Hurry!
Most shows are already SOLD OUT! Limited seats
available for added 6PM Sunday show!
Reservations are highly recommended! Click "Buy
Tickets" for details!
2009
Winners Announced!!
------------
Having
received 418 scripts from 37 states and
eight countries on our 2009 theme
That
One Thing
FUSION
Theatre Company is excited to announce
the winners in this year's competition!!!
Jury Prize
"Gun Metal Blue Bar" by K. Frithjof
Peterson,
Saginaw, MI
"Nothing" by Philip Dawkins, Chicago,
IL
"Laying Off" by James McLindon,
Northampton, MA
"Amy's Wish" by James Caputo, San
Diego, CA
"Canadian Tuxedo" by Nicole Pandolfo,
New York, NY
"Just One Thing" by Marcia Cebulska,
Topeka, KS
and a special shout out to
our first local winner:
"I-95 and Mass Pike" by Kyle Paoletta,
Albuquerque, NM
"The Seven" winning
scripts will receive a full-production.
The winner of the "Bob and Gail
Bosser Audience Choice Award"
is "Amy's Wish" by James
Caputo
PERFORMANCE DATES: June
18th-21st, 2009
Thursday-Saturday at 8:00 pm, Sunday at
2:00 and 6:00 pm
LOCATION:
The Cell Theatre
700 1st St. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
This weekend of performances will sell-out,
so advance reservations are highly recommended.
All entries to FUSION's "The Seven" 10-Minute
Play contest are read "blind" (all identifying
information withheld from the judges), ensuring a
level playing
field for all. The script quality was excellent this
year necessitating tough choices with these, our
additional...
Interviews With This Year's Winners
1) How did you hear about “The
Seven”?
2) What was the impetus/basis/inspiration for writing
the piece?
3) Is this play representational of your writing style?
Is it similar to or different from your other plays?
4) What is the role of the short work in your playwriting
career?
5) What is your favorite play? Who is your favorite
playwright?
6) What is your next playwriting venture?
7) Is there anything you would like to add?
J
Caputo
M
Cebulska
P
Dawkins
J
McLindon
N
Pandolfo
K
Paoletta
KF
Peterson
click
on a playwright's photo to read his/her response!
Finalists
"The Best Medicine" by Mark Cornell, Chapel
Hill, NC
"Ten Million Pieces of My Heart" by Alex
Broun, Newton, Australia
"
McManus in the Chair" by
Peter Diseth, Albuquerque, NM
"84" by Jonathan James Norton, Dallas, TX
"Aside From That Mrs. Lincoln" by Tony Greenleaf,
Lyme, NH
"
Copier Jam" by Sarah Sander, Minneapolis,
MN
"The Numismatist" by Christie Perfetti, New York,
NY
"The Delivery" by Elizabeth Bove, London, England
"Coitus Hate-Us" by Hillary Rollins, Santa Monica,
CA
"Apples and Oranges" by Deborah C. Singer, Vancouver,
WA
"Snapshot" by Michael Carnick, Del Mar, CA
"Moline Dream, Iowa" by Aliza Einhorn, Brooklyn,
NY
"Hamlet in Hiding" by Rich Rubin, Portland, OR
"Faith in the Super Bowl" by Dean Lundquist, Singapore
News Flash!
FUSION Theatre Company is elated
to announce that last year's Jury Prize and Bosser
Audience Award winner, Jen Silverman's "The
Education of Macoloco,"
has been selected to be produced as part of the Samuel
French "Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival." FUSION
will be sending local Equity actors Laurie Thomas,
Bruce Holmes and Ross Kelly to NYC in July to recreate
our production from last year. We've also
learned
that one of our seven
this year, "Laying Off" by
James McLindon, starring Jacqueline Reid, Ross Kelly
and Paul Blott, and directed by Laurie Thomas, has
been accepted as well
and the
playwright
has agreed
that
our
production will represent him. The OOB Festival runs
July 14-19 and will be held at Peter Jay Sharp Theater,
416 W. 42nd St. Further information may be found
at the official OOB site here. If
your travel plans take you to the East Coast this
summer, we'd love your support for New Work from
FUSION Theatre Company's "The Seven."
[a note from the webmaster....
You may be wondering, "So, where's the review for
the 2009 version of The Seven?" Beats us. Critic
was there, had a great time, but nothing published.
Unfortunately, as in too many cities in the US,
our afternoon daily has bit the dust and the morning
paper has gone from an eight-page Arts section
to four. Reviews of all arts have been cut drastically.
Never mind that many, many folks read the paper
ONLY for the arts coverage, when it's there. So,
we've included a slideshow below from the current
festival and we'll invite you to be your own critic.
For what it's worth, many patrons told us
what a terrific evening this was with excellent
writing and performances.]
click to play a YouTube slideshow of "The Seven:
Just One Thing" New Works '09
Marissa Greenberg, review,
June 21, 2008 (on-line),
Albuquerque Journal:
In Jen Silverman’s The Education of
Macoloco, Anessa teaches her son bizarre
trivia and the so-called “facts of life.”
But Anessa withholds the truth of Macoloco’s
paternity and, until the play’s conclusion,
of her inner life. Such silences befit the winner
of the Jury Prize of The Seven: Something
Left Unsaid, FUSION Theatre Company’s
New Works Festival.
Now in its third year, the festival received 417
short works from 41 states and 6 countries. The jury
reads submissions “blind” and chooses
7 for performance. This year’s winners suggest
a bright future for the international stage. In particular,
expect to hear again from Silverman. Silverman, who
graduated from Brown University in 2006 and begins
the MFA program at Iowa Playwrights Workshop this
fall, had 2 plays in the festival.
Like Macoloco, Silverman’s
Notes on Drowning (For the Man Who Cannot
Make the Journey) withholds essential information
until the end. The final revelation belittles mundane
suffering yet proves oddly life affirming. Strong
direction (Jen Grigg and Elizabeth Huffman) and solid
performances energize Silverman’s learned, witty
and affective scripts. Laurie Thomas gives an especially
impressive performance as Anessa, a physically and
emotionally demanding role.
Other plays invite the audience to deduce what is
left unsaid. The title of Craig Abernethy’s
That Day refers to September 11, 2001. Kirsten
and Toby (compellingly performed by Ravenna Fahey
and Michael Finnegan) never specify the date, but
as they describe an exhibition of photos taken in
the tragedy’s aftermath, the audience can fill
in the blank. Despite its intentional evasions, That
Day is rawly honest. Like the exhibited
photos, it demonstrates that art can render reality “too
real.”
Perhaps the most amusing play, Teddy
Knows Too Much by Matt Hanf (Jacqueline
Reid directs), also includes a profoundly disturbing
silence. A mustached
and uproarious John Hardman stars as 3-year-old Billy,
who surreptitiously torments his family in order
to
secure his parents’ attention. Mom and Dad
(Lou Clark and Bruce Holmes are hilarious) look
for simple
solutions to Billy’s behavior. First they give
him a stuffed teddy bear who becomes privy to all
Billy’s secrets and therefore must be silenced.
Teddy’s flushing is followed by medication.
In a final tableau, Hanf’s implicit commentary
on parenting in America ceases to evoke laughter.
What ought not go unsaid is that The Seven
is worth seeing.
With the inception in 2006 of our The Seven:
New Works Fest, FUSION Theatre Company has
been pleased to host a wonderful new way to fulfill
our mission of presenting fresh, new works of extraordinary
merit.
To view our previous "Seven" productions, click
here.
With an annual theme selected
by our patrons via on-line voting, FUSION Theatre
Company has seen exponential interest from talented
playwrights the world over. Our inaugural festival
in 2006, with the theme Games People Play,
drew over 70 submissions, from which the top seven
were selected by our artistic staff. They were
professionally produced, acted and directed and
were enthusiastically received by full houses.
The word got out: the following
season, our patrons chose No Regrets as
the theme and over 350 playwrights from 39 states
and 6 countries responded. The caliber of the top
submissions was so spectacularly good, our staff
chose seven for the main fest, and produced another
seven for cabaret offerings.
For 2008, our patrons chose Something
Left Unsaid which provoked over 400 entries
from even more places!
Even greater things are planned for 2009, our patrons
having just selected our theme for this year: That
One Thing.
You'll want to make your reservations now; last
year's Festival, The Seven, was completely
sold out. Expect the unexpected as FUSION Theatre
Company selects a crop of diverse and intriguing
new works to be presented by the finest directors
and actors in New Mexico.
If you are a writer interested
in submitting a new work for adjudication, please
see our guidelines here.
We'd love to see your take on this year's theme: That
One Thing.
K. Frithjoj Peterson
K.
FRITHJOF PETERSON (Gun
Metal Blue Bar) got his start writing articles
for Hollywood
Previews
and television treatments for a small production
studio in Santa Monica, California. His
plays have been performed throughout Michigan
and Chicago, as well as The Kennedy Center
in Washington, DC where he was awarded
a fellowship as a national finalist for
their 10-minute Play Award. He recently
received a Frostic Creative Writing Award
and a creative research grant through Western
Michigan University (WMU) for his body
of work. Currently, he is the drama editor
for Third Coast literary journal and working
on his new full-length play, Bad Henry,
which is in development for a staged reading
through WMU’s New Play Project. He's
very excited to be working with Fusion
Theatre Company.
Marcia Cebulska
MARCIA
CEBULSKA's (Just One Thing) stage
plays, including Florida, Centaurs, Dear
John, and When the Bough Breaks, and
Touched have been produced at The Georgia
Repertory Theatre, HERE (NYC), the Phoenix
Theatre, Frontera at Hyde Park, Fremont
Centre Theatre, The Theatre Building and
elsewhere. Marcia has received the Dorothy
Silver Award, the Jane Chambers International
Award, Kansas Arts Commission and Indiana
Arts Commission Master Artist Fellowships, “Best
Historical Film” (Traildance Film
Festival) and numerous other honors. Her
Now Let Me Fly , commissioned for the national
celebration of the 50th anniversary of
the Brown v. Board decision, has been performed
at over two thousand venues internationally
from New Orleans to Cyprus and filmed for
a French documentary. Through Martha’s
Eyes, for which Marcia wrote the screenplay,
was aired nationally on PBS last February.
Her plays have been chosen for development
by the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights
Conference, Sundance Playwrights Lab, the
William Inge Theatre Festival and Shenandoah
Playwrights Retreat. She has been playwright-in-residence
at The University of Georgia, Mary Anderson
Center for the Arts, Marion College and
The William Inge Center for the Arts. Marcia
attended Barnard College and Columbia University
School of the Arts. She is a member of
The Dramatists Guild and Chicago Dramatists
and is a Fellow of the Center for Kansas
Studies. Marcia is currently working on
a stage play entitled The Bones of Butterflies
and a film script entitled The Dogs of
Eden.
James Caputo
JAMES
CAPUTO (Amy's Wish) is a winner
of The Ashland Oregon Festival,
The Palm Springs International Festival,
The New York Public Television Competition,
The NYC Underground Festival, The Theatre
Oxford Competition, The Hollywood First
Stage Competition, The Theatre Conspiracy
Competition, The Dubuque Fine Arts Contest,
The Camino Real Festival, The Fritz Blitz,
The Harvest Theatre Competition, The Ashland
Oregon Slam and several San Diego Festivals.
His plays have been produced in New York
City, Hollywood, Ashland, Florida, Virginia,
Ohio, Iowa, Orange County, Palm Springs
and San Diego. Jim is an actor, director,
playwright and a member of the Dramatists
Guild. He resides in San Diego..
Kyle Paoletta
KYLE
PAOLETTA's (I-95 and Mass PIke)
previous produced works include The New
Adventures of the Silver Rope: The Majestic
Illusion, and Deux Revolutions; both by
Tricklock Theater Company as a part of
the Manoa Project Teen Playwriting Competition
and Apprenticeship (2006, 2007). The Silver
Rope was also produced at Albuquerque Academy’s
Simms Center for the Performing Arts in
2007. His other recent works include A
Nightingale in the Sand, a modern adaptation
of Aeschylus’ Oresteia cycle, and
Turn it High, Camenae, a memoir of Albuquerque.
A recent graduate of the Albuquerque Academy,
Kyle is currently studying English Literature
and Language and Political Science at Tufts
University. In addition to his academic
pursuits, he also works as a Scenic and
Sound Designer, Stage Manager and Technician
at the Balch Arena Theater and Aidekman
Auditorium.
James McLindon
JAMES
MCLINDON (Laying Off) has, since
2007, had three full-length and nine one-act
plays
produced in theaters across America and
the United Kingdom, eleven of them world
premieres. Distant Music has enjoyed four
productions and is slated for a fifth this
year at the Black Swan Theatre of Asheville
as winner of the Jane Bingham Prize. Dusk
and A Brief History of Penguins and Promiscuity
premiered at the Grove Theatre Center in
Los Angeles in June, 2007 and January,
2008 respectively. This past summer, Mr.
McLindon workshopped Faith at the Seven
Devils Playwrights Conference in McCall,
Idaho, and at the Lark Theatre’s
Playwrights’ Week in New York. He
also workshopped a second new full-length
play, Saving Grace, at the PlayPenn Conference
in Philadelphia. His other plays have been
developed and/or produced at theaters such
as the Abingdon, hotINK Festival, Irish
Repertory, Samuel French Ten-Minute Play
Festival, Penguin Repertory, Emerging Artists
Theatre, Love Creek Productions, and HRC
Showcase Theatre in New York; Victory Gardens,
Prop Thtr, and Stage Left in Chicago; Colony
Theatre, Theatricum Botanicum, Grove Theatre
Center, and Circus Theatricals in Los Angeles;
the Arkansas Rep in Little Rock, and the
Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon.
Nicole Pandolfo
NICOLE
PANDOLFO (Canadian Tuxedo) graduated
from New York University in 2006
with a B.A. in Metropolitan Studies, which
she will put to use later during her philanthropic
period. In the meantime she is an actress
and playwright who lives and works in New
York City. She currently studies at HB
Studio under the profound tutelage of Austin
Pendleton and Julie McKee. She was recently
seen playing the role of “Ethel” in
the improvised web comedy series, The Villagers,
directed by legendary comic book artist,
Kevin Maguire. Her one woman show, Love
in the Time of Chlamydia, written, directed,
and performed by Nicole, was featured as
part of the Illuminating Artists New Work
Series at Emerging Artists Theatre in New
York City in May. She is from New Jersey
and does not understand anti-Jersey sentiments.
She thinks meeting Cher and playing her
in a movie would be the tops. She thanks
her mother, Adele, and her family and friends
for their love and support.
Philip Dawkins
PHILIP DAWKINS (Nothing)
is a Chicago playwright and educator originally
from Phoenix, Arizona.
He is a graduate of Loyola University, Chicago
with degrees in Theatre and Math. His play,
Yes to Everything! was performed this year
at the Side Project (cut to the Quick) as
well as previously in NY, CA, DC and all
around
the country. Last year, his play Perfect
premiered at the Side Project under the direction
of
Stephen Cone. Other Chicago credits: You
Gonna Eat That? (HealthWorks), Ugly Baby
(Chicago
Vanguard/Strawdog Theatre Company), A Still
Life In Color (T.U.T.A. Company), The Man
With a Shattered World (Ethington Theatre,
AZ),
Saguaro (Estrogen Fest, Chicago; Estrogenius
Festival, NY; 16th Street Theatre, Berwyn,
IL, Painted Filly, Ireland.). Philip’s
writing has been published in The Stranger
and The Packington Review and his play, Edgar
and Ellen: Bad Seeds (Northlight Theatre) will
be published by Playscripts International this
spring. Philip is currently writing an opera
trilogy with his writing partner Eric C. Reda.
He is the ARTS Program Director at Pegasus
Players, and teaches playwriting in public
schools through Chicago Dramatists. He also
leads bicycle tours of Chicago through Bobby’s
Bike Hikes, and teaches Kung Fu to little,
tiny, children. Hi-YAH!
