The New Works Play Reading Group has announced their April reading of AFFORDABLE RATES AND COLOR TV on March 18

The New Works Play Reading Group will have their April meeting on Sunday, April 19 @ 11am at Salut Kitchen Bar in Tempe on University and McClintock.

Please Note - it is expected that those who participate in this Meetup have read the play. It only takes about an hour to read a script of this size and without doing so you will not be able to contribute meaningfully to the conversation. Our Meetups last approximately 90 minutes and are devoted entirely to discussion of the piece.

The piece that we will be discussing is "Affordable Rates and Color TV" by David Boyd (https://www.andyjboyd.com).

The script can be obtained at no charge here: http://phxnewworks.com/
Please note - we ask the author for explicit permission to use the script for our meeting. Once you obtain it you may only use it for the purposes of this specific Meetup and may not re-distribute it under any circumstances.

Here's some info about it:

After 17 year old Kim's mother dies under mysterious circumstances, Kim must decide whether to stay in her small Arizona town [note from Jason - The play is set in Prescott. Andy Boyd, the author, is from AZ and actually wrote this script in Strawberry. Andy now lives in Brooklyn.] or leave with her 23 year old boyfriend Scott. Before she does either, though, she has to turn 18, at which point she will be able to inherit her mother's motel. This means Kim must operate the motel while hiding the body and navigating the pressures of being a 17 year old girl. Affordable Rates and Color TV is a bizarro mash-up of Sam Shepard and John Hughes, a coming of age dark comedy set in the Arizona high desert.

This play was first performed in October of 2011 at the Adam’s Pool Theatre in Cambridge Massachusetts in a production directed by the author.

AUTHOR'S ARTISTIC STATEMENT
I write plays that seek to serve both as a form of civic engagement and as a form of spiritual practice. In this work I am inspired by the ancient Greeks, whose theatre confronted issues of worthiness and hatred, revenge and justice, state and citizen in a poetic language rooted in myth. Myths are stories we tell in order to understand ourselves and the swirling chaos around us. As I am not an ancient Greek, the myths I draw on are (typically) not those of classical mythology. They are the American myths of rugged individualism, glorious history, and family values. They are myths of safety and of righteousness. In my plays, I am trying to suggest that our myths are increasingly mythic in a more pejorative sense: they are not true. We are not a just and good nation. We are a rapacious empire that imposes on others values we ourselves do not obey. As an artist, I seek to expose the darkness in the American soul and perhaps to suggest alternate myths of resistance, love, and hope.
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Jason Walz and Janis Webb will be your hosts for this meeting with Janis facilitating the discussion. We hope you will come to what will be a great time discussing and analyzing a new work! This isn't like a "play reading" where you might read a part in a group setting. This will be more like a nuts and bolts discussion of a new play from the perspective of character analysis, scene development, producibility, action, and whatever other angle you'd like to look at it from. Actor's perspective, director's perspective, TD's perspective...however you'd like to participate is welcome! We intend this to be an open forum but one focused on a discussion of the play as viewed from different perspectives. Since we will be meeting at a restaurant please be prepared to buy at least an iced tea or something.

CLICK HERE for more information

The New Works Play Reading Group has announced their March play - THE CALM BEFORE

The New Works Play Reading Group will be having their March meeting on Sunday, March 8 @ 11am at Salut Kitchen Bar in Tempe on University and McClintock.

The piece that we will be discussing is "the calm before" by Deborah Yarchun (http://deborahyarchun.com/). Here's some info about it:

"the calm before" is a two-character father-daughter drama set in Rockport, TX the night Hurricane Harvey makes landfall. Ellen desperately attempts to get her recalcitrant father, a conservative 65-year old former Navy SEAL, out. As the hurricane bears down – difficult parts of their past and their current ideological differences play out; the two brace themselves for a night of tough winds, tough love, and confronting uncomfortable truths.

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Ellen Mayborn 32, Female: She wears wellies the entire play. Sometimes speaks quickly. She’s like a hurricane in her own way. She has panic attacks but not in dire circumstances. Only over little things. And she can’t explain it. Can be played by: Age: 20s, 30s Race/Ethnicity: Any race/ethnicity Gender: Female

Mitch Mayborn 65, Caucasian, Male: Ellen’s father. He wears loafers the entire play. He has an incredible amount of volition and nerve. He’s like a hurricane in his own way. He doesn’t own a cell phone, but not because he’s a technophobe. He just can’t be bothered to adjust. He has a dry sense of humor. Temperamental but sees himself as a generous, giving man. Can be played by: Age: 60s Race/Ethnicity: White Gender: Male

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Reading, The Blank Theatre, 2019
Reading, Capital Repertory Theatre, 2019

AWARDS
Finalist, Forward Flux Three New American Plays Commission, Forward Flux, 2018
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Jason Walz and Janis Webb will be your hosts for this meeting with Jason facilitating the discussion. We hope you will come to what will be a great time discussing and analyzing a new work! This isn't like a "play reading" where you might read a part in a group setting. This will be more like a nuts and bolts discussion of a new play from the perspective of character analysis, scene development, producibility, action, and whatever other angle you'd like to look at it from. Actor's perspective, director's perspective, TD's perspective...however you'd like to participate is welcome! We intend this to be an open forum but one focused on a discussion of the play as viewed from different perspectives. Since we will be meeting at a restaurant please be prepared to buy at least an iced tea or something.

You can download a copy of the script as a PDF https://bit.ly/2RR2UsZ
(This script was obtained from the New Play Exchange via a paid membership. Please don't share it or use it for any other purpose other than for use with this group/meeting.)

The Phoenix Play Reading Group

The inaugural meeting of the Phoenix Play Reading Group was held Sunday, January 12 in Tempe at Salut Kitchen Bar and it was a great success! The group had a lively 90 minute discussion about January's piece as well as theatre in general. It turns out everyone all had quite a lot in common! And Salut Kitchen Bar was a great venue - awesome food and very friendly staff.

The Play Reading Group was formed by co-founders Jason Walz and Janis Webb as an informal place were new works are discussed from a both technical and creative point of view by beginners as well as seasoned theatre professionals. Another of the group's goals is to increase the awareness of new works as producible options for the local non-profit theatre community.

The group meets every second Sunday at 11 am at Salut Kitchen Bar in Tempe.

CLICK HERE to sign up for next months meeting and download the script on their Facebook group page.