Orlando Shakespeare Theater To Live Stream Jeffrey Hatcher Keynote And Playwright’s Panel

Oct. 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF welcomes one of the most prolific and frequently produced playwrights in the United States, Jeffrey Hatcher, as PlayFest Keynote Speaker on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. and live online on #NEWPLAY TV! at http://www.livestream.com/newplay.

Mr. Hatcher’s Keynote Address, "What the Audience Knows," will focus on the information, prejudices and expectations audiences bring to the theater as well as to new plays. Shot and mixed in real time, his address will be streamed online so that audiences can view it worldwide. A staged reading of his new play, Strongman’s Ghost, will follow this landmark event.

Jeffrey Hatcher wrote the Casanova screenplay for director Lasse Hallstrom, as well as Stage Beauty (dir. Richard Eyre) and The Duchess (dir. Saul Dib).  Mr. Hatcher's award-winning original plays have been performed on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally across the U.S. and abroad. They include The Turn of the Screw, Three Viewings, Scotland Road, Neddy, Korczak's Children, A Picasso, Mercy of a Storm, Work Song (with Eric Simonson) and Lucky Duck (with Bill Russell and Henry Kreiger). He is a member and/or alumnus of The Playwrights’ Center, The Dramatists Guild of America, Writers Guild of America and New Dramatists.

PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays is an engaging, fast-paced weekend packed with play readings, distinctive panels, lively parties and dynamic networking events. Running November 3-6, 2011 at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street), it is the perfect opportunity to converse with PlayFest artists, establish lasting connections and absorb groundbreaking new works in only four days.
For an in-depth look at the PlayFest Readings and Special Events, please visit http://orlandoshakes.org/playfest.

PLAYFEST 2.0 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

READINGS – Cost: $5
The Odyssey
By Charlie Bethel | Friday, November 4 at 6:00 p.m.
Director: Jim Helsinger
Cast: Charlie Bethel
Shipwrecks, cyclopses, sirens and sex goddesses; cannibalism, death, loyalty and revenge. Solo artist Charlie Bethel unpacks it all in this retelling of Homer’s epic tale of a cunning hero trying to get home and the circumstances that stretch him to his limit.

Samsara
By Lauren Yee  | Saturday, November 5 at 11:00 a.m.
Director: Beth Marshall
Cast: Melina Countryman, Jesse LeNoir, Jason Nettle, Julie Woods-Robinson, Rudy Roushdi
When American couple Katie and Craig vow to make a last-ditch effort to create a baby of their own, their quest leads them to India, where a thriving commercial surrogacy industry offers them one final chance at parenthood. But will their decision to “rent out” a surrogate unite or divide them? A hilarious, unsettling look at reproduction in the 21st Century, Samsara questions whether we can truly achieve intimacy in the face of shrinking worlds and expanding boundaries.

Smoke
By Gloria Bond Clunie | Saturday, November 5 at 2:00 p.m.
Director: John Briggs
Cast: Quinton Cockrell, Avis Marie Barnes, Don Seay, Fredena Williams
Country storeowner Ora Rakestraw wants no parts of the mysterious Wallace Johnson when he descends upon Manson, North Carolina to organize tobacco workers.  The government declares cigarettes deadly.  Things get hot when love and small town politics clash!

Strongman's Ghost
By Jeffrey Hatcher | Saturday, November 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Director: Patrick Flick
Cast: Michael Briggs, Steven Jones, Eric Pinder, Ron Schneider
The General is a dictator of a small foreign country who moonlights as a novelist.  Everyone loves his books.  They have to – he's the dictator.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to do the actual writing anymore, so he needs ghostwriters.  His soldiers have just brought him a new one.  His assignment: finish the General's final book before the country is invaded by a nation very much like the U.S.

Zombie Town
By Tim Bauer | Sunday, November 6 at 11:00 a.m.
Director: Mark Brotherton
Cast: John Connon, Frank McClain, Megan Pickrell, Matthew Rush, Michael Shenefelt
When a horde of zombies overruns the small West Texas town of Harwood, the townsfolk assume the worst has already happened. But then a San Francisco Theater collective arrives, determined to tell the town's story. The resulting play, assembled from interviews and told in the townsfolk's exact words, is the true recounting of that terrible invasion.

The Invention of the Living Room
By Andrew R. Heinze | Sunday, November 6 at 4:00 p.m.
Director: Jason Bruffy
Cast: Michael Dritto, Bob Dolan, Janine Klein, Mark Lainer, Trenell Mooring, Paula Rossman.
It's 1946. An apartment on the Lower East Side of New York City. Bessie Levin, an emotionally fragile yet dynamic woman, is haunted by the past but about to be hurled into the future. Bessie wants to keep her home unchanged and her racially mixed, religiously divided family together. Her son, Billy, is preparing to launch Levinstown, the first big postwar suburb, which he calls "the future of America." But will the Levins survive Levinstown? And will Bessie survive the future?

Feverish
By Steve Yockey | Sunday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Director: Mark Routhier
Cast: Mindy Anders, Jay T. Becker, Lucy Carney, Ryan Czerwonko, Brad Frost, Kraig Kelsey, Amanda Leakey, Casey Nobel, Jennifer Christa Palmer, Patrick Sullivan
Feverish is a retelling of Phaedra and Hippolytus through a modern lens. The play fuses myth and modern ideas into a bold, vivid world of heightened realism, status games and unrequited lust, shedding a whole new light on the "complex" love between a mother and a son.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Play in a Day – A Fun-Raiser for PlayFest | Cost: $10
Hosted by Beth Marshall | Mandell Theater | Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m.
20 actors, 7 writers, 7 directors and a team of crew members donate their time and talents to write, direct, rehearse, run the technical aspects and perform 7 original 10-minute plays, all sharing the same theme, within a 24-hour time frame.

Fringe 101 | $20
Hosted by Beth Marshall | Patron’s Room | Saturday, November 5 at 5:00 p.m.
How to Fringe with former Orlando Fringe Artistic Director and Producer of Beth Marshall Presents, Beth Marshall.

Keynote Address by Jeffrey Hatcher – Free Event!
Margeson Theater | Saturday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Streaming Live Online on #NEWPLAY TV! at http://www.livestream.com/newplay.
Jeffrey Hatcher, author of The Turn of the Screw, visits PlayFest! Join us for his Keynote Address, "What the Audience Knows," which focuses on the information, prejudices and expectations audiences bring to the theater and to new plays. This event will be followed by a reading of his new work, Strongman's Ghost.

Playwright's Panel – “What's a Playwright Gotta Do to Make a Living?” | Cost: FREE!
Mandell Theater | Sunday, November 6 at 2:00 p.m.
Streaming Live Online on #NEWPLAY TV! at http://www.livestream.com/newplay.

All Events take place at the John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 East Rollins Street, Orlando, FL  32803.

TICKETS AND PRICING:
Festival Pass - $28
A no-frills approach to PlayFest, the Festival Pass enables you to see all seven PlayFest readings. A fantastic bargain!

PlayFest Passes and tickets are available by calling 407-447-1700 or online at http://orlandoshakes.org/tickets or in person at the box office located inside the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 East Rollins Street in Orlando’s Loch Haven Cultural Park.

PlayFest is made possible through the generous support of title sponsor Harriett Lake, as well as corporate and individual sponsors: Comfort Suites, National New Play Network (NNPN), Orlando Weekly, Frank Santos and Dan Dantin, and Ingrid and Coleman Cordell. Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF is supported by United Arts of Central Florida with funds from the United Arts campaign and by State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council.

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Now celebrating its 23rd season, Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF has grown into one of the region’s most acclaimed Equity theaters producing bold professional theater in Central Florida. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Jim Helsinger and Managing Director Shannon Lacek, Orlando Shakespeare Theater continues to achieve the highest standards, while preserving its artistic and cultural legacy. Through PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays, Orlando Shakespeare Theater is nationally recognized for its contribution to the development of new plays. Orlando Shakes also provides innovative educational experiences through its youth education programming, serving over 25,000 young people, families, and schools annually.