INITIATIVE 2010

PLAYWRIGHTS' INITIATIVE 2010 is here.

It is the second annual Initiative for Endstation Theatre Company and over the course of the last nine months, we have accepted submissions from emerging playwrights across the country. In only a year's time, the quantity (and quality) of playwrights submitting for the festival has increased exponentially and I believe we have found three literary artists of immeasurable talent and skill. To those of you new to our Initiative at the festival, we have built a two-week, comprehensive, retreat program for working playwrights. It is an opportunity to leave the chaos of the city; a rural hiatus meant to foster the creative development of the theatre's most invaluable asset: the playwright.

These artists arrive from Chicago and New York City on July 11th and will remain with us through the completion of the festival on July 26th. With the support of Endstation Theatre Company and our residency at Sweet Briar College, the playwrights are provided housing, a subsidized meal plan, and the opportunity to write... write... write. (On a utopian college campus consistently ranked by the Princeton Review as the most beautiful in the country.) Throughout the two weeks, they will meet every other day with our administrative playwright (Joshua Mikel, My Brother's Knife BRSTF '09) and myself (Michael Stablein, Jr - Head of Initiative) for closed readings, criticism, and rapport. This Initiative also offers an inestimable opportunity for networking. At Sweet Briar, they are not only working amongst their fellow playwrights but professional, resident artists in association with Endstation and in close proximity to the nationally-recognized VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts).

The Initiative comes to a close with a series of public readings as a part of the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival Season.

Now, without further ado...

-THE PLAYWRIGHTS' INITIATIVE 2010-

Dan Caffrey (Chicago) - Artistic Director of the Tympanic Theatre Company

Daniel Caffrey is a Chicago-based playwright and the Artistic Director of The Tympanic Theatre Company. He has written and directed for a number of Chicago companies, including Tympanic, ARFTCO, Chicago Dramatists, Dramatis Personae, Dream Theatre, Hobo Junction, iO, The Rough House, The Ruckus, The Side Project, and WildClaw. Occasionally an actor, he has performed in And Then It Burst and Splintered Crosses (both with Tympanic), SKALD 10 (WNEP), The Feats Of Strength (Dramatis Personae), and Slipping (The Side Project – in both Chicago and Dublin). His one-act play, Dark Horse, will be produced by Tympanic at The Side Project this July. Mr. Caffrey holds BA Degrees in Theatre and Creative Writing from Florida State University and is a graduate of the Training Center at iO.

Lindsey Ferrentino (NYC) - With 3-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee.

Lindsey Ferrentino is an emerging young playwright currently working in New York. She is one of the 2009-2010 recipients of The Edward Albee Foundation's Playwriting Fellowship and Residency. Her plays have been performed at the Kennedy Center Theater Lab (Washington, D.C.), The Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, England), the Manhattan Repertory Theater (New York), the Three Legged Dog Art and Technical Center (New York), and Surfside Playhouse (Cocoa Beach, Florida). She is the winner of The Cappies International Playwriting Contest, Winterfest Playwriting Competition, The Florida Today Playwriting Competition, and she was a finalist for the 2008 New York Writers' Summit. She has studied with The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and The Writers' Guild of Great Britain. Ms. Ferrentino holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Mary Laws (NYC) - Literary Associate for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Mary Laws is a New York-based playwright currently acting as Literary Associate for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Her collected plays include Blue Mug, Untitled One, Old Records, Sights and Sounds at Fingal’s Cave, and Us. Her plays have been produced at The Secret Theatre in New York and received readings at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Richmond Shepard Theater, New World Stages, The Cherry Lane, Le Pavé d'Orsay in Paris, and the Horton Foote American Playwrights Festival. The Ampersand Review recently published Sights and Sounds at Fingal's Cave for their annual journal. She was the recipient of the 2008 UR/SA Grant in Playwriting and a finalist in the Alley Theatre’s HYPE - Houston Young Playwrights' Exchange. Originally from Houston, Ms. Laws holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Performance from Baylor University.

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I am incredibly proud of our Initiative selections this year. Be sure not to miss our professional reading series at the end of the summer; all readings are open and free to the public and will conclude with Q&A sessions between playwright, actor, and audience.

m.