Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) just concluded a first -- an
enormously successful and well attended New Year/New Plays Festival. Five new plays received readings on PBD’s main
stage as well as a lively discussion, “Regional Theatre and the Future of
American Plays,” which featured panelists of industry professionals from major
organizations.
This total immersion in developing new works is the
result of The Dramaworkshop, managed by Bruce Linser. William Hayes, the Producing Artistic Director
of PBD created the workshop because of the theatre company’s strong belief that
as a leading regional theatre it has an obligation to seek out and develop the
very works that could become staples of other regional theatres as well as
Broadway. No longer does Broadway take
chances on serious new dramas, defaulting to distinguished regional non-profit
theaters like PBD for their development.
The five new plays were written by experienced
playwrights, with their dramas well along in the development process. These included “Red, White, Black and Blue”
by Michael McKeever, “Drift” by William Francis Hoffman, “With” by Carter W.
Lewis, “The Captives” by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, and “Ordinary Americans”
by Joseph McDonough.
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| Panel discussion on the role of regional theatres in the development of new American plays, featuring left to right, Bruce Linser, the manager of PBD’s Dramaworkshop; Nan Barnett, executive director, National New Play Network, and formerly with Florida Stage; Haley Finn, Associate Artistic Director, Playwrights’ Center; Susan Westfall, Florida Representative, Dramatists Guild, and co-founder of City Theatre in Miami; and William Hayes, Producing Artistic Director, PBD. Photo by Samantha Mighdoll |
The Festival began on Friday night and ended on Sunday
with a luncheon for the playwrights, actors, and directors, as well as audience
members. The Festival then concluded
with the performance of “Ordinary Americans,” and was followed by a Champagne
toast to the hugely successful program and to all the participants.
These plays emphasized contemporary themes, and if one
wonders what will draw the next generation of enthusiastic theater goers, plays
such as these provide the answer. Topics
of relevancy to contemporary issues resonated.
Another commonality was the incredible performances of
more than a score of professional actors who delivered the five plays, almost
as fully realized productions. Without
staging, these actors and the plays’ directors were able to capture the emotion
and humor intended by the playwrights.
As the playwrights were in attendance, each joined the
actors on stage after the performance of his/her play for a valuable talk back with
the audience. Some had never been read
before an audience, making the Festival a valuable opportunity for the
playwrights to gauge a live audience’s reaction. It is through such efforts that constructive revisions
can be made before the plays reach the point of being ready for prime time.
Already, one of these works has been scheduled for a full
production on the Palm Beach Dramaworks’ main stage next season, Joseph McDonough‘s
“Ordinary Americans. ” This play is
about the early 1950’s sitcom “The Goldbergs,” and its irrepressible creator
Gertrude Berg and her co star Philip Loeb who was called before the House
Un-American Activities Committee. The
play wrestles with the political climate of McCarthyism, anti Semitism, the
pioneering work of Gertrude Berg and her struggle to save her program and the
career of her friend, Philip Loeb, taking on corporatocracy and enduring its
consequences. Its relevancy to the
divisiveness of our times is obvious.
This first PBD New Plays Festival was so enthusiastically
received that a second Festival has been scheduled for early next year, January
10-12, 2020.
