One Acts Take Center Stage in NEW PLAYS FROM THE HEARTLAND

Heartland Theatre began its life as a home for new works. Although that mission has changed over the years, Heartland still makes a place for brand-new plays, with a festival for 10-minute plays in June and a program of one-act plays in July. Both projects solicit scripts from playwrights and then select the cream of the crop for staging. The 10-Minute Play Festival, which just finished up its 13th year, accepts submissions from all over the world, with eight winning plays fully staged and performed on Heartland's stage. The New Plays from the Heartland, on the other hand, celebrate new work written by Midwestern authors. And Midwestern authors only!

When the New Plays from the Heartland have been sorted through, discussed and considered, only three winners emerge. This year, with the theme Escape, two winners hail from Illinois and one from Wisconsin, but their work covers a range of issues. There's a look at what represents escape and what represents a trap for a woman in the 1950, a philosophical musing on the nature of theatre, and a filmic piece about how a boy's life can be changed in the space of a summer when he leaves home to stay with his aunt. The plays are:

AN ESCAPE PLAN FOR WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE 
by Lori Matthews, Stoughton WI
It's 1950, and Harriet is smart, accomplished and committed to her future. The question is what that future should hold. Marriage, wealth, privilege? Or perhaps her life should be a bowl of cherries.

MERELY PLAYERS 
by Michael Leathers, Chatham IL
When two very different men come to the theater, they think they'll just take their seats and settle in for a show. But this is no ordinary theater...

ALCHEMY
by Pamela Lovell, Bloomington IL
For Josh, "escape" might be spending the summer with his aunt. For Aunt Julie, it might be living alone in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. For both of them, it might be finding a way to talk, to grow, to ride out the storm.

As a play development project, the plays are presented as staged readings, with actors performing with scripts in hand along with some props, costumes and set pieces. Director Don LaCasse has an acting troupe of eight that includes some of the area's best actors, with Colleen Longo, Katie McCarty, Danny Rice and Ann B. White appearing in Escape Plan, Nathan Bottorff and Rick Jensen in Merely Players, and Harrison Gordon and Cristen Monson in Alchemy.

Kathleen Kirk served as dramaturg for the project, shepherding the scripts from entry to performance, and she also worked with Scott Klavan, the New York playwright, director and actor who acted as the final judge this year. Klavan will meet with the three winning playwrights in a special workshop designed just for them, and he will also conduct a forum on playwriting at the theater on Thursday, July 17, at 7:30 pm. That forum is free and open to the public.

Performances of the New Plays from the Heartland will take place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Heartland Theatre, with a 7:30 pm curtain on Friday and Saturday and a 2 pm matinee on Sunday. Since this is a special project and not a part of Heartland's subscription season, Flex Passes are not accepted, but tickets are priced at only $5 to make the project accessible to everyone. Reservations are a very good idea as some performances fill up quickly. 

Plotting an ESCAPE for New Plays from the Heartland

Heartland Theatre has announced the theme and some of the details for its second new play contest. The first one -- this year called FOWL PLAYS -- is looking for ten-minute plays with some connection to birds, with eight winning plays to be presented in June, 2014. The second contest, NEW PLAYS FROM THE HEARTLAND, involves one-acts, here defined as 20 to 35 minutes in running time, or approximately 15 to 30 pages long.

In memory of Heartland's former Artistic Director, Mike Dobbins, who passed away last summer, the name of this contest, one which was very dear to Dobbins' heart, has been officially changed to the Mike Dobbins' Memorial NEW PLAYS FROM THE HEARTLAND Midwest One-Act Play Competition.

The theme chosen for these news plays is ESCAPE, and here's how that's defined:

Escape can be wonderful. But it can also be difficult or even desperate, whether you’re planning a vacation to Tahiti, taking steps to get out from under a dead-end job, dreaming of the day you can leave a terrible relationship, digging a tunnel one spoonful of dirt at a time, scrambling to flee a room with a ticking bomb, hanging upside-down in midair in front of a packed audience trying to pick seventeen locks and untie a strait jacket, looking for a way off a 4th story hotel balcony without giving up the diamond jewelry you just pinched from Lady Astor, wielding a sword to get away from post-Apocalyptic warlords, or simply looking for a path to the roof to see the stars.

Whether the escape in your play is good or bad, positive or negative, is up to you. As long as it's dramatic. So what else do you need to know to write a play for NEW PLAY FROM THE HEARTLAND?

This "Midwest" playwriting contest is open to playwrights in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. If you live in one of those nine states, you are eligible.

The end result is a three-day event, including staged readings of the winning plays scheduled for July 18, 19 and 20, 2014 at Heartland Theatre, a master class for winning playwrights on Friday the 18th, and a public forum on Thursday, July 17, to introduce the "master" playwright to Heartland audiences.

Other requirements for your play: No more than six characters and no fewer than two, no musicals or children's plays, electronic submissions only, and only new plays. Oh, don't forget that Escape theme.

Another good piece of news is that Heartland is offering a prize of $150 to each of the three winning playwrights whose work is chosen.

Those three winners will also earn the right to participate in the master class at Heartland Theatre in July. This year, that workshop will be under the direction of New York playwright, director and actor Scott Klavan. Klavan has appeared as an actor on and off-Broadway and in many regional theaters, plus he acted as Script and Story Analyst for legendary actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward for twenty years. He also worked in that capacity for companies including HBO, CAA in Los Angeles, Viacom, Warner Brothers and Universal. He now teaches therapeutic arts classes to seniors and teens and writes theatre reviews for "Escape Into Life," an online journals of the arts. Klavan is indeed a master of his craft(s) and his presence at the workshop at Heartland Theatre in July should be a big incentive to new and emerging playwrights.

Kathleen Kirk will act as dramaturg for the New Plays from the Heartland this year, and she will guide the scripts through the judging process as well as oversee the special master class with Klavan.

If you have a one-act play that fits the Escape theme and you live in the Midwest, this is a very special opportunity to hone your craft, see your work performed in a staged reading and win a cash prize along the way. For all the details, click here for the scoop on the theme and deadlines, here for rules, guidelines and entry info, and here for a general overview of Heartland's NEW PLAYS project.

If you have questions, you are directed to email newplays@heartlandtheatre.org