Philip Dawkins and NEW PLAYS FROM THE HEARTLAND Starting Tomorrow

The Mike Dobbins Memorial New Plays from the Heartland project -- combining a one-act playwriting contest with staged readings and a master class for the winning playwrights as well as a public forum to allow the prominent playwright who selected the winners to interact with the Bloomington-Normal community -- is back this week at Heartland Theatre.

The festivities begin tomorrow night at 7:30 pm when Philip Dawkins, this year's playwright in residence, offers his remarks and takes questions on the art of playwriting in a forum that is free and open to the public. You may remember Dawkins' name from the play Failure: A Love Story, a musical tragicomedy in verse performed at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in 2013 after a successful run at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater. Dawkins is also the author of Miss Marx: Or the Involuntary Side Effect of Living (Strawdog Theatre -- Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work), The Happiest Place on Earth (Side Show Theatre/Greenhouse Theater Center), Le Switch (About Face Theatre, The Jungle), Charm (Northlight Theatre), The Homosexuals (About Face Theater) and the musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches with composer David Mallamud (Children’s Theater Company, Minneapolis). His lyrical, whimsical style makes him a unique voice in American theater.

The three winning New Plays from the Heartland will be performed as staged readings beginning at 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday and 2 pm on Sunday, directed by Heartland artistic director Rhys Lovell. This year's winners are Golden Land by John Adams of Richmon Heights, Missouri; All Sewed Up by Marty Seigel of Bloomington, Illinois; and Annabelle's Last Stand by Todd Wineburner of Pontiac, Illinois. Here's what Heartland has to say about each of the plays:

GOLDEN LAND by John Adams, Richmon Heights MO
A chance meeting in New York in 1904 illustrates that the apple seldom falls far from the tree. The age-old conflict between the disenfranchised and the privileged plays out on a tenement stoop on a hot summer day.

ALL SEWED UP by Marty Seigel, Bloomington IL
Owners of a small-town business and the town manager go head to head against a high-powered corporation. The lingering smoke from an old flame can’t mask a critical flaw that will bring one side down.

ANNABELLE’S LAST STAND by Todd Wineburner, Pontiac IL
A house is not just bricks and mortar; it’s dreams and memories too. And that’s worth fighting for, as a sheriff who is reluctant to exercise his authority soon learns.

For more information on the Mike Dobbins Memorial New Plays from the Heartland, Philip Dawkins or the winning plays, you can visit Heartland's website for the full scoop. Please note that this new-play festival is made possible by the Town of Normal Harmon Arts Grant and sponsored by Paul and Sandra Harmon.

Tickets On Sale August 3 for Illinois Theatre 2016-17

When the fall semester begins at the University of Illinois in August, the new season of Illinois Theatre, the producing arm of the University's theatre department, will also begin. Tickets go on sale August 3 for a collection of plays "whose themes pose questions related to the nature of identity, family, history, and the stories people tell themselves to help make sense of their lives." What's on the schedule in 2016-17?

Going Broader and Deeper: New Play Reading
September 16, 2016, in the Studio Theatre
Illinois Theatre is presenting new play readings "in order to hear the voices of new playwrights–and in particular, writers from underrepresented populations." They will be offering a reading of a brand-new play each semester, with the hope of creating a discussion about these new works.

Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea, by Nathan Alan Davis
September 29–October 1, October 8–9 and 11–14, 2016 in the Studio Theatre
Guest director Tyrone Phillips, who earned his BFA at U of I, will be at the helm of this "contemporary quest that aims to redress transgressions of the past through a distinctive blend of poetry, humor, and ritual." Playwright Nathan Alan Davis is also a graduate of the Illinois Theatre program. Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea was a finalist for the ATCA/Steinberg Prize in 2015.

Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, by Anne Washburn
October 13–15 and 20–23, 2016, in Colwell Playhouse
Yes, the Mr. Burns in the title is that Mr. Burns, the evil millionaire from The Simpsons. Anne Washburn's play was one of the most talked about pieces of drama in years when it began at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington DC in 2012 and then moved to New York's Playwrights Horizon in 2013. In Washburn's view of our dystopic future, the people left after an apocalypse reenact a Simpsons episode to entertain themselves. And after that... As the years go by, what was pop culture becomes mythic and powerful. Lisa Gaye Dixon directs this unusual, imaginative play.

The Minotaur, by Anna Ziegler
October 27–29 and November 1–6, 2016, in the Studio Theatre
In the classic Greek myth, Theseus is out to slay the monstrous half-bull, half-man Minotaur to fulfill his destiny as a hero, and he must negotiate a huge labyrinth to make it happen. Let's just say all would've been lost if Ariadne, the Minotaur's half-sister, hadn't fallen in love with Theseus and provided a big ball of string to help him work his way out of there. Anna Ziegler has written a modern version of this myth, putting Ariadne at the center of the action as she must choose between family loyalty and the man she loves, with a chorus of a priest, a rabbi and a lawyer looking on. Tom Mitchell will direct Ziegler's play for Illinois Theatre.

Failure: A Love Story, by Philip Dawkins
February 2–4 and 7–12, 2017, in the Studio Theatre
JW Morrissette directs Dawkins' fun, fizzy and ultimately sad look at three sisters, Nelly, Jenny June and Gerty Fail, who live in a quirky clock-filled house in Chicago in the 1920s. There is nothing realistic about Failure: A Love Story, but its story feels poignant and heartfelt, as the sisters continue to come up short at life and love. Failure: A Love Story was part of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival's summer season three years ago.

Going Broader and Deeper: New Play Reading
February 24, 2017, in the Studio Theatre
The second offering in Illinois Theatre's new initiative of play readings.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
March 2–4 and 9–12, 2017, in Colwell Playhouse
Shakespeare's tale of woe about teenage love gone wrong will be directed by Robert G. Anderson, himself a fine Shakespearean actor. For Illinois Theatre, expect a contemporary setting and a transformation of Colwell Playhouse. They've done Macbeth backwards there (with the audience on the stage and Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane through the seats) so anything is possible. petuous love.

Iago’s Plot
March 30–April 1 and April 4–9, 2017, in the Studio Theatre
Shozo Sato is a Master of Zen arts and emeritus faculty member at the University of Illinois. His Kabuki infused performances of Shakespeare are highly dramatic and theatrical, with Iago's Plot bringing his distinctive style to Othello. In the play, Iago schemes to bring down his commander, Othello, after he feels he's been passed over for a promotion. That scheme involves Othello's wife, Desdemona, as Iago works to convince Othello that his wife has been unfaithful.

For more information about the upcoming Illinois Theatre season as well as the rest of the 2016-17 season at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, click here. And remember -- tickets are on sale for all of it starting August 3.

FAILURE: A LOVE STORY Is Something Special at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival

I can't speak for other theater critics or reviewers, but I can say this about myself: Every time I take my seat before a performance, I hope it will be something special. Isn't that what theatre is all about? Isn't that why we go? I hope this show, this performance, will be special enough to transport me into the world of the play, introduce me to fascinating new characters, take me somewhere I haven't been before, broaden my horizons, spin me around and back again...

And last Sunday night at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival's production of Philip Dawkins' Failure: A Love Story, that's exactly what happened.

This production, directed by Andrew Park, artistic director of Chicago's Quest Theatre Ensemble, is full of puppets, credited to Puppet Designer/Fabricator Luke Verkamp. Because they are front and center in Park's interpretation of the piece, because they feature prominently in the show's advertising, you may think that the magic of Failure: A Love Story comes from the puppets. And that is absolutely not the case.

Amanda Catania appears in Failure: A Love Story

Yes, some of them are very fetching (the dog, the snake, the parrots). Yes, some are kind of creepy (the children, like the one seen in the photo above). But I realized, about halfway through, that I had stopped noticing the puppets. I was smitten with the story, with the characters, with Dawkins' eccentric, touching, incredibly human vision of how we move through life and how we spend our time together before we get to the end. Remember that bit about the end. At least twice, Dawkins' characters remind us, "Just because something ends, that don't mean it wasn't a great success." As theatregoers, we're used to that. You can put a movie back in the DVD player and crank it up again, but theatre... Well, whether it was a great success or not, it's over when it's over, living on only in your memory. And that's very much like the beautiful Fail sisters, whose stories end before they should.

As it happens, the recurring themes in Failure are about endings and about time. The Fail parents, Henry and Marietta, run a clock shop. They sell every kind of clock and tell every kind of time. They also have a strange run-in with Fate in the shape of the Eastland Riverboat Disaster of 1915, falling straight into their own mortal end, and then it's up to their daughters, Gertude, Jenny June and Nelly, and their adopted son, John N., to run the Fail Clock Works as Chicago moves into the 1920s. Especially Gertrude, who is practical and no-nonsense and knows her way around a clock. Jenny June is more interested in swimming across Lake Michigan, while Nelly is simply brimming over with laughter and joy and life, a girl whose first word was "Yes" and her second, "Hooray!" John N. is more of an odd bird. Or fish, since he was pulled from the Chicago River one day by Jenny June. He likes animals, but doesn't do so well with people, and he dreams of being a veterinarian.

And that's the Fail family, completed by a series of pets adopted by John N. and a whole lot of clocks. In the Illinois Shakespeare Festival production, we see the Grandfather Clock, the Cuckoo Clock, the Swiss Clock, and more, all personified by actors wearing clock headgear. We also see John N.'s snake, birds, dog, cat and a passel of rodents, again personified by actors and puppets.

Into that menagerie and Clock Works walks one Mortimer Mortimer, who falls in love with Nelly within a moment or two. But none of the Fail sisters is long for this world, and the play and its narrator tell the tale of how their minutes tick away, filled with songs and dances, jokes and tragedies, love and loss, and poignant reflections on what life amounts to, in the end. "Just because something ends, that don't mean it wasn't a great success."

There are a series of lovely performances at the heart of this version of the play, with all three sisters -- Eva Balistrieri as Nelly, Amanda Catania as Jenny June and Nisi Sturgis as Gertude -- especially vibrant and charming. Jordan Coughtry is handsome, flashy and fizzy as their collective suitor, the swain Mortimer Mortimer, and Cody Proctor builds a compelling, appealing character around sad, sweet John N. They all have to jump into the play's quirky rhythms and make it work, and they do that very, very well.

Thomas Anthony Quinn does fine work from beginning to end as the Chorus, the narrator who lays the whole story out for us and works his way into our hearts, David Hathway is practically a one-man band as the musical personification of the Gramophone, and Andrew Voss does a great job with an emotionally jarring scene about a dog.

I also enjoyed Lauren Lowell's enchanting costumes, Fred M. Duer's up-and-down set design, and Sarah EC Maines' lighting design, especially when we got to the birds.

Honestly, I loved this show. I can't speak for you, but for me, Dawkins' script, the bright, bouncy performances, imaginative staging and sense of whimsy were absolutely perfect.

I will say that the dog scene and the scariness of some of the puppets, as well as the omnipresence of death around every corner, lead me to believe that the Festival is doing the show a disservice by marketing it to children. Just a thought for parents -- no matter how it's marketed, even if it is full of puppets, I really don't think it's a children's show.

FAILURE: A LOVE STORY
By Philip Dawkins

Illinois Shakespeare Festival
The Theatre at Ewing

Director: Andrew Park
Costume Designer: Lauren M. Lowell
Scenic Designer: Fred M. Duer
Lighting Designer: Sarah EC Maines
Sound Designer/Composer: Shannon O'Neill
Puppet Designer/Fabricator: Luke Verkamp
Stage Manager: Adam Fox
Vocal Coach: Krista Scott

Cast: Thomas Anthony Quinn, Eva Balistrieri, Amanda Catania, Nisi Sturgis, David Hathway, Kraig Kelsey, Wendy Robie, Kelsey Bunner, Allison Sokolowski, Joe Faifer, David Fisch, Preston "Wigasi" Brant, Drew Mills, Carlos Kmet, Neal Moeller, Cydney D. Moody, Lindsay Smiling, Michele Stine, Andrew Voss, Martin Hanna, Arif Yampolsky, Fiona Stephens, Cody Proctor, Jordan Coughtry.

Running time: 2:20, including one 15-minute intermission.

Remaining performances: July 17, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28 and 31; August 2, 7 and 10.

For ticket information, click here

No Turning Back Now -- It's December!

So today is 12-02-12. I believe there is a theory of some sort that says the world will end this month. Mayan prediction, 12-21-12, etc... Never mind the fact that the Mayans are long gone and have no reason to have predicted the end of anything a thousand years after they were gone, and if they were going to predict, wouldn't they have chosen to predict (in order to guard against) the end of their own civilization? Okay, never mind. I don't know anything about any of this and I don't watch disaster movies, so I didn't see 2012, either. But in honor of this eschatological theory (gotta love the word eschatological), I am commemorating your What to Do in December post with the poster from the Roland "King of Crackpot Theories" Emmerich movie that pushed the End of Days '12 idea. As far as I know, no one is showing that movie on 12-21 or any other night, so you'll have to find it yourself for your 12-21-12 Eschatology viewing party.

No 2012 on the schedule, but Champaign's Art Theater is showing a 2011 version of  Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold and shot on location in Yorkshire, England. That's playing now through December 6, and will be followed by the new version of Anna Karenina with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Keira Knightley stars as Anna, with Jude Law as her stuffy husband and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as dashing Count Vronsky, the one she can't stay away from, even though it will ruin her life. Watch out for that train, Анна Каренина!

Also in Champaign-Urbana... The Station Theatre continues its production of Lee Blessing's Independence through December 9 -- you can read more about the play here -- while Parkland College welcomes a Bah Humbug production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever from December 14 to 23.

Community Players' White Christmas, the stage musical version of the classic Bing Crosby film, opened last week and continues through December 16th. Deb Smith directs for Community Players, with a cast that includes Ray Rybarczyk and Jason Strunk as the song-and-dance men who fall for a pair of pretty sisters, played here by Lindsey Kaupp and Larisa McCoy. Click here for ticket info for White Christmas and other upcoming Players shows.

The other White Christmas, the Bing and Danny Kaye film one, starts December 7 at the Normal Theater, with showings on the big screen till December 9. After that, the Normal Theater offers holiday favorites National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life to finish up 2012.

Illinois State University's Fall Dance Concert is scheduled for December 6 through 8, with three evening performances and one matinee.This concert promises to be a "celebration of movement, costumes, light, and music, featuring new choreographic works by faculty in the School of Theatre and Dance and invited guest artists." And don't forget to bring canned goods or other non-perishable food items to donate to the Redbird Giving Tree.

Ian Mairs' Our David, a play about sparring neighbors who find common ground over a tacky statue of Michelangelo's David, comes to New Route Theatre at the Bloomington YWCA beginning December 7. This David is directed by Bridgette Richards and stars Nathan Bothorff and Carol Scott as Clyde and Velma, who couldn't be more different and yet turn out to be strangely alike.

You also have a choice of the Holiday Spectacular at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts from December 7 to 9 or a variety of Nutcrackers in different cities at different times.

It's Barbara Stanwyck Month (on Wednesdays, anyway) over on Turner Classic Movies, with two of my favorites, The Lady Eve, from director/screenwriter Preston Sturges, and Ball of Fire, a Howard Hawks' gem, on December 12. Both movies came out in 1941, which may just be the best year ever for Hollywood movies. In The Lady Eve, Stanwyck is a con woman who woos a befuddled Henry Fonda, loses him, and then pretends to be another woman who looks just like the first one to pull the same scam on the same guy, while in Ball of Fire, she's a jazzy mob moll version of Snow White hiding out with seven pointy-headed encyclopedia writers (including Gary Cooper) who function as her Seven Dwarfs. It's adorable. It's screwball. It's fabulous.

Heartland Theatre is still accepting entries in its annual 10-minute play contest. This year's theme is The Parcel, the Package or the Present, and each play must include a package of some sort that fuels the play. All of which means that the holidays are a perfect time to come up with a play, what with all those parcels and packages arriving at your door. What's inside that box? Will it be a dream or will it be a dud? Will it go BOOM? You have a maximum of four characters and ten minutes to tell your Parcel/Package/Present tale.

Failure: A Love Story, a new play by Philip Dawkins, will be part of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival next summer. If you want a sneak peek or to set up a compare/contrast situation when it plays here next year, you can see the play now in its premiere production at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater. Failure finishes up at Victory Gardens on December 30.

Wondering What's Coming Up From Illinois Shakes Fest in Summer 2013?

Tonight was the night the Illinois Shakespeare Festival brought out the big red bus and gave us the news about what will be on stage when summer 2013 rolls around.

Back in September, I guessed Comedy of Errors, Hamlet and She Stoops to Conquer for the main season, and didn't hazard a choice for the Theatre for Young Audiences slot. This evening, at a special press conference held at Ewing Manor, the ISF and new artistic director Kevin Rich announced that the three mainstage plays will be Comedy of Errors, Macbeth and Failure: A Love Story, a "magical, musical fable" by Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins. The Theatre for Young Audiences choice is The Magical Mind of Billy Shakespeare, written by Rich himself.

All of that means I'm hitting .333. (It sounds better than 1-of-3, doesn't it?)

But, after all, the play's the thing. Or the plays are the thing. And in terms of plays, we'll be getting funny, silly, nothing-serious-about-it Comedy of Errors, the one with the identical twins separated at birth, wandering around not realizing everybody in town is mistaking one for the other, as well as Macbeth, Shakespeare's dark and scary journey into murder, madness, and ambition run wild.

You may remember Philip Dawkins as one of the authors invited down to Bloomington for a staged reading last summer as part of the "Midwestern Voices" Playwrights Festival. For that reading, Dawkins brought along Miss Marx, a new play about the daughter of Karl Marx. He is a resident playwright at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre and the author of "The Homosexuals," presented by About Face Theatre at Victory Gardens last year in a very well-received production. The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones called the play, "ambitious, substantial and deeply impressive." "Failure: A Love Story," the one we'll see next summer, takes the stage at Victory Gardens beginning November 16.

The play is about the lives of the three Fail sisters (if there are sisters in theatre, they usually comes in threes*), siblings who have lived their lives in a "rickety two-story building by the Chicago River that was the Fail family home and clock shop."

Because the Shakes Fest has traditionally focused on Shakespeare or plays that dovetail nicely with Shakespeare, Failure is a departure from the usual fare. I'm looking forward to hearing why Rich chose this piece and seeing how it works with Comedy of Errors and Macbeth. The play itself sounds pretty cool. I'm a big fan of new work, so the idea that our Shakes Fest is adding a contemporary play is good news, I think. And the fact that it centers on three women, to balance out the heavily male Shakespeare canon, is a bonus.

I believe Rich's Billy Shakespeare is a play he's had success with previously, so it ought to be a good match for Young Audiences and outreach programs, too. 

Very intriguing, all around. To keep an eye on what's happening with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, you can visit their Facebook page here.

* I have this dream to produce King Lear, Three Sisters and Crimes of the Heart in repertory, with the same actresses playing the sisters in all three of them. If Dawkins' play catches my fancy, maybe I will add it to my imaginary repertory!

Midwestern Voices Starts on Sunday With Philip Dawkins and "Miss Marx"

New plays all around! Right now, new one-acts by Midwestern writers are being celebrated in Heartland's "New Plays from the Heartland" project (and what a great forum last night with playwright Doug Post in conjunction with that), and it's almost time for the other new play initiative in town -- the Illinois Shakespeare Festival's Midwestern Voices Playwrights Festival -- to start up, as well.

The Midwestern Voices Playwrights Festival is a way for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival to showcase three up-and-coming playwrights from the region by giving each a four-day residency that includes readings of their new plays as performed by members of the ISF professional acting company. All three readings are open to the public, and they'll take place at Bloomington's historic Vrooman Mansion.

Philip Dawkins

The first chapter in the Midwestern Voices project takes place this Sunday, July 15, with a reading of Philip Dawkins' new play, "Miss Marx: The Involuntary Side Effect of Living," scheduled at 3 pm The Miss Marx in the title is Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl, the German economist and philosopher who wrote "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital," defining socialism as an alternative to capitalism and changing the world for generations. From each according to his abilities -- to each according to his needs. Progress can be measured by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included. Workers of the world unite: You have nothing to lose but your chains!

Dawkins' play deals with Eleanor Marx's "efforts to create a world where every human is respected and loved." Even the ugly ones.

A resident playwright at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre, Dawkins is the author of "The Homosexuals," presented by About Face Theatre at Victory Gardens last year in a very well-received production. The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones called the play, "ambitious, substantial and deeply impressive." Dawkins’ new play, "Failure: A Love Story," will take the main stage at Victory Gardens beginning November 16.

Jennifer Blackmer

Playwright Jennifer Blackmer is the next "Midwestern Voice" to share a reading, as her new adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel, "Alias Grace" gets the spotlight on July 29 at 3 pm. "Alias Grace" involves Grace Marks, one of Canada’s most notorious murderers. Grace, an Irish immigrant, maintains that she has no memory of killing her employer or his housekeeper. Raising issues of insanity, memory, culpability, innocence and guilt, "Alias Grace" is described as "a thrilling exploration of... the darkest places of the human mind."

Currently living in Indiana and teaching theater at Ball State University, Blackmer is a director, educator and playwright. Her play, "The Human Terrain," was selected for Playwrights’ Week at The Lark Play Development Center and was a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Theater Center.

Ike Holter

Ike Holter's "Hell-Care," a provocative new play about the American way of health, finishes up the "Midwestern Voices" season on August 5 at 3 pm. In the play, a Chicagoan almost loses his mind when he tries to jump through all the hoops in his way to get to free health care. In the end, he must choose which is more important, his health or his very sanity.

Holter also wrote "Hit the Wall," which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Steppenwolf Garage and then became a selection for the summer season at Chicago’s Theatre on the Lake. "Hit the Wall" was a production by Chicago's Inconvenience company, where Holter is resident playwright. He is also the Associate Artistic Director at Nothing Without a Company.

The free performances begin promptly at 3 pm. Each will include an artist talkback immediately following the performance.

The Vrooman Mansion is located at 701 East Taylor Street in Bloomington, Illinois. Street parking is available.

If new plays are your thing, if Philip Dawkins is your thing, if you are a student of Marx or Marxism or playwriting or you'd just like to sit inside the Vrooman Mansion and hear some provocative new theater from a brilliant new voice, you'll want to pencil this one in on your schedule.

To recap the important bits for this weekend: Philip Dawkins, "Miss Marx: The Involuntary Side-Effect of Living," 3 pm, Sunday the 15th, Vrooman Mansion.

Brand-New Plays Bring Something Fresh to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival

Yes, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival opens this week. You can see "Othello" tomorrow and "As You Like It" Wednesday if you are in the mood for Special Preview Nights and their tempting two-for-one option. But there is something else, something new and shiny and very exciting, happening at the Festival this year.

We generally associate the Illinois Shakespeare Festival with older plays. Older, as in Elizabethan, of course, with the occasional Restoration comedy or even a little Cavalier fun or the occasional Shakespeare parody tossed into the mix to keep things lively. But last year, the Festival launched something a bit different, offering staged readings of brand-new plays in conjunction with the Shakespeare Festival.

Two new plays were treated to readings in 2011, but this year, the field has expanded to three. Under the umbrella of "The Midwestern Voices Playwrights Festival," the Festival will showcase playwrights Philip Dawkins, Jennifer Blackmer, and Ike Holter with a four-day residency that includes readings of their new plays, as performed by members of the ISF professional acting company. All three readings are open to the public, and they'll take place at Bloomington's historic Vrooman Mansion at 3 pm on July 15, July 29 and August 5.

I asked the ISF's Jesse Cannady, who is working with "The Midwestern Voices Playwright's Project," for some background information on the project and how it all began. Here's what Jesse had to say:

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"'The Midwestern Voices Playwright's Project' began last season as 'The Playground,' which was developed by ISU MFA Jessie Dean and her husband, up-and-coming playwright Gabriel Dean. Janet Wilson asked me to follow up on this program (with a new name) after Jessie and Gabe left Normal for several workshops of Gabe's work... From there I was charged with finding three playwrights.

Ike Holter
(© Ryan Bourque)

"I knew off the bat I wanted Ike Holter in residency. Ike wrote the the smash of Steppenwolf's 2011-12 season, HIT THE WALL. The production was extended twice and sold out within hours each time. It was a stunning piece with a lot of heart. Ike's words are lyrical and beautiful and we cannot wait to workshop his new play HELL-CARE that will be premiering in Chicago this fall.

Jennifer Blackmer

"Jennifer Blackmer joined us next. Jennifer is a friend of mine who has mentored several of my playwright friends and is a professor out of Ball State University. Jenn had a different new play developed this last semester at Illinois Wesleyan under Tom Quinn which I had the pleasure of seeing in performance. The workshop production showed a lot of heart and a brilliant female lead. Jenn let me know she was working on a commission out of LA, and I knew we had our second playwright. Jenn's beautiful adaptation, ALIAS GRACE, will play second."

Philip Dawkins

"We are thrilled to welcome Phil Dawkins to the festival as well. Phil came to us through ISU students currently serving as interns at the About Face Theatre in Chicago. He is currently serving in the Playwright's Ensemble at Victory Gardens where his play THE HOMOSEXUALS played to great reviews last season. Victory Gardens will present the world premier of his new play-with-music FAILURE: A LOVE STORY this holiday season. His play, MISS MARX, will premier this season at an area university.

"We couldn't be more thrilled to work with these three playwrights and present their work on stage.

"While in residency, each playwright will work differently with our actors, directors, and support staff to make any necessary changes to their piece. At the end of the process, each Sunday, we will present a reading at the beautiful Vrooman Mansion with a talk-back session immediately afterwards. These readings will be bare bones, focusing on the text, allowing our playwrights the rare opportunity of hearing their words with out seeing all that other 'stuff' that goes along with a play."

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Thanks, Jesse!

The plays presented will run the gamut from healthcare (HELL-CARE) to revolution and social conscience (MISS MARX) to murder, memory and the nature of guilt and innocence (ALIAS GRACE, based on the book by Margaret Atwood.)

I will give you more information on the individual plays and playwrights as we get closer, but for right now, you'll want to mark your calendars for 3 pm on July 15th, July 29th and August 5th.

Exciting new work that we get in Bloomington-Normal before it hits Steppenwolf or Victory Gardens or The Playwrights Center? That's a do-not-miss!