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UPDATE MAY 19, 2010

An Uncorked Conversation: New Play Festival and Wine Tasting

Icicle Creek Theatre Festival Brings Two New Plays and Cases of Leavenworth Wine over the Mountain Pass to ACT Theatre

Laura Jacqmin and Yussef El Guindi Workshop New Plays, August 23-24

Seattle, WA – May 18, 2010 – In partnership with ACT Theatre, the Fourth Annual Icicle Creek Theatre Festival (ICTF), based in Leavenworth, Washington brings new plays by two of this country’s most talented contemporary theatrical voices, along with cases and cases of extraordinary wine from Leavenworth’s best wineries, to Seattle’s ACT Theatre, for An Uncorked Conversation: New Play Festival and Wine Tasting, August 23 and 24, 2010.  Starting at 5:30 p.m., on Monday and Tuesday evenings, The Central Heating Lab at ACT hosts this first-of-its-kind event with ICTF, which allows attendees to sample more than two dozen types of wine from eight different Leavenworth wineries before moving into the theatre for an exciting new play reading by either Laura Jacqmin or Yussef El Guindi.

ICTF Artistic Director Allen Fitzpatrick reviewed countless submissions before arriving at this year’s two selections. “Experiencing the birth of a new play is thrilling and I want ICTF and ACT audiences to understand how valuable their reactions and feedback are during the play reading and workshop process. It’s vital to a new play’s development and I’m thrilled that these two plays will benefit from the sophisticated insights that Leavenworth and Seattle audiences will undoubtedly provide,” said Fitzpatrick. All the ICTF plays selected since 2007 have been developed further; four of the plays (Atomic Farmgirl, Dov and Ali, On the Nature of Dust, and Charm) have evolved to completed, fully-staged productions at regional, international, and off-Broadway houses. The two plays selected for readings at this year’s Fourth Annual ICTF are Laura Jacqmin’s, And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light and Yussef El Guindi’s Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World.

In And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light, 2008 Wasserstein Prize winner Laura Jacqmin relates the story of Katie, a student desperate to get into Harvard, who meets a new friend online, David, a teenaged soldier in Uganda. Katie becomes determined to help him escape to the U.S. and asks, “If I’m trying to do something good, then what’s the harm in using his story for my application essay?” When she learns that David hasn’t been completely honest about himself, she must decide whether to abandon her ideals or trust a virtual stranger.

2009 winner of the Osborn Award by the American Theater Critics Association and 2008 winner of ACT’s New Play Award, Yussef El Guindi will present his engagingly witty and romantic new play, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World. Musa, a recent immigrant from the Middle East and NYC taxi driver, meets Sheri, an American waitress and woman with an unfortunate dating history. They fall head-over-heels in love, but their chances for making it are blocked by several skeletons in their respective closets.

An Uncorked Conversation: New Play Festival and Wine Tasting offers a rare opportunity to see a new play come to life at its first public reading AND sample much of what Leavenworth has to offer without crossing The Pass. ICTF Executive Director Shana Pennington-Baird has invited representatives from Leavenworth’s best wineries, hotels and arts organizations to cross the pass. For two wonderful evenings, folks from Icicle Arts, The Icicle Creek Music Center and The Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort and more, will set up a temporary shop in Seattle’s ACT Theatre lobby spaces to provide samples and give away loads of prizes. Participating wineries include: Silvara, Wedge Mountain, Icicle Ridge, Vin du Lac, Cascadia and more!

The acting company for the Fourth Annual ICTF will be announced in July 2010. ACT Literary Manager Anita Montgomery will serve as dramaturge for both plays. The ICTF acting company will also conduct play readings as part of ICTF in Leavenworth on August 21 and 22 at 1:00 and 7:00pm. Those readings will take place at the Icicle Creek Music Center near Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort. Overnight packages that include train transportation from Seattle, admission to the Leavenworth new play festival, and sleeping accommodations are available through Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort.

Tickets to Seattle’s An Uncorked Conversation: New Play Festival and Wine Tasting at ACT are $40 and include a commemorative wine glass, admission to the Wine Festival, and entrance to the New Play Reading. ACT Monthly and Charter Members receive free admission to the play reading and pay only $20 for the Wine Festival. Tickets and Memberships are available through the ACT Ticket Office at 700 Union Street, Downtown Seattle, (206) 292-7676, or online (festival/wine tasting tickets only) at www.acttheatre.org. Both readings are in the Bullitt Cabaret. For more information about The Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, visit www.iciclecreekact.com. For more information about ACT, visit www.acttheatre.org.

            Playwrights are available for interviews. Please contact Jennifer Rice at (206) 285-5175 or rice1234@yahoo.com Photos are available upon request.

About The Playwrights

Laura Jacqmin received the 2008 Wasserstein Prize, a $25,000 award to recognize an emerging female playwright. Her play Ski Dubai was produced in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s 5th Annual First Look Repertory of New Work; Look we are Breathing will be workshopped at the 2010 Sundance Theatre Lab on Governors Island, with director Mark Brokaw.  Her plays include Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (which will be produced in association with Chicago Dramatists, July 2010), Folk Song, and Do-Gooder (nominee, 2011 Cherry Lane Mentor Project), among others. Jacqmin’s work has been produced and developed by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Ars Nova, Goodman Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Page 73 Productions, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Dramatists, The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and more. From 2007 to 2008, she was a contributing writer for The Onion A.V. Club and A.V. Club Chicago. Jacqmin is currently working on a Sloan commission from Ensemble Studio Theatre. She lives and works in Chicago.

Yussef El Guindi’s most recent productions: Language Rooms at The Wilma Theater, The Review, a short Internet play performed with actors in Cairo and San Francisco, produced by Golden Thread; and Hostages, staged by the Miscreant Theater Company in New York. Other productions: Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, produced at Golden Thread in San Francisco, at InterAct Theater in Philadelphia, and at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, as part of the National New Play Network. Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, produced by Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, where it was Jeff Nominated, and was among the six finalists for the 2009 American Theater Critics Associations Steinberg/ New Play Award. The American Theater Critics Association has also given it the 2009 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award. Other productions: Back of the Throat was winner of the 2004 Northwest Playwrights’ Competition held by Theater Schmeater. It won L.A. Weekly’s Excellence in Playwriting Award for 2006. It was also nominated for the 2006 American Theater Critics Associations Steinberg/ New Play Award, and was voted Best New Play of 2005 by the Seattle Times.  It was first staged by San Francisco’s Thick Description and Golden Thread Productions; then later presented in various theaters around the country including The Flea Theater in New York. Another play of his, Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith, staged by Silk Road Theatre Project, won the After Dark Award for Best New Play in Chicago in 2006.  His two-related one-acts, Acts of Desire, were staged by the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. Back of the Throat, and the two related one-acts, now titled, Such a Beautiful Voices is Sayeda’s and Karima’s City, have been published by Dramatists Play Service. The latter one-acts have also been included in The Best American Short Plays: 2004-2005, published by Applause Books. His play, Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith, is included in Salaam/Peace: An Anthology of Middle-Eastern-American Playwrights, published by TCG in 2009. Yussef holds an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence at Duke University.

About Icicle Creek Theatre Festival

Icicle Creek Theatre Festival (ICTF) was created by actor and director Allen Fitzpatrick to help playwrights prepare their scripts for productions in regional theatres around the country. 2008’s Charm went on to win the Connecticut Commission on the Arts’ highest award for playwriting, was further workshopped by the Lark Theatre Company and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, and just completed a full 2010 production by the Salt Lake Acting Company. 2008’s Kingdom of Dust was part of the 2009 JAW Festival at Portland Center Stage. It was later retitled, On the Nature of Dust and the New Century Theatre Company produced a full production in 2010 at ACT Theatre. 2007’s Atomic Farmgirl was produced Off-Broadway by the Drilling Company, and 2007’s Dov and Ali opened Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre, following a successful London production. 2009 plays Him and The Jewel in the Manuscript are currently holding workshop readings at a variety of regional playhouses in 2010 and 2011.

About ACT

Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT – A Contemporary Theatre is the only local theatre dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today’s thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.

Support for Icicle Creek Theatre Festival is provided by Icicle Fund, City of Leavenworth, Norcliffe Foundation, and Dramatists Play Guild. 

Support for ACT is provided by ArtsFund, ACT Foundation, The Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and The Shubert Foundation, along with Producing Partners 4Culture, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The Boeing Company, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation, the Peg & Rick Young Foundation, and PONCHO.

UPDATE May 12, 2009

ICTF will present “HIM” by Daisy Foote. Ms. Foote’s play BHUTAN (directed by award winning director Evan Yiounoulis) received its NY premiere at the Cherry Lane in the fall of 2006. The play was nominated for the 2007 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD and published by Dramatists Play Service. Her other plays include WHEN THEY SPEAK OF RITA, produced by Primary Stages (NY) in an extended run, and directed by her father, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote; THE HAND OF GOD (developed with a commission from Wind Dancer Prodns. and part of the 2000 O’Neill Theatre Center line-up); and GOD’S PICTURES (world premiere at Indiana Repertory Theatre). She was honored with the Roger L. Stevens Incentive Award in association with the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. Her screenplay THE CHURCH OF DEAD GIRLS is being produced by THIS IS THAT FILMS, and will be directed by RED ROAD director Andrea Arnold, winner of the 2006 Prix du Jury Prize.

“HIM” is a deftly woven tale in which three siblings struggle to keep the family business afloat in a rapidly changing world that threatens to leave them behind. It is a story of love and loss, and the power of nature to heal one disconnected soul and inspire another to tragic consequences.

ICTF will also present “THE JEWEL IN THE MANUSCRIPT” by Rosemary Zibart. Ms. Zibart’s work encompasses journalism, screenplays, and books for children, though her current focus is writing for the theatre. Her articles have appeared in Time, Parade and the Christian Science Monitor. Two of her works were semi-finalists at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and her play Babe, Inc. was produced in London, New York, and Santa Fe. She also recently co-produced “Minds Interrupted: Stories of Lives Affected by Mental Illness,” a series of personal monologues.

“THE JEWEL IN THE MANUSCRIPT” is a dynamic examination of events in the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Forced to complete a new novel in a month, the ill and despairing writer hires a young stenographer, and as they work together she brings sympathy and order into his life. Yet his relationship with another woman (who plays a role both in his fiction and his life) could block their fragile chance for love.

The Jewel will be directed by Kurt Beattie, artistic director of Seattle’s acclaimed ACT � A Contemporary Theatre. Mr. Beattie joined ACT in 2001 as associate artistic director and was appointed artistic director in April 2003. Also a skilled actor and playwright, Mr. Beattie has directed numerous highly-acclaimed productions at ACT. Anita Montgomery, literary manager of ACT Theatre, will serve as dramaturg at the Festival. With her assistance this past spring, ICTF’s staff of readers evaluated well over 200 plays submitted by playwrights from all parts of the United States and beyond.

Ms. Foote and Ms. Zibart will work with a skilled company of professional actors to bring their plays from the page to the stage. The company will rehearse from Aug. 8-14 at Icicle Creek Music Center, adjacent to Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat in the Cascade Mountains. On Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, the plays will be presented (as partially-staged readings) to audience members who will enjoy the rare opportunity to see how a play comes to life. Following each presentation, audiences will be invited to join in a discussion of the play with playwright and cast.

The schedule is as follows:

• “HIM” on Saturday, Aug. 15th at 8:00 PM and Sunday, August 16th at 2:00 PM.
• “THE JEWEL” on Saturday, Aug. 15th at 2:00 PM and Sunday, August 16th at 8:00 PM.
• Tickets available starting JUNE 15th by calling PAC-WEN at 509-663-2787.

The schedule is subject to slight change in performance times. All performances will be held at Canyon Wren hall, Icicle Creek Music Center, 7409 Icicle Rd, Leavenworth, WA.

ICTF was created to help writers prepare their scripts for productions in regional theatres around the country. 2008’s “Charm” went on to win the Connecticut Commission on the Arts’ highest award for playwriting, was further workshopped by the Lark Theatre Company and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, and will receive a full production in 2010 by the Salt Lake Acting Company. 2008’s “Kingdom of Dust” has received offers for production from various theatre companies and will be part of the JAW Festival at Portland Center Stage this summer, joining works by Will Eno, Jordan Harrison, and Naomi Iizuka. 2007’s “Atomic Farmgirl” was produced Off-Broadway, and 2007’s “Dov and Ali” received productions in both London and N.Y.

UPDATE MAY 16, 2008

The second annual Icicle Creek Theatre Festival announces this summer’s offerings

Between Feb. 15 and April 15, 2008, with assistance from Seattle’s ACT Theatre, ICTF read and evaluated hundreds of plays submitted from all parts of the country. Between April 15 and May 14, the selection was narrowed down and a final decision was made on May 15. ICTF wishes to express its deep gratitude to each and every playwright who submitted a play for consideration this year. All playwrights will receive a communication from ICTF before the end of May.

The Festival’s first offering, “Kingdom of Dust” by Stephanie Timm, is the highly entertaining, extraordinary tale of Clara Bliss — a typical teenager until she turns into an ape. When Clara begins to devolve into more and more primitive species, her mother Shirley sets out on a crusade to “cure” Clara that quickly turns into a crisis of faith. This highly theatrical and absurd comedy explores the tensions between science and religion through the lens of a mother coming to terms with her daughter’s transition into adulthood and independence.

The Festival will also present “Charm” by Kathleen Cahill, an award-winning playwright and currently Visiting Professor in Playwriting at the University of Utah. “Charm” is a magical dance through the life of the writer and women’s rights activist Margaret Fuller, which focuses on a brilliant imagining of Ms. Fuller’s personal life. As our hearts are pulled into her personal passions, we are given a first-hand view of her robust and complex relationships with the writing and philosophical giants of her time — Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and others. A clever and spirited play, with often beautifully poetic language.

ICTF will present readings of these plays on August 9th and 10th at Canyon Wren hall on the grounds of the Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth. ICTF expects to re-mount readings in Seattle of both plays on August 11th and 12th at Seattle’s renowned ACT Theatre.

ICTF’s VERY FIRST OFFERING GOES DIRECTLY TO NEW YORK CITY PRODUCTION!

New York City, 11-14-07 — “Atomic Farmgirl,” first workshopped and presented at ICTF in August 2007, gets its first New York production!! The play is being produced by The Drilling Company, and is being performed at the 78th Street Theatre Lab at 236 W. 78th Street. Hamilton Clancy, the company’s Artistic Director, and Karen Kitz, Producing Associate, both are featured in the play, which began its run on Nov. 14th.

A great triumph for ICTF’s very FIRST production ever to go directly to a New York production, within three months of its Leavenworth workshop!! ICTF is committed to taking any and all steps to have plays, first developed at ICTF, moved on to full production in other venues.

Visit the Drilling Company’s website.

October 8, 2007
YouTube video of the 2007 Festival: Watch video

On Aug. 11 and 12th, 2007, seven months of hard work and careful planning came to fruition when nineteen artists-in-residence collaborated to present staged readings to the public of two new plays at Canyon Wren performance hall on the grounds of Icicle Creek Music Center, at Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat in Leavenworth, Washington.

The Icicle Creek Theatre Festival posted completely open submissions on this site and elsewhere in January of 2007 and received submissions of 101 new plays. “Atomic Farmgirl,” by C. Denby Swanson, dealing with environmental issues (at the Hanford nuclear site) which deeply concern many Washington residents, seemed perfect. For our other selection, we chose “Dov & Ali,” by NY playwright Anna Ziegler, because of its very topical examination of how religion can affect relationships.

A mix of Equity and non-Equity actors from Seattle, New York City, Ellensburg (WA) and Leavenworth (WA) participated in the readings, which were directed by (Seattle) Town Hall’s Executive Director, Wier Harman, and Icicle Creek Theatre Festival Artistic Director, Allen Fitzpatrick.

Both plays received substantial opportunity for development over the 8 days preceding their public presentation, and both plays were enthusiastically received by the audiences who attended them.