It’s your last chance to see Theatre@First’s Festival@First 8: Fractured Fairytales! Head up to Unity Somerville, 6 William Street, Somerville, MA on Friday or Saturday at 8pm for the last two nights of witches, princess, and one hungry monster in the closet!
This series features original one-acts by a number of emerging playwrights, including the world premiere of My Monster and Me by yours truly.
Festival@First8: Fractured Fairytales, is opening this weekend at Theatre@First, Unity Somerville, 6 William Street, Somerville, MA.
“Theatre@First’s summer one-acts return with nine fresh takes on familiar tales from new playwrights around the world, including two local writers. Don’t miss a night of princes and princesses, witches and animals, magic and laughter, and the occasional monster under the bed. Tickets: $12-$15″
Including a new production of My Monster and Me, written by yours truly!
The Barbara Newhall Follett Project is presenting tomorrow night at 6:30pm in the Visual and Performing Arts Center at Bennington College. Don’t miss it!
Where in the world in Natalie Osborne? She’s back up in sunny Vermont working on a new theatre piece! The Barbara Newhall Follett Project is a devised work based off of the life and writings of Barbara Newhall Follett. Barbara was a writer and a child prodigy who published her first book at the age of twelve. The House Without Windows received raved reviews by critics and readers alike. After her father left the family, Barbara and her mother became destitute. Barbara continued writing, but none of her works were published. At the age of twenty-five, and after a fight with her husband Nick, Barbara left her home with 30 dollars and a notebook. She was never seen again.
Throughout Barbara’s work, there is a theme of escaping into nature and the imagination. In our work, we’ve tried to balance both aspects of Barbara’s life, the real and the fantastic, the romantic and the mundane.
We’ll be presenting the piece July 10th, 2015, at 6:30pm on Bennington’s Campus. The event is free and all are welcome!
THE ENSEMBLE:
Megan Hill
Natalie Osborne
Molly Kirshner
Patrick Harret Marshall
For more on the project visit:
As part of Wellness Week, BeWell and the Bennington Drama Collective will be hosting “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby!” an open mic night on consent, safe sex, and sex positivity. There will be new student works ranging from music to poetry to drama, including Me, Myself, and I, a new play by yours truly! Tonight at 10pm in Bennington College’s Downcafe. Hope to see you there!
Check out these awesome pics from the 365 Women a Year Festival! Photos were taken by the lovely Ayesha Raees
If you missed NOplays first production in collaboration with 365 Women a Year, then you’re in luck! Here’s a video of the event. The reading series took place on March 27th in the Bennington College Student Center and features the work of four new plays by Bennington Students and Alumni. Enjoy!
Special thanks to HowlRound and NiteCorp for making the livestream possible. Be sure to check out videos of the other play reading events that were a part of 365 Women A Year’s first festival in the HowlRound archive.
Three new plays will be making their premiere tonight. The reading series will take place in the Woolley Common Room on Bennington campus. Playwright’s include Audre Bennet, Jeremy Geragotelis, and yours truly! Hope to see you there at 8!
This is the week! On March 27th, World Theater Day, we will celebrate the lives of historical women who changed our world, with play-readings from Madrid to New York to Bennington, Vermont.
We hope you will join us at 7:40pm in the Bennington College Student Center, in person or through the livestream on HowlRound TV!
Catherine Weingarten discusses her new play FEELIN LONELY. This is the first in a series of four posts featuring the playwrights of the Bennington 365 Women a Year Festival.
Interviewer: Natalie Osborne
Q: How did you hear about 365 Women a Year?
A: Last year I got in touch with Jesslynn Chamblee because we both were selected for a few of the same short play festivals. She was super fun to talk to and we ended up commiserating about grad school, being a female playwright and submission opportunities. Then she told me about her awesome project “365 Women” and I decided to join the Facebook group and give it a go!
Q: Why did you choose Elizabeth Bishop as your historical woman? What drew you to her?
A: At Bennington College I took a poetry class my freshman year about intense friendships between poets; and we studied Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Ever since then she has stuck in my head. I love how observant, crisp and surprisingly funny her poetry is. Also she was a lesbian and so edgy and strong! Can I be her now!
Q: Can you walk me through the process of adapting a persons life for the stage? What were some of the challenges? What parts really clicked together?
A: I knew that I didn’t want to be too literal when it came to adaptation. I wanted to take details from her life that did it for me; and then give myself the freedom to imagine my own version of how things could have played out. The challenge is the pressure of being historically accurate/depicting things as they probably occurred; but to tell you the truth that sounds supa boring, so I tried to avoid that and let myself have weird Elizabeth Bishop odd fantasy sequences.
I had a lot of fun creating Elizabeth Bishop as a character because she is so spunky and smart and repressed; what cool qualities for a woman!
Q: The play takes place during Bishop’s time at Vassar College, what inspired you to focus on this part of her life?
A: Ever since I have been writing plays I have been obsessed with stories about younger people trying to figure out adulthood. The idea of writing about Elizabeth Bishop still trying to figure out her voice and her swag, really did it for me. Also I was a playwriting apprentice at Vassar’s Summer Theater in 2012, so I had a clear image in my mind about the buildings she probably studied in.
Q: What are you most excited about for the reading on the 27th? What are you most nervous about?
A: I am such a Bennington chick, so I am thrilled whenever my alma mater decides to put up my work! I am nervous that people will throw hipster vegan drinks at the stage and cry and say that my play is not historically accurate(which it probs is not).
Q: Are there any playwrights that inspired you while you were working on this piece, or who inspire you in general?
A: Things that inspire me: coconut cake, Sherry Kramer, Sam Hunter, pink cupcakes.
Q: What has been your favorite aspect of working with 365 Women a Year?
A: I am a big proponent of female playwrights and minority playwrights having more of a voice on the American stage; so this project is right up my alley. I love feeling like I’m apart of this sketchy secret Facebook group mission that involves a ton of female playwrights.
Q: Do you have any advice for the playwrights joining 365 Women a Year in 2015?
Don’t worry too much about getting every detail of the person’s life correct. Just try to take what’s interesting to you and then give yourself room to be crae and have fun!
Catherine Weingarten is a recent Bennington College graduate in Vermont and an incoming playwriting MFA candidate at Ohio University. Her short works have been done at such theaters as Ugly Rhino Productions, Fresh Ground Pepper, and Nylon Fusion Collective. Her full length plays include: Are you ready to get PAMPERED!?, Recycling Sexy, A Roller Rink Temptation and Pineapple Upside Down Cake: a virgin play. She is the Playwright in Residence for “Realize your Beauty inc” which promotes positive body image for kids by way of theater arts. She was previously a member of Abingdon Theater’s playwrights group and New Perspective “women’s work” short play lab 2014. You can see her play FEELIN LONELY at the Bennington College Student Center on March 27th, at 7:40pm. Or watch the online stream on HowlRound TV
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