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IN THIS ISSUE:
- 2018 Reading Festival Submissions Close Soon!
- ALAP's Busy Spring and Early Summer
- Hold the Date for the Big Fall Event
- Of Women, Men, and Play Submissions
- New Works Lab Update
- PHOTOS!
- NewsFLASHes
2018 Reading Festival Submissions Close Soon!
If you haven't submitted your play to the 2018 ALAP Play Reading Festival, you'd better get cracking -- submissions close at midnight, August 1!
The Festival, now in its 20th year, will feature rehearsed readings of five short plays chosen by a panel of judges from around the country. The readings will take place at ALAP's Big Fall Event in Los Angeles on September 22, and then on October 15 as part of the Plays and Pizza reading series in New York.
We've already gotten a bunch of submissions, but we can always handle more! Click here to read the rules and submission procedures, and then get to work!
ALAP's Busy Season Is Over... and Now We've Gone Fishin'...
Since the last newsletter, ALAP's been busy! The Playwrights Mixer... our Fringe show, Kiss My Ax!... the Pride Play Reading Festival... In Our Own Voices... the Summer Picnic... whew! Check out the photos below, and then you'll understand why we're taking a little breather.
Yup, ALAP's Co-Chairs Dan Berkowitz and Jon Dorf are taking a little time off. We'll still be monitoring emails (now and then...), and if there's an emergency, we won't be that far away. But we need some time to rest and recharge, so think of these lazy hazy crazy days of summer as... well, lazy.
We hope you're having a good summer, and we'll see you soon...
ALAP's Big Fall Event: Save the Date
When we say "we'll see you soon" we mean it -- write down Saturday, September 22 and plan to attend ALAP's 2018 Big Fall Event!
It will take place at West Hollywood's Plummer Park, and will include a Producer/ Director/ Dramatist Exchange, the Annual Reading Festival, and much more.
Stay tuned for updates!
Of Women, Men, and Play Submissions
From its earliest days, ALAP has had a strong female presence, not only in its membership but also in its leadership. Three of ALAP's first five Co-Chairs were women, as are four of the six current Vice Chairs. As this newsletter goes to press, the membership is 48% female and 52% male.
ALAP's first Reading Festival took place in 1999, and of the ten full-length plays chosen that year, half were written by women. Over the years, in addition to the Reading Festival, we've added other play competitions such as the Pride Reading Festival, our Hollywood Fringe show, and a tour of LA Libraries in 2016. Female playwrights were always well-represented in these; indeed, for the Library tour, four of the five plays chosen were written by women.
A big reason for this is that all plays are read "blind" -- works given to the judges for each competition have no authors' names or contact info. So the judges don't know if they're reading something written by a man or a woman -- all they know is whether it works or not. Add to this that ALAP chooses its judging panels from theatre professionals who have no connection with ALAP, and the net result is that the chosen plays represent what the judges feel is the best work -- never mind who wrote it.
So when the judges for this year's Fringe show chose six plays written by men, we were somewhat taken aback, as that had never occurred before. True, the judges may simply have liked plays which happened to be written by men this time -- no big deal.
But then the results of the Pride Reading Festival came in, and the five plays chosen for that were also all written by men. Which stunned us. Especially since three of the eight Fringe judges were women, and fully half the Pride judges were female.
But then we looked at the statistics. For the Library tour in 2016, almost 60% of the submissions were made by women, whereas for this year's Fringe show, only 33% were by female ALAP members, and for the 2018 Pride Festival, women accounted for only 25% of the submitted works.
Some years ago, the New York State Lottery came up with a slogan: "You've got to be in it to win it." And that applies to play submissions, too: if you don't submit a play to a competition, there's no chance it's going to be chosen.
The 2018 ALAP Play Reading Festival is still accepting submissions, but only until August 1.
Women playwrights of ALAP, start your engines!
NEW WORKS LAB
Last fall, the multi-award-winning Celebration Theatre agreed to host a Lab, and accepted submissions from ALAP members. Due to a number of star-crossed circumstances, including ALAP's Lab Coordinator stepping down after five years shortly thereafter, the Lab had to be postponed for far longer than anyone would have wished.
Happily, it's now back on! Celebration recently informed ALAP that it has chosen Dan Berkowitz's play The Incredible Life and Wondrous Exploits of the Amazing Fabulous Fred for its Lab. The reading will take place on Tuesday, August 14, at the theatre.
While the Lab is not open to the public, a limited number of ALAP members may attend. If you'd like to attend, please write ALAP's new Lab coordinators Ariana Burrell [aburrell@laplaywrights.org] or David Meyers [dmeyers@laplaywrights.org] and ask to be placed on the list.
And watch your inbox for announcements of upcoming Labs!
PHOTOS!
Jeremiah Benjamin set up the snacks table for the Playwrights Mixer, which introduced playwrights with shows in the Hollywood Fringe Festival to ALAP...
... while Vice Chair Brian Raine held the guest list and prepared to check people in at the door...
... and a bunch of Fringe playwrights and ALAP members enjoyed the afternoon!
The fabulous cast members of ALAP's Fringe show, Kiss My Ax!, take their curtain call at the closing performance. L-R: Royana Black, Ewan Chung, JP Hubbell, AnnaLisa Erickson, and Bret Shefter.
The audience gathers at West Hollywood's Plummer Park for the 10th annual ALAP/ City of West Hollywood Pride Play Reading Festival...
... and included L-R, Bill Kaiser, Josh Gershick, and Nadia Sutton. Bill and Nadia were judges for the Festival, and Josh is the Dramatists Guild LA Regional Rep...
... also in the audience was longtime lesbian activist Ivy Bottini, whose name was mentioned in one of the plays...
... L-R, Ann L. Gibbs, who hosted the Pride Festival and read all the stage directions, and Festival authors Thomas J. Misuraca, Ron Nelson, Rom Watson, Felix Racelis, and Vincent Terrell Durham.
At Barnes and Noble at The Grove, In Our Own Voices playwrights included Mary Crescenzo, sitting at left (with fellow member Nance Crawford doing actor duty and standing at right)...
... and Sharon Y. Judie, seated second from left. Other participating playwrights were Alexandra, Robin Byrd, Monique DeBose, J. Guenther, Michael Halperin, Don Lewis, Amy Simon, and Helen Slayton-Hughes.
At July's Summer Picnic, Co-Chair Jon Dorf took a selfie to make sure his camera was working...
... so he could snap photos of ALAP members and guests lounging in one of the pavilions...
... and around the bar set up by the pool.
NewsFLASHes
PLEASE NOTE: The NewsFlash and the weekly Member News Email can only publicize your writing. However, if you're acting in a show... or have directed one... or whatever... feel free to post it on ALAP's Facebook page!
UPCOMING: THRU JUL 28: Vincent Terrell Durham's McCormick/ Durham Vol. 1 A Post Racial America, Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica, https://highwaysperformance.org/events... THRU JUL 29: Felix Racelis's Gayer Than Laughter, New American Theatre, 1312 North Wilton Place, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3515430... THRU JUL 29: Brenda Varda's This Is My Garbage, Son of Semele Solo Creation Festival, 3301 Beverly Boulevard, https://www.artful.ly/son-of-semele-ensemble... THRU AUG 4: Thomas J. Misuraca's Time Went By, Theatre Southwest, 8944-A Clarkcrest, Houston, TX, www.theatresouthwest.org... THRU AUG 5: Buddy Farmer's Something in the Game (book), Josephine Lewis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL, 847-491-7282...
CONGRATS: To Judith Allen, whose Keep It In the Family was done at Theatre West in Jul... Lesley Asistio, whose Roller Coasters was done at Zephyr Theatre in Jul... Bruce Bonafede, whose Say Goodbye to Hollywood was read at Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre in Jun... Ron Burch, whose The Last Days of the Franklinton Historical Village and Shoppe was done at SkyPilot in Jul... Ariana Burrell, whose Ace was done at Moorpark College in Apr-May... Stacie Chaiken, whose Saint Vibiana Pray 4 Us: Nuestra Senora De Los Angeles De La Porciuncula was done in Son of Semele Solo Creation Festival in Jul... Arthur M. Jolly, whose The Lady Demands Satisfaction won the Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award... Jonathan Josephson, whose This Hungry Churchyard was done at Pasadena Central Library in Jul... EM Lewis, whose How the Light Gets In was read at Theatre @ Boston Court in Jul... Thomas J. Misuraca, whose This Was Your Life was read at Drama West, and The Proceedings was read at Duke Ellington Performance Space, NYC, both in Jun... Felix Racelis, whose Garcon! was read at FirstStage in Apr... Helen Slayton-Hughes, whose Limberlost was read at St. Thomas Anglican Church in Apr... Norelle Scott, whose Bridget and Iain (a film based on her play) had its world premiere at Dances With Films Festival in June...
SEND US YOUR NEWS! NewsFlash is for you! If you have news – an opening, a reading, a grant, an assignation! – send it to us at the ALAP address or e-mail to newsflash@laplaywrights.org. Deadline for the next issue is August 25.
EMAILS TO REMEMBER
DAN BERKOWITZ (CO-CHAIR)
DanB@LAPlaywrights.org
JONATHAN DORF (CO-CHAIR)
JonD@LAPlaywrights.org