PROVIDENCE, RI – Beginning July 8th, the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep will workshop three outstanding new plays from around the world: Dogs of the Blue Gods by South African Ian Fraser, Life Science by Brooklyn-based Anna Ziegler, and Chicken Grease Is Nasty Business! by Canadian Michael Miller. A celebration of the diversity and strength of new theatrical voices, the Playwrights Rep has been instrumental in bringing the work of America’s finest emerging playwrights to life for the past four summers. This summer’s season promises to be no exception - save for a broadening of global perspectives, of course!

Each developmental production runs in repertory for a week in Brown University’s Stuart Theatre (77 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912), with Dogs… opening on July 8th, Life Science on the 15th, and Chicken Grease… on the 22nd. July 29th kicks off Festival Week, which features all three plays in repertory as well as additional performances by both the Apprentice and TheatreBridge companies. The season closes on August 1st with Marathon Madness, which provides audiences the unique opportunity to see all three plays in a single day. For further information on additional events, please visit http://www.brown.edu/btprep.

The Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep is comprised of an extraordinary ensemble of young theatre professionals, augmented by seasoned alumni performers and supported by the young artists-in-training who make up the Apprentice and TheatreBridge Companies. Brown alumni playwrights and other internationally-established dramatists gather at Brown each summer to share their experience and expertise with students and to showcase their new work. Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Lowry Marshall, the Playwrights Rep was established to meet the need of emerging playwrights to develop new work in a relaxed and creative atmosphere. Brilliant young writers who are already developing [inter]national reputations are invited to Brown for six weeks each summer. Working with a carefully assembled company of gifted professional actors and directors, playwrights are deeply engaged in the production process — attending rehearsals daily and shaping and refining their texts as each new play is born. The result is some of the most imaginative and adventurous theatre to be seen anywhere in America!

Plays developed at the Playwrights Rep continue to thrive on the national stage. Last November, Peter Nachtrieb’s Boom made a splash in Seattle, DC, and Cleveland following a successful spring production at New York’s Ars Nova. Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised the play for its “darkly funny dialogue” and for “speaking, quietly and piquantly, to our enduring fascination with and need for myths about the beginning of life as well as its end.” Jennifer Haley’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom was well-received by audiences at both 2008’s Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville and last summer’s Summer Play Festival in New York. Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which sold out its Playwrights Rep debut in 2006, opened in the fall of 2007 at New York’s Roundabout Underground, twice extended its run, was named the year’s “Best Off-Broadway Play” by AM New York, was both a Readers’ Pick and Critic’s Pick in the New York Times, and has since received productions at major theatres across the country. Karam is currently working on a new play commission from the Roundabout Theatre Company and a screenplay of Speech & Debate for Overture Films. Additionally, Andy Bragen, Diana Fithian, Steven Levenson, and other alumni have recently been produced and/or commissioned by theatrical organizations including the Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theatre, and the University of Rochester. Flushed with pride in this string of successes, the Playwrights Rep heads into Summer 2009 with three more remarkable new works for the world theatre!
Featuring…

Dogs of the Blue Gods by Ian Fraser
Directed by Christopher Windom

July 8, 9, 10, 11, and 31 @ 8:00 PM
August 1 @ 1:00 PM

Trapped in a police training facility, Fang, Ralph, Rover, and Rex search for meaning—or just a way out. Fiercely original—part sketch comedy, part sit-down tragedy—this is a dog’s Godot. When the laughter ends and the music fades, this South African playwright’s tale will leave you with new questions to old answers.

IAN FRASER (Playwright) is a South African playwright, performer, and writer, now resident in the US. Without formal education, he began as an anti-apartheid satirist, and then moved into playwriting. His awards include the Tonight AA-Life Vita Award for Comedy, the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award, and three Pick of the Fringe awards received at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. In 1994, his play The Accidental Antichrist won a Special FNB-Vita Award for Most Outstanding New Production. His autobiography, My Own Private Orchestra, was published by Penguin Books. Recently, his plays have been staged and presented at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Playwright’s Roundtable in Orlando, The Living Theatre NY, and the Garioch Theatre Festival in Scotland. In 2007 his piece The Normal Sound of Architecture won the AcidTheatre ‘Freedom of Speech’ Monologue competition in the UK.

CHRISTOPHER WINDOM (Director) received the Dean Goodman Choice Award for best choreography for Ragtime at Theaterworks in Palo Alto, California. He’s directed Big River (Arrow Rock Lyceum Theater), Oh, Mr. Cadhole! (PACT) and Our Country’s Good (Brown/Trinity Rep. Consortium). He’s also choreographed Dessa Rose and Crowns (Theaterworks), Swing! (Stage One), City of Freaks (The A Train Plays), Parade (New York University) and most recently A Christmas Carol directed by Liesl Tommy (Trinity Rep). He’s served as Associate Director/Choreographer on War Brides (Assoc. Dir., The York Theater), Smokey Joe’s I (Assoc. Dir/Choreo, Maine State Music Theater). Other choreography credits include Pippin, Gypsy, Peter Pan and Guys and Dolls. As a performer Christopher has performed on Broadway and National Tours in the shows Fosse and Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis. He’s also performed in many regional theaters including The Paper Mill Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, Stages St Louis, The St Louis Rep, The St Louis Muny, Marriott Lincolnshire and others. He’s taught Musical Theater Dance master classes at Michigan State University, Webster University, Temple University, Ema Pulido’s Dance studio in Mexico City, Mexico and the Center of Contemporary Arts in St Louis, MO. Christopher graduated with a BFA in Musical Theater from Webster University and is a 2010 MFA-candidate for the Trinity Rep. Consortium Theater Directing program at Brown University.


Life Science by Anna Ziegler
Directed by Michael Perlman

July 15, 16, 17, 18, and 30 @ 8:00 PM
August 1 @ 4:00 PM

Four Jewish kids struggle to survive high school. Leah loves Tom . . . probably. Michael loves Leah—or maybe still Dana—or maybe just soccer. Tom—the brainy Asian kid—isn’t sure about Leah or love or his Jewish parents. Ziegler’s pitch-perfect ear for the ”text-me” set makes coming-of-age fresh and true.

ANNA ZIEGLER (Playwright). Plays include: Dov and Ali (Playwrights Realm @ The Cherry Lane, June 2009, and Theatre 503, London, 2008), Photograph 51 (Fountain Theatre, March-May 2009; EST’s 2009 First Light Festival, directed by Lynne Meadow; winner of the 3rd annual STAGE International Script Competition; originally commissioned and produced by Mary Resing /Active Cultures), Variations on a Theme (work-shopped July 2008 by Chautauqua Theater Company, directed by Ethan McSweeny), The Minotaur (Fire Dept’s Salon Series, reading featured Campbell Scott, Mario Cantone), BFF (W.E.T., 2007), Novel (SPF, 2007), In The Same Room, To Be Fair, and Everything You Have. Ziegler’s plays have been developed by: Manhattan Theatre Club, The Sundance Theatre Lab, The Old Vic New Voices program, Primary Stages, The Geva Theatre Center, The McCarter Theatre, Soho Rep, The Playwright’s Center PlayLabs Festival, Ars Nova, Theater J, New Georges (where she is an Affiliated Artist), Clubbed Thumb, The New Harmony Project, The hotINK Festival, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, Catalyst Theater, Rorschach Theatre, The Berkshire Playwrights Lab, The Fireraisers Theatre Company at the Hampstead Theatre (London) and The Birmingham Rep, and by Company B at the Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney, Australia). Ziegler’s work has been published in New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2007 (Smith and Kraus), Ten-Minute Plays for 2 Actors: The Best of 2004 (Smith and Kraus, Inc.) and New American Short Plays 2005 (Backstage Books, ed. Craig Lucas). BFF and Life Science are published by Dramatists Play Service. A graduate of Yale, she holds an MFA from Tisch.

MICHAEL PERLMAN (Director). Directing credits include Hamlet and A Doll’s House (Brown/Trinity Consortium), Exquisite Corpse (New Plays Festival), Love, I Hear (Stephen Foster Productions), Iphigenia and Other Daughters (Temporary Theater Company), The Last Five Years (Stamford Center for the Arts), Winnie-the-Pooh (Hangar Theater Kidstuff), Emperor of Ice Cream… and Romeo and Juliet (Hangar Theater Lab Company.) Assistant directing credits include King Lear (Public Theater, Director James Lapine), The Laramie Project (Matthew Shephard Foundation Benefit, Director Moisés Kaufman), and Bone Portraits (Stillpoint Productions, Director Lear deBessonet). In addition, Michael’s one-person show Flying on the Wing was presented at the New York Fringe Festival, where it was the winner of Outstanding Solo Show of 2006. As a performer, Michael has been seen in Consortium productions of Camino Real and Blood Wedding, as well as the New Plays Festival production of Plutonics. Michael is proud to be a Drama League Directing Fellow.


Chicken Grease Is Nasty Business! by Michael Miller
Directed by Lowry Marshall

July 22, 23, 24, 25, and 29 @ 8:00 PM
August 1 @ 8:00 PM

Modestine fries the South’s best chicken, but her once-tight family has popped right out of the pan! When she adopts a baby to lure her sons back home, best friend Pearl calls her crazy, and Dwayne’s bride-to-be clearly has other plans. Delmar falls hard and Dr. Long offers mouth-to-mouth as this dizzying plot twists clean out of control. Naughty language! Frisky business! Not for kids or young teens.

MICHAEL MILLER (Playwright). Michael’s play Sweating Sugar was recently produced as part of Factory’s Theater’s Cross Current Festival. Touch the Sky and In the Freedom of Dreams, the Story of Nelson Mandela were produced at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre where he has been the playwright in residence a few times over the years. His play El Paso also had its world premiere at Factory Theater. A Patchwork Quilt was produced in Great Britain where it was shortlisted for the Writers Guild award for excellence in playwriting. His play Birds of Feather won the prestigious Chalmers Award for playwriting and his first play The Power of Harriet T has toured across Canada. Michael has been the recipient of numerous grants from all levels of government. He is the former Administrator of Obsidian Theatre and former Artistic Director of Theatre Fountainhead. Chicken Grease Is Nasty Business! was developed through the Play Creation program at Canadian Stage.

LOWRY MARSHALL (Director) has taught acting/directing courses and directed plays at Brown since 1986. She’s active as a freelance director, actor, voice-over artist, and coach. In addition to an MFA from the Professional Actor Training Program of the Asolo Conservatory, she holds degrees in directing and English literature. Lowry was artistic director of summer theatres in Michigan and North Carolina before coming to Rhode Island. She’s served as director and/or dramaturg for more than two hundred plays and solo shows, including the national tour of El Grande De Coca-Cola and and the world premiere of Lisa Kron’s Obie Award-winning 2.5 Minute Ride at the La Jolla Playhouse. Lowry is a playwright, lyricist, and script consultant. She’s been a guest artist at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the London Academy of Theatre, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Filler Up, the solo show she co-wrote with Toronto performance artist Deb Filler, has toured all over the world and was nominated for a Helen Hayes award. Her play Waiting for the Termite Man was awarded the Ruby Lloyd Apsey Playwriting Prize, and she wrote book and lyrics for The Musical Winter’s Tale. For Brown, Marshall translated and adapted Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro, with a musical score by Jack Eric Williams. “Solo Performance,” a course Lowry has been developing at Brown over the last decade, serves as a capstone experience for Brown writer/performers. In 2006, she directed Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate for the Playwrights Rep, and in 2007 she commissioned and directed Steven Levenson and Andrew Hertz’ new musical Torah! Torah! Torah!