2004 Featured Playwright, Eugene Lee

The 2004 Conference featured a free workshop led by acclaimed playwright Eugene Lee, and reading of his play FEAR ITSELF: Facing fear, fearlessness, foolishness and finding love, two very human beings battle - through the fire - for one poet’s soul. 

2004 PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS

SPUYTEN DUYVIL by Andy Bragen

Struggling to keep their heads above water in the face of demanding relationships and difficult ambitions, Buddy Starlight and Lisa Martinez find that their only hope lies in each other. But can they come to terms with the dangerous desires and appetites that have come to define their identities before they tear themselves and each other apart?

ALL FIRES ARE BEAUTIFUL IF YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT IS BURNING by Juliann France

Clara's drive through a forbidden area opens her eyes, and suddenly her everyday world of whale-eye chips, anteater tongues and family vacations to the "Ghost-town in the Sky Amusement Park" just don't make sense anymore. Hold on to your sense of reality as we join this futuristic, but strangely familiar, American family on a political and economic roller coaster of generational traditions.

GIRL SCIENCE by Larry Loebell

Lois, an up and coming historian, selects her great aunt Johanna, an eminent biologist and “forgotten pioneer of science” as the subject for her new book. Reluctant at first, Johanna soon relents, sharing stories from her seemingly charmed girlhood. But was it? When Lois’s work inadvertently reveals the startling and tragic truth, both women’s lives are changed forever.

I BECOME A GUITAR by Francesca Sander

Adrift in a 20+ year marriage, Kevin dreams of baseball, while Madrigal dreams of her ancestors in Zihuatenejo until Pablo, with stories of his idyllic life in South America, appears and launches them on a journey that will take them to Honduras and back, Mexico and back and, if they can make it, to love and back.

The Student Play Staged Readings

FLY VICE by Seth Burts 
Life is turned upside for three roommates who take in a mysterious wanderer Skitto, and his even more mysterious black bag, during a freak storm. Ultimately, their attempts to get Skitto to reveal the bags contents reveal more about their own fears, aspirations and limitations – and for one roommate, his path in life.

BLUE 22 by Whitney Kimball
When a violent locker room assault, perpetrated by a popular jock, comes to light a family, a high school and a community are put to the test. Who do we believe? And why? How can a victim come forward without being further victimized?

POP WILL DRINK ITSELF by Ben Verschoor
Aging metal rocker, Ludwig Von B, attempts to revive his career, but when he shows up at the studio to lay down some fresh tracks, he discovers that he is surrounded by younger has-beens all vying for that one shot at getting back on top of the charts – whatever it takes.

3 A.M. by Nathaniel Woods
For two young men, a late night at the diner a seemingly innocent musing on the life of a fork turns into a shocking confession of depression, loneliness and a suicide attempt. How do we reach out to each other? And how do we respond