New Voices Original Short Play Festival Lineup Announced

The Greenbrier Valley Theatre is presenting their second annual New Voices Original Short Play Festival later this month.

The plays in the festival include "Embers" by Jeffrey C. Kanode (Lewisburg, WV), "The Unopened Valentine" by Dwayne Yancey (Fincastle, VA), "Roses" by John J. Carosella (Jeanette, PA), "...and Tigers and Bears" by Eric Fritzius (Princeton, WV), and "A Greek Fire Drill" by Christian Giggenbach (Lewisburg, WV).

This years New Voices Cast includes (in alphabetical order) Pamela Barry, Ellen Broudy, Adam Criddle, Larry Davis, Paul Detch, Meredith Donnelly, Mary Leb Foster, Eric Graves, Kelly Kemp, Brian Miluk, George Piasecki, Brennan Smith, and Derek Teaney. Directors include Kurtis Donnelly, Michael Sharp and John Holt.

Shows are January 21-23 and January 28-30 at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre in down town Lewisburg.

STO Fest Begins this Week

In conjunction with Market Fest 2009, the Independent Theatre Collective opens StoFest: A New One-Act Play Festival this weekend. The festival runs Thursday, September 17 through Saturday, September 19 at 8pm and Sunday, September 20 at 3pm and features original plays from WV playwrights. The festival's namesake, Tom Stobart, will also be represented each evening with a staging from his repertoire. Tickets will be available at the door for $10 or festival passes can be purchased online (itc.ticketleap.com) for $25.

Wheeling-native writers include Ned Gallaway ("Painting Face"), Butch Maxwell ("Fine"), Jeremy F Richter ("L3" & "Evolving Elliot") and Ron Scott, Jr. ("Opposite But Equal"). Other writers' resumes read like a who's who of theatre artists from Tennessee Williams Award-winner, Jeffrey Scott Elwell to WV Writers podcast creator, Eric Fritzius.

"It is a thrill to be presenting four solid days of all-original, all-WV theatre," says ITC Managing Director, Jeremy Richter. "We have fifteen plays written by ten different writers featuring a cast of twenty. To have this large of a collaborative team in our very first year of StoFest is just incredible."

One play, however, will break the "all-WV" mold. Saturday evening's "Postcards From a Dead Dog" by Pittsburgh playwright, F.J. Hartland will receive a special staged reading. Hartland's script has been highly touted, even being named the Best Play at Pittsburgh's New Works Festival. The reading will feature Arlene Merryman and Richter as a mother/son duo who find it easier to communicate through postcards "sent" from the dead family dog, Rusty.

Performances will be held at Historic Second Presbyterian, 2001 Market Street in Wheeling and doors will open an hour prior to curtain. For further information including online ticket sales and each night's line-up please visit itcgreenroom.org.

StoFest Play Festival in Wheeling

The Independent Theatre Collective's StoFest Play Festival will take place in Wheeling, September 17 – 20. The festival is named after Wheeling playwright T.S. Stobart, whose plays were celebrated this past April with the first version of StoFest. Due to the response this second festival is being produced, featuring not only Stobart’s plays but plays from writers throughout WV and the surrounding region (including one by El Prez Emeritus Eric Fritzius).

The Festival will take place at the Independent Theatre Collective stage located on Historic Second Presbyterian / 2001 Market Street / Wheeling, WV 26003. "...to a Flame" will run on September 20.

The schedule for the festival is as follows…

Thursday, September 17th 2009:

I Endorse This Message - by Jonathon Joy (Huntington, WV)
Opposite but Equal - by Ron Scott, Jr (Wheeling, WV)
Dinnertime - by Dr. Jeffrey Scott Elwell (formerly Huntington, WV)
Painting Faces - by Ned Gallaway (formerly Wheeling, WV)
Next to Nothing - by T. S. Stobart

Friday, September 18th 2009:

Fine - Butch Maxwell (Wheeling, WV)
L3 - by Jeremy Richter (Wheeling, WV)
Spirals - by Dr. Jeffrey Scott Elwell (formerly Huntington, WV)
Lucy Dreaming - by Stacey Lane (formerly St Albans, WV)
Simple Filing - by T.S. Stobart

Saturday, September 19th 2009:

Postcards from a Dead Dog - by F.J. Hartland (Pittsburgh, PA)
Oh, Rob - by T. S. Stobart

Sunday, September 20th 2009:

the War on Halloween - by Jonathon Joy (Huntington, WV)
Evolving Elliot - Jeremy Richter (Wheeling, WV)
Alien to Antiquity by Stacey Lane (formerly St Albans, WV)
...to a Flame - by Eric Fritzius (Princeton, WV)
Gaffer Gone - by T. S. Stobart

* Nightly order & titles subject to change *