2007 OOTE Festival
staged readings
Saturday & Sunday, October 20-21
Plays At Work is The Theater Offensive's ongoing new works development initiative that focuses on mining the rich vein of talent in Boston's diverse queer communities and aims to make Boston synonymous with adventuresome theatrical production and play development. In our annual play laboratory, playwrights receive insightful feedback in a safe and constructive environment. Audiences then attend public presentations of the new works and provide invaluable feedback via postshow discussions with the director, cast and, most importantly, the playwright. In conjunction with this intensive community connection, Plays At Work is an important greenhouse for our upcoming seasons, as well as for stages beyond our own around the country.
Admission to readings is complimentary, but have a suggested donation of $10. Come early to guarantee a seat and get close to the action!
Hello Goodbye Peace
written by Abe Rybeck
Saturday, October 20 @ 4pm
Sunday, Octoer21 @ 3pm
Queer, hillbilly and Jewish aesthetics crash together in this story of a Jewish grandfather and his family, building a dream-come-true on a jerusalem artichoke farm in the mountains of West Virginia. But when the youngest members of the family - an adopted Mayan flower child named Frida and a killer dog named Shalom - drill beneath the surface of the family dream, the clan's troubles escalate into a life-and-death battle where no one is safe. Shalom takes control, becoming the arbiter of who is really "in" the clan and who isn't. He sparks a full-out family feud, a life-and-death battle, but who is really fighting against whom?
Abe Rybeck is the proud recipient of the 2007 Jonathan Larson Musical Theater Award, the 2006 National Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellowship in Playwriting; the AIDS Action Committee Community Recognition Award; The Cambridge Peace & Justice Award; the Greater Boston Business Council Award for Individual Excellence, and the Independent Reviewers of New England special Citation for Theater, among others.
This reading was funded in part by the Foundation for Jewish Culture's New Jewish Theater Projects.
Blue Fire on the Water
written by Renita Martin
Saturday, October 20 @ 8pm
Sunday, October 21 @ 12pm
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, two blues musicians test the endurance of music to save them from the flood that has exposed the realities of their relationship. Can music, unprecedented love and forgiveness be enough for Maybelle and Jo as the water rises? What happens when every instrument that we use to shield us from the pains of our world is swept away?
Renita Martin's writing has most appeared in the Boston Theater, Does Your Mama Know? and Ma' Ka: Diasporic Jukes, among others, and has held residencies at The Theater Offensive, Jumpstart Theatre Company, The Cherry Lane Theatre, and Brandeis University Women's Studies Department. She is a recipient of the Nancy Beigal New Play Award.
Visit Renita Martin on myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/ree39sjukejoint