Madison Festival - performance pictures

As promised, here are more pictures from the Madison Festival performance on Saturday, March 17.

A scene from It's Hard to Get a Halo by Katerina Rettino

A scene from Crime Scene Disaster by Kelly Notine

A scene from Is it a Dream? by Kevin Espiritu

A scene from She's Actually Pretty Cool by Ellie Culin



A scene from From Geek to Chic by Mollie Sullivan

 Photos by James Sullivan.

More pictures can be found on the Playwrights Theatre Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/playwrightstheatreofnewjersey

Enjoy!

Madison Young Playwrights Festival - Performance day!

Congratulations again to the five playwrights whose work premiered at the 26th annual Madison Young Playwrights Festival this afternoon. We had an extremely fun time with these plays and are thrilled to have had the opportunity to present them to the public. Your words, ideas, and imaginations are important and it is an honor that you entrusted them to us in this way. Thank you for sharing these with us and please, keep writing!



The playwrights and cast (and me) just before the presentation of certificates.

 I wanted to be sure to get something online today as I will be posting performance pictures to the Facebook page and website early next week. Thanks!

Madison Young Playwrights Festival - Day 3

That picture is the view from upstage center in the auditorium at the Madison Junior School. What a beautiful place! I've been in there a few times before for other programs, but never really had a chance to see it closely. The switch from our small rehearsal room to this massive space (nearly 700 seats, I believe) was quite an adjustment, but the cast made the transition smoothly (as I knew they would) and we spent the day working on the two other Festival plays:

• It's Hard to Get a Halo by Katerina Rettino
• Is it a Dream? by Kevin Espiritu

We had a great time playing with these stories and look forward to putting it all together at the Madison Festival tomorrow. Here are some pictures from today's rehearsal with thanks to James Sullivan!

This is a neat shot of a scene from It's Hard to Get a Halo with the playwright and her mother watching from the house. Actors are Ashley LaSelva (left) and Siouxsie Suarez (right).

We had some fun with this scene in which Mom (Siouxsie at right) reveals the truth that Ashley (played by Ashley at right) is half-human, half-devil.

Oh, no! Mr. Linguini is choking!
(Walter Rodriguez and Erica Scott)

In a scene from Is it a Dream?, Vampire (Louis Vetter at left) and Crow (Siouxsie Suarez at right) battle for Viper's soul.
(Walter Rodriguez as Viper at center.)

When we got into rehearsal for Is it a Dream?, one of the after-school clubs needed to get some chairs behind the back drape. They opened it on the stage direction: "Scene 2: In the Woods." and painted on the back wall was this woods scene!

Watching it all come together.

We're excited for the staged readings tomorrow! I'll be posting more once the Festival is done. For more pictures of today's events - and from throughout the entire four day process - please visit the Playwrights Theatre Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/playwrightstheatreofnewjersey

(Maybe you'll LIKE us, too!)

Madison Young Playwrights Festival - Day 2

Today was our first rehearsal with the playwrights and we had a LOT of fun bringing these stories to life! We worked on blocking for three plays today:

• She's Actually Pretty Cool by Ellie Culin
• From Geek to Chic by Mollie Sullivan
• Crime Scene Disaster by Kelly Notine

Pictures below...

Another day of rehearsal tomorrow and we'll switch venues from the Playwrights Theatre offices to the Madison Junior School.

Enjoy!

Working through some blocking in a scene form She's Actually Pretty Cool by Ellie Culin

The director and playwright watch the action.

Laughing at Lucy's new glasses - a scene from From Geek to Chic by Mollie Sullivan

Mr. Rogers and the mysterious Stalker Man in a scene from Crime Scene Disaster by Kelly Notine

"I guess it could've been worse."

"Okay, it could not have gotten ANY worse than this!"

You can find more pictures on the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/playwrightstheatreofnewjersey

Madison Young Playwrights Festival - Day 1

Yesterday was the first rehearsal for the 26th annual Madison Young Playwrights Festival. This was the first meeting of the cast and we did a read-through of all five plays in the order that they will be performed on Saturday. That will be the only time that we have to go through the play in order. Scheduling conflicts and play size have created a fairly scattered schedule where we will be jumping around from play to play over the next two days. I'm hoping to get at least one walk-through at least at the end of the day tomorrow.

We enjoyed reading through the pieces and I was impressed with the quality of the revisions that the playwrights made. After plays were selected for the Festival, I did a full response for each and offered the playwrights suggestions for revisions, which was informed by the structure of the staged reading and the physical space in which we would perform. Of course the exact space was not known at the time, so I had to estimate what it might be using the three or so possibilities that we had.

Of course, we've confirmed that the Festival will take place in the auditorium of the Madison Junior School. That performance will be this Saturday, March 17 beginning at 1:00 pm. We hope you'll join us then to celebrate the playwrights' excellent work!

And please stay tuned as we post updates from rehearsals over the next few days!

State festival heads into the final round

We're almost through the second round of judging for the NJ Young Playwrights Festivals. Our selection panel is in place and we'll be sifting through the finalists over the next few weeks!