NEW WORK IS WHERE IT’S AT!

JAW: A Playwrights Festival turns 10! And to celebrate we are pulling out all the stops. For two crazy weeks in July, from July 8-20, JAW: A Playwrights Festival takes over the Armory – and its environs. We will begin on the 8^th with readings of hot-off-the press new scripts by Oregon’s own:

Cloud Bangers

by Matthew B. Zrebski

July 8

All the clouds are cumulonimbus in this heady mix of meteorology, migraines and steamy romance. Only an air-clearing storm will reveal who’s zoomin’ whom.

Starvation Heights

by Ginny Foster

July 9

On a lake near Seattle a century ago, lady doctor Linda Hazzard opens a sanitarium with some “advanced” ideas about treatment. When her clients start leaving her care feet first, a mysterious figure known only as Nanny arrives, determined to save two particular patients.

Willow Jade

by Hunt Holman

July 10

Nowheresville, Washington state. Four aging chums attempt to stave off incipient middle age by reviving their high school rock band. That is, if they can keep from killing each other during a disastrous game of D&D – in costume.

And of course there’s more. Our You Are There (site-specific) presentations will spill into the streets. The popular Theater Fair will take on a fresh twist. Promising Playwrights will offer new works created by local high school students especially for the Festival. Three new Community Artists Labs allow you some one on one time with featured guest artists to pick their brains and practice your craft. And our anniversary kick-off event will draw on playwrights from the full span of JAW’s ten fabulous years to create a Commission!Commission! event open to all for the first time. So stop by on July 11 to see familiar faces and help us kick off the public weekend.

PLUS IT’S ALL FREE!

We are proud to announce we’ve expanded the Festival’s centerpiece readings on the main stage of the Gerding Theater this year another workshop -- a one woman musical by Portland’s very own Storm Large. JAW received a record number of submissions this year, and although this was not our intention, the festival will have all female playwrights. As a young female artist working in the theater community it is inspiring to see so many accomplished women.

Paradise Street
by Constance Congdon
Jane arrives at her new university post ready to set academic feminism on its head. But when her mind goes wandering, everyone has to improvise, which brings her doddering mother out of semi-senility and inspires an uneducated drifter to impersonate Jane on the lecture circuit. Along the way they all discover that contrary to popular belief, parallel lines do sometimes meet.

Enchantment
by Carson Kreizer

Meet Temple Grandin, engineer and high-functioning autistic, and Bruno Bettelheim, whose book The Uses of Enchantment is notorious for its penetrating analyses of fairy tales. They lived and live on, but this is no mere documentary; as their lives interweave to create a startling, disturbing and effecting dramatic narrative, you may never think of life and its consequences quite the same way again.

Crazy Enough

by Storm Large

Drawn from Storm’s life and music, this musical one-woman show is bracingly frank and revealing in a way that only our take-no-prisoners chanteuse can deliver. Her story promises to be as rock and roll as the diva herself.

Pony
by Sally Oswald
You’ve seen these people on the streets and wondered who they were. Now meet them face to face, before they shape-shift. Gender lines merge, twist and double back in this tale of six souls in search of identify that starts where Woyzeck left off.

A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits
by Colin Denby Swanson
Coming up with names is a problem for Mare when she starts giving birth to an endless stream of bunnies. But that’s only the start of her problems, as a whole family of guilty consciences comes to the fore. Who can she turn to? Enter The Stork: raconteur, impresario and OB-GYN, all rolled into one.

JAW is truly my favorite time of year and the 2008 outing is really a must-see, as the art and creation will be exploding out the building. I hope to see you all there!