mount the premiere of this play in Los Angeles. Since that performance will precede the full production of the Festival winner in St. Louis, Song of Extinction was withdrawn from the competition but still performed as part of the New Play Festival.

The Festival winner:

Cockeyed by William Missouri Downs, directed by Sarah Armstrong, with assistant director Sathya Sridharan. Phil (Adam Flores) is a self-described Nice Guy who lusts after his co-worker Sophia (Jennifer Nitzband), despite the fact that she's dating his boss (Tyler Vickers), and against the advice of his friend Norman (Chris Lawyer) who tells Phil she's way out of his league. Downs weaves references to philosophical concepts (both Phil and Sophia were philosophy majors in college) into a very funny and perceptive script about modern love, office politics, and how people sometimes can't see what is right under their noses.

The finalists:

Intelligent Life by Lauren Dusek, directed by John Pierson, with assistant director Lizzie McLoughlin. A misfit case of UFO enthusiasts led by Robin (Julie Layton) and including Beau (Joel Lewis) and Jessie (Kate McCallum) are thrown into confusion when new recruit Gary (John Flack) thinks he's captured a space alien, who turns out to be a nine-year-old boy (Zach Callison, played in performance by Lizzie McLoughlin) with telekinetic powers and asthma. Dusek's script alternates real-time interactions among the alien chasers and the local sheriff (Larry Dell) with staged interviews for a television program on the group's efforts.

Eat It Too by Jennifer Barclay, directed by Jason Cannon, with assistant director Jamie Bast. Brett (Sarah Cannon), now a rich and famous movie star, returns to her home town to visit the family of the man who jilted her many years before (Parker, played by Chris Hickey) and to make them an offer they may be unable to refuse. Parker's mother (MaryBeth Scherr), wife (Jamie Fritz) and sister (Lauren Hoeing) initially resist Brett's proposed exchange (material prosperity in return for Parker's death) but also have a taste for the good life in this black comedy with echoes of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Der Besuch der alten Dame.

Right Place Right Time by Lia Romeo, directed by Marty Stanberry. In this modern comedy of manners, romance novelist Richard (Chopper Leifheit) is first seen downing gin and tonics at a hotel bar while waiting for his ex-wife (April Strelinger), who never shows up. His troubles are nothing, however, compared to those of Stephanie (Emily Strembicki), who's been stranded at the altar in the very same hotel. Stephanie's mom (Susie Wall) has the perfect solution: Richard should borrow a tux and marry Stephanie. Which he does. Things get more interesting when Richard's ex-wife and Stephanie's ex-fiancé (Richard Strelinger) resurface, and Richard must decide how much value he places on old-fashioned romance.

Song of Extinction by E.M. Lewis, directed by Chuck Harper, with assistant director Rachel Fenton. Three kinds of extinction are explored in Lewis' drama: extinction of a species, of a people, and of a single human being. Ellery (Bill Whitaker) is obsessed with preserving the Bolivian habitat of a rare insect, but is helpless against the economic clout of land developer Gill (Robert Gerchen). In the meantime, Ellery neglects his gifted son Max (Denmark Laine) and wife Lily (Carrie Hegdahl), who is dying of stomach cancer. Max's biology teacher (Eddie Lin, played in performance by Chuck Harper) and Lily's doctor (Philip Levelling) try to help Lily and the family deal with her impending death.