THE LANDING THEATRE COMPANY
New American Voices
Playwriting Festival
Amy Berryman
New York, NY
The New Galileos
by Amy Berryman
Directed by Emily Neves
Thursday July 30, 2020 @ 7pm
Synopsis:
"Three female scientists find themselves held hostage by the government for their stance on climate change. The play weaves between their current crisis and their pasts, leading them to an interrogation room. A piece about the intersection of science and capitalism; personal interest and the greater good."
Biography:
Amy Berryman is a New York based actor and writer originally from Seattle by way of West Texas. Her play WALDEN will receive its first production with Flat Earth Theatre in June 2020 and its World Premiere with People's Light in 2021. Her other full-length plays include THE NEW GALILEOS (O’Neill Finalist 2019), THREE YEAR SUMMER, and EPIPHANY (finalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, Semi-Finalist for the O’Neill 2020). Rising Phoenix Rep commissioned her play THE WHOLE OF YOU for Cino Nights in LA, directed by Daniel Talbott. Her work has been developed at Premiere Stages, Bay Street Theatre, Caltech, Portland Stage, PROP Thtr, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference, AMiOS, UMASS, and Eden Theatre Co. The short film she wrote, co-produced, and starred in “You Are Everywhere” won Best Drama in the LA Short Film Festival 2018. As an actor, she was recently seen off-Broadway as Bertie in THE CONVENT by Jessica Dickey (Rattlestick/Rising Phoenix Rep). Other credits include Lunchtime by Greg Kotis (the Brick), I Will Be Gone by Erin Courtney (Humana Festival), and the web series #NoFilter. amy-berryman.com
John Minigan
Framingham, MA
Queen of Sad Mischance
by John Minigan
Directed by Lily Wolff
Friday July 31, 2020 @ 7pm
Synopsis:
"Kym thinks she’s lucked into the perfect resume-builder for a biracial college senior determined to find a career in academia: helping renowned feminist scholar Beverly Norden finish her ground- breaking book on Shakespeare’s Queen Margaret before Alzheimer’s makes the task impossible. As the passing months make clear that Beverly’s failing memory is not the greatest obstacle to their work, Kym reassesses her connection with Beverly, Beverly’s son, and academia itself. What can the Margaret story tell her about her own path forward?"
Biography:
John Minigan is a 2019-2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing. Noir Hamlet was a Boston Globe Critics’ Pick, an Elliot Norton Outstanding New Script nominee for 2019, an EDGEMedia Best of Boston Theater for 2018, and enjoyed a successful run at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Queen of Sad Mischance was a Gold Prize winner in the 2019 Clauder Competition for New England plays and winner of the 2017 Pestalozzi Prize. Breaking the Shakespeare Code, an Elliot Norton Outstanding Script nominee in 2014, had a sold-out run at the 2014 NY International Fringe Festival and was revived for a professional run at Playwrights Downtown in NYC in 2019. His plays have been developed with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, New Repertory Theater, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Portland Stage Company, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Vermont. His short works have been presented in the Samuel French OOB Festival, Little Fish Pick of the Vine Festival, City Theater Summer Shorts, Barrington Stage 10x10 Festival, and throughout the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His work has been included in the Best American Short Plays, Best Ten-Minute Short Plays, and New England New Plays anthologies. John is a five-time winner of the Firehouse New Works Contest, a winner of the Nantucket Short Play Contest, the North Park Playwrights Festival, the Rover Dramawerks Competition, the Longwood 0-60 Contest, New York’s 8-Minute Madness Festival, the Nor’Eastern Playwriting Contest, Seoul Players Contest, and the KNOCK International Short Play Competition. He serves as Dramatists Guild Ambassador for Eastern New England and is on the faculties of Emerson College and the Hanover Theater Conservatory. johnminigan.com
Angela J. Davis
Los Angeles, CA
Agathe
by Angela J. Davis
Directed by Mara McGhee
Saturday, August 1, 2020 @ 7pm
Synopsis:
"Twenty-five years after the Rwandan genocide, this play celebrates the little-known story of Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda’s female president for just fourteen hours, who, during one of the darkest moments in history, accomplishes a miracle: the survival of her five young children. The play also honors Agathe's spirit, evidenced by today's Rwanda having record numbers of women in government."
Biography:
Angela J. Davis is the author of The Spanish Prayer Book (The Road Theatre Company, 2019-20 season; L.A. Times Best Bet). Recently named in the top 21 (from a field of over twelve hundred) for the Moss Hart & Kitty Carlisle Hart New Play Initiative, additional playwriting honors include: Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist (2017, 2018, and [currently] 2020), 2018 ATHE Award for Excellence in Playwriting (2nd Place), 2017 PlayPENN Finalist, FutureFest - Official Selection, SETC New Play Award - First Alternate Winner, Playhouse Creatures/Rodriguez (NYC) New Play Award top 5, Julie Harris Award top 5, and MultiStages (NYC) New Play Award top 12. Angela’s plays Agathe (Marsha A. Croyle Award for Achievement in Playwriting; Chameleon Theatre Circle New Play Award), Charlotte (Hidden River Arts Award, Viterbo New Works Festival), The Czar’s Daughters (Pittsburgh Original Works Series), and Mata H. (Frostburg Arts New Play Series; Sky Blue Theatre (London) / British Theatre Challenge Short List) are each part of the 365 Women a Year International Playwriting Project.
Recent work presented and/or forthcoming at The Dayton Playhouse, The HRC Showcase Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Tempest Productions, The Road Theatre Company, The Blank Theatre, North Carolina Women’s Theatre Festival, The Itinerant Theatre Company, Viterbo, The Frostburg Palace Theatre, and elsewhere. Angela’s poetry, prose, and essays appear in numerous national publications, including a University of Iowa Press anthology. A Pushcart Prize nominee and one of sixteen writers selected as Literary Hosts for the 2018 PEN America LitFest, Angela studied comparative literature at Stanford and is an adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School, where she received the 2018 Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the creator of an award-winning multimedia program on elimination of bias in courtroom environments. Member of Dramatists Guild of America, PEN America, and the Antaeus Theatre Company Playwrights Lab.
Kirby Fields
New York, NY
The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri: An Oral History of Presley Cox and the Fallout Five
by Kirby Fields
Directed by Bradley Dean Whyte
Sunday, August 2, 2020 @ 3pm
Synopsis:
"The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri: An Oral History of Presley Cox and the Fallout Five uses the oral-history format to chart the rise and fall of a fictional punk band in the American Middle West in 1988. The cast of 8 fleshes out the community by assuming multiple roles (64 in all!), as older and younger versions of the band and the community move back and forth in time, sometimes recounting the past from the present (and not always agreeing with one another’s memories) and sometimes stepping directly into scenes from 30 years ago. For some, the distance between the events and the telling of the story softens the emotions that were once raw. For others, the memories only bring painful reminders of what might have been. The play is sympathetic toward both points of view: the perspective of age and the passion of youth."
Biography:
Kirby Fields earned his MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University. His plays have been produced or developed in New York, Chicago, DC, and Kansas City. He is proudest of UP Theatre’s productions of K Comma Joseph and Lost/Not Found, the Gallery Players’ production of “Steal This Play,” and LAByrinth’s reading of Summer Session with the Bones Brigade. His short play, “Flood,” will be published in a 2020 issue of The Southern Indiana Review, and his short film, “Not So Hilarious Anymore,” has screened at eight film festivals since September 2019, including those in New York, San Francisco, Portland, and Liverpool. The beginning of his novel Shelter Me was a winner in Arch Street Press’ “Best First Chapter” contest, and a chapter of his in-progress adaptation of Summer Session is featured on Episode 65 of “The Other Stories” podcast. Kirby is from Joplin, Missouri, and currently lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City with his wife and two sons.