A Generational Survey of Young Love
AUGUST 13-29, 2009
Keegan Theatre presents a three-week play festival that will include new works by company members Megan Thrift and Joe Baker.
BACKGROUND:
Keeping with our mission to produce new plays and provide work for D.C. area artists, Keegan Theatre is pleased to announce a festival that celebrates the talent of Keegan’s young company members. These three short plays survey young love over past, present, and future generations. Each story, though grounded in its current realities, reflects a timeless connection to our present. Despite their unique settings, as characters in each story search for personal balance, their responsibilities to the past conflict with their individual aspirations.
Amidst an age of financial uncertainty, one might ask why it is necessary to expend vital resources in the name of art. To young people, the answer is clear. Anxieties are on the rise while facing a job market of limited opportunities. Hope is depleted. It is imperative that the artistic community foster fresh talent, in order to celebrate humanity and provide inspiration to each other. By allowing creativity to flow and providing work to local artists, we hope to encourage dialogue and open channels for new ideas.
THE PLAYS
Love Letters by A.R. Gurney
Love Letters by A. R. Gurney focuses on two characters born between the wars. Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III maintain correspondence through letters over the course of fifty years. These funny, painful, and sometimes, unremarkable letters reveal their desires and frustrations as they grow into their separate lives. A. R. Gurney suggests that his emphasis in this play on the importance of writing is more than coincidental.
VIEW LOVE LETTERS PRODUCTION PHOTOS
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by Megan Thrift
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room is a world premiere written by Keegan company member, Megan Thrift. The dramatist presents us with Maggie, a young and talented bartender, who seems full of spirit and possibility. But she is trapped, struggling to maintain her own dreams, a failing business, and familial responsibility. Clint is alone at the bar nursing some old wounds, and when he and Maggie start a conversation, they find themselves kindred spirits. These two vulnerable souls search for answers with the help of each other’s perspective and, in the end, must decide whether to accept the things they cannot change or “change the things they cannot accept.”
SLOW DANCING PRODUCTION PHOTOS
False Romance: An Intergalactic Farce by Joe Baker
False Romance: An Intergalactic Farce, written by Joe Baker, is adapted and lengthened from his 10-minute play originally titled When Jason Met Maggala. While exploring the unexpected tribulations of the future, this piece reveals the everlasting conventions of young love. Maggie breaks up with Jason, which drives Jason to ask his friend, Rod, how to get Maggie back. Unbeknownst to Jason, Rod and Maggie have a secret. Rod offers some bad advice to Jason, and Rod meets the attractive Bea, who he, inevitably, falls for. Bea finally locates her lost friend, Jason, and the two chat before he is able to follow through with his plan. Jason realizes that Rod has been deceiving him, and this leads Bea and Rod to plan a picnic in the park with their friends, Jason and Maggie. With all four humanoids sitting down on one picnic blanket, the air is cleared and their intentions are exposed. Words are spoken, tensions rise, and eventually a proposal is made. But who proposes what to whom?
FALSE ROMANCE PRODUCTION PHOTOS
Where:
Theatre on the Run
3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive
Arlington, VA
When:
August 13-August 29, 2009
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8pm
Saturday matinees at 3pm
Tickets:
See one show for $15 or see all three shows for $30!
Pay-What-You-Can:
August 13, 2009 8:00 pm – Love Letters
August 20, 2009 8:00 pm – Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
August 27, 2009 8:00 pm – False Romance: An Intergalactic Farce
FALSE ROMANCE
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Acts of Love
Artistic Staff
Festival Production Staff:
Festival Director – Christina Coakley
Production Manager – Michael Innocenti
Stage Manager – Kirsten Parker
Lighting Designer – Hannah Dubrow
Sound Designer – Bethany Galyen
Costumer - Shadia Hafiz
Photographer – Rebecca Chasin
Graphic Designer – Jimmy Marks
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Love Letters
By A.R. Gurney
Director – Christina Coakley
Andy – Michael Innocenti
Melissa – Erin Buchanan
LOVE LETTERS PRODUCTION PHOTOS
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Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
By Megan Thrift
Director – Philip Dallmann
Clint –Peter Finnegan
Maggie – Ashley Faye Dillard
Darrell – Michael Deveney
Joe – Jim Epstein
Pat – Jonathan Marget
SLOW DANCING PRODUCTION PHOTOS
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False Romance:
An Intergalactic Farce
Written and Directed by Joe Baker
Assistant Directed by Daniel Steinberg
Jason – Evan Crump
Maggala – Ella Markey
Rod – John Robert Keena
Bea – Elizabeth Jernigan
FALSE ROMANCE PRODUCTION PHOTOS
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Biographies
Christina Coakley (Festival Director/Director) – Christina is a recent graduate of George Mason University with a B.A. in Theater Studies and a Minor in Arts Administration. This is her directorial debut and she has served as the primary administrator by developing and organizing the festival programming. At 23 years old, she is a company member with Keegan and assistant directed Elizabeth Rex and the Helen Hayes nominated Translations. Previous productions with Keegan as a stage manager include Glengarry Glen Ross (US/Ireland Tour), Love, Peace and Robbery (Off Broadway), Man of La Mancha, The Hostage, Mojo/Mickybo, 1776, and A Man for All Seasons. Christina has also worked with the Source Theatre Festival, Studio Theatre, and Theater of the First Amendment.
Michael Innocenti (Production Manager/Andy) – As a company member and production manager for The Keegan Theatre, the 27-year-old has appeared in many productions including: Lincolnesque (Leo), Elizabeth Rex (Matt), Glengarry Glen Ross (James Lingk; U.S./Ireland Tour), Man of La Mancha (Sancho), The Hostage (Rio Rita), Mojo/Mickybo (Mickybo), Death of A Salesman (Happy; U.S./Ireland tour), The Importance of Being Ernest (Algernon), and A Streetcar Named Desire (Ensemble). Other regional credits include: Source Theatre Festival’s The Armchair Traveler (Elliott) and Writer’s Block (Chad), Anything Goes (Billy), Lunch! The Musical (Ben, Kennedy Center), and A Midsummer’s Night Dream (Peter Quince; Olney Theatre). Michael has understudied at both the Olney Theatre Center and for Folger Theatre and designed the lighting for New Island Project’s Love Peace and Robbery (Off Broadway and D.C.)
Megan Thrift (Playwright) - Megan is a Senior Theater Major, Education and Dance Minor at George Mason University. At 22, she is the youngest company member of the Keegan Theater. Past Keegan productions include: Bold Girls, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Agnes of God, Translations, Elizabeth Rex, and Lincolnesque. Other favorite past productions include: Sweeney Todd, Pippin, Ghosts, As Bees in Honey Drown, Snow White, Reckless, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. She acted as the Assistant Production Manager for the GMU Players 2008-2009 season and teaches theater in Fairfax for AFYP. Her first playwrighting venture, Relationship Evacuation Manual, was produced at GMU’s Ten Minute Play Festival in Spring 2009.
Joe Baker (Playwright) – Joe is a company member of the Keegan Theatre. Joe Baker has been acting in the DC area for 12 years, having appeared on many different stages, some of which are: The Keegan Theatre (including three of Keegan’s annual Ireland tours), Scena Theatre, Solas Nua, American Century Theater, Studio Theatre, Theater J, and Washington Shakespeare Company. In 2008, Joe was in two nominated casts for the Helen Hayes Ensemble award. Joe Baker wrote and directed a short play, When Jason Met Maggala, during the 2009 Play-In-A-Day festival, which happens to be the show that False Romances has spawned from. Joe Baker looks forward to the future, has been known to occasionally savor the moment, and sometimes can remember it for you wholesale.
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