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Release date: Aug. 19, 2004 Theater Emory Announces Season of Brave New WorksFor the first time in the 22-year history of Theater Emory, an entire season is dedicated to developing new work. During the 2004-05 season, Theater Emory will delve into the research and development of more than 30 new, substantive theater pieces with university faculty, students, alumni, and noted guest artists and scholars from around the world. In addition, the Sister City Playwrights exchange will be officially launched at an Oct. 18 event that also celebrates the career of David Kranes, former artistic director of the Sundance Playwrights Lab. "As artists and scholars at a research university, we are charged to investigate the past even as we pioneer toward the future. Great research and theater are alike in that they are the result of active pursuit of what we don't know," says Vincent Murphy, artistic producing director. Theater Emory has become known for multi-year investigations of playwrights or other elements of theater. Those investigations have led to • building the Black Rose Elizabethan playhouse; In essence, the 2004-05 season will be one long Brave New Works Festival. Brave New Works is a program of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory and typically emerges in a biennial, two- to three-week laboratory developing new work. In the 15 years of Brave New Works, more than 120 new theater pieces have been developed in the lab with more than 60 percent of them going on to professional productions across Atlanta, the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. The majority of events will be readings of new work, but one particular highlight is a bare bones production of the modern French classic "Roberto Zucco," by Bernard-Marie Koltes, about a man using people to find himself (Sept. 22-25). Noted French theater artist Arthur Nauzyciel, who will be at Emory this fall as the Coca-Cola Artist-in-Residence, will direct the performance as an environmental production in Emory's Michael Street Parking Deck on Houston Mill Road. The season is loosely grouped thematically around the issues of race and ecology. Readings include five works commissioned by the Playwriting of Theater Emory. Among them are: "Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates," by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Schenkkan (Oct. 17); and "Antebellum," by rising star Robert O'Hara, that blends Atlanta and Berlin in the late 1930s as "Gone With the Wind" and Adolph Hitler have their premieres (Oct. 22-24). Among the ecology projects are "The Baker Woods Project" (Feb. 27) and "Frogs" (April 15 & 17) an environmental exploration of ideas in Gertrude Stein's "Theatrical Landscape" that will be presented across campus, weather permitting. With "An Evening with David Kranes" on Monday, Oct. 18, Theater Emory toasts the legendary former artistic director of the Sundance Playwrights Lab, launches its Sister City Playwrights exchange, and celebrates the publication of three scripts commissioned by the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory. Murphy has spearheaded an initiative among theaters in Atlanta, Boston, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco to nurture the careers of strong regional playwrights. "The idea behind Sister City Playwrights is to help catapult regional artists to the national level," says Murphy. All of these cities have talented writers who do tremendously well in their region, but have trouble moving up to the next level. The goal is to have a national network to help these artists make that leap." The network will work to coordinate residencies, co-commission new work, and help funders, critics and the public better understand and support the process of creating new theater work. Following is a complete list of currently scheduled events. Unless otherwise noted, Brave New Works events are free and open to the public and will be presented in the Theater Lab of the Schwartz Center with limited general admission seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Due to the evolving nature of Brave New Works, please call 404-727-5050 or visit http://www.emory.edu/THEATER to confirm the reading schedule prior to your visit. The Schwartz Center is located at 1700 N. Decatur Road on the Emory campus. Free parking is available in the adjacent Fishburne Parking Deck, accessible through the main gate of campus at North Decatur and Oxford roads. * An event noted with an asterisk is a commission of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory. Brave New Works-Race Sept. 22-25 at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22-24 at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20-21 at 7:30 p.m. Brave New Works-Ecology Feb. 12-13 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13 at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27; Friday, April 15; Sunday, April 17 Tuesday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. Select Mondays in September, October and November Additional events may be scheduled. Check the Theater Emory Web site, http://www.emory.edu/THEATER for updates. ### Theater Emory is the producing organization of Emory University and is affiliated with the Department of Theater Studies. It is a member of the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts and operates under a seasonal agreement with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. Emory University provides a dynamic, multi-disciplinary environment for the study, creation and presentation of the arts. |
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copyright 2001
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