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Plays, From Politics to Motherhood

Politics, love, betrayal, power and powerlessness, redemption, coming of age, motherhood. These and more were the subjects of plays submitted for the new Ivoryton Playhouse Women’s Playwright Initiative.

Ivoryton Playhouse is undertaking the new program to help women playwrights develop new works. As Jacqui Hubbard, the Playhouse’s artistic director says, developing new plays was “something I always wanted to do.” She added that the typical Ivoryton audience is more comfortable with more familiar works.

The idea of the women’s initiative came because she believed that women often feel a need for empowerment. She had recently met with Laura Copland, a former actress, college professor/administrator, and lawyer who recently relocated to Ivoryton, and discussed ways Copland could become involved. From that meeting, the Women’s Initiative was born.

“We thought it would be a good idea, so we put out a call for submissions through the League of Professional Theatre Women and the call was quickly spread,” she said.

Hubbard and Copland were amazed when 183 scripts arrived. They came from all over the country—and Canada and even one from Israel.

Four plays were finally selected that will be rehearsed and presented, Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4. The final committee included Copland; Hubbard; Ivoryton box office manager Sue McCann; director, theater critic, and academic Brooks Appelbaum; and Margaret McGlone Jennings, a director, teacher, and actor. Copland said the submissions dealt with “beauty, aging, sex, sexuality, the military, need, and yearning. The passion rippling through all these works was astonishing. Reading them was a gift.”

Talk Back, Too

This first iteration of the initiative will include one week of rehearsal for each play, workshops for the playwrights, plus a semi-staged reading of the work in front of a live audience. In addition, there will be “talk-back” after the performances so the audience can provide more feedback to the playwrights.

Lauren Yarger, critic and co-founder of the newly formed Connecticut chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women, has organized a panel discussion for March 4 prior to the evening’s productions. The panel will feature a discussion with the four women whose works were selected for the initiative.

Moderating the panel discussion is Shellen Lubin, co-president of the Women in the Arts & Media, as well as vice president for programming for the League of Professional Theatre Women. Lubin, who has extensive experience as a director, songwriter/playwright, and vocal/acting coach, will be directing one of the plays.

Appelbaum will direct Apple Season, one of the two one-act plays to be presented. The play by Ellen Lewis from California. Copland says the play focuses on a family, and a visit to the family farm.

“To make arrangements for her father’s funeral, Lissie returns to the family farm she and her brother fled 26 years ago. Billy, a neighbor and school friend, comes by with an offer to buy the farm. As memories, needs and passions are stirred, we learn what happened to the siblings as children, and of Lissie’s startling price for the farm,” she says. “What immediately drew me to the play was the subtle delicacy with which the playwright handled the plot’s disturbing elements and the beautiful theatricality she employs in revealing, through flashbacks, the characters’ struggles at different ages,” Applebaum says.

Love, Sacrifice, Comedy

She says that this was one of the few scripts she read that pulled her in immediately.

“I forgot I was reading to assess it, she says. “I was completely in the Apple Season world.”

While it is not a finished work, Applebaum says the play “is, to my mind, at the perfect stage for a workshop such as ours. All the important script elements are in place.”

Apple Season will be the longer piece on March 3.

The shorter play is Guenevere by Susan Cinoman, a play Copland described with: “Guenevere and Arthur are best friends—a fierce competitor, she always bests him in sword fights. What will be the outcome when confronted with Excalibur in the stone?”

“My play is the first part of a full-length play called Guenevere about a fictional character of my own, inspired by the Arthurian legends. In my play, Guenevere pulls the sword from the stone, and though entitled to the leadership of England, she must overcome many obstacles to try to claim her place,” Cinoman said. “It’s something of a political allegory, but also a personal story about love and sacrifice. And comedy.”

On March 4, the evening will open with Buck Naked by Gloria Bond Clunie directed by Lubin, the moderator of the morning panel. This work is described: “Two daughters are thrown into a tizzy when they discover, Lily, the 60+ year-old mother has decided to spice up life by tending her backyard garden, au naturel!”

The final work will be Intake by Margot Lasher. It is described as “an arrogant young psychiatrist meets an 80 year-old woman for what he assumes will be a routine examination. During the course of their relationship, he comes to realize how little he knows; as she reveals her deep love and understand of her two aging dogs, both doctor and patient learn about life, love, and hope.”

Tickets are available for each evening or a package for both days. Call the box office at 860-767-7318 to book the 2-day pass. Individual evening tickets can be purchased at ivorytonplayhouse.org. Each evening begins at 7 p.m.