The Hamner Theater in partnership with
Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat

is holding the

EARL HAMNER PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE, 2007

July 16 through August 5, 2007
Readings Open to the Public

The Plays – 2007
Peter Coy: A Shadow of Honor
Allyson Currin: Love and Whiskey
Joel Jones: Miraculus
Carol Lashof: Gap
Aurora Mateos: The Angel’s Suicide(translated by Rick Hite)
JJ Neelley: Solstice
Stephen Sossaman: A Discourse of Folly
Chris Stezin: This Perfect World
John Walch: Farewell

Directors/dramaturgs, 2007:
Mary Amato, Shana Gold, Paul Hildebrand, Carol Pedersen, Boomie Pedersen, Robert Graham Small, Richard Washer

Actors, 2007:
Robert Blumenstein, Susan Burke, Trey Childs, Mark Edmundsen, Emma Givens, Rose Harper, Jacquie Harvey,Rick Hite, Rebecca Hudnall, Joel Jones, Missel Leddington, Kerry Moran, Daria Okugawa, Boomie Pedersen, Mollie Remilard, Ryan Wender, John Lawson, Steven Williams, Bill Williamson

Conference Staff, 2007:
Peter Coy – Co-Artistic Director, Hamner Theater
Boomie Pedersen – Co-Artistic Director, Hamner Theater
Robert Graham Small – Artistic Director, Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat
Guinn Baker, Production Manager
Betty Hales, Company Manager
Technical Director, J. Taylor

The Earl Hamner Playwrights Conference is a three-week residential workshop for eight – ten playwrights. It is a venue for them to work on and experiment with new scripts in a company of experienced actors and directors. We give the playwrights time and space to work on their own visions. The directors, dramaturgs, actors, and technicians will be there to help the playwrights make their vision into as much of a reality as a staged reading can give.

The playwrights are chosen based on unproduced scripts or ideas for plays submitted to us, as well as for their professionalism and commitment to their craft.

During the residency, the playwrights will continually rewrite and experiment with their scripts both in and out of rehearsals. Along with informal discussions and meetings with directors and dramaturgs, the playwrights will participate in a seven-stage process.

1) They will read their plays aloud to the assembled group of playwrights, directors, and dramaturgs on the first three days.

2) They will participate in the opening workshop exercises.

3) They will workshop their plays with the actors of the company and their director and dramaturg.

4) They will meet daily with their director and dramaturg to talk over the development of their plays and goals of their rewriting work.

5) They will be present at the staged reading of their play (offered free to the public) on the final days of the conference.

6) They will participate in the final question and observation session after the performance of their play.

7) They will have a final meeting with the director/dramaturgs to discuss in depth their work – both the process and the results.