The Castillo Theatre follows many avenues to bring new, experimental work to our 42nd Street stages — and to the American theatre. The Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Playwriting Contest is the only such competition in the United States designed to encourage and find new scripts that engage the political/social/cultural questions affecting our world. This summer, the four winners — selected from nearly 200 submissions and all previously unproduced — will receive readings directed by distinguished artists from theatres around New York City.
Each reading will be followed by a brief Q&A with the authors.
Monday, August 3, 2009 Inside the Coma of Wayne Morse
by Steve Lyons
This play takes us on a fantastical journey into the mind of Senator Wayne Morse, one of only two Senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson the authority to invade Vietnam. As he lies dying, Morse begins an emotional and philosophical conversation with a baby born prematurely, who, like him, is struggling to stay alive. Touching on numerous ethical questions relevant to today’s political climate, the play asks what it means to lead a good life in a society where war and corruption often seem more powerful than an individual's capacity to bring about justice.
Monday, August 10, 2009 A Far Shore
by Douglas Huff
This play tells the story of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was — while virtually unknown to Americans — a founding father of India and its most famous "untouchable." Ambedkar strove to dismantle India's rigid caste system, a quest that brought him into opposition with India's most famous leader, Mohandas Gandhi. A fierce believer in secularism and a champion of equal rights for women and the underclasses, Ambedkar becomes a hero for a contemporary scholar in England, as the play interweaves time periods, countries, and storylines.
Monday, August 17, 2009 The Owl Girl
by Monica Raymond
In this magical realist allegory on contemporary themes in the Middle East, two families have keys to the same house. What happens when they try to live in it together? The fathers play historical chess; the mothers cook together (even though one uses mint and the other dill); young lovers dare to imagine a future; and war-mad children play doctor and murderer. But when one girl's dreams of flight are (literally) shot down, betrayals and realignments make us question our definitions of peace.
Monday, August 24, 2009 Fire in the Garden
by Ken Weitzman
In this one-person show, a contemporary father-to-be contemplates the action of Norman Morrison, a Quaker peace activist who in 1965 — as his baby daughter looked on — set himself on fire in the Pentagon garden to protest the War in Vietnam. As he engages in an alternately hilarious and haunting self-examination, the main character ruminates on fatherhood, responsibility, and what it means to lead an ethical life (or death).
