From: S B [mailto:srs1113@live.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2016 6:28 AM
Subject: Coming Soon
Three Winning Scripts, Three Winning Playwrights, Three World Premieres
Nine Reasons To Support The Arts Locally
Tucson, AZ: The Community Players, Tucson's premier community theatre company, announced the 3 winners in their First Annual New One Act Play Festival several weeks ago. Since then, preparations have been underway for the world premieres of these never before published, never produced, one act plays written by Arizona playwrights. The three winning playwrights just happen to all be from Tucson. Vince Flynn, Leslie Powell and Gavin Kayner were the three playwrights whose work rose to the top of all the submissions received by The Community Players during the submission period. The plays were then scored on four criteria; plot, character development, dialogue and overall writing quality. The panel of independent judges had a tough job when everything was said and done. "The level of quality writing and expertise in their craft was evident to the judges from the first submission to the last," said Scott Berg, board president for TCP, "It wasn't until the lasts score sheet had been tallied that we could make the announcement of the winners with confidence," added Bobbi Whitson, board vice president. Berg cited the lack of opportunities for local playwrights to even get the chance to have their work read, let alone produced and given a spot in a theatre companies season line up, were the driving force behind developing this contest. "After all," said Berg, "if it weren't for the playwrights, the theatre would be a completely different animal."
Berg is hopeful that the efforts of The Community Players will act as a catalyst to affect some change in the Tucson community. "It has always seemed odd to me, that in a community where there is such a strong emphasis on "buying local, eating local, supporting local", the same consideration is not offered as readily to the theatre community," Berg states. "Oh sure, people go to see theatre in Tucson, especially when the playwright is someone like Simon, or Rogers and Hammerstein, or Williams, but when you say it's a local playwright, you can see people pull back, stutter a bit and start making excuses." Berg makes the point, that although these writers live here, many of them enter play writing competitions all over the country, and many of them have won those competitions or awards for their writing. Many of the local playwrights have had their plays published and produced by theatre companies around the country. They just haven't made it to heavy weight status as of yet. Berg offers this bit of food for thought, "Mark my words, one day, in the not so distant future, you are going to see a headline like this, "Local Playwright Takes Broadway By Storm". And then all of those people who poo-pooed the fact that it was a local writer are going to be complaining that they missed seeing that "new show on Broadway" for just $10. It's like I keep telling people, at one point, even Shakespeare was "just a local writer"."
The First Annual New One Act Play Festival is running July 8-17, 2016 at The Community Playhouse, the home of The Community Players, 1881 N. Oracle Rd., Tucson, 85705. For reservations please call 520-887-6239. The audience will get to see all three one act plays in an evening. For those interested, an informal meet and greet will take place after each of the Saturday night performances. Drinks and finger foods will be served so everyone is encouraged and welcome to stay and meet the playwrights, the cast and enjoy the wonderful theatre space with your friends. The Community Players is dedicated to bringing theatre and the arts to the community whether it be by sponsoring a contest for local playwrights or by holding open auditions for almost every production to allowing other theatre companies to utilize their space which helps bring more of the arts to the community. TCP is a registered 501c3 with the State of Arizona whose main source of funding is through ticket sales, an occasional grant and private donations. In an effort to make theatre affordable to the community as a whole, the TCP board voted 2 years ago to lower their ticket price to $10 per seat, per show. Submissions for The Second Annual New One Act Play Festival are currently being accepted. Please go to www.communityplayerstucson.org for a complete set of rules and submission instructions.
"Please support theatre arts in our community", concludes Berg, "starting with the most important people when it comes right down to it. The people who have the imagination to think it up, the organization skills to make it into a story, the technical know how to write it down and the desire to entertain with it."
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