The Uncurled Hand wins
2007 New Play Festival
The winner of the 2007 New Play Festival is Stephen Kilduff. His play,
The Uncurled Hand, will receive a full production to run at Centre Stage July 10-19 (7 performances) with curtains at 8 p.m. A special admission price has been established for this production of $10 for adults and $5 for students. As a late night treat, we'll present Dara Levendosky's one-act comedy,
Over the Break immediately after all performances of
The Uncurled Hand. Admission for this late night production is $5.
Media: Download NPF press kit (548k PDF)
The New Play Festival is
free and open to the public. Readings begin
nightly at 7 p.m. and are followed by talkback sessions with the actors, directors and playwrights. This is a rare opportunity for you to participate in the development of new works.
The finalists for the 2007 New Play Festival, held September 10-14, 2007, were:
Monday, Sept. 10 (7:00 p.m.): The Uncurled Hand
By Stephen Kilduff
2007 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL WINNER
The Uncurled Hand is a five-person drama about the past and the future crashing in on a man who is prepared to face neither one.
Zeke is a Vietnam-era draft resister living in contented self-exile in the New Mexico desert. His daughter, Reggie, a high school senior whose poetic voice he has nurtured, wants nothing more than to leave the only home she has ever known for the wider world. Certain that her friend Peter, who has just been accepted into the film program at N.Y.U., is unqualified for the job, she longs for a hero to rescue her,
This wish seems to be answered by the appearance of Jason, Zeke’s long-unacknowledged younger brother, who arrives bearing a gift, a bequest for Reggie from the grandmother she never knew with the potential to radically alter her future. Jason’s presence strains Zeke’s marriage (his wife Glory, a painter of desert scenes, is alarmed to learn after twenty years with Zeke that he has a brother) and threatens the isolation and control that are the foundations of his life.
Wanting to keep the past buried and the future at bay, Zeke teeters between violence and acceptance, and ultimately uses the words of his favorite poem as a guide.
Tuesday, Sept. 11 (7:00 p.m.): Our Lady of Sandwich
By Mario Baldessarri and Keith Bridges
A small southern town is suddenly turned topsy-turvy when a local waitress begins reporting regular visits from the Virgin Mary. The events that follow pit locals against sightseers, Baptists against Catholics, and truth against fiction.
Wednesday, Sept. 12 (7:00 p.m.): The Willow Grove
By Walter Thinnes
A family comes together after the death of a father who, oddly enough, is hanging around just long enough to see his funeral handled the right way. His care-giver daughter must claim her own life in order to bring peace to the entire family.
Thursday, Sept. 13 (7:00 p.m.): Over the Break
By Dara Levendosky
In this quirky modern take on office politics, two coworkers share a coffee break every day. When ex-boyfriends, gossip and open wounds interfere with a promising romantic relationship, the pair decides they were better off friends.
Playwright Lee Blessing |
Friday, Sept. 14 (7:00 p.m.): Perilous Night
Broadway playwright Lee Blessing's newest work tells the story of Elizabeth and Harriet, both of whom reside in a psychiatric hospital. Elizabeth claims to be from the future and Harriet claims to have interrupted the tranquil history of the human race by bringing evil into the world. A reception will follow the reading.
Saturday, Sept. 15 (10:00 a.m.): A conversation with Lee Blessing
Dr. Mark Charney of Clemson University and the National Critics Institute will lead this conversation with one of the country's leading playwrights.
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Clark Nesbitt and Victoria Chance in the 2007 production of New Play Festival winner Guided Tour |
Michael Hawley and Tim Brosnan in the 2006 production of New Play Festival winner The Edith Whartons (Photo by Guy Perticone) |
Festival background: Each year, Centre Stage is proud to present its New Play Festival. Four to five finalists will be selected from submitted plays which meet the criteria outlined below. These selected plays will then be presented in a readers' theatre format which will be open to the public. Audience feedback is encouraged. The play selected as the most outstanding will receive a production at our theatre - most likely to be scheduled for the following season.
Festival dates: The 2008 New Play Festival will take place September 8-12, 2008. Readings will be held at 7 pm each evening.
Submission Fee: There is no submission fee for the New Play Festival.
Guidelines and deadlines:
- Send brief synopsis together with complete bound manuscript, cover letter detailing play's history and contact e-mail address.
- Submission deadline for the 2009 NPF is Feb. 1, 2009. Scripts received after that date will be considered for the following year.
- Must be a full-length play without a prior full production.
- Send brief synopsis together with complete manuscript.
- The play must be at least one hour and thirty minutes in length, and no longer than two hours.
- Dramas, comedies and farces are all welcome. No musicals or plays for young people, please.
- Cast size limited to 6.
- All plays that are not selected for the festival will be recycled. Please do not include any type of return postage. Please check our website by August 1st for announcement of current year's winners.
- All serious submissions are read by at least two readers. Please be advised that the following are not considered serious submissions:
- Screenplays or teleplays submitted as theatrical plays
- Obvious first drafts
- Plays with typos and spelling errors
- Plays that are not formatted according to industry standards
Notification: We appreciate you offering our theatre the opportunity to consider your work. Our New Works Coordinator screens submissions for eligibility and for content as they are received. The final selections will be made in early August.
Send manuscripts to:
Centre Stage - South Carolina
c/o New Play Festival
PO Box 8451
Greenville, SC 29604-8451
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