Geva Hosts Regional Writers Showcase

2010-03-30

Rochester, N.Y. March 30, 2010 … Geva Theatre Center will host two exciting evenings full of new work by area playwrights. The 16th annual Regional Writers Showcase will take place at 6pm on April 12 and April 26. The script-in-hand performances will take place in the Nextstage at Geva Theatre Center.

The Regional Writers Showcase, a collaboration between Geva and Writers & Books, gives area playwrights the opportunity to bring their works to local audiences, showcased by professional actors, directors and dramaturgs. The four featured scripts were selected from over 30 plays that were submitted after a call for work. The showcase is part of Geva's ongoing What’s Next series of new play programs. After each reading, there will be a discussion with the playwrights, directors and audience.

Monday, April 12, 6:00pm

The Wind, the Plough and the Sink
By Kelly Yoho
Four Irish characters in search of a playwright, one who will write their tragedy - or was that comedy?

Survival of the Season
By Carolyn Kourosfsky
As the pressures of the holidays mount, a recently divorced woman finds "peace on earth" hard to come by.

My Anatomically Correct Artificial Life Form
By Len Messineo
Two beings in a scientific experiment: one is human, one is a robot. They can't tell which is which. Can you?

Monday, April 26, 6:00pm

Mystic Castle
By Lori Marra
Reporter John Ehrlich gets the break of a lifetime when he wins an exclusive interview with serial killer Arthur Shawcross. While facing the terror that the criminal evokes, John learns more about himself than he had bargained for.






Kelly Yoho, a Rochester resident, is a computer programmer by day and an aspiring screenwriter and playwright the rest of the time. He's written ten screenplays; directed several short movies including Chipper's in Rehab, which was shown at the Little Theatre's Emerging Filmmaker's series; and is currently organizing the shooting of a low-budget independent feature film this summer. The Wind, the Plough and the Sink is his second work for the stage.


Carolyn E. Kourofsky's first play, A Necessary Provision, was presented at the 2010 Writers and Books/Geva Theatre collaboration 2 Pages/2 Voices. Her other scriptwriting projects are eclectic, ranging from the narration for an animated online game to the Dance Mystery Theatre piece Death by Paso Doble. Her screenplay for a Vanity Fair/ Veuve Clicquot contest won her a trip to Hollywood (and, more importantly to her husband Kevin, a case of champagne). She is the author of the children's book Mikey Makes a Mess, and president of Excelsior Editorial Consulting, providing writing services and online content.


Len Messineo earned a M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Wichita State University and a M.A. in Drama at St. Louis University. His pieces have appeared in many magazines, including Thema, New Novel Review, Shenandoah, Tampa Review, The Sun, The Chrysalis Reader, Rosebud, and Tennessee Review. His stories have twice been nominated for inclusion in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and his one-act play, By the Sea was part of the Geva Theatre's Regional Playwrights Festival. He teaches at Writers & Books and performs in the Artisan Jazz Trio.


Several years ago, Lori Marra started hearing voices in her head. Rather than seek professional help, she decided to write them down on paper. Now she’s a playwright. After 20 years of enchantment with live theatre, she began the formal craft of playwriting in 2000. Since then, several of Ms. Marra's plays have been read and produced. In 2004, her one-act, No Smoking, premiered at the Guernsey Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Club in the UK. In 2006, the American Society for Quality commissioned her to write and direct a three-act play, A Quality Carole, for its annual conference. In October of 2006, Spotlight Theatre in Rochester produced her comedy, Indaba. In 2007 the Spokane Civic Theatre produced Marra’s play, No Smoking. That same year, the play also received a reading at Rochester's Shipping Dock Theatre. Marra is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the American Association of Community Theatre, the Theatre Association of New York State and the Guernsey Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Club. She holds an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Rochester.



Geva Theatre Center is Rochester's leading professional theatre and the most attended regional theatre in New York State. Founded in 1972, Geva attracts over 170,000 patrons annually, including more than 16,000 students. The 552-seat Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage offers a wide variety of shows, from musicals to American and world classics.

The 180-seat Ron & Donna Fielding Nextstage is home to Geva's own series of cutting-edge drama, comedy and musical theatre; Geva Comedy Improv; Geva's New Play Reading Series and the Hornet's Nest - an innovative play-reading series facilitating community-wide discussion on controversial topics. The Nextstage also hosts visiting companies of both local and international renown.

Geva Theatre Center offers a wide variety of educational, outreach and literary programs, nurturing audiences and artists alike. For the past fourteen years the organization has been led by Artistic Director Mark Cuddy.

*ENDS*