Brave New Works

Theater Laboratory

The Day in the Murders in the History of Hamlet
by Bernard-Marie Koltès
Pictured (from front to back): Isma'il ibn Conner, Ellie Pourbohloul, Jim Sarbh, Park Krausen,and Neal Hazard.
Photo by Daniel Weiss

Imagine a laboratory: researchers design experiments, record results, try again. You conjured test tubes, white jackets, maybe a pungent chemical reaction from high school science class? Now try to imagine a laboratory for theater, an experiment in dramatic conflict and action. What might that look like?

Every two years, The Playwriting Center of Theater Emory provides theater professionals and students with the space and resources to conduct creative experimentation, to create new works for the stage, and to test the dramatic product on an audience. For three weeks this spring, the Brave New Works festival of new and evolving plays (March 29 – April 17)gives playwrights the chance to work with a director and actors, revise and rewrite their scripts, and share the results with members of the Emory and Atlanta community.

Brave New Works presents a rare opportunity for theater makers to shape, build, and develop a project in an environment open to all possibilities, where success is measured by the play's progress toward production, not tickets sold. This philosophy, inherent in the work of the Playwriting Center, has helped to springboard many projects to success outside of their origins at Emory.

The Plays

This year's line-up includes work from Obie Award-winning playwright Paul Carter Harrison, local favorites like Out Of Hand Theater and Margaret Baldwin, as well as new plays from current Emory students and alumni.

Hominid
by Out Of Hand Theater and Ken Weitzman
Photo by Daniel Weiss

"The process of making a stage-worthy play is unpredictable for everyone," says Lisa Paulsen, Director of the Playwriting Center at Theater Emory. "Writers courageously invite artists and audiences to explore their work-in-progress, endeavoring to learn from the impulses and reactions that are evoked. Theater artists adapt themselves to meet the developing work however it comes to them and as it changes from day to day. Early audiences open themselves to whatever new world the playwright is striving to create."

During Brave New Works 2009, local theater company Out Of Hand Theater developed "Hominid," a physical theater piece based on the work of Emory researcher Frans de Waal. After the success of "Hominid" locally and internationally, Out Of Hand Theater returns this year with playwright Margaret Baldwin for a new collaborative endeavor, "Without Which Nothing," exploring issues surrounding water (April 9, 2 p.m.).

Paul Carter Harrison presents the musical "Goreé Crossing" with original music by Olu Dara (April 10, 2 p.m.). Set in the Deep South in 1918 at the end of minstrelsy and WWI, "Goreé Crossing" acts as a symbolic crossroads where Africa, the Deep South, and the high-life of the urban world psychically intertwine.

Student Playwrights

Emory students also have a chance to showcase their work during the three-week festival.

"6 x 6" is an evening of fifteen-minute, one-person plays written and developed by Emory undergraduates, to be presented April 2 at 8 p.m.After Brave New Works, these plays will be fully produced by Theater Emory during the 2011-2012 season.

Other works include a musical about America's Guilded Age, "Jubilee Jim"by Bobby Paul (April 17, 2 p.m.), "Infinite Country: A Frontier Play" by alumnus Nicholas Surbey '10C (April 15, 8 p.m.), and "Louise Nevelson: A Life Assembled," an evening of multi-disciplinary performances centered on the creative life of artist Louise Nevelson (April 16, 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.).

For a complete list of presentations, times and locations, please visitwww.theater.emory.edu and www.arts.emory.edu. All nine play presentations are free and open to the public, but space is limited, so reservations are recommended.

By Nicholas Surbey
Arts Associate
Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts