NCTC Announces Three Staged Readings For New Plays In Progress

WORLD PREMIERE PLAYS IN PROGRESS kick off with American Dream, By Brad Erickson
American Dream is set in San Diego, California and a Spanish colonial town in Mexico. The story straddles the border and explores the literal and spiritual frontiers the characters are challenged to cross. In the play, Tom, a recently divorced, and recently out, 40-something architect finds himself unexpectedly falling in love with his handsome Spanish teacher, Salvador, in the beautiful city of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Tom's ex-wife, Cara, bitterly clings to the life that has been torn away from her and vows to keep Tom from bringing Salvador home to San Diego. Tom enlists the help of Cara's beau, an influential Republican attorney, and that of an unlikely Minute Man, in an attempt to smuggle Salvador across the border. American Dream will premiere at NCTC during the 2012-13 season.

Invited Guest Staged Readings for American Dream will be held on August 6, 2010 at 8pm August 7, 2010 at 3pm.

About the Playwright:
Brad Erickson is a playwright, actor, and arts administrator who serves as executive director of Theatre Bay Area, the nation's largest regional performing arts service organization. His play, The War at Home, premiered at New Conservatory Theatre Center in 2006 and won "Best New Script" from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. His play Woody & Me was named best new play in the 2000 Festival of Emerging American Theatre and premiered at The Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis. Brad is also an actor and has appeared in numerous productions, most recently in Octopus at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Brad holds a BFA in Acting from the Goodman School of Drama, now the Theatre School of DePaul University.

Waiting for Giovanni
by Jewelle Gomez
In collaboration with Harry Waters, Jr.

A dream play drawn inspired by the life of James Baldwin where all time collapses; where anxiety, anger, and desire are suffused with the music of Edith Piaf, Mahalia Jackson, Bix Beiderbek, Duke Ellington, Lavern Baker, and Clifford Brown. It takes place in the mind of Jimmy, a novelist, just before the American publication of his second novel in the 1950s. Waiting for Giovanni will have its world premiere at NCTC in the fall of 2011.

Invited Guest Staged Readings for Waiting for Giovanni will be held on August 13, 2010 at 8pm and August 14, 2010 at 3pm.

About the Playwrights:
Jewelle Gomez is the author of seven books including the cult vampire novel, "The Gilda Stories," winner of two Lambda Literary Awards. Her adaptation of the novel for the stage was commissioned by the Urban Bush Women Company and toured 13 U.S. cities including New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Iowa City, Minneapolis, and Seattle. Her fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in more than 100 anthologies and periodicals. Her forthcoming novel is entitled "Televised."
Harry Waters, Jr. is an actor, director, and educator. He created the role of Belize in the first production of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and is most recognized for his performance in Back to the Future. He has performed in a number of films and television programs as well as appearing in stage productions in New York and at venues such as Berkeley Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, NCTC, and the San Jose Repertory Theatre. He is the former creative director of the San Diego Junior Theatre and currently a professor of theatre at Macalester College in Minneapolis.

Rights of Passage
By Ed Decker and Robert Leone

Rights of Passage is a new play about international LGBT human rights progress. A cautionary tale that explores conflicts that divide us and bonds that unite us, the play will document the struggles and triumphs of LGBT people worldwide. Rights of Passage has been developed through extensive research, hundreds of interviews, and the unyielding support of LGBT citizens and activists around the world. The storytelling style of the play is based on the ageless performance techniques found on the Indonesian island of Bali; these same theatrical techniques, in somewhat different forms, also represent cultures throughout the world. Monologues, scenes, puppetry, masks, and dance will bring the play's stories to life. Rights of Passage will have its world premiere at NCTC in 2012. Rights of Passage Blog: http://rightsofpassage-nctc.blogspot.com/

Invited Guest Staged Readings for Rights of Passage will be held on August 20, 2010 at 8pm and August 21 at 3pm.

About the Playwrights:
Ed Decker: As Founding Artistic Director of the New Conservatory Theatre Center, Ed has directed and produced numerous productions in the last 29 years. Mr. Decker is a graduate of San Francisco State University and the former director of the A.C.T. Young Conservatory. His work with playwrights Norman Allen, Terrence McNally, Mart Crowley, Jack Heifner, HAl Corley, Felice Picano, Brad Fraser, David Marshall Grant, Jeff Baron, Kevin Elyot, Jonathan Harvey, and Lee Blessing has brought many important plays to the West Coast.

Robert Leone is the Communications Manager for the Global Health Fellows Program, an organization that recruits, places, and supports public health professionals (fellows) working in more than 20 developing countries and in Washington, DC. Robert Is also a freelance writer whose interviews have appeared on the Grace Cathedral website, in the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, and in the Global Health Council print magazine. His works of fiction have been published in The Evergreen Chronicles, The Harrington Gay Men's Literary Quarterly, and Rosebud Magazine. Robert has also completed three plays, one of which was produced at the New Conservatory Theater Center in 2001.