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SFA's Playreading Festival Includes Work by Acclaimed Playwright
Sylvia Bierschenk - April 15, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - William M. Hoffman, whose 1985 Broadway play "As Is" won a Drama Desk Award, Obie Award and three Tony nominations, will be one of three playwrights whose works will be presented during Stephen F. Austin State University's 2008 Festival of New American Plays Tuesday, April 22, through Saturday, April 26, in the Downstage Theater of the Griffith Fine Arts Building.
Hoffman and the other two playwrights will use the SFA students'
rehearsed readings of their plays to see how the scripts translate to a live performance, explained Scott Shattuck, director of the SFA School of Theatre and of Hoffman's play.
Hoffman's "Cornbury: the Queen's Governor," which he co-wrote with Anthony Holland, is based on the life of Edward Hyde, the English governor of New York and New Jersey from 1661 to 1723. Hyde, best known by his title, Lord Cornbury, often preferred to dress in women's clothing, explaining that this helped him better represent the Queen.
The play will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, and Saturday, April 26.
"We are honored to be working with such a notable playwright as Bill Hoffman," said Shattuck. "'As Is' was one of the defining cultural events of its era, as "New York Magazine" recently noted, and Bill is a key figure in American performing arts in the past 40 years. He is also an influential editor, television host, educator opera librettist and an Emmy nominee."
The other two plays included in the festival are Richard Strahle's "This Day Forward," directed by Shattuck, and Staci Swedeen's "Take Five: Five Short Plays," directed by Kyle Kennedy, SFA assistant professor of theatre.
Strahle's play is a funny and moving saga that follows a family through five generations, said Shattuck. It will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, and Friday, April 25.
Swedeen's five short plays provide snapshots of American life, from the poignant to the comic, according to Kennedy. It will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 26.
The festival is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and the School of Theatre and is sponsored in part by Tipton Ford-Lincoln-Mercury of Nacogdoches. The Griffith Fine Arts Building is located at 2222 Alumni Dr. on the SFA campus.
Due to adult language and themes, the plays are recommended for mature audiences only.
For tickets or more information, please call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.