On the Edge:  A Festival of New Plays November 9, 2012

The Edge Theater Company Announces:

ON THE EDGE: A FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS!

November 9-December 2, 2012

The Edge Theater Company presents On the Edge: A Festival of New Plays, opening November 9 and running Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m., through December 2 at The Edge Theatre 9797 W. Colfax Avenue, Lakewood, CO 80215. Tickets are $10 per play or $25 for a Festival Pass and may be purchased online atwww.theedgetheatre.com or by calling the box office at 303-232-0363. A new, original play every weekend may just put you over the edge!

Four local playwrights have been afforded the opportunity to workshop their original scripts and part of the process is that the audience gets to vote for their favorite play. Based, in part, on those votes, the winner of the festival will receive a full production in The Edge’s 2013-2014 season…..a special treat, as there isn’t a company in Denver that focuses specifically on getting the works of our local playwrights into production.

The On the Edge: A Festival of New Plays’ finalists are as follows:

Crasher/Hostess, by Ellen K. Graham, directed by Rick Yaconis (Playing November 9-11)

A commuter catches a nasty bug on a crowded train; a stranger infiltrates a well-guarded house. The first half ofCrasher/Hostess follows the strange symptoms and psychological trials of a parasite’s unhappy host. In the second half, the capos and soldiers of the host’s immune system are pitted against the wily and adaptable parasite. A case study in parasitic infection, from the outside in.

Ellen K. Graham’s work has been presented by Paragon Theatre, Industrial Arts, the Denver Center Theatre Company, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. Her play How We May Know Him received two Henry Award nominations (Best New Play and Best Play of the Year) and a Westword Best of Denver Award (Best Original Script). Ellen also wrote the gay-marriage-meets-Reefer-Madness flick, Here Come the Brides!, which played to packed houses in Denver and Houston. She is a frequent contributor to the live storytelling shows The Narrators andStories, Stories, Bring Your Stories.

Room #12 by Haley Johnson, directed by Amanda Holter (Playing November 16-18)

A Woman and a Girl deal with the harrowing effects of a choice that ultimately changes both of their lives. Room #12 is not a “pro or anti statement” piece as much as it is a look at the relationship between two individuals the moments before and after a life-altering event. It is left to the audience to decide what these two characters represent to one another and how they are connected.

Haley Johnson is an award-winning actress having established herself in the Colorado theatre community with such performances as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Lottie in Enchanted April, Jacqueline in Don’t Dress for Dinner, Harper in the two-part epic, Angels in America and most recently, Jacqueline in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Nile to name a few. She has appeared at the Edge Theater as Sam in Some Girl(s) and Jenny in A Small Fire and has been seen on stages across the metro including Miners Alley Playhouse, Ignite , Vintage , Spark, Spotlight, Longmont and the Evergreen Players.

GIFTED by Carrie Printz, directed by Sarah Roshan (Playing November 23-25)

Fifteen-year-old Aseem Ganeshe is your typical American kid—brilliant, multi-ethnic and dying to star on a reality TV show. But there are just a few things standing in his way: his self-righteous older sister, Anjali, a med student still living at home, and his interfering East Indian grandmother, Deepa, who has come to visit from London. Cultures and generations clash in this funny, poignant tale of a 21st century family.

Carrie Printz’s plays have received numerous awards, including first place in Writer’s Digest 2009 Stage Play Competition and the 2010 Cheyenne Little Theatre Players New Play Project. Her plays have had readings or productions with the Athena Project’s Plays In Progress Series, And Toto Too Theatre Company, Theatre O, Paragon Theatre Company, E-Project, Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts, Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region, Coal Creek Community Theater and Colorado Theatre Guild. She has studied with playwrights Michelle Lowe and Steven Dietz, holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from Brown University, and a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University.

STRAIGHT SITTING by Melanie Tem, directed by Angela Astle (Playing November 30-December 2)

Eight-year-old Alex Hahn was adopted by Kathy more than two years ago. He had been neglected in his birth home by a mother, Jasmine, who loved him but abused him, as did her boyfriends. When all other attempts have failed to control his violent and destructive behavior and help him make healthy connections with others, Kathy takes him for therapy with Ross and Madalyn Carey, who are widely respected for their on-the-edge "re-birthing" and “straight sitting” techniques. Inspired by an actual event, this play presents no easy villains or simple answers, but asks the audience to consider all aspects of a complicated tale.

Melanie Tem’s one-act play The Society for Lost Positives has been produced in Denver, Salida, and Chicago. Her full-length play Comfort Me with Peaches was produced in Meadville, PA. She is also a published novelist, poet, and short story writer, as well as an oral storyteller. In her day job, she is a social worker.

More details will be posted on The Edge Theatre’s website as they become available, so bookmark www.theedgetheatre.com today!

LISTING:

On the Edge: A Festival of New Plays - See four new works and vote for your favorite play. November 9 - December 2 - Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m. Tickets $10/play or $25 Festival Pass. Tickets may be purchased online at www.theedgetheatre.com or by calling the box office at 303-232-0363. The Edge Theatre, 9797 W. Colfax Avenue, Lakewood, CO 80215 - (at Kipling and Colfax in Lakewood).