SOUND SCRIPTS Press Release

SOUNd FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SCRIPtS

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REC ROOM ARTS ANNOUNCES THE WRITERS GROUP ‘SOUND SCRIPTS PROJECT’ A 9-PART AUDIO SERIES OF WORKS-IN-PROGRESS FROM TEXAS WRITERS 9 New Plays Developed Over the Course of 6 Months by the Rec Room Writers Group Provides an Inside Look into New-Play Development Plays will be Available for On-Demand Listening as Podcasts and Interactive Digital Portfolios Includes a Virtual Live Talk-Back with Wine Pairings Conceived in Partnership with El Meson in Rice Village (Houston, TX) - (August 12, 2020) - Rec Room Arts (Matt Hune, Artistic Director; Sophia Watt Associate Artistic Director) announced today the Sound Scripts Project, a 9-part series of audio-plays written by the inaugural class of the Rec Room Writers Group. In an innovative approach to embracing the challenges presented to live theatre, Rec Room continues to provide work for artists while nurturing new plays. Each play has been conceived over the course of six months through the support of workshops at Rec Room. The audio-plays will include playwright and director interviews, as well as insight into the early process of new play development.

The audio-plays and interviews of the Sound Scripts Project will be released individually on Thursdays beginning October 22 and ending on February 18. Each play will be available on-demand over the course of a four-day period.

Access to the work will be available as interactive digital portfolios and podcasts with a suggested donation of $10 or more.

“The silver-lining is that we are now able to support these playwrights in more creatively robust ways than previously planned,” said Artistic Director Matt Hune. “This year we are focusing on growth within our organization as well as cultivating a stronger presence for theatre in America. I’m exceptionally proud of the work developed and the people involved in this project. Theatre across the country is being forced to re-evaluate its identity. I’m excited to be able to energize new theatre and audiences in creative ways. Perhaps this is the precipice of a cultural and artistic revolution.”

In addition to the Sound Scripts, Rec Room is partnering with El Meson’s resident Sommelier, Jessica Garcia, to develop wine pairings that will accompany a live virtual talk-back and wine tasting on October 22 at 7:30. Playwrights, Directors, and Sommelier will lead lively discussions of wine, plays, and whatever else might arise. Bottles will be available for purchase through El Meson in the Rice Village prior to the talk-back.

The inaugural class of Rec Room Writers includes: Fi Connors, Christian Gill, Comfort Ifeoma Katchy, Elizabeth A. M. Keel, Eric Moore, ShaWanna Renee Rivon, Jelisa Jay Robinson, Brendan Bourque-Sheil, and Nicole Zimmerer.

Leslie Swackhammer, Lily M. Wolff, Mekeva McNeil, Rachel Dickson, and Ismael Lara, Jr. have signed on to direct and workshop the plays. A group of 40 actors are involved in the project including a collection of Rec Room mainstays such as Susan Koozin (Exit Strategy), Brandon Morgan (The Royale; Pass Over), and Greg Dean (Exit Strategy; Woyzeck), as well as newcomers Alice Gatling (Ensemble Theatre; Alley Theatre), Dylan Godwin (Alley Theatre), and Chris Hutchison (Alley Theatre).

SOUNd SCRIPtS The Rec Room Writers Group is an ongoing initiative that supports local playwrights by nurturing the development of new plays. The program serves as an artistic home for Texas playwrights while fostering community and camaraderie amongst writers. “Now more than ever, in a moment of extraordinary cultural and social reckoning, an investment in new work is essential,” explains Associate Artistic Director Sophia Watt. “These writers are contributing a vital layer in the foundation for a new American theater.”

Writers are selected yearly and take part in frequent workshops throughout the first year of residency. In subsequent years, the writers have continued access to advocacy and resources for the creation of new work in Houston. “Theatre has a habit of working with artists for short periods of time and dropping them after the end of a production, but I don’t think that is the best way to foster risky and inventive new work,” says Matt Hune. “It’s important to me that we welcome these artists as family and keep them as family for as long as they want to stay.”

The audio producer for Sound Scripts is Gage Baker, sound designer is Tommy Truelsen, stage managers are Allison Viera and Meagan Smallwood.

PLAYS AND DATES: SUNRISE COVEN

By BRENDAN BOURQUE-SHEIL October 22 - 26 Two things separate Buckstop, Texas from every other soon-to-be-ghost-town in rural America: its bizarre history with cults, and a blind nurse named Hallie. When Hallie loses her nursing license, she forges a new way to reach her patients, by teaming up with an Oxy-slinging veteran and a local witch. But small towns and witchcraft never mix well, and soon, the worlds of Medicine and Magic collide in a literal witch hunt. Sunrise Coven is part comedy, part crime story, and part investigation into what it means to be a healer.

YOU CAN TELL A TREE BY ITS FRUIT

By COMFORT IFEOMA KATCHY November 5 - 9 Outside Old Southern Baptist Church, where the ground is fertile and the children are listening A man was lynched yesterday And even still the free ones play They weren’t taught to sing ‘n mourn Unless it’s their family’s blood being torn Will the kids look to do what’s right Or continue walking with no sight What can anybody say When it’s always been this way.

One day we’ll know for sure When the Truth is given pure With all eyes on the Most High ‘Glory’ they will sing For a new day, He will surely bring.

SOUNd SCRIPtS BREAK

By ELIZABETH A. M. KEEL November 19 - 23 It is the Friday before Spring Break at Margaret Cavendish High School, and Principal Bough and her teachers would very much like for the day to end. Unfortunately, the high school appears in Bough’s office in human form, begging for aid from her Guardian. Following an unwise affair in the moonlight with the meadow next door, dark fairies and their Queen have infiltrated the school. In this fantastic race to the bell, a handful of overwhelmed and exhausted educators are the last line of defense between their teenage charges and the feral wellspring of seasonal magic.

KHEEPER

By FI CONNORS December 3 - 7 Kay and Eileen are two nurses in their mid to late 50s, and best friends for the longest time. They are setting out on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, hoping to walk sweat free across Northern Spain in the boiling heat. They are hiking for companionship and laughter, and access to Spirituality on this break from Roman Catholic Ireland. But of course with all that is Spirit, movement comes in many ways, some invoked. Some warranted.

TUZ AND SOLY

By ERIC MOORE December 17 - 21 Russia is tough. Especially when you’re stuck in a town thousands of miles from Moscow, the girl you love won’t accept a single one of your marriage proposals, and at night the temperature gets so low your balls recede into your throat. It could drive any man mad. Perhaps that’s why Tuz and Soly can’t stand each other, even though they can’t seem to leave one another alone. Borrowing (or stealing) the characters Tuzenbach and Solyony from Chekhov’s Three Sisters, this play riffs on their fatal friendship to deconstruct the toxic behavior that tears them apart.

WE BOTH SUCK OUR TEETH

By JELISA JAY ROBINSON January 7 - 11 Igbo class is a safe space for Black students at Texas Harris University. When that class becomes the backdrop of a viral video of an intense argument between Faith, a Black American Senior and Uchenna, a Nigerian American graduate student, the divide between the African community and the Black American community on campus is pushed to the forefront. In order to alleviate her campus’ issues, Dean Thompson assigns Faith and Uchenna a mandatory project that will seek to connect the members of the Black community... if only they can put aside their differences long enough to create it. In this funny, ensemble-driven love story, We Both Suck Our Teeth explores the division and unity within the African diaspora.

CLIPPED WINGS

By CHRISTIAN GILL January 21 - 25 Robin Morrow has just been hired to work at the largest oil company in the US. She works as an assistant to Jennifer Henry, one of the top executives. They both fight against the pressures of working in a business that values reputation over people. What follows is manipulations, lies, double crosses and schemes. In the pursuit of making a name for herself, Robin learns how far she would need to go and how far gone Jennifer already is.

BLUE ROSES

By NICOLE ZIMMERER February 4 - 8 In this incisive response to the Tennessee Williams classic, Blue Roses glues together the pieces of Laura Wingfield’s

SOUNd SCRIPtS life, fifteen years later. Her mother is sick, her beau has proposed, and her brother Tom has shown up on her doorstep with dubious intentions and completely inaccurate memories. But when she receives an incredible job offer from an up-and-coming adman that could give her the future she’s always wanted, Laura is forced to confront the demons that linger from her past.

POWER TO THE QUEENDOM

By SHAWANNA RENEE RIVON February 18 - 22 When freedom and the power to determine the destiny of the community rest in the hands of four female members of The Black Panther Party...it’s the most powerful ride you’ll ever see. Power to the Queendom is an action-packed journey through the comedy, drama, and immediate need of a 1970s Houston community. Power to the Queendom follows four women and their love for their community, and its people—caught in a room with an HPD Officer held hostage. In this story, inspired by true Houston-American characters and events, these four women of the Houston chapter of The Black Panther Party (The People’s Party II) standoff in negotiations with the Houston Police Department in the hopes to bargain for the life of their leader (Carl Hampton) and for the future of their organization. A clever and driven journey of powerful women, caught in a terminal situation, standing for many of the same community values and societal challenges that would still be recognized today.

PLAYWRIGHT BIOS: FI CONNORS (she/her/hers) is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. She formerly worked as a film A.D. in southern Ireland before immigrating to the U.S. where she has spent time in Houston and Louisville. She also has spent twenty years in the healthcare industry, focusing on natural medicine and inspired healing. Her work typically explores mythology, Irish culture, and the power of humor in life. Fi lives with her wife in Montrose and is so grateful to Rec Room for this opportunity.

CHRISTIAN GILL (he/him/his) recently graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Playwriting and Dramaturgy. After college he worked as a Literary Intern during the Alley Theatre’s 2019-2020 Season.

Christian has been a member of the Dramatists Guild of America since 2018. In January Christian collaborated with Theatre 66 to produce the Neos Play Festival in the Alley Theatre’s Louisiana Room. He also assisted the Alley’s Director of New Work and Literary Manager with the Alley All New Festival. Shows Christian has worked on include Caucasian Chalk Circle, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Winter’s Tale, Enemies, Vietgone, Camp David, 1984, Winners, Space Bucket, Quixote Nuevo, Fully Committed and more. Christian is very proud to be a part of Rec Room Writers and couldn’t be more excited for the work everyone at Rec Room is creating.

COMFORT IFEOMA KATCHY (she/her/hers) is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Theatre with a concentration in Playwriting and Dramaturgy at the University of Houston. She is extremely excited to be a part of the Houston Theatre community. Comfort humbly thanks the Rec Room Writers for all of their consistent feedback, encouragement and support of this new work.

ELIZABETH A. M. KEEL (she/her/hers) is a native Houstonian playwright. Her work has been read or produced by Voxfest, Tokyo International Players, The Studio Theatre at Tierra Del Sol, Rec Room, Shattered Globe, Otherworld Theatre, Squeaky Bicycle, Fresh Produce’d (NYC), Growing Stage Children’s Theatre of New Jersey, Landing Theatre, Stages, Mildred’s Umbrella, METdance, Cone Man Running, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Flexible Grey, and 14 Pews, among others. She works as a teaching artist for Grackle & Grackle, Stages, and Writers in the Schools. Her play Override was selected as the second place winner for the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award in 2020. Upcoming projects may be found at elizabethamkeel.com.

SOUNd SCRIPtS ERIC MOORE (he/him/his) is a theatrical artist based in Houston, TX and an advocate for new work. His plays have received productions in Houston and around the country. His full-length play, The Debasers, had a workshop production at the University of Houston under the guidance of Theresa Rebeck and won the Edward Albee Playwriting Award. He’s had multiple plays selected as finalists for both regional and national awards through the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and Texas Educational Theatre Association. He’s developed new plays with Rec Room Arts, Landing Theatre Company, and PlayPenn. You can access his (presentable) work on his New Play Exchange profile. In addition to being a play reader for multiple festivals, he is the Resident Dramaturg for Rec Room Arts, where he helped to start the Rec Room Writers Group, and works as a Literary Consultant for Landing Theatre Company as well as MonologueBank.com. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Houston in 2019.

SHAWANNA RENEE RIVON (she/her/hers) is an award winning, and nationally renowned Playwright and Producer. With her first writing premiere in Los Angeles with Deal Breakers, the NAACP nominated production, co-produced with Lisa Nicole Bell, this creative journey began taking its flight. Her early writing experience was first nurtured in the urban play market with romantic comedies. ShaWanna’s success grew to more popularly featured productions such as Cheaper to Keep Her and Marriage Material, which starred Vivica Fox, Brian McKnight, and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins (of “TLC”), both of which toured nationally. As an Actor, ShaWanna starred as a series regular on cartoon shows such as Strawberry Shortcake (as Raspberry Torte), The Bratz (as Sasha), and The Care Bears (as Cheer Bear). Upon returning home to Houston ShaWanna elected to fulfill her tenacity for arts training, earning her BFA in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Houston, all while continuing to write and produce professionally in the local Houston market. As a developing creative, ShaWanna discovered her niche and artists mission: To create period-piece comedies, centered around the lives of Black women, and their obstacles, past and present. In this, she has begun the development of her 6-Play Cycle. The first of which, being Old Black and White Hollywood, about a 1950’s Black woman comic who strongly desires to become the first Black star on screen, all without the tropes of playing a maid. Old Black & White Hollywood was part of the University of Houston’s 2019-2020 season, was developed with Suzan Lori Parks and Theresa Rebeck, and won ShaWanna The Edward Albee Playwriting Award. The latest of productions in her 6-Play Cycle, Power to the Queendom, was developed with the Rec Room Writers. The script is loosely based on a true story in Houston’s past in 1970, about a group of female Black Panthers forced to protect their community amidst urgent racial and revolutionary events and circumstances. The third play installment into ShaWanna’s 6-Play Cycle, Miss Culture, 1983, is currently in development through her artists-residency with Rec Room Theatre.

JELISA JAY ROBINSON (she/her/hers) is a Black American playwright from Houston, Texas. Her plays include The Stories of Us, Fae and Paciencia, and Delivery. Her work has been developed and/or presented at Fade to Black (Houston), Teatrx (Houston), 14/48 Theatre Festival (Austin), Austin One Minute Play Festival (Austin), the Austin Latino New Play Festival, Teatro Vivo (Austin), Now Africa Festival (New York), The Black and Brown Theatre (Detroit), The Rec Room (Houston), the Echame Un Ojo Festival (commission), Fornes Playwriting Workshop (Chicago), The Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration (San Marcos), The Landing Local (Houston)and Vision Latino (Chicago). She is a finalist for the La Mansion Baldwin Writers Residency in France (2020), a finalist for the Seattle Public Theatre New Play Prize (2017), a writer in the Rec Room Writers Group and an alumni of the Fornes Playwriting Workshop where she worked under the tutelage of Migdalia Cruz. Jelisa has held residencies with Vision Latino Theatre Company (Chicago), the National Playwrights Retreat (Colorado) and Texas State’s Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration. She is a theatre educator and the co-founder of the Love Guru’s, a group dedicated to promoting self-love and artistic agency in the greater Houston area and beyond.

BRENDAN BOURQUE-SHEIL (he/him/his) plays include The Book of Maggie, Between Two Caves, and Uncharted.

He’s been produced by Stages Repertory Theatre, Death and Pretzels Theatre Company, and The Landing Theatre Company, where he serves as Playwright-in-Residence and Literary Associate. In his work with The Landing, Brendan

SOUNd SCRIPtS oversees developmental staged readings for Houston playwrights, and The Micro-Theatre Project, which commissions local playwrights to create site-specific plays, set in houses around the city. He frequently contributes stories to the monthly live show Grown-up Storytime and KPFT’s So What’s Your Story? When he’s not writing, he teaches for the Alley Theatre and Kinder High School of Performing and Visual Arts.

NICOLE ZIMMERER (she/her/hers) is a playwright and librettist with a deep-seated hatred of stairs. She has been a recipient of The Kennedy Center’s VSA Playwright Discovery Award and the Betty Z. Rose and Anne J. Exline Presidential Fellowship. She has had multiple productions in Houston, New York City, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC. She holds a BFA in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Houston and an MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University.

DIRECTOR BIOS: RACHEL DICKSON (she/her/hers) is excited to work with Rec Room for the first time (and until next time—hint hint)!

Rachel has functioned as a professional artist for over 20 years in the Houston Community. She has worked as an actor, director, playwright, dramaturg, educator, producer, technical staff and artistic consultant. While she calls The Ensemble Theatre home and currently serves there as an Artistic Associate, she has worked with various theatres throughout the Houston community, , including: The Alley Theatre, Main Street Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre, Landing Theatre Company, Interactive Theatre Company, Wordsmyth Theatre and Driven Theater Company where she is the founding Artistic Director. Rachel is the current president of Scriptwriters Houston and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

ISMAEL LARA, JR. (he/him/his) is a Latinx director, educator, organizer, and producer from Southeast Texas. He currently resides in Chicago and champions work that aids the fight against injustice, creating a bridge between underrepresented communities and the theatrical institution. Selected directing credits: Kicked! (Cleveland Play House), Lily Plants A Garden, The Thing I Hold (Hangar Theatre), And All the Dead Lie Down (Convergence-Continuum), Aunt Leaf (Cleveland Play House), The Elephant Man (French Creek). He’s developed plays with Cleveland Public Theatre at Entry Point, Playwrights Local, Creede Repertory Theatre and is excited to add Rec Room to that list. Recent assistant credits: The Leopard Play, or sad songs for lost boys (Steep Theatre, World Premiere), I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Steppenwolf, World Premiere), Guards at the Taj, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Junk, The Chinese Lady (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre), The Family Claxon (Cleveland Public Theatre, World Premiere). Ismael is a recipient of the 2019 Hangar Drama League Fellowship and an MFA candidate at Northwestern University.

MEKEVA MCNEIL (she/her/hers) is a theatre artist and educator. She is intrigued by creating work that explores the language, movement and beauty of what it means to traverse this sentient existence through space and time. We carry with us a social system (embodied cultural and personal experiences) which are challenged or altered when we intersect with others. I use theatre as a means to interrogate and elucidate what occurs in space and time when social systems intersect or collide. What is the outcome? What modes of survival do we implement? What are the external circumstances that shape the terrain? Born and raised in Houston, Mekeva began her studies in theatre at The High School for Performing and Visual Arts where she is now a theatre instructor. She went on to study theatre at the University of Houston and later moved to New York where she received her MFA in Directing from The Actor’s Studio Drama School at Pace University.

LESLIE SWACKHAMER (she/her/their) is a passionate advocate of new work, and is the Executive Director of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the oldest and largest international prize specifically recognizing female and femaleidentifying playwrights. She also co-founded the Women Playwright’s Festival in Seattle at A Contemporary Theatre and

SOUNd SCRIPtS Hedgebrook. She has held artistic leadership positions at The Cleveland Play House and ACT Theatre (Seattle) where she worked extensively on new play development, helming local playwriting initiatives as well as new works festivals.

Swackhamer has workshopped, directed or produced over 100 new works at theatre and opera companies across America. In Houston, she has worked on new plays by Jennifer Haley, Selina Fillinger and C. Denby Swanson for the Alley All New festival. In Houston, she directed Constellations at the Alley and 14 productions at Stages, most recently NSFW by Lucy Kirkwood. Her production of Marie Antoinette garnered the Houston Press Best Director Award. Favorite Houston productions include My Mañana Comes, Rabbit Hole, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, and Amy’s View.

Theatres where she has directed include South Coast Rep, Madison Rep, Seattle Rep, The Empty Space, Florida Studio Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare, The Cherry Lane, ACT Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, American Stage, Cleveland Public, Intiman Theatre, Brave New Works (Atlanta), and The Playwrights Center. Opera companies where she has directed include the Washington National Opera (Kennedy Center), San Francisco Opera, Opera pa Skaret (Sweden), Vancouver Opera, Opera Carolina, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Omaha, Madison Opera, Dayton Opera, and Opera in the Heights. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington School of Drama and is a member of the professional unions AGMA and SDC. www.leslieswackhamer.com LILY M. WOLFF (she/her/hers) is a British-American theatre director and new-play dramaturg currently based in Houston, Texas. Recent escapades include dramaturging a new Isaac Gómez play set in a Whataburger, traveling to London to direct in a festival of Italian new plays at Theatre503, and dramaturging a new play about Hurricane Ike by Galveston native Molly Beach Murphy for New York Stage & Film and New Georges. In the pre-COVID age, Lily was the Literary Manager at the Alley Theatre, co-producing the Alley All New Festival and running the new play development program, the Alley All New initiative, alongside Director of New Work Liz Frankel. She has developed work by Theresa Rebeck, C. Denby Swanson, Katie Bender, Vichet Chum, Arthur M. Jolly, Eleanor Burgess, Hilary Bettis, Claire Kiechel, Charles Fuller, Bess Wohl, Christina Anderson, Johnna Adams, and Gabriel Jason Dean, among others. Directing credits include: From White Plains (Thunderclap Productions), The Madres (NNPN Rolling World Premiere, Shrewd Productions), Cry it Out (Theatre En Bloc), A Bright Room Called Day (Southwestern University), The Effect (Capital T Theatre), Lungs (Austin Critics’ Table “Best Direction” award, Hyde Park Theatre), Fahrenheit 451 (Different Stages), As Yous Like It (Shrewd Productions), Gidion’s Knot (Capital T Theatre) and Stop Kiss (UT Austin). Lily is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

ABOUT REC ROOM ARTS:

Rec Room Arts is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to develop innovative performances by emerging and established artists in order to energize a new generation of audiences for the arts.

Rec Room Arts is interested in supporting artists who work to bend and break the rules of conventional performance.

Along with our theatrical season, Rec Room Arts supports the work of Artists in Residence by providing time, space, and resources to create and present new work.

Matt Hune is Artistic Director/Co-founder; Stefan Azizi is Managing Director; Sophia Watt is Associate Artistic Director; Tasha Gorel is Director of Communications. The Board of Directors includes Evan Wildstein (President), Colin Brokaw, Abby Koenig, and Stephanie Wittels Wachs (Co-founder).

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