Panndora Productions

Hello playwrights! We are delighted with the response we have been getting to our 4th annual new works festival, Panndora's Box. Submissions are coming in from across the country and even Europe. Our apologies for the delay in setting up Paypal for those who want to pay the $10 per script reading fee. It has been a more complicated process than we initially understood. That said, we are delighted to report that the end is in sight and Paypal should be up and running within a few days. (fingers crossed) To accommodate the delay and the great response, we have decided to extend the submission deadline until July 15. Send your new plays on over. We're happy to read them.

for the enhancement of greatly talented playwrights yet to achieve stardom

Panndora Productions is delighted to announce the opening of our 4th Festival of New Works, Panndora's Box 2010. We are accepting submissions through July 1, 2010. Five plays will be selected for staged readings to be held on September 10, 11, 12. Five more plays will be chosen for Honorable Mention. Winners will be notified mid-August.

Last year we received over 150 submissions from around the world. Here are a few comments from some of our playwrights:

Jennifer Jones, author of "Sunday's Child"

Our production of "W;t" closed to sold out houses and standing ovations. This show was an amazing and moving experience for all of us. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt reactions; your response means the world to us.

Sold out show today. Come see us next weekend!

"W;t" opened Friday, March 5, to a full house and a gala celebration. It was a fabulous send off for a fabulous production. Come see us now in the full swing of things!

Thanks to our wonderful host company, Theatre Out, at the Empire Theatre, you can now buy your tickets by clicking on the button below! (You can still call Karen at 323-377-2988 if you prefer a person or have additional questions.)

Yes I did. I met Kathleen Chalfant for coffee in New York on Friday, February 5. She played the role of Vivian Bearing in "Wit" for over three years on Broadway, garnering a host of awards for her brilliant performance. In person, she is delightful, generous, warm, earthy, funny and beautiful. She shared stories of how it felt to walk around town with no hair, to the beauty of this play and the "translucent transcendence" of its message. It was a magical afternoon, leaving me even more inspired to become Vivian for a month in Santa Ana, CA.

 

We are happy to welcome Darcy Porter and Nick Wopershall to our "Wit" cast. They will each be playing four different roles - technician, medical fellow, college student and member of the code team. They are fantastic additions to this show.

I (Sonja) have begun the process of shortening my hair bit by bit to prepare for shaving my head to become Vivian Bearing. Here are some photos of my latest bob.[coming] I will probably go through one more cut before the shave - which will be shared on this site. Thanks for your interest!

We are in full rehearsals now for "Wit" under Pete Taylor's direction. This is such a beautiful play. You won't want to miss it. Details for tickets will be out soon. We are playing every weekend in March at the Empire Theatre in Santa Ana. Here's the cast: Sonja Berggren as Vivian Bearing, Brandon Crisler as Dr. Jason Posner, Carmen Guo as Professor E.M. Ashford, Pete Taylor as Dr. Kelekian/Mr. Bearing, and Karen Wray as Susie Monahan, R.N. We are in the process of casting 3 more actors to cover the roles of lab technicians, clinical fellows, students and the code team.

This Sunday, January 10, at 4pm, Panndora joins forces with Long Beach Opera for a special event to precede the opening of "The Good Soldier Schweik", the season opener for LBO's 2010 season. Come join us at 4pm at the Long Beach Playhouse, 4021 E. Anaheim St, Long Beach.

Tickets are $25 or $20 for LBO subscribers. You can get tickets here or call Long Beach Opera at 562 432 5934.

Our long-awaited production of "Wit" has found a home! Theatre Out, the company now presenting in the old Rude Guerrilla space (the Empire Theatre) in Santa Ana, has welcomed Panndora Productions into their fold. Our agreement gives us the space for 3 performances each weekend in March 2010. We've confirmed the rights and we are already working on this extraordinary play. Directed by Pete Taylor, "Wit" features Sonja Berggren, Brandon Crisler, Carmen Guo, Pete Taylor and Karen Wray.

"A brutally human and beautifully layered new play. . .You will feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted." THE NEW YORK TIMES

We had a fabulous opening night for Panndora's Box Friday with the reading of "Star Turn" by Linda Whitmore, our own New Voices playwright. The audience loved it, as did we.

Join us for the rest of the Festival! 

Saturday at 4pm, "Sunday's Child" by Jennifer S. Jones, directed by Karen Wray, with Pete and Rebecca Taylor, Erin Henriques and Robert Dean Nunez.

Saturday at 7pm, "Denouement" by Jack Raymond, directed by Pete Taylor, with David Gold, Karen Wray, Rebecca Taylor and Pete himself.

Sunday at 1pm, "The Wall" by Jonathan Chapman, directed by Andreas Mitisek, with Kevin Brunner, Sonja Berggren, Leandro Cano, Brandon Crisler and Sky Siegel.

Sunday at 4pm, "The Morning After the Night Before" by William S.E. Coleman, directed by Sonja Berggren, with Karen Wray and John Wray.

 

 

The response to this year's Panndora's Box Festival of New Works has been overwhelming! After receiving over 150 plays from all over the world, we feel compelled to add another night and another play to the Festival. We will select 5 plays from those submitted to be read at the Festival which will now begin on Friday night, June 26, at 8:00pm at Breath of Fire Theatre in Santa Ana. Two more plays will be read on Saturday and two on Sunday.

We have the pleasure of adding Sky Siegel and Brandon Crisler to our 3rd Annual Panndora's Box Festival of New Works Literary Committee. Along with Jessica Vorsgerchian, they are providing valuable perspectives on our submissions. Thank you so much! Now the real fun begins!

Jessica Vorsgerchian joins us this summer straight from the Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. An award winning writer, Jessica is an English major and will be our Literary Assistant for Panndora's Box 3rd Festival of New Works. We can't wait for her to get here!

Co-founder Sonja Berggren has been selected to perform her one-woman piece, "There is a Place I Go. . ." this summer at "Expressing Motherhood" at the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA. August 1-2 and 8-9, 2009. Check out expressingmotherhood.com