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SAN DIEGO (December 17, 2018; updated January 11, 2019)—The Old Globe today announced it will present the sixth annual Powers New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by some of the most exciting voices writing for the American theatre today, playing January 18–20, 2019.
The festival kicks off on Friday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. with Celebrating Community Voices, an evening of work created by San Diego residents through the Globe’s arts engagement programs Community Voices and coLAB. These readings include The Last Signal Officer by Max Daily, Dissecting Fortune by Eboni Harvey, Boundaries and Barriers by Johnny Lozano, The Best Insurance Company in the World by Renea Minyard, Who’s Crazy by Richard Nichols, 3 Days by Maharani Peace, and The Ex Games by Miki Vale. All of the readings will be directed by Karen Ann Daniels and Katherine Harroff. The Community Voices and coLAB initiatives are play-development workshops that provide professional theatre-making skills to select San Diego communities. This evening is a curated collection of some of the best short scripts developed in these programs.
The readings by professional playwrights commence on Saturday, January 19 at 4:00 p.m. with Welcome to Matteson by Inda Craig-Galván (ABC’s “The Rookie,” Black Super Hero Magic Mama set for a Geffen Playhouse premiere in March 2019), directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (the Globe’s Skeleton Crew and the Globe/USD Shiley M.F.A. Program’s Romeo and Juliet). A suburban couple hosts a welcome-to-the-neighborhood dinner party for their new neighbors—a couple forcibly relocated from Chicago's roughest housing project—and it’s anything but welcoming. A dark comedy about reverse gentrification and how we deal with the other when the other looks just like us.
It is followed at 7:30 p.m. by The Great Moment by Anna Ziegler (the Globe’s The Wanderers and The Last Match; Actually, Photograph 51), directed by Tyne Rafaeli. As Sarah’s grandfather is nearing the end of his life, her son Max is at the beginning of his. Globe favorite Ziegler crafts a poetic meditation on beginnings and endings, birth and age, and the moments of transition that mark our journey from life to death.
The Festival continues on Sunday, January 20 at 4:00 p.m. with Faceless by Selina Fillinger (The Armor Plays: Cinched/Strapped), directed by Jennifer Chambers (world premieres of The Cake, Bed, and Better). Susie Glenn, a white 18-year-old from the Chicago suburbs, was arrested at O’Hare International Airport for conspiring with ISIS. Recent Harvard Law grad and practicing Muslim Claire Fathi has been brought on to prosecute. Inspired by real court cases, Fillinger’s crackling drama looks at two women fighting for justice in a world gripped by fear.
The Festival wraps up that evening at 7:30 p.m. with The Thanksgiving Play by award-winning playwright Larissa FastHorse (Urban Rez, Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation), directed by Bart DeLorenzo. In this satirical comedy, four well-intentioned teachers and actors set out to create a politically correct school play that can somehow celebrate both Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month. Can they navigate historical fact, cultural representation, and school district regulations to create a play that makes everyone thankful? Either way, the pageant must go on!
“As the Globe presents our sixth Powers New Voices Festival, we are thrilled to celebrate how central it has grown, not only to our work on developing new plays, but also to our audience’s excitement about experiencing the birth of great new American writing,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “The works we will read this year are inventive, diverse, and vibrantly imagined. The four professional playwrights represented are all women, and their voices bring great excitement to the Globe. They make this Festival an important source of work for our annual season and for other companies in San Diego. Once again this year, these four eminent professional writers will be joined by local playwrights who were inspired and nourished by our Community Voices and coLAB initiatives, parts of our arts engagement work in San Diego neighborhoods. The entire Festival provides a glimpse of the artistic process in action, even as it brings brilliant new theatre to our city. We are grateful to Paula and Brian Powers for their continuing support, which demonstrates their visionary commitment to the future of the American theatre, and to the idea of the Globe as a thriving center of creativity and innovation.”
The Powers New Voices Festival 2019 will take place in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets to all four readings are free but require reservations. Reservations for donors and subscribers will be available beginning Wednesday, December 19 at 12:00 noon. Reservations for the general public will be available beginning Friday, January 11 at 12:00 noon. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Ticket Office at (619) 234-5623.
Many plays previously featured in the Powers New Voices Festival have gone on to future productions in San Diego and across the country. The Globe’s 2019 season includes full productions of the Globe-commissioned JC Lee‘s What You Are, Laurel Ollstein’s They Promised Her the Moon, and PigPen Theatre Co.’s The Tale of Despereaux. The 2017–2018 Season included Anna Ziegler’s Globe-commissioned The Wanderers (formerly Arranged) and Karen Zacarías’s Native Gardens. The 2016–2017 Season included Nick Gandiello’s The Blameless and Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew (also presented as part of a limited Globe for All Tour to several Community Partners). Anna Ziegler’s The Last Match had its world premiere here in 2016, then played Off Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company. Also in 2016, tokyo fish story by Kimber Lee, a playwright featured in a previous Festival with brownsville song (b-side for tray), and Jiehae Park’s peerless, had San Diego premieres at MOXIE Theatre.
In 2016, Paula and Brian Powers provided a sustaining gift to The Old Globe, and in recognition, the Powers New Voices Festival bears their name through 2021. Paula Powers currently is on the Board of Directors of The Old Globe and serves as the organization’s Secretary.
The Old Globe’s New Voices Play Development Program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and The San Diego Foundation for supporting The Old Globe. The Old Globe’s Community Voices and coLAB programs are supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
LOCATION and PARKING INFORMATION: The Old Globe is located in San Diego’s Balboa Park at 1363 Old Globe Way. Call (619) 234-5623 or visit www.theoldglobe.org/plan-your-visit/directions--parking/valet-parking. The Balboa Park valet is also available during weekend performances, located in front of the Japanese Friendship Garden. For additional parking information visit www.BalboaPark.org.
There are numerous free parking lots available throughout the park. Guests may also be dropped off in front of the Mingei International Museum. There is a 10-minute zone at The Old Globe, used only for daytime deliveries, ticket purchases, and handicapped access dropoff. For directions and up-to-date information, please visit www.theoldglobe.org/plan-your-visit/directions--parking/detailed-directions.
PLEASE NOTE: To look up online or GPS directions to The Old Globe, please do not use the Delivery Address above. For GPS users, please click here for the map coordinates, and here for written directions to The Old Globe and nearby parking in Balboa Park.
CALENDAR: Powers New Voices Festival (1/18-20), Classical Directing Fellowship (1/22-26), Familiar (1/26–3/3/2019), Tiny Beautiful Things (2/9–3/10), AXIS: I Love Africa concert (2/9), Globe Guilders’ Celebrating Couture Fashion Show (3/22), Life After (3/22–4/28), They Promised Her the Moon (4/6–5/5), AXIS: Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! (4/20), AXIS: Manila Disco Fever (5/9), Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy (5/11–6/16), What You Are (5/30–6/30), AXIS: Tuesday Summer Local Acts Celebration Festival (6/8 and 6/29), As You Like It (6/16–7/21), AXIS: Make Music San Diego (6/21), The Tale of Despereaux (7/6–8/11), Steve Martin’s The Underpants (7/27–8/25), Romeo and Juliet (8/11–9/15), 2019 Globe Gala (9/21).
PHOTO EDITORS: Digital images of The Old Globe’s productions are available at www.theoldglobe.org/press-room.
The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego’s flagship arts institution for over 80 years. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Numerous world premieres such as the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Meteor Shower, Bright Star, Allegiance, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.
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PHOTO EDITORS: Publicity photos for the Powers New Voices Festival are available here:
www.theoldglobe.org/press-room/2018-2019-season/powers-new-voices-festival-2019
2019 POWERS NEW VOICES FESTIVAL ~ PLAY DESCRIPTIONS AND BIOS
Celebrating Community Voices:
Friday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m.
The Last Signal Officer by Max Daily
When a dream takes over a reality, a farmer can land a plane.
Max Daily (Playwright, The Last Signal Officer) is a San Diego–based artist working in visual art and performance, incorporating media ranging from drawing and sculpture to puppetry and mime. He is a butcher by trade and the proprietor of Oslo sardine bar/art installation currently on a national tour. Prior to attending the prestigious Cotsen Center for Puppetry at California Institute of the Arts, he was a student of set design at San Diego City College and resident puppeteer at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park, and he received the Jim Henson Foundation grant for his production of Peter and the Wolf.
Dissecting Fortune by Eboni Harvey
An in-depth examination of an altercation between the police and the wrong suspect-of-color.
Eboni Harvey (Playwright, Dissecting Fortune) is a black, middle-aged woman born and raised in Riverside, California. She has been black and queer in San Diego for 15 years now. She is a black, self-taught visual artist and storyteller. She is EB, of course.
Boundaries and Barriersby Johnny Lozano
The moment when the desire for reality outweighs the comfort of self-medication.
Johnny Lozano (Playwright, Barriers and Boundaries) is a proud United States Navy veteran who served as a hospital corpsman. He is also a proud husband of 22 years to his lovely wife Janet, and father to four great children: Johnny Jr., Juliet, Julian, and Jazlynn. He was introduced to Community Voices through a writing class offered at Veterans Village of San Diego. He claims to have found a new way to express himself through creative writing.
The Best Insurance Company in the World by Renea Minyard
Are we spending our time properly on this planet? A voice from Mars puts a hard focus on that question in this sci-fi piece.
Renea Minyard (Playwright, The Best Insurance Company in the World) is a native of San Diego. She had her first experience with playwriting through the Community Voices classes in City Heights, and she has written two short plays through the program. She enjoys reading, learning, and expanding her horizons.
Who’s Crazy? by Richard Nichols
The puppet master of our reality is who we are on the inside.
Richard Nichols (Playwright, Who’s Crazy) chooses not to write about himself in 100 words because too many words come to mind and not all good. He does, however, wish to enumerate his countless accolades and achievements, to impress you, the audience, but again chooses not to. He will state for the record that the previous sentence ended with an infinitive, and not a preposition.
3 Days by Maharani Peace
A spoken-word examination of the romantic entanglement between two souls for three days.
Maharani Peace (Playwright, 3 Days) is a creative, educator, and a lifelong student. To that end, she began taking Community Voices classes as a way to stretch her creativity. She never saw herself as a playwright, but within the class she has stumbled upon a new way to express herself. Although it has been uncomfortable growth for her, it has also been incredibly rewarding. She is proud of the work she has created for this festival.
The Ex Games by Miki Vale
Who really is qualified to give advice on love? The Ex Games attempts to answer this question.
Miki Vale (Playwright, The Ex Games) is an international hip-hop artist, DJ, educator, playwright, and global hip-hop ambassador for the United States. She has co-created physical and virtual spaces for women’s presence and engagement, exploring the impact of hip-hop culture on race, class, and gender. In 2016 and 2018, she was the DJ and sound designer for The Old Globe’s Globe for All Tour. mikivalethemc.com, @mikivalethemc on Facebook and Instagram.
Karen Ann Daniels (Director, Dissecting Fortune, The Best Insurance Company in the World, The Ex Games) is a native San Diegan and an accomplished actor, director, vocalist, and musician. Most recently, she directed Ethel and Eleanora in the 2018 New Voices Festival. Her acting credits include Once on This Island (Village Theatre), Lil Red (Storybook Theatre), Brownie Points (Taproot Theatre Company), and Woody Guthrie’s American Song (Intrepid Theatre Company). As a teaching artist and director, she worked with Studio East and directed musicals across Seattle. She holds a B.A. from UCLA and an M.F.A. from San Diego State University. She is the Globe’s Associate Director of Arts Engagement, making theatre matter through the development of community programs and building authentic partnerships with her fellow San Diegans.
Katherine Harroff (Director, The Last Signal Officer, 3 Days, Who’s Crazy?, Boundaries and Barriers) is an Arts Engagement Programs Associate with The Old Globe and a local playwright and director. She developed the Community Voices playwriting program in 2012, and in 2016 she spearheaded the first coLAB workshop performance project. She is the Founding Director for the production company Circle Circle dot dot.
New American Plays:
Saturday, January 19 at 4:00 p.m.
Welcome to Matteson by Inda Craig-Galván, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
A suburban couple hosts a welcome-to-the-neighborhood dinner party for their new neighbors—a couple forcibly relocated from Chicago's roughest housing project—and it’s anything but welcoming. A dark comedy about reverse gentrification and how we deal with the other when the other looks just like us.
Inda Craig-Galván (Playwright, Welcome to Matteson) has developed and presented plays at theatres including Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, Playwrights’ Arena, Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab, Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival, Chalk Repertory Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Trustus Theatre’s Playwrights’ Festival, and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Her play Black Super Hero Magic Mama will receive its world premiere at Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in March 2019. Her honors include The Kilroys’ List, The Kennedy Center’s Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Jane Chambers Playwriting Award’s Student Contest, and Humanitas Prize, and she is a Black and Latino Playwrights Conference winner, a WomenWorks Playwriting Contest winner, and a runner-up for the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting. In addition to writing theatre, she is a television staff writer on ABC’s “The Rookie.” She holds an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from University of Southern California.
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Director, Welcome to Matteson) is a founder and the former Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, where recently she directed Voyeurs de Venus. She directed Skeleton Crew for The Old Globe and Romeo and Juliet for The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Her work has also been seen at San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego State University, Cygnet Theatre Company, New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, and Playwrights Project. Her honors include Theatre Communications Group’s New Generations Program grant, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award, Van Lier Fund fellowship (Second Stage Theatre), and New York Drama League’s Directors Project. She is married to designer Jerry Sonnenberg and is the proud mama to August and Zoë.
Saturday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m.
The Great Moment by Anna Ziegler, directed by Tyne Rafaeli
As Sarah’s grandfather is nearing the end of his life, her son Max is nearing the beginning of his. Globe favorite Anna Ziegler crafts a poetic meditation on beginnings and endings, birth and age, and the moments of transition that mark our journey from life to death.
Anna Ziegler (Playwright, The Great Moment) has written the plays Actually (Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geffen Playhouse; Ovation Award for Playwriting for an Original Play), the widely produced Photograph 51 (directed on the West End by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman; WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play; end-of-year Top 10 lists in The Washington Post and The Telegraph), Boy (Keen Company/Ensemble Studio Theatre; Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award nomination), The Wanderers (The Old Globe; The Blanche and Irving Laurie Theatre Visions Fund winner), The Last Match (Roundabout Theatre Company, The Old Globe; Craig Noel Award nomation for Outstanding New Play), and A Delicate Ship (The Playwrights Realm, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; The New York Times Critics’ Pick). She holds commissions from Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Geffen Playhouse. Oberon Books has published a collection of her work entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One. This season she is represented by Photograph 51 at Melbourne Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, and Court Theatre; and Actually at Theater J, TheaterWorks, Aurora Theatre Company, GableStage, Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, and San Diego Repertory Theatre.
Tyne Rafaeli (Director, The Great Moment) is a British American director based in New York. She directs classics, new plays, and musicals in London and the U.S. Her recent productions include Usual Girls by Ming Peiffer (Roundabout Theatre Company) and I Was Most Alive with You by Craig Lucas (Playwrights Horizons). Her work has also been seen at Geffen Playhouse, The Playwrights Realm, Classic Stage Company, Atlantic Theater Company, California Shakespeare Theater, Two River Theater, PlayMakers Repertory Company, New York Stage and Film, Goodspeed Musicals, The Juilliard School, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Great Lakes Theater, American Players Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, among others. Ms. Rafaeli is a 2016-18 Time Warner Directing Fellow at WP Theater, and she received Stage Directors and Choreographers Society’s 2014 Sir John Gielgud Fellowship for Classical Direction. She previously served as Associate Director to Bartlett Sher on various Broadway and West End productions. She trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and Columbia University.
Sunday, January 20 at 4:00 p.m.
Faceless by Selina Fillinger, directed by Jennifer Chambers
Susie Glenn, a white 18-year-old from the Chicago suburbs, was arrested at O’Hare International Airport for conspiring with ISIS. Recent Harvard Law grad and practicing Muslim Claire Fathi has been brought on to prosecute. Inspired by real court cases, Selina Fillinger’s crackling drama looks at two women fighting for justice in a world gripped by fear.
Selina Fillinger (Playwright, Faceless) has written the plays Faceless (Northlight Theatre, Zeitgeist Stage Company, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and London’s Park Theatre; Joseph Jefferson Award nomination) and The Armor Plays: Cinched/Strapped (Available Light Theatre’s Next Stage Initiative, Alley Theatre’s Alley All New Festival, Theatre Three). Her plays have been developed at Roundabout Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Northlight Theatre, and she is currently commissioned at South Coast Repertory and Manhattan Theatre Club. She was a Hawthornden Castle Fellow and a resident at the Sallie B. Goodman Artists’ Retreat at McCarter Theatre Center. Her play Something Clean was commissioned for Sideshow Theatre Company’s Freshness Initiative, where it will be produced in 2019 following its world premiere production at Roundabout Underground in spring 2019. Ms. Fillinger is a Northwestern University graduate (2016), where she studied playwriting under Laura Schellhardt.
Jennifer Chambers (Director, Faceless) is a Los Angeles–based director. She directed the world premieres of Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake, Sheila Callaghan’s Bed, and Jessica Goldberg’s Better, all for The Echo Theater Company, where she was Associate Artistic Director. She also directed The Cake at Geffen Playhouse and Barrington Stage Company. She directed Deborah Stein’s Princess Diana in Auschwitz at California Institute of the Arts, Daryl Watson’s Unbound IAMA Theatre Company, the world premiere of Stephen Belber’s The Muscles in Our Toes, Bruce Norris’s The Pain and the Itch, Sam Wolfson’s Playdates, and the world premiere of Andrea Kuchlewska’s Complete. She also directed the short film See You Soon. Ms. Chambers was Artistic Director of The Echo Theater Company’s Writer’s Lab and is a proud member of the new class of The Kilroys. She assisted Jonathan Moscone on George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman (California Shakespeare Theater) and Liz Diamond on Catherine Trieschmann’s Crooked (Women’s Project Theater). She has a B.S. in Theatre from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology and Drama Therapy from California Institute of Integral Studies. jennifergchambers.com.
Sunday, January 20 at 7:30 p.m.
The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse, directed by Bart DeLorenzo
In this satirical comedy, four well-intentioned teachers and actors set out to create a politically correct school play that can somehow celebrate both Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month. Can they navigate historical fact, cultural representation, and school district regulations to create a play that makes everyone thankful? Either way, the pageant must go on!
Larissa FastHorse (Playwright, The Thanksgiving Play), Sicangu Lakota, is an award-winning playwright, director, and choreographer. Her produced plays include The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons, Artists Repertory Theatre), What Would Crazy Horse Do? (Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Relative Theatrics), Urban Rez (Cornerstone Theater Company, ASU Gammage, NEFA national tour 2019–2020), Landless and Cow Pie Bingo (AlterTheater), Average Family (Children’s Theater Company), Teaching Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation (Native Voices at the Autry), Vanishing Point (Eagle Project),and Cherokee Family Reunion (Mountainside Theatre). Ms. FastHorse won the PEN America Literary Award for Drama, National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished New Play grant, Joe Dowling Annaghmakerrig Fellowship, American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award, William Inge Center for the Arts Playwriting Residency, Sundance Institute–Ford Foundation Fellowship, Aurand Harris Fellowship, UCLA Native American Woman of the Year, and numerous Ford, Carnegie Mellon, and NEA grants. She is a proud officer of the Board of Directors for Theatre Communications Group, and she is represented by Jonathan Mills at Paradigm – New York. hoganhorsestudio.com, indigenousdirection.com.
Bart DeLorenzo (Director, The Thanksgiving Play) is the Founding Artistic Director of Evidence Room in Los Angeles. His recent work includes the premieres of Sugar Plum Fairy, tokyo fish story, Fast Company, Doctor Cerberus, and Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (South Coast Repertory), Stage Kiss andthe premieres of Death of the Author, Coney Island Christmas, and Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress (Geffen Playhouse), Off Broadway’s Annapurna (The New Group), Hir, Kiss, Go Back to Where You Are, and A Number (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble), Need to Know (Rogue Machine Theatre), Cymbeline (A Noise Within), The Projectionist (Kirk Douglas Theatre), Nomad Motel (City Theatre), and The Night Watcher (Studio Theatre). His recent Evidence Room productions include Passion Play, Ivanov, Margo Veil, and The Receptionist. He is on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts. He has received LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, LA Weekly Theater Awards, Back Stage Garland Awards, and Theatre Communications Group’s Alan Schneider Director Award. bartdelorenzo.com.
