ANNOUNCING PANNDORA'S BOX 2018 !
AND THE WINNERS of our 12th PANNDORA'S BOX ARE ~
ANNA KARENINA ON THE ACELA EXPRESS by Ben Jolivet
A WOLF'S MOTHER by Cary J. Simowitz
GLOVE STORY by Ken Pisani
SHEARWATER by Victor Wishna
THIS HAPPENED ONCE AT THE ROMANCE DEPOT OFF THE I-87 IN WESTCHESTER by Gina Femia
Honorable Mention goes to ~
DNR by Victor Wishna
FAT MUSLIM GIRLS by Ken Kaisaar
MARIANAS TRENCH by Scott Sickles
THERE IS EVIL IN THIS HOUSE by Natalie Nicole Dressel
TREES BY THE STATION by Kevin Daly
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE - OCTOBER 19-21, 2018
The 5 chosen plays will be read over the weekend at the GARAGE THEATRE, 251 E. 7th Street, Long Beach, CA 90813. Here's the schedule. Stay tuned for more information about these plays and their casts.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19 at 8pm
ANNA KARENINA ON THE ACELA EXPRESS by BEN JOLIVET, directed by Pete Taylor
Anna is young, brilliant, and destined for success. After getting her husband elected to congress, she turns her attention to the future—but a handsome would-be congressman and the forces of love and gossip could derail her. A modern riff on a classic, Anna Karenina on the Acela Express examines the perils of being young, brilliant, and female in American public life.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20 at 1pm
A WOLF'S MOTHER by Cary J. Simowitz, directed by Sonja Berggren
July 1967. The Summer of Love. Spokane, Washington. Forty-seven-year-old Ada “Kathleen” Bower, hardened from over three decades of ceaselessly outrunning a pack of inner demons, answered an unexpected knock on her front door, only to find her long-lost son poised on the threshold with a hand outstretched. Equal parts disgusted and horrified, she shut the door on him. Mother and son never saw each other again. What if Kathleen had let Charlie Manson in?
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20 at 4pm
GLOVE STORY by Ken Pisani, directed by Rebecca Taylor
Reunited in the present by a young female sportswriter, two retired boxing rivals who fought a racially charged trilogy during the early days of the civil rights movement find that their battles are far from over, as their stewing animosity erupts to hilarious and ultimately poignant effect.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21 at 1pm
SHEARWATER by Victor Wishna, directed by Karen Wray
Ben, a struggling journalist and novelist, has lucked into the gig of a lifetime: ghostwriting a memoir for Esther Lindman, the colorful and infamously outspoken widow of one of the 20th Century’s greatest American artists. But when the stories don’t add up, and new pressures mount at home, Ben just digs deeper, soon discovering that truth—like art—is in the eye of the beholder.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21 at 4pm
THIS HAPPENED ONCE AT THE ROMANCE DEPOT OFF THE I-87 IN WESTCHESTER by Gina Femia, directed by Sonja Berggren
Kevin owns a Romance Depot. Beth needs a vibrator. It’s an emergency. The two of them form an unlikely relationship that straddles the line between friendship and romance. What happens when two lonely people find one another?
GARAGE THEATRE, 251 E. 7th Street, Long Beach, CA 90813
suggested donation $10 per play or $25 for the whole Festival. Cash only at the door, no reservations. Come join us for all or part of the weekend and help us decide which play will end up being our Spring Production in 2019!
For 7 years, our productions have come out of PANNDORA'S BOX.
JUPITER MOON by Bob Valine in 2018
IN KINGS & FOOLS by Kevin Daly in 2017,
SWEET TEXAS RECKONING by Traci Godfrey in 2016,
MEDUSA UNDONE by Bella Poynton in 2015,
FRAGILE THING CRACKS by Ben Jolivet in 2014,
CATCHING THE BUTCHER by Adam Seidel in 2013, and
HOOK UPS by Alexandra Petri in 2012.
To those playwrights who have submitted to our Festival ~ We are in awe of your talent and respect the gifts you share with us. Thank you so much!
Check out these playwrights' comments ~
Are you ready for a magical journey? The talented, wonderfully thoughtful and supportive artists of Panndora Productions will take you on such a journey as your play comes to life before an audience in love with the new and unknown. From the first read-through via FaceTime to the discussions with the director and actors after the performance, I experienced JUPITER MOON in a way I never had before-as living theater, as a mysterious creative process, as something more than I could have ever imagined when I wrote the play. That was the great gift for me--the wonderful process where the words I've written, the actors, and the audience create together something new, fragile, precious--the performance of a play. After that, I saw playwriting as something totally different, and even more challenging and exciting-as a magical journey into a new experience, a new world, together.
Bob Valine, author of this year's show JUPITER MOON
Working with Panndora was one of the best experiences of my professional career. They provide dramaturgical support, a skilled director, and talented actors for a rehearsed reading where they really focus on the story the playwright's trying to tell. They commit themselves to getting the writers everything they need to truly develop their play. The best part: the Panndorians are committed to producing at least one of the plays from the festival-- it's truly a special opportunity. Kevin Daly, author of IN KINGS & FOOLS, 2017
As a playwright, it is extremely rare to be able to watch one's work with a blank slate and objective eye. It is almost impossible to be able to simply sit and enjoy the work on the stage without judgment, conscious or otherwise. However, when I attended Panndora's Box production of my play Sweet Texas Reckoning last weekend that is exactly what I was able to do. I could not be more proud of this production and am forever indebted to the amazing team at Panndora's Box for giving me this extraordinary gift. Tracey Godfrey, author of SWEET TEXAS RECKONING, 2016
I would give my eye teeth to spend the rest of my career working with people as thoughtful and lovingly creative as you all—and I hope someday we get to work together again, because what a joy that would be. But more than that, I want you to keep creating the work of writers whose plays you flat out love, because writers deserve that. So keep making the choices you make based on your love for those scripts and do not settle for less than love, because the work is so beautiful when it comes out of that and it really is such a gift. Ben Jolivet, author of FRAGILE THING CRACKS, 2014
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