Page 10 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - November '22

Page 10, Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens
Palm Beach Dramaworks Announces

Fifth Annual New Year/New Dangerous Instruments Austin, is a former member of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and
an affiliated writer with the Playwrights’ Center. She is a
By Gina Montet
Plays Festival Jan. 6 To 8, 2023 Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. proud member of Chicago’s Gift Theatre Company and
Laura, a young single mother, would do anything for her ScriptWorks in Central Texas, and an inaugural member
Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) will ring in 2023 with gifted son, Daniel. Scholarships to elite private schools are of the Hyde Park Playwrights Group in Austin, where she
one of its most popular events, the New Year/New Plays the golden ticket for her little genius, but when Daniel’s currently resides.
Festival, which runs from Jan. 6 to 8 and features readings brilliant mind becomes violent, she finds herself battling a Michael Hollinger plays include Under the Skin, Opus,
of five fascinating plays that are still in development. The broken system. Laura must confront a mother’s darkest fears Ghost-Writer, Red Herring, Incorruptible, An Empty Plate
fifth annual festival marks the first time since 2020 that as she desperately races to help her son before he becomes in the Café Du Grand Boeuf, and the musical TouchTones
the program will be presented live, onstage, in front of the next horrifying headline. (with composer Robert Maggio), all of which premiered at
an audience at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre. Hosted by Crossing Ebenezer Creek Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company and have variously
The Dramaworkshop, the festival provides an invaluable By Bill Cain been produced around the U.S., in New York City, and
opportunity for playwrights to hear their words performed Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. abroad (London, Paris, Tokyo, Athens, Poland, and
by gifted professionals and to receive feedback from Set in 1865 on the eve of President Lincoln’s assassination Slovenia). Plays premiered elsewhere include Mr. Dickens’
viewers. The goal of The Dramaworkshop in general, and and in 1894 during the Pullman Strike in Chicago, the Hat at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre, Hope and Gravity at
the festival in particular, is to cultivate significant new work play explores the ideas of legacy, accountability, and how Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, Cyrano (translated and co-adapted
for PBD’s mainstage and theatres across the country. Since American history was written – and continues to repeat with Aaron Posner) at Washington’s Folger Theatre, Sing
the 2017/18 season, PBD has produced five world premieres itself – through man’s obsession with money, power, and the Body Electric at Philadelphia’s Theatre Exile, and the
that were nurtured in The Dramaworkshop. Carter W. who controls the narrative. musical A Wonderful Noise (written with Vance Lehmkuhl)
Lewis’ The Science of Leaving Omaha, to be performed The Playwrights at Creede Rep. Awards include an ATCA/Steinberg New
this season, will be the sixth. Jenny Connell Davis plays include Matinicus: A Play Citation, two Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards,
The plays chosen for the 2023 festival are The Messenger Lighthouse Play, Anton Chekhov is a Tasty Snack, Goddess an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy
by Jenny Connell Davis (3 p.m., Friday, Jan. 6); The Virgin of Mercy, and Scientific Method. Her work has been Award, four Barrymore Awards, nominations for Lucille
Queen Entertains Her Fool by Michael Hollinger (7 p.m., produced or developed at Chance Theater, the O’Neill, the Lortel and John Gassner awards, and multiple fellowships
Friday, Jan. 6); The Islanders by Carey Crim (3 p.m., Playwrights’ Center, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, ACT from the Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania
Saturday, Jan. 7); Dangerous Instruments by Gina Montet Seattle, Asolo Repertory Theatre, New York Stage and Council on the Arts. Michael is a professor of theatre at
(7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 7); and Crossing Ebenezer Creek, Film, The Gift Theatre, and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Villanova University, artistic director of Villanova Theatre,
previously known as Untitled Lincoln Play to Drama (in among others. She currently has film and TV projects and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.
the) works’ audiences, by Bill Cain (3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. in development with Amazon, Iconoclast/Anonymous
8). There will also be a Playwrights Forum at 1 p.m. on Content, and Baobab Studios. Jenny has an MFA from UT Palm Beach Dramaworks on page 11
Saturday, Jan. 7, which is free with a ticket to any play.
The Messenger was commissioned by Producing Artistic
work a few years back when her play, As I See It, was Experience Dentistry with a Woman’s Touch
Director William Hayes, who was introduced to Davis’

submitted to The Dramaworkshop and was subsequently
part of the 2020 festival. The four other plays were first
presented last season by PBD’s Drama (in the) works series, Cosmetic & Comprehensive Restorative Dentistry
which features readings of plays in process. The most
promising readings are selected for the festival by Hayes State of the Art & Same Day Restorations
and The Dramaworkshop Manager Bruce Linser, who take
audience feedback, among other factors, into account. All Nitrous Oxide/Oxygen Sedation Available
five plays continue to develop under the auspices of The
Dramaworkshop leading up to the festival.
“We are thrilled that the festival is returning to the Joanne Green, D.D.S.
theatre,” said Linser. “Although the Zoom presentations
the past two years were quite effective, there is nothing 10887 N. Military Trail, Suite 6
like artists and audiences sharing the same space. There’s Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
an energy and a sense of community that you just can’t get
virtually. Actors feed off audiences, and playwrights get a (561) 622-2815 • www.joannegreendds.com
better sense of what’s working well and what might need
some polishing by listening both to the actors and to the Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry - Cum Laude
audience response.” Hospital of the University of Penn - General Practice Residency Training
Tickets for the festival are on sale now, and can be Harvard Dental School - Former Instructor
purchased online at www.tickets.palmbeachdramaworks. Boston Brigham and Women’s Dental Group - Staff Dentist
org, or by calling the box office at (561) 514-4042, Ext. 2.
Tickets are $20 per play, or $75 for all five plays by using
the code FESTIVAL. Although tickets for the Playwrights
Forum are free, reservations are required.
The New Year/New Plays Festival is sponsored by the
Maurer Family Foundation. Diane and Mark Perlberg are
the executive producers, Marsha and Stephen Rabb are the
producers, and Penny Bank and Sandra and Bernie Meyer
are the associate producers.
The Plays
The Messenger
By Jenny Connell Davis
Friday, Jan. 6 at 3 p.m.
Inspired by the life of Hungarian Holocaust survivor
Georgia Gabor, this play in four monologues is a meditation
on how our stories can protect or expose us, and on the
connections between past, present, and future.
The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool
By Michael Hollinger
Friday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.
Adalia, Virgin Queen of the Realm and Mother of Us
All, is dying, and must name her successor before it’s too
late. But she’d rather spend her final hours enjoying the
distractions of her Fool. Meanwhile, her niece and nephew
have both assembled armies to storm the castle, each hoping
to grab the crown as it falls. Clearly, the clock is ticking –
what’s a woman to do?
The Islanders
By Carey Crim
Saturday, Jan. 7 at 3 p.m.
Anna lives a small and quiet life on Beaver Island,
Mich. She has few friends and likes it that way. Her
carefully controlled world is turned upside-down by the
arrival of a charming but secretive new neighbor, Dutch.
For different reasons, Dutch and Anna have each been
thrown away by mainstream society. Can their connection
survive the revelations that must inevitably come with
true intimacy?