WINNER OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY THEATRE (ACCT) NEWPLAYFEST
The Boatwright Presented By Grand Rapid Civic Theatre September 12- 28, 2014 Drama: Written by Bo Wilson
ABOUT ACCT AND THE INAUGURAL AACT NEWPLAYFEST: The American Association of Community Theatre (AACT) is honored Grand Rapids Civic Theatre is a Producing Theatre in the inaugural AACT NewPlayFest. With this festival, AACT is addressing the critical need for new, high-quality plays for community theatre audiences around the globe. Six theatres across the country were selected to produce the six winning scripts that were selected out of more than 200 submitted scripts.
Being selected as a winner of any playwriting contest is an accomplishment, but a few things set AACTNewPlayFest above other playwriting competitions. One aspect that makes the AACT playwriting competition unique is the guarantee that an established theatre will produce each play. Other competitions will offer a staged reading of the winning play, but that pales in comparison to having the play produced in full array for a live audience. Typically, new playwrights must work to find a theatre company willing to take a chance on a new, unpublished work.
Another facet that sets AACTNewPlayFest apart is the exciting news that Dramatic Publishing has agreed to print an anthology of the winning plays. They will also include the plays in their catalog and license the performance rights. Dramatic Publishing is one of the major licensers of plays and musicals in the United States and beyond. If a playwright is fortunate enough to find a theatre to produce their play, it does not guarantee publication, and the process of getting one’s play published can take years.
AACT provides networking, resources, and support for over 7,000 community theatres in the United States and its territories, as well as theatre companies with the U.S. Armed Services overseas.
The AACT NewPlayFest world premiere of The Boatwright is made possible in part by a grant from the Jack K. Ayre Theatre Fund.
ABOUT PLAYWRIGHT BO WILSON: BO WILSON (playwright) makes his home in Richmond, Virginia, where he works as a professional playwright. He has won a variety of national awards and fellowships from theatre companies and universities all over the country.
Among those plays which have received professional productions in various cities across the country are War Story, Manly Men, A Wireless Christmas, Boy-Girl-Boy-Girl, Mister Dickens’ Carol and Listen Close. Plays commissioned for young audiences include Arthur and Merlin, The George Washington Carver Story and The Emperor’s Nightingale. His short play “Outside the Box” was chosen winner of the 2005 Samuel French Short Play Festival and was published by French the following year.
Bo is also regularly commissioned by science and fine arts museums to create site-specific performance pieces, on subjects ranging from Patrick Henry to Black Holes. (His personal favorite is an Abbott-and-Costello-style piece in which Bud tries to explain the number Pi to Lou.) He has also written several dozen award-winning training films for private industry and the United States government including DuPont, the Department of Veteran Affairs, the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
A graduate of Virginia Tech and of the National Theatre Institute, Bo is also a professional voice talent, with several hundred radio and television commercials to his credit.
Bo is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and of The Dramatists Guild.
ABOUT THE BOATWRIGHT: Ben Calloway can’t seem to get his bearings in his own home anymore. Fifty-seven years old, recently widowed, childless, and retired from the Kansas Highway Patrol, he’s adrift… and even though he’s never seen the ocean, he decides he should build a boat and sail across the Atlantic, single-handed.
He doesn’t particularly want any part of his neighbor Jaime Watson’s problems. Jaime’s been suspended from film school and his father’s about lost patience with trying to fix the troubled young man. But when Ben decides to let Jaime make a movie about his boat-building project, the two men — generations apart and lonely in very different ways — force one another to confront the isolation in their own lives.
Whether Ben is crazy or courageous; whether Jaime is ill or merely lost; whether any of us can ever help one another find home– in seeking answers to these questions, Jaime and Ben also seek truths about themselves. When you think you’re on your own in uncharted waters, encountering another soul might be scary, it might be a relief, and it might be painful… but you know for sure you’re not alone anymore.
CAST LIST: THE BOATWRIGHT
Jaime Watson Played by David J Cobb *
Ben Calloway played by Patrick A. Hendren
*-First production at Civic Theatre
The Grand Rapids Civic Theatre expresses their thanks to the following sponsors and partners:
Season Sponsor: The Porter Foundation and Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs
Production Sponsors: Centennial Securities Company Inc. and
Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services.
Artistic Sponsor: Stellafly
Special Thanks to AACT and the Jack K. Ayre Theatre Fund
Ticket Prices $16-$28
See events calendar for specific days and times: http://grct.org/eventschedule.html
For information on the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre or to purchase tickets, call 616-222-6650 or visit www.GRCT.org
This season is a perfect blend of theatre classics and new favorites. The Civic is proud to kick things off in September with the World Debut of an original work: The Boatwright. Mary Poppins takes the stage just in time for the Holidays. January brings the mystery, The Mousetrap to life, followed by the Rogers and Hammerstein masterpiece, South Pacific. Children will adore Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, NO Good, Very Bad Day in April. Making a Civic debut in June, Avenue Q, brings puppets to life and the season closes with Footloose and The Little Princess.
About Grand Rapids Civic Theatre:
The Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s mission: We are committed to enhance the cultural life of West Michigan by creating opportunities for people to enjoy live theatre performances using community artists, and to provide access to a comprehensive theatre arts education program for all ages. www.grct.org
