2009 New Play Festival hatching plays Sept. 14-19, 2009

The winner of the 2009 New Play Festival is Walter Thinnes' Coal Creek. It will be produced at Centre Stage January 21-30, 2010.

Download the 2009 New Play Festival press kit.

Visit the Coal Creek show page.

Centre Stage will present its 7th annual New Play Festival September 14-19 featuring the works of four finalists selected from submissions of over 100 works.  These plays will be presented in staged readings that are free and open to the public.  Each performance will be followed by an in-depth discussion of the work, led by Festival Chairman, Dr. Brian Haimbach and playwright-in-residence, Jeffrey Sweet.  On the fifth evening of the Festival, Centre Stage will present the latest work in development by Mr. Sweet.  A discussion with Mr. Sweet will be held the following morning. 
Performances will begin at 7 p.m. each evening, Monday-Friday. Discussion with Jeffrey Sweet will take place on Saturday morning, September 19. All events are free and open to the public.

• Monday, September 14 @ 7 p.m.
  A Death Defying Act  by Barbara Lindsay
  After a desperately ill man submits to psychic surgery, his wife struggles to protect him: from his mother, from his doctor, and from her own doubt and fear. Directed by Corrie Eddleman.
• Tuesday, September 15 @ 7 p.m.
  Coal Creek by Walter Thinnes
  More than 7,500 strikers walked out of more than 90 mines in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek coal fields of West Virginia during the bloody 1912-1914 labor war.  Coal Creek is the story of one family caught in the cross hairs of this struggle.  Directed by Beau Phillips.
• Wednesday, September 16 @ 7 p.m.
  The Lives of Pigeons by Sherod Santos
  Lives of the  Pigeons begins by suggesting, in indirect ways, the secret lives of two men, long since retired, who meet in a park to play chess. It is only with the unexpected appearance of a third character—a sophisticated, urbane, Jamaican-born black man—that these secrets are brought suddenly and violently to the surface.  Directed by Daryl Phillipy.
• Thursday, September 17 @ 7 p.m.
  Twain and Shaw Do Lunch by Chambers Stevens
  Mark Twain.  George Bernard Shaw.  In 1907, the world's two greatest living writers had lunch together. It’s Mrs. Shaw's job to make sure they don't destroy each other. Directed by Benjamin P. Robinson.
• Friday, September 18 @ 7 p.m.
  Class Dismissed by Jeffrey Sweet
  In the heat of the 1960s, a rich kid wonders where his priorities lie. His dad wants him to carry on the family business. His friends (who don’t know he has money) are trying to build a new way of living. Throw in a renegade professor, some controlled substances (Hey, it’s the 60’s!), a little romance and you know what comes next ...a comedy about youth and living with the consequences of how you spend it.  Reception with Mr. Sweet immediately following the reading. Directed by Brian Haimbach.
• Saturday, September 19 @ 10 a.m.
  Special talkback with Jeffrey Sweet
  Brian Haimbach will lead the audience in a discussion of Jeffrey Sweet’s most recent works and on his journey as a playwright.

Jeffrey Sweet has been a playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, critic, journalist, teacher, theatre historian and sometime songwriter and director.  He has been associated as a playwright-in-residence with the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theatre of Chicago since 1979.  His plays include Routed, which had its premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre;  Flyovers, which won a Jefferson Award for playwriting; The Action Against Sol Schumann, winner of the American Theatre Critics Association Award for Playwriting; and many others. 

Mr. Sweet is the author of three books:   Something Wonderful Right Away, an oral history of the Second City comedy troupe, and two widely-used texts on playwriting, The Dramatist’s Toolkit and Solving Your Script.  In collaboration with the late Otis L. Guernsey, he co-edited eleven editions of the Best Plays Annual.  He has written for a variety of publications including Newsday, American Theatre, Variety, Backstage, The L.A. Times, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine, The Writer, The Dramatist and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His writing for television garnered a Writers Guild of America Award and an Emmy nomination.

He has taught for a variety of universities and professional programs including the Actors Studio Theatre School, Second City, New Dramatists, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Rutgers, University of Richmond, the University of the Arts, and Columbia University.  He has appeared as a guest on BBC radio and American public radio stations.

Mr. Sweet earned his BFA in film from NYU (where his teachers included Martin Scorcese, Paul Simon and Clive Barnes) and studied with Lehman Engel for six years at the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.  He is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, an alumnus of New Dramatists, and a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild.