"New Plays from the Heartland" Take the Stage This Week

Heartland Theatre’s annual one-act play competition, “New Plays from the Heartland,” begins this week, with an open forum with playwright/adjudicator Douglas Post on Thursday night and then performances of the winning plays on Friday and Saturday.

The 2012 edition of “New Plays from the Heartland” began its process way back in 2011, with Heartland’s panel of experts (including Heartland’s Artistic Director, Mike Dobins, and local theater practitioners, writers and artists) choosing a theme for the year’s competition. They selected “Summer in the Heartland,” asking playwrights from throughout the Midwest to submit their one-act plays that dealt with some aspect of this time of year in the central part of the country.

And once they had the submissions before them, those judges read and analyzed all the “Summer in the Heartland” plays before choosing the best of the best to send to Doug Post, this year’s final judge, to select the winners to be performed this week at Heartland under the direction of Mike Dobbins.

To give the inside scoop on his own playwriting process as well as how he handled choosing the winning plays, Douglas Post (seen at right) will conduct an open forum on Thursday, July 12, at 7:30 pm at the theater. Post is a founding member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble in Chicago, plus he teaches at Chicago Dramatists and is the Chicago Regional Representative for the Dramatists Guild. Nationally, his plays have been produced in New York, Chicago and LA, while internationally, he’s had work produced in Austria, Canada, China, England, Germany and Russia. He has also been commissioned to write screenplays for Warner Brothers. and NBC, teleplays for WMAQ-TV, and done several radio adaptations of his scripts. On three occasions, he has been selected to develop his work at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and once at the O'Neill National Music Theater Conference. He has received the L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award, the Midwestern Playwrights Festival Award, the Cunningham Commission Award and three Playwriting Fellowship Awards from the Illinois Arts Council, and has been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award and an Emmy Award.

Post’s forum is open to the public and free of charge.

If you’d like to see what Doug Post chose and what Midwestern playwrights came up with on the idea “Summer in the Heartland,” you will want to attend the performances of the plays on Friday and Saturday. And if you do, you’ll be seeing these winning playwrights and plays:

Andrew Head (FIREFLIES)
Andrew is originally from Evansville, IN. He relocated to Normal last summer while chasing after the woman he finally married this May. Andrew graduated from Bradley University in 2007 with a degree in Theatre Arts. At BU he dabbled in acting and playwriting, performing in plays like ANGELS IN AMERICA and NIGHT OF THE IGUANA. He was also fortunate enough to have one of his own works, titled BUTCHER: THE PLAY (inspired by Cursive’s The Ugly Organ album) performed at BU. Andrew appeared on Heartland’s stage in February as Dennis in MARITIUS. In the fall, Andrew will begin his MFA in Acting at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Thanks always to Kat, for continually making his work better.

Terri Ryburn (LEMONADE AND LIGHTNING BUGS)
Terri retired from Illinois State University in 2005 and became active in Young at Heartland, the senior theatre troupe associated with Heartland Theatre. She began writing plays for the group and subsequently had published a book of short plays. In addition to acting and writing, she does stand-up comedy and is busy restoring a 1930s Route 66 building in Normal. She thanks the NEW PLAYS FROM THE HEARTLAND sponsors and committee, Ann White, and Mike and Gail Dobbins for their hard work in keeping live theatre relevant and vibrant. She credits her late husband, Bill Sanders, for the inspiration for her most successful plays.

Lori Tate Matthews (FARMERS' MARKET)
This fall marks the world premiere of Lori Matthews’ first full-length play to make it to the professional stage. Barter Theatre, a regional theater in Abingdon, Virginia, will produce OCTOBER, BEFORE I WAS BORN, a script that won the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights in 2011 and was named as a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award in 2012. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre has also contracted the play for their 2013/14 season. Lori’s previous work has received readings at Chicago Dramatists, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Madison’s Playwrights Ink. Workshop versions of her plays have appeared at the Wisconsin Wrights Festival and The Second City. Lori lives with her husband, Greg, and their two children in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

Andrew Head’s FIREFLIES involves a married couple who are quite sure they belong together. The question is where. Ryan yearns to see new sights and experience new adventures, while Jess prefers her own back yard. Yes, they are crazy about each other. But how do people – even people in love – resolve that kind of gap in hopes and dreams, in distant stars and nearby fireflies?

Instead of romantic love and its complications, Terri Ryburn’s LEMONADE AND LIGHTNING BUGS focuses on a mother and son. They, too, clearly love each other. But he is a practical lawyer who wants her to move forward, move on, face reality. And she just wants things to be the way they were. Progress? It ain’t progress if it means leaving her lemonade and lightning bugs behind.

Rounding out the group of winners is Lori Tate Matthews’ FARMERS’ MARKET, a look at the territorial implications of who goes where and who knows how to be neighborly when it comes to selling their wares. Sandy has manned the same stand for absolute ever, and she gives out advice, conversation and camaraderie along with her corn and cucumbers. But Anika is brand new. And her motives are a lot murkier than Sandy’s. The flowers she displays may be pretty, but Anika spells CONFLICT at the Farmers’ Market.

These three new plays will be presented in staged readings (with some costumes, props and set pieces) at Heartland Theatre on Friday, July 13 and Saturday, July 14, with both performances at 7:30 pm. There is no set ticket price, but you are asked to contribute a $5 donation at the door. For reservations, email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or call 309-452-8709.

The “New Plays from the Heartland” project is funded by The Town of Normal Harmon Arts Grant and sponsored by Paul and Sandra Harmon.

"New Plays from the Heartland" Winners Announced

Heartland Theatre Company has announced the three winners in its annual "New Plays from the Heartland" competition for one-act plays.

This year's theme was "Summer in the Heartland," with playwrights from nine states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin -- invited to submit their short plays on that topic. After two rounds of judging, the winners are:

"Farmers Market" 
by Lori Tate Matthews (Stoughton, Wisconsin)
Sandy is an old hand at selling produce at the Saturday morning farmers' market. She’s eager to help Anika have a successful first day. What Sandy doesn’t know is that the newcomer is asking much too high a price for her merchandise.

"Fireflies" 
by Andrew Head (Bloomington, Illinois)
Ryan and Jess have everything they dreamed of when they were kids, including a home on Oceanview Drive. The fact that there’s no ocean and not much of a view has never bothered Jess. But Ryan can’t help wondering what’s outside the glass jar in which he unexpectedly finds himself.

"Lemonade and Lightning Bugs” 
by Terri Ryburn (Normal, Illinois)
How much is a memory worth in cold hard cash? As dusk settles on the back porch she has rocked on for 52 summers, Marge Wilson argues this question with her son. The answer is not in the empty bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Maybe the lightning bugs know.

The winning plays will be presented in staged readings at Heartland Theatre on July 13 and 14 at 7:30 pm, with a suggested donation of $5 at the door.

There will also be a forum, free and open to  the public, with this year's final judge, playwright Douglas Post, on July 12 at 7:30 pm. As the final adjudicator, Post will also conduct a master class with the winning playwrights. Post is a Founding Member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble, teacher at Chicago Dramatists, and Chicago Regional Representative for the Dramatists Guild. His plays have been produced all over the world. As someone with expertise in every area of the playwriting life and screenplay, teleplay and radio play credits on his resume in addition to stageplays, his insights should prove very interesting.

"New Plays from the Heartland" is one of two opportunities for new plays offered by Heartland Theatre, with the other being the annual 10-Minute Play Festival which opens this week. The "New Plays from the Heartland" project is funded by the Town of Normal Harmon Arts Grant and sponsored by Paul and Sandra Harmon in conjunction with the NPH Sponsors Circle.

For more information about either project, call Heartland Theatre at 309-452-8709 or email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org

Tense "Mauritius" Packs a Punch at Heartland Theatre

Tension and intensity are the keys to Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" as it uncoils on stage at Heartland Theatre. There's tension among all the actors and the characters they play, as they circle hungrily, not unlike a pack of wolves, around a potentially valuable stamp collection. Director Sandra Zielinski adds intensity to the mix with her staging, ramping up into physical violence as her characters shove each other aside on their way to the prize.

Two half-sisters, Mary and Jackie, have been left behind after the recent death of their mother. Mom also left behind a stamp collection, which both half-sisters profess to own. Mary, the older daughter, argues that the stamps were the prized possession of her grandfather (a grandfather she did not share with Jackie) and that they are therefore of sentimental value to her and her alone. But Jackie was the one who stayed at home with her mother through what sounds like years of financial distress and emotional abuse, and she is desperate to sell the stamp collection to provide the funds for a new life far away from her mother's house of pain.

Neither consults a lawyer. That's understandable, since most of Rebeck's conflict would fly out the window if they did. Probably better to just call that poetic license and move on. Oh well.

Instead, Jackie takes the stamp collection to a less-than-posh stamp shop, owned by the cranky, uncooperative Phillip, to try to figure out what it's worth. Phillip isn't in the mood to rouse himself to look over her stamps or offer an opinion on their value, but Dennis, a cagey younger guy always looking out for just this kind of score, is willing to jump in. He notices immediately that there are some very rare, very valuable stamps in the album she's toting.

And that's when things start to get good. Are the stamps real? If they are, who owns them? What will Jackie and Mary do to each other in order two keep their hands on them? And who among the trio of pursuers -- slick, charming Dennis, worn-out Phillip or greedy, menacing collector Sterling -- will bend the others to his will?

Rebeck's script is all about cross and doublecross, smackdown and backhand, with clever dialogue that comes out in naturalistic bits and pieces, as well as a fair share of swearing, shouting and swagger. In the intimate confines of Heartland Theatre, the violence -- both verbal and physical -- is in-your-face and scary, with edge-of-your-seat suspense. The actors work quite well together, which is absolutely necessary when they're choreographing this much action in such a small space.

Sarah Stone Innerst leads the cast as Jackie, who comes off stubborn, hard and just unhinged enough to do some serious damage as she faces off against the world. As her sparring partner, older sis Mary, Kate McDermott-Swanson is flinty and snooty, a real piece of work, the one who had all the advantages but still doesn't feel like she needs to share.

The three men are different enough, and yet each threatening in his own way. Kevin Paul Wickart is world-weary and hang-dog as Phil the Philatelist, brooding in the background and nursing his hurts like a perennially sore tooth, while Michael Pullin's Sterling is really, really scary. Pullin's physical presence is menacing from the first moment he appears in a long, plush coat, swirling it like his super-villain cape, casting a dark shadow over everybody else.

Andrew Head finishes out the trio, playing Dennis as a smooth wheeler dealer who thinks if he throws out words fast enough, nobody will noticed they're being conned. Head's Dennis is less the self-assured seducer of the off-Broadway production and more a boyish overachiever, an Artful Dodger, a whiz kid. It works just fine, as Dennis becomes the irresistible force opposite Jackie's immoveable object, and Head and Innerst strike up a nice chemistry.

Scenic Designer Michael Pullin, who also plays Sterling, contributes a snazzy set, which I am told offers a gray-green back wall with inset squares to reference the color of money and the shape of stamps. Nicely done. 

"Mauritius" continues with performances through March 4, with a panel discussion after the matinee this Sunday, February 26th.

MAURITIUS
By Theresa Rebeck

Heartland Theatre

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Scenic Designer: Michael Pullin
Lighting Designer: Grace Maberg
Costume Designer: Judith Rivera Ramirez
Sound Designer: James Wagoner
Fight Director: Paul Dennhardt
Stage Manager: Melissa Jean Mullen

Cast: Andrew Head, Sarah Stone Innerst, Kate McDermott-Swanson, Michael Pullin and Kevin Paul Wickart

Remaining performances: February 23-25 and March 1-3 at 7:30 pm; February 26 and March 4 at 2 pm

Running time: 2:10, including one 10-minute intermission

Opening Tonight: "Mauritius" at Heartland

If you've been hearing Theresa Rebeck's name in the news recently, it's probably because of "Smash," the new hit show on NBC about putting together a Broadway musical. Rebeck is the creator of "Smash," as well as the head writer on the show, and she has deep writing and producing credits for TV ("Law and Order: Criminal Intent," "NYPD Blue") as well as for the stage ("Seminar," currently on Broadway, "The Understudy," "The Scene.") Rebeck was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 as the co-writer of "Omnium Gatherum" with Alexandra Gersten.

"Mauritius," which opens tonight at Heartland Theatre, is prime Rebeck, featuring smart, flawed people with mixed motives behaving badly in pursuit of some irresistible object. In this case, what they all want is a possibly valuable stamp collection, one which may contain the so-called Mauritius Post Office stamps. These stamps, issued by the British Colony of Mauritius in 1847, were printed with the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid." There were only about five hundred printed of each of them -- one orange and worth a penny, the other blue and worth two cents -- and the printing mistake is what makes them so sought after in the world of stamp collecting.

That theme, of what we're worth, mistakes and all, recurs throughout the play. Or, as one of the characters in "Mauritius" puts it, "If only people were more valuable because of their mistakes."

Rebeck is very good at creating snappy, dynamic dialogue and the edgy characters to go with it. "Mauritius" features a set of five of those characters, from Mary and Jackie, the half-sisters who each think they should have dominion over the stamp album in questions, to Dennis, the smooth operator always on the lookout for a score, Phillip, owner of a sleepy stamp shop who can be roused to action if the right circumstances present themselves, and Sterling, the mysterious collector with a briefcase full of cash and a "gimme gimme" attitude to go along with it. 

Sandra Zielinski, Professor in ISU's School of Theatre, directs this Heartland Theatre production, with a cast that includes Sarah Stone Innerst as Jackie; ISU MFA candidate Kate McDermott as Mary; Kevin Paul Wickart as shop-owner Phillip; Andrew Head, a graduate of Bradley University's Department of Theatre Arts, as slippery Dennis; and Michael Pullin, a Heartland favorite who is also the resident Scenic Designer, as Sterling, the avaricious money man.

From L: Michael Pullin, Andrew Head and Sarah Stone Innerst

Photo credit: Jesse Folks

Performances of "Mauritius" open tonight with a special Pay-What-You-Can preview, followed by 7:30 performances on February 17-18, 23-25, and March 1-3, with 2 pm matinees on February 19 and 26 and March 4. A discussion about the play will follow the February 26th afternoon performance, with Alaine Winters, an expert in language from Heartland Community College's Communications Department; Loree Adams, from IWU's Department of Psychology; and director Sandra Zielinski appearing to discuss the issues presented by the play and take questions. This panel discussion is open to the public and free of charge.

For more information about Heartland's production of "Mauritius" or to make reservations, click here.