糖心Vlog

Theatre Lab Kicks Off Season with Virtual Masterclasses


By polly burks | 9/29/2020

Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of 糖心Vlog鈥檚 Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, has announced updated information regarding the 2020-21 season. In keeping with recommendations for social distancing, the series will take place in the virtual world.

On Sundays throughout October, Theatre Lab will once again welcome some of the nation鈥檚 emerging and established playwrights to share readings of their newest plays followed by a discussion about the work, their process, and the importance of new play development. The first event in the series will be a master class with Rachel Teagle followed by a reading of her play, 鈥淭he Impracticality of Modern-Day Mastodons.鈥 The play was scheduled for a full production as part of Theatre Lab鈥檚 annual Heckscher Theatre for Families programming.

鈥淐urrently we are using the show to create inventive new educational outreach programming to support teachers and engage students from the area and around the country in the arts,鈥 said Matt Stabile, Theatre Lab producing artistic director. 鈥淏y offering our audiences an opportunity to meet this play and playwright this October, we hope to build excitement for the full production next summer.鈥

The remaining three events in the series will be new audio plays commissioned by and written exclusively for Theatre Lab. In addition, prior to the readings, playwrights will offer a 90-minute workshop designed to guide participants through the various stages of playwriting. Participants in the master class series will be encouraged to use the series to develop their own short plays. As in past seasons, the short plays developed as part of this series will be eligible for submission to Theatre Lab鈥檚 2021 New Play Festival, which offers an opportunity for budding and established playwrights to see their work produced at Theatre Lab.

The master class and playwright鈥檚 forum events will take place on the following dates:

Sunday, Oct. 4, 2 to 3:30 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Master Class with Rachel Teagle

Sunday, Oct. 4, 4 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Forum. Reading of 鈥淭he Impracticality of Modern-Day Mastodons鈥 followed by talkback with Rachel Teagle. This play is being used as the centerpiece of Theatre Lab鈥檚 educational outreach program, The Future PAGES Project, this fall and will be produced by Theatre Lab in 2021 as the Heckscher Theatre for Families Production.

Sunday, Oct. 11, 2 to 3:30 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Master Class with Jeff Bower

Sunday, Oct. 11, 4 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Forum. Reading of a new audio play by Jeff Bower followed by talkback with playwright.

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2 to 3:30 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Master Class with Jahna Ferron-Smith

Sunday, Oct. 18, 4 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Forum. Reading of a new audio play by Jahna Ferron-Smith followed by talkback with playwright.

Sunday, Oct. 25, 2 to 3:30 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Master Class with Vanessa Garcia

Sunday, Oct. 25, 4 p.m.: Playwright鈥檚 Forum. Reading of a new audio play by Vanessa Garcia followed by talkback with playwright.

All sessions will take place on Zoom and tickets will be on sale in September. Master Classes are $30 per event and readings are $15 per event. More information will be posted at www.fau.edu/theatrelab.

At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, Theatre Lab immediately responded with innovative new programming, the Online Original Monologue Festival, to help artists in need and continue to support its mission to 鈥渋nspire, develop, and produce new work, artists, and audiences for the American theater.鈥

鈥淲ith no clear indication of when it may be safe to once again gather in person in the theater space, we have continued our forward-looking approach to programs being offered this season.鈥 said Stabile.

Due to contractual obligations and a desire to keep the previously announced 鈥渟eason of world premieres鈥 intact, Theatre Lab is moving the announced 2020-21 season including a rolling world premiere of 鈥淧redictor鈥 by Jennifer Blackmer, a rolling world premiere of 鈥淩efuge鈥 co-created by Andrew Rosendorf and Satya Chavez, and a world premiere of local playwright, Gina Montet鈥檚 鈥淥veractive Letdown,鈥 to the 2021-22 season.听

鈥淲hile these three plays will have to wait another year for their full productions, we have a litany of exciting new plays we want to produce,鈥 said Stabile. 鈥淎s soon as we are cleared to welcome patrons back into the space, we plan to do so, starting with last season鈥檚 postponed production of 鈥淭o Fall In Love鈥 by Jennifer Lane and, hopefully, adding at least one other new play to culminate the Spring season.鈥

Playwright Bios:

Rachel Teagle is a playwright, librettist, and comedian who grew up in the Silicon Valley, moved around the country, and settled in Minnesota. She helped found the Atlanta Fringe Festival and the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal. She was awarded the Leah Ryan鈥檚 Fund for Emerging Women Writers prize for her play The Ever and After. She currently resides in St. Paul with her family. More at rachelteagle.com

A former teacher, professional mascot, and assembly line worker, Jeff Bower earned a bachelor鈥檚 in mathematics from Binghamton University and an M.F.A. in theater from 糖心Vlog. After moving to Los Angeles, Bower was accepted into the advanced studies improv program at the Upright Citizens Brigade and performed sketch and improv for more than three years on the iO West mainstage, winning a Del Close Award along the way. He has acted and written for countless web series, short films, and TV pilots and yet mainly gets recognized for his five seconds of screen time in an episode of 鈥1,000 Ways to Die.鈥 He has a play published by Samuel French, won and placed in over a dozen screenplay competitions (ScreenCraft, PAGE, Tracking Board, Slamdance, Austin, Nashville, etc.), and primarily writes dark hour-long TV dramas even though he still hopes to one day grow up to be a muppet. Bower is repped by Paul Weitzman at Culture Creative Entertainment and Alex Creasia at Pathfinder Media.

Jahna Ferron-Smith is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at the Juilliard School, as well as a member of the Obie Award-winning playwrights collective, 鈥淵oungblood.鈥 Her plays have been performed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Her plays include, 鈥淭HE WOODS鈥 (developed at SPACE on Ryder Farm); 鈥淪IR鈥 (published by Samuel French); and 鈥淪ALT: A Rom Com鈥 (The Lark Jerome New York Fellowship Finalist).

Vanessa Garcia is a multidisciplinary artist working as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and journalist. Her debut novel, 鈥淲hite Light,鈥 was published in 2015, to critical acclaim. Named one of the best books of 2015 by NPR, Al Dia, Flavorwire, and numerous other publications and institutions, it also won an International Latino Book Award. Her plays have been produced in Edinburgh, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and other cities around the world. These include the immersive hit, 鈥淎mparo鈥 (鈥淢iami鈥檚 Hottest Ticket,鈥 according to People en Espa帽ol), winner of The Ruth Foreman Award. Most recently she's written for Sesame Street and adapted the national award winning book, 鈥淲aiting for Snow in Havana鈥 into a limited series. As a journalist, feature writer, and essayist, her pieces have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Narrative.ly, Huffington Post, and American Theatre Magazine, among numerous other publications. She has a Ph.D. from the University of California Irvine in English (with a focus in creative nonfiction), an M.F.A. from the University of Miami (in fiction), and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University (English and art history).

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