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TEXAS NONPROFIT THEATRES ANNOUNCES
WINNERS OF
2010 TNT POPS! NEW PLAY PROJECT
Before there can be theatres and roles for actors, there must be plays - many plays and new plays. That's why developing new playwrights and promoting live theatre became the focus for Texas Nonprofit Theatres' POPS! (Production of Original PlayS) when it debuted in 1996.
Now, more than a decade later, TNT's POPS! New Play Project continues to evolve and identify new playwriting talents by selecting and producing new plays for Texas' large and growing live theatre community each biennium.
"During the early years of the project, TNT board member Diana Weeks developed a pilot program in Houston where playwrights were actually matched with theatres to become resident playwrights to 21 participating theatres," said TNT's Linda M. Lee.
Then, in 2002, TNT's board began soliciting new play submissions from Texas playwrights in a pilot effort that became the New Play Development Project. In that program, four new plays were chosen for staged readings at TNT's annual conference every even-numbered year. In 2008, the program was expanded to include full productions of the winning quartet of plays by four TNT member theatres.
This year's POPS! submissions were read by a total of 14 evaluators across the state in three tiers. The first tier read 55 scripts and narrowed the field to the top 20 plays. The second tier - five readers - read all 20 plays and ranked the top 10 shows. Those were sent to representatives of production companies who read all 10 and ranked their top four.
"At our annual convention in March, which will be held in Beaumont this year, we'll stage 20-minute excerpts from each of the top four shows," Lee explained, "and each one of the shows will then be produced by a Texas production company."
This year's winners are: Jeff Stolzer's The Lost Tribe to be produced by Baytown Little Theater; Mike Greenberg of San Antonio whose play, Three Views of a Waterfall, will be produced by the Bastrop Opera House, Chester Eitze, executive director; Carl L. Williams of Houston for his play, A Thirties Affair, to be produced by Henderson County Performing Arts Center in Athens, Dennis Gilmore, executive director; and Micah McCoy's Homegrown Tomatoes, which will be produced by the San Pedro Playhouse in San Antonio, Di Ann Sneed, executive director.
"Our congratulations go not only to the winners of the 2010 POPS! New Play Project, but also to every playwright who submitted materials for judging in this year's competition," Lee said. "Texas continues to be fertile ground for creativity and vision and this year's submissions only confirmed that for everyone at TNT." |
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Playwright: Jeff Stolzer
New York, New York
Winning play: The Lost Tribe
To be produced by Baytown Little Theater
After graduating from Brown University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Jeff Stolzer received an MFA in writing from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. His first play, THE NUCLEAR FAMILY, won the USC Playwrights Guild One-Act Play Competition and was staged on campus. After USC, Jeff became a successful screenwriter, selling four scripts to Hollywood studios. In 1995, he appeared on the gameshow JEOPARDY!, winning $18,001 (and a Broyhill dining room set). |
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In 2000, he moved back to his native New York to work as a writer on ABC's WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE. Concurrently, Jeff wrote all 400+ episodes of the syndicated daily radio program LITTLE KNOWN LEGENDS OF SPORTS. In 2001, THE BACK ROOM, a short film for which he wrote the original story, won the Silver Lily Award at the Guernsey Lily Film Festival. In 2002, Jeff became communications director of The Explorers Club, a century-old nonprofit organization that promotes scientific exploration. During his six-year tenure, he participated in research expeditions to Quebec, Tanzania and Antarctica and won a 2003 Gold Halo Award for nonprofit marketing. Jeff also wrote for and was managing editor of THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL, a quarterly magazine. THE LOST TRIBE, his first full-length play, received the Arts Club of Washington's 2009 National Playwriting Award. Jeff's one-act play, ANYTHING ELSE?, will receive its world premiere on February 28, 2010 at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, New York. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild. |
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Playwright: Mike Greenberg
San Antonio, Texas
Winning Play: Three Views of a Waterfall
Will be produced by Bastrop Opera House
Mike Greenberg spent 35 years in journalism as an editor and writer for Chicago Magazine, D Magazine (Dallas) and the San Antonio Express-News. He is the author of a book on urban planning, "The Poetics of Cities" (Ohio State University Press, 1995). He was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University in 1986-87. He studied political science and philosophy at Macalester College. Three Views of a Waterfall is his first play. He lives in San Antonio with his dog, Darwin. |
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Playwright: Carl L. Williams
Houston, Texas
Winning Play: A Thirties Affair
To be produced by Henderson County Performing Arts Center
Carl L. Williams is a Houston playwright whose full-length and one-act plays have won numerous national competitions. Among his awards in Texas are the McLaren Memorial Comedy Playwriting Competition (Midland Community Theatre), the Backdoor Theatre New Play Project (Wichita Falls), Fort Bend Theatre New Play Contest (Stafford), and C.A.T.S. Playhouse New Plays Festival (Lubbock). His plays have been produced around the country, including off-off-Broadway, and 30 of them have been published. Three of his 10-minute plays are included in the 2007 and 2008 Smith & Kraus anthologies "Best Ten-Minute Plays, 3 or More Actors." Carl is a member of Texas Nonprofit Theatres, the Dramatists Guild of America, and Scriptwriters/Houston. |
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Playwright: Micah McCoy
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Winning Play: Homegrown Tomatoes
To be produced by San Pedro Playhouse
Micah McCoy, an expatriated Texan, currently lives in a hippie community in the South Valley of Albuquerque, NM. In addition to writing plays, Micah keeps busy tinkering on his '51 Chevy, playing country music, and exercising poor judgment. He has lived and worked in Mexico and Kenya, and is currently a communications specialist for the ACLU of New Mexico.
Micah's 10-minute play, Procreative Sex, appeared in the 2009 New Plays Festival in Cornwall, NY, placing in the top three audience favorites. Homegrown Tomatoes is his first full-length play.
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In addition to the winning plays listed above, the following plays were in the top ten of the 2010 TNT POPS! New Play Project
A Stepping Off Place by Cliff McClellan, Dallas, Texas
Fairy Tale Romance by Debra Sapp-Yarwood, Kansas City, Missouri
Fly Like A Bumblebee by R. W. Klamm, Independence, Missouri
Matchmakers by Robert M. Barr, Pittsboro, North Carolina
Mo-Chu-Non-Zhin: I am a Person by Mary Kathryn Nagle, Austin, Texas
Pruning the Family Tree by Daniel Gordon, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Many thanks to all the playwrights who entered TNT POPS! The next cycle will begin in August, 2011.
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