Huntington Theatre Co. Hosts Inaugural Summer Workshop, Now thru 7/22

The Huntington Theatre Company announces the inaugural Summer Workshop, a two-week new work retreat for selected members of the Huntington's Playwriting Fellows program. The artist-driven workshop opens today, July 10 and runs through July 22, culminating in public readings of the four plays in development:

Jagun Fly by John Oluwole ADEkoje, directed by Niegel Smith
Public reading: Sunday, July 22 at 5pm; Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP at huntingtontheatre.org/JagunReading

Flight by Patrick Gabridge, directed by Jessica Bauman
Public reading: Saturday, July 21 at 5pm; Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP at huntingtontheatre.org/FlightReading

Untitled Play about Dead Bodies by Martha Jane Kaufman, directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni
Public reading: Sunday, July 22 at 3pm; Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP at huntingtontheatre.org/DeadReading

Becoming Cuba by Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew), directed by M. Bevin O'Gara
Public reading: Saturday, July 21 at 7:30pm; Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
RSVP at huntingtontheatre.org/CubaReading

**Readings are open to the public, but not open to reviewing members of the press.

"We are continuously looking for ways to make our new work initiatives work better for the writers and for the local theatre ecology," says Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. "In think-tank conversations with our Huntington Playwriting Fellows, they told us that they wanted more opportunities to work in three dimensions. I can't wait to revisit these four plays at the end of the process to see how they've grown."

The Summer Workshop is modeled after the Sundance Theatre Lab and is an extension of the Huntington's Playwriting Fellows program and Breaking Ground Reading Series. Huntington Director of New Work Lisa Timmel and Huntington dramaturg Charles Haugland will support the writers during the intensive, artist-driven development process. The festival is produced by Huntington Associate Producer M. Bevin O'Gara.

The Summer Workshop is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

ABOUT THE PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

JAGUN FLY
by John Oluwole ADEkoje
Directed by Niegel Smith

One African-American family's experience collides Yoruba traditions with contemporary urban experience. Playwright John Oluwole ADEkoje connects the break-up of the African diaspora to inner-city America through ritual and language.

John Oluwole ADEkoje's short play Cry Baby Jones was part of Grimm (Company One) and was nominated for an Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best New Play. He was also nominated for two IRNEs for his play Love Jones. ADEkoje is a National Award winner of the Kennedy Center ACTF - Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting award for his play Street Hawker, as well as the winner of the National Triennial New Play Competition. He was recently commissioned to write a new play by the Boston Black Theater Collective. He is a recipient of the Brother Thomas Fellowship for this documentary film Street Soldiers for which he won the Emerging Filmmakers Award by the Roxbury International Film Festival. Street Soldiers has been shown at the Pan African Film Festival at Cannes, France and the World Film Festival in Montreal, Canada. He is currently editing his feature film Knockaround Kids. ADEkoje is a proud recipient of the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship. He is currently a Playwright in Residence at Company One and UMass Boston and a faculty member in the theatre department at Boston Arts Academy where he teaches playwriting, filmmaking, and directing.

FLIGHT by Patrick Gabridge
Directed by Jessica Bauman

Sarah escapes from her life by spending most of her time at the airport, pretending to be someone else but never going anywhere. After a janitor, Carlos, attempts to befriend her, she discovers she isn't nearly as invisible as she'd hoped. Flight gives us a drama about people lost in a place that's not really anywhere, trying to salvage lives torn apart by loss.