Winner of the 2010 AVT New American West Play Competition. Produced by arrangement with Eric M. Martin, Quartz Hill, CA.

AVT is pleased to bring to the stage the premiere of this new, character-driven drama by local playwright Eric M. Martin.  Set in the modern day, this play explores the hunger for something new that often drives us to break for greener pastures… only to discover that, sometimes, the emptiness inside from which we run cannot be filled so easily. Rather, it pursues us despite all superficial remedies — and instead of looking forward in the way we hoped, life sometimes leaves us to wonder might have been.

STARRING: Kevin J. Hogan, Melissa Martin, Will Nicolai, Stevelon Mims, and Juan Juarez.

AUG 19-28, 2011
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm at the Antelope Valley Winery (20th W at Avenue M in Lancaster).

General seating, $9.
Students, $6 cash only at the door.

Fri, Aug 19 is a preview performance. All tickets are $5, and Patrons of AVT get in free! Join us afterward at Sagebrush Cafe (50th W at Avenue L-14 in Quartz Hill) for a reception with cast, crew, and the playwright.

This play contains strong language. We do not recommend it for young children.

Select Performance

Fri, Aug 19, 8pm – [Preview] $5.00 Sat, Aug 20, 8pm – [General] $9.00 Sun, Aug 21, 4pm – [General] $9.00 Fri, Aug 26, 8pm – [General] $9.00 Sat, Aug 27, 8pm – [General] $9.00 Sun, Aug 28, 4pm – [General] $9.00

Contact Email

Jessie Ann Hassan, Director
Juliana Katzman, Stage Manager
Kevin J. Hogan, Technical Director
Kara McCollum, Artistic Director
Nalin A. Ratnayake, Producer

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NEW: Listen to the Public Service Announcement now playing on 103.9 BobFM, courtesy of Adelman Broadcasting.

Auditions will be TUESDAY, MAY 24TH from 6pm to 8pm at AVT’s garage blackbox studio. Please arrive as close to 6pm as possible. A prepared monologue is not necessary, though you may prepare one if you’d like. All roles for all AVT productions are cast by open audition.

For any further questions, please contact the director, Jessie Hassan, by emailing jessie@avthespians.org.

HUNGER FOR PARADISE
by Eric M. Martin

Producer Nalin A. Ratnayake
Director Jessie Hassan

Winner of the 2010 AVT New American West Play Competition
Produced by arrangement with Eric M. Martin, Quartz Hill, CA.

AVT is pleased to bring to the stage the premiere of this new, character-driven drama by local playwright Eric M. Martin. The history of the American West is replete with nostalgia and stories of the migration westward to a promised land of opportunity in California, Oregon, and the bounty of the western frontier. Many of these settlers built new lives and made transformative changes to themselves, our society, and to the land itself. But what about those for whom the promise failed to deliver? Set in the modern day, this play explores the hunger for something new that often drives us to break for greener pastures… only to discover that, sometimes, the emptiness inside from which we run cannot be filled so easily. Rather, it pursues us despite all superficial remedies — and instead of looking forward in the way we hoped, life sometimes leaves us to wonder might have been.

Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm.

Jose: 30, male, hispanic. Lower-middle class, college drop-out who was persuing a major in criminal justice. Often very political and has large dreams but very little ambition. Just recently had an incident with his cousin, stabbed him and fled the scene. He later hears from another cousin that he recovered. Loyalty is the center of his morals. To Jose, there is only the present moment and this is fun for him.

Allison: 22, female college graduate. Moved from the midwest and quickly found work. She is self-reliant but still looking for herself. Her father died when she was young, leaving Allison and her mother alone in the house. There was no second marriage or siblings. She is suprised to find herself in a relationship with Tuba and doesn’t think it will last although she is intrigued by him.

William: Tuba’s older brother. Found himself as a college professor after spending many years in school, undecisive of what he wanted to do. An underachiever who used to get in a lot of trouble as a young man. He has relationship problems from never being able to accept responsibility for anything.

Robert: 35, male from Oklahoma. Deaf in one ear. Has a son in Oklahoma that he hasn’t seen in about 7 years. His step-mother tricked him into moving to california by saying his father was sick and Robert never went back. The mother of his son refuses to accept Robert as the father even though there are no alternatives. As a child he was passed around by family members and when he was 18 tried to enlist but was denied because of his ear. Robert wants to lead a simple life and settle down with someone like Allison. He isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack but not stupid.

Tuba: 24, male from Iowa. Having no luck after college, he moved west under the suggestion of William. As kids, William was the irresponsible “bad child” and Tuba was the behaved “good kid.” After Tuba moved west and met his new friends, the roles reversed. He writes poetry and reads poetry novels. The only apparent artistic outlet that Tuba has are his webcasts. He makes these video monologues, in part, as a way to bring together his life with the life of the work he consumes.

Noboyuki: Late Twenties, Male who moved from Japan to US as a student. He studied long enough to recieve a bachelor’s but doesn’t produce any degree. He is kicked out of the appartment near the college that he no longer attends and is taken in by Jose. Noboyuki is arrested and deported under the hand of his ex-landlord. Noboyuki is belligerent, humorous, and just a bit dim.

This season, we will be bringing to the stage our first production written by a local playwright, HUNGER FOR PARADISE. Check out our 2011 Season for more information.

If you are a local playwright looking to write for the stage, please join us Saturday, February 26th at 1pm at Sagebrush Cafe in Quartz Hill.  AVT will hold a Writer’s Briefing to describe the nature of our company and to discuss upcoming events with local writers.  We will also have our directors available for Q&A on what we are looking for and why.

You can find out more information about how we work with playwrights on our Playwrights page.

Please join us from 10am to 12:30pm in the AVT blackbox theatre for staged readings of three scenes and short plays from local writers.  Each staged reading will be followed by commentary and feedback from our directors, techies, and actors.  Fellow writers and the general public are welcome to join in the discussion.

Our playwrights expos are FREE and open to the public.  Our blackbox is built into the garage of a private residence near 65th W. and L-8 in Quartz Hill. Please send us an email at productions@avthespians.org to receive the address as well as parking information.

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180 DEGREES
by Eric Martin
Racial and ideological tensions simmer beneath the surface in this short play that is at once subtle and jarring.

UNCOMFORTABLE SEX
by Lorin Howard
A character portrait of two seniors starting over provides both endearing humor and contemplation on our later years.

MAGIC BOX, EVIL EYE
by Jordan Young
The sometimes thorny relationship between native peoples and the photographers who portray them is explored though the characters of an old Navajo man and a young photojournalist.

AVT is looking for short works by local playwrights to be considered for limited workshop production to be held in the AVT Blackbox on July 24. Each scene or short selected for this Expo will be given a reading and limited staging by actors and AVT’s artistic director (all who will have had advance reading of the scripts to develop basic characters) followed by discussion to receive feedback from actors, techies, directors, fellow writers, audience members, and AVT’s dramaturg.

Submissions should have no more than 4 characters and be no more than 20 minutes long (typically 1 page of pure dialogue in standard type is about 1 minute of stage time).

Submissions are due to the dramaturg (anna@avthespians.org) no later than June 26th for consideration.  Please see our Playwrights Page for more information on our process for accepting original work for full production.

Monthly PODCAST sent to our Facebook Fan Page and the Patron/Fan Email List.

In this issue:

• Almond Blossom Festival went great! There is a previous podcast on the blog with clips from the two-day event. Thanks to the whole production team for a fantastic job at our first festival.
• Auditions for “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” were March 20th. Congratulations to Courtney Marietta, Derric Neal, and Joe Gruca. There will be six performances of BaRD, June 4-6 and 11-13 (first two weekends in March).
• Local musicians night coming up April 24th at 8pm. We are hosting award-winning local artists in our garage theatre space for a unique fundraiser event. Check out www.avthespians.org/appearinglive for details and to reserve tickets.
• Updates for playwrights – $300 bounty continues, three playwrights are wrighting furiously as we speak. AVT is supporting ScriptFrenzy in the month of April! Next playwrights expo sometime in late July / early August. AVT willing to talk about paying for original work at any time.
• Changes to the Operational Plan. Positions of Dramaturg and Associate Director created. Welcome Anna Delrosario to the Strategic Team as she transitions to the role of Dramaturg.
• We have completed and submitted our first grant application. More on the way. Thanks to the QHCC for their support.
• We depend on your support – make a tax-deductible donation easily by credit card on our website today.

Direct link to this issue:

http://www.avthespians.org/productions/2010/04/podcast-9-april-update/

That’s all for this month… Thanks for your support.

So what is ScriptFrenzy?  The basic concept is that you write 100 pages of scripted material in 30 days.  Simple right?  For the month of April, join those of us who are theatre geeks, writing nerds, have no life, or are just plain insane, and live out your lifelong dream (or passing fancy) of being a playwright.  It’s exciting, glamorous, loads of fun, highly masochistic, and pays absolutely nothing.  Just like being a real writer.

Similar to NaNoWriMo, the theory is that the major hurdle in writing is just getting something out there, no matter how trite or inane.  There will be time for editing later.  For now, get that story and those killer (or God-awful) lines down, and give yourself a starting point for later refinement.

And need we remind you that AVT is constantly on the lookout for quality original work?  One of our goals is to be able to produce at least one full-length play by a local playwright every single year.  We have annual calls-for-scripts on specific themes, host irregular playwrights expos, and we also accept work on any subject at any time for production consideration.  Oh yeah, and we pay.  Like, money.  Yeah, I know.  Intrigued? Check out our Playwrights Page for more info.

And if you’re looking for the perfect place to find your muse and mingle with other over-caffeinated nerds, then why not head over to Sagebrush Cafe in Quartz Hill?  Our one-and-only business patron boasts fine coffee, an arsty atmosphere, and free WiFi for all your wrighting needs.

This April, stop watching.  Start writing.  Register now at ScriptFrenzy.org.