THEATRE PALISADES presents
The First Annual PALISADES PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
Four exciting evenings of plays written by award-winning Pacific Palisades playwrights will be presented by Theatre Palisades on Tuesday evenings, March 9, 23, April 13 and 20, 7:30 p.m., at the Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Road, Pacific Palisades, California 90272. Admission is free, but donations are suggested.
The festival aims to acquaint not only the community of Pacific Palisades, but all of Southern California, with the rich talents of dramatists who are professional writers and long-time residents of the Palisades.
The plays and participating playwrights are:
March 9: THE LAST OF THE DAYTONS by Diane Grant depicts the universal human longing for family and the defining moment that can irrevocably change a person’s life. DIANE GRANT is an award winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been produced and published in both the U.S. and Canada and she was a co-founder of Redlight Theatre, the first professional women’s theatre in Canada. The documentary, Will To Win, written by Ms. Grant, and produced by filmmaker Kerry Feltham, previewed in the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2007 and is recommended by the Royal Shakespeare Company of London.
March 23: APOGEE + 26 by Richard Martin Hirsch is about three best friends who find it increasingly difficult to hold on to their long-standing friendship when one suffers a debilitating illness. RICHARD MARTIN HIRSCH was born and raised in Pacific Palisades, and his many plays have been produced locally as well as in New York, Chicago and Boston. His new play, London’s Scars, was the winner of the 2008 “Next Generation†National Playwriting Competition and is scheduled to have its World Premiere this May at the Odyssey Theatre.
April 13: THE GHOSTS OF WAR by Gene Franklin Smith comprises three one-act plays adapted from the supernatural stories by D.H. Lawrence, Ambrose Bierce and Algernon Blackwood, each depicting the emotional and spiritual trauma of a world wracked by war. GENE FRANKLIN SMITH has enjoyed a theatrical career in both the U.S. and Canada. He founded Write Act Repertory Company in Los Angeles, and served as Artistic Director for five years. His many plays have been produced in Los Angeles and regionally and have won several playwriting awards. His screenplay, Boise, USA, won the 2009 Creative World Awards for Best Drama. The Ghosts of War will be produced by the City of Toronto in October 2010 at Historic Fort York.
April 20th: THE SPARK – HANNAH SENESH, a musical with book and lyrics by Noelle Donfeld, music by Sandra Shanin, dramatizes the extraordinary heroism of a young Jewish- Hungarian woman who has been captured by the Nazis after parachuting behind enemy lines in an attempt to save Hungary’s Jews.NOELLE DONFELD, lyricist and bookwriter, has had seven musicals, including two commissions, produced in 2000 – 2008 in Chicago, Ft. Worth, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, and Birmingham, Alabama. In 2009, she had two musicals produced: Carjacked at the 10 by 10 at the Triangle, of the Arts Center, Carrboro, N.C. and The Spark, Hannah Senesh at Theatre Building Chicago. Noelle he is a triple semi-finalist of the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Project, and a finalist at Stages in Chicago.
Composer SANDY SHANIN has written four musicals and is a two-time winner of the Jewish Music Commissions composer’s competition. Her lyrics were included in an oratorio entitled Women of Valor by composer Andrea Clearfield, published by Oxford University Press, which has had international performances.
For more information, please call the Box Office at (310) 454-1970.
