2005 | New Works Festival

FEAR OF A FUHRER

by Abi Basch, directed by Tania I. Kirkman, with Brendan Bradley, Thursday Farrar, Jessica Hedrick, René Keller, Francisco G. Rivela, Rebecca White

Fear of a Führer is a performance collage of the unexpected, told through song, puppetry, poetry, and a mix of theatrical genres. A cacophony of sound, music, and historical dialogue is interwoven through a love story of searchers for peace in a time of war.

Abi Basch is a playwright and director whose plays and performance installations have been presented at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Brave New Works in Atlanta, Fusebox, PulseWorks, and Out of Ink in Austin, Best Feet Forward in Minneapolis, hotINK! in New York City, and Transeuropa in Hildesheim, Germany. She’s received three Austin Critics Table award nominations, been a finalist for the Weissberger Award at Williamstown and for PlayLabs at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and received Best of Fest in Fronterafest. She has developed plays and performance installations collaboratively with Live Action Set and the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, and Refraction Arts Project and Physical Plant Theater in Austin. Abi is a core member of Austin Script Works, has received two Jerome Fellowships from the Playwrights’ Center, and a Fulbright Fellowship for research on collaborative physical-theater methods in Germany. She holds an AB in History from Brown University and an MFA in Playwriting from The University of Texas at Austin.

WHAT COMES NEXT

by Pamela A. Popeson, directed by Lorca Peress, with Mauricio Bustamante, Joe Cross, Veronica Cruz, Charles Everett, Marin Gazzaniga, Raquel Gutiérrez, Daniel Hicks, Ward Nixon, Dan Teachout, Lane Trippe

What Comes Next treks cross-country in a timelessly traveling wagon train of abstract realism. On the trail we meet Ulysses S. Grant, Marilyn Monroe, and Charlie Parker Atlas. With humor and pathos, we are forced to examine our country, people, and endless struggles.

Pamela A. Popeson’s first full-length play, The Bigger Thing, premiered Off-Off Broadway at the Red Room (Born Slippery Productions, May 2002), it was optioned by True Love Productions for Off-Broadway following performances at Fringe ‘02 in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Bedlam Theatre. Other full-lengths: Miss Weekends (developed and read at The Living Room in New York City, January 2004), and What Comes Next, began during a granted residency at the Norcroft Writer Retreat for Women in Minnesota, 2004. One-acts: The Moat (premiered at the New Orleans Center for Contemporary Art as “Featured Artist” in Dramarama 12 Performing Arts Festival, 2005), The Spy (8 Minute Madness Festival, Turtleshell Productions, NYC 2004), Up on the Beach written for Terrepin Productions, 2004, The Climber (New Orleans Dramarama 11), and Alas Poor Spike. Popeson is a frequent contributor to NYARTS Magazine and COVER Magazine, writing articles on art and art culture. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America and The Playwright’s Center.

THE TORMENT

by Nicole Quinn, directed by Chris Silva, with Joe Ambrose, Denise Collins, Tamara Green, Leanne Hutchison, Adam LeFevre, Melissa Leo, Michael Patterson, Shawn Randall, Mindy Raymond, Seret Scott, Arie Thompson

The Torment takes us back to a time of blacks who owned slaves, concubines, and the fight for freedom in turbulent antebellum New Orleans. The mysterious and dramatic plot twists and turns until it reveals tormented truths buried under the skin.

Nicole Quinn has written for HBO, Showtime, the networks and Jodie Foster’s Egg Pictures. Her play, War at Home, written with award-winning writer Nina Shengold and some 40 high school students and community members, is published by Playscripts, Inc. and in the anthology Under Thirty, Vintage Originals. Playscripts will publish Odds & Ends, a collection of Quinn’s short plays in 2005, and Information in 2006. Information was a 2005 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival participant. She is a member of Actors & Writers. Quinn’s current endeavors are to be found at http://www.racingdaylightthemovie.com, featuring Melissa Leo and David Strathairn.