Inaugural playwright festival in June in Bozeman

Press release

This summer, Verge Theater will partner with the Montana Playwrights Network to host the inaugural Montana Playwrights Festival June 8-9 at Verge Theater in Bozeman. Open to both playwrights and the public, this festival will give participants a backstage pass into the process of how a play comes to life.

The Montana Playwrights Festival features staged readings of plays in development and works-in-progress, showcasing scripts from playwrights around the region. These readings will help both established and emerging playwrights create new work by offering the space to present material before a live audience. It also offers local audiences the rare chance to watch and participate in the very dynamic playwriting process firsthand.

The readings Friday, June 8, include three short plays and a selection from a full-length play. A talk-back will follow each reading. The readings are:

• “Transgressions” by Steven Palmer

• “Bananagrams” by Leah Joki

• “Killing Pollyanna” by Pamela Mencher

• A selection from “Driver’s Ed” by C.M. Webb

Saturday, June 9, will feature a full-length play, “Way Station,” by Shira Hereld.

The festival will also include three workshops covering a range of topics. All sessions are open to all experience levels. Beginners are encouraged to sign up.

Workshops include:

• Playwriting for Beginners: Pamela Mencher guides participants over, around and through some of the stumbling blocks many beginning playwrights face. However, even experienced playwrights will have something to gain. This workshop will give a fresh perspective on starting a project.

• Theatre for Social Justice: People are invited to Join Shira Hereld for a two-hour crash-course in theater for social change, with Hereld discussing how to bring today’s most relevant and controversial subjects to life on stage. The discussion will debate the ever-changing definition of “political theatre,” craft revolutionary characters and explore ways to engage and excite audiences through playwriting that challenges the most basic assumptions of how the world should work.

• Freeing Creativity, Achieving Completion: With the guidance of Greg Owens, participants will write and revise original short plays in a workshop environment, focusing on techniques for freeing creativity and achieving completion, then will present public readings of these new scripts hours after they are born.

To buy tickets for the readings, register for the workshops, and to look at a full schedule, go to http://vergetheater.com/.