SCRIPTEASE is StageWest’s monthly, FREE, play reading. Join us as we explore new and experimental scripts.
NO DECEMBER SCRIPTEASE
JANUARY IOWA HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH ASSOCIATION (IHSSA) LARGE GROUP SHOWCASE, FEATURING VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
DATE Tuesday, Jan. 31, last Tuesday of the month.
TIME 7 p.m.
COST Free
LOCATION First Unitarian Church, 1800 Bell Ave.
Join us in January as we showcase the talents of high school students in Iowa. Each year, the IHSSA Large Group contest holds District, State, and All-State competitions involving over 24,000 high school students from 347 high schools across the state in January and February. While the IHSSA is also responsible for Debate and Individual competitions, the Large Group categories are the ones most involved with theatre.
Categories in the IHSSA Large Group category include: One-Act Plays, Readers Theatre, Ensemble Acting, Choral Reading, Group Mime, Solo Mime, Television Newscasting, and Group Improvisation. The creativity, talent, and hours of preparation involved with these performances will certainly entertain you. It will also make you feel great about the future of theatre and the performing arts in our state.
Valley High School has frequently won, and is the 2011 winner of the E. Wayne Cooley Sweepstakes Award recognizing the school with the most groups being invited to perform at the All-State Festival, held every year at Iowa State University.
FEBRUARY My Name is Asher Lev by Aaron Posner, adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok
DATE Tuesday, Feb. 28, last Tuesday of the month.
TIME 7 p.m.
COST Free
LOCATION First Unitarian Church, 1800 Bell Ave.
MY NAME IS ASHER LEV follows the journey of a young Jewish painter torn between his Hassidic upbringing and his desperate need to fulfill his artistic promise. When his artistic genius threatens to destroy his relationship with his parents and community, young Asher realizes he must make a difficult choice between art and faith. This stirring adaptation of a modern classic presents a heartbreaking and triumphant vision of what it means to be an artist.
“This adaptation has a knack for lifting nearly wholesale the terse, telling dramatic exchanges in the book that efficiently drive the conflict forward.”—Washington Post
“A profound declaration of the power of storytelling on a stage.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“Thought-provoking, humorous and deeply insightful.” —Talkin’ Broadway.
Aaron Posner is the Artistic Director of Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey and a founder and former Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company. He is a playwright and director who has directed at major regional theatres across the country. His produced adaptations include Who Am I This Time? by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., “What Ho, Jeeves” by P.G. Wodehouse, The Brothers K. by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Echoes of the Jazz Age by authors from the ‘20s, Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, Third & Indiana by Steve Lopez, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (with Scott Greer, Tony Lawton and Michael Hollinger). His adaptation, with Chaim Potok, of The Chosen won the 1999 Barrymore Award for Best New Play in Philadelphia and has now been produced by more than 40 professional theatres. His most recent adaptations include a musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage (with James Sugg), Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey (Portland Center Stage, spring 2008), andMy Name is Asher Lev. He has won Barrymore Awards and Helen Hayes Awards for both playwrighting and directing, and is an Eisenhower Fellow.
Get Involved
Interested in directing, performing in or getting involved in a Scriptease reading? Contact Scriptease Director Ron Gilbert via email
