In its expanded commitment to the development of new plays, MTC’s New Works series presents works by new and emerging playwrights both local and from across the country. MTC brings in playwrights to work with leading local artists in full-length, script-in-hand staged readings. Audiences experience the intimacy and excitement of new play development. A question and answer session with the playwright, director, and actors often follows each performance.  

 

All performances are FREE and are performed in MTC’s Lieberman Theatre. Call the MTC Box Office at 415.388.5208 or click below for tickets.

Please note that all New Works performances have festival seating (non-reserved).

The New Works Series is made possible by the generous support of N.J. “Sky” Cooper.

Tuesday, May 4 & Saturday, May 8, 2010 | 7:00PM

Carthage

Written by Emily Schwend
2009 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize Winner
Directed by Ryan Rilette

Rescheduled from February. Complications arise and family secrets emerge when Hal returns to his hometown of Carthage, Missouri, for the first time in six years to assist his brother's transition from state institution to civilian life. Emotionally-stunted Bryan, however, isn't about to make the process quick and painless, and he involves everyone around him, particularly Hal's girlfriend Clara, in a complex and emotional journey as the two brothers confront the issues that have kept them apart and brought them together throughout their childhood and adult lives.

Emily Schwend is a graduate of in the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard. Her full-length plays include Carthage, Man-Made (2009 Juilliard Playwrights Projects workshop), Splinters (2009 finalist in the Alliance Theatre's Kendeda Graduate Playwright competition), and Callback (2007 New Works for Young Women competition winner, 2007 John Golden Prize for playwriting). She is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy prize recipient, and she holds a BFA from the Department of Dramatic Writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

The winner of the Marin Young Playwrights Festival (a ten-minute play written by a Marin County high school student) will be presented as an opening act before Carthage. The Marin Young Playwrights Festival celebrates the work of teen playwrights and encourages a focus on playwriting in Bay Area high schools; the winner will be chosen from thirty submissions and eight finalists. For more information click here.

Monday, October 12 & Tuesday, October 13, 2009 | 7:00PM

Bellwether

Written by Steve Yockey
Directed by Jasson Minadakis

The disappearance of 6-year old Amy Draft shocks a modern, affluent suburb. And as questions go unanswered, initially sympathetic neighbors begin to whisper suspiciously about the girl's distraught parents, Alan and Jackie. When the abduction abruptly leaps in magnitude, the entire community unravels into a seething mass of confusion and media frenzy. As Alan is left to battle the growing mob outside, Jackie must confront an untenable choice in order to make things right.

Steve Yockey is Playwright in Residence at Marin Theatre Company this season through the National New Play Network's Emerging Playwrights Residency grant program, one of three NNPN Emerging Playwrights nationwide. His plays include Octopus, which was successfully co-produced in San Francisco in 2008 by Encore Theatre and Magic Theatre; Skin, co-produced by Encore Theatre and Climate Theatre in 2009; and Cartoon and Sleepy at Impact Theater in 2007. A co-world premiere of his new play Large Animal Games will open this November at Berkeley's Impact Theatre and Dad's Garage Theatre in Atlanta. MTC has commissioned Steve to write a new play for its Expanded Programs School Tour; Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop's Fable mashup will tour Marin schools in spring 2010. Steve is a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He recently completed a Coca-Cola Artists Residency teaching dramatic structure at Emory University.

Wednesday, September 23 & Monday, September 28, 2009 | 7:00PM

Rock Hill: Southern Gothic

Written by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Jasson Minadakis

Rock Hill, South Carolina, Thanksgiving. Johnnie, the youngest daughter of the blended Hall Family, can't take anymore of this shallow, empty lap of Southern luxury and stands up to her step-mother, abandons her home, and rips her already cracking family apart. After a a silent and stressful Christmas with no word from her, Johnnie re-appears Easter morning with impossible stories from her journey, and an incredible power to heal the family she never stopped loving. Rock Hill: Southern Gothic is a family drama about independent spirit, hard love, unfailing loyalty, and the meaning and power of goodness, home, and home cooking. 

Lauren is a NYC (by way of Atlanta) playwright, screenwriter, and short story author; MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch and a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship working with science, art, and education. Her work has received national praise and awards including the Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Young Playwright's Award, Essential Theatre Prize. Her science-history play Emilie: Le Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight, premieres at South Coast Rep April 2009. Off-Broadway: Parts They Call Deep, Off-Off: Sus Manos; Regional: Dad's Garage, Actors Express, Portland Center Stage JAW, Second Stage, Primary Stages, The Alliance, Synchronicity, Theatre Emory, Marin Theatre, etc. She is working on her second commission for South Coast and her first from Marin. She received a 2008 Sloan Science Script Award for her screenplay Grand Unification. www.LaurenGunderson.com