March 3 - 7, 2010
UMBC Theatre

Contact: Thomas Moore
Director of Arts & Culture
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

Note: This release is available as a pdf file.

The Department of Theatre presents Grrl Parts, a continuing project to commission major American playwrights to create new roles for actresses. Three plays, directed by Colette Searls and Wendy Salkind, will be presented each evening:

- Weathertician, winner of the IN10 International Playwriting Competition -- Gregory L. Farber's play exploring the frightening power of media punditry in a future when voters control the weather.

- This Girl I Used to Know -- Naomi Iizuka's smart and sexy retelling of the Arachne myth, where a callous and privileged college student meets her match, a mysterious roommate named Minerva.

- The One, The Other -- a darkly comic gem about breaking up, stepping out and jumping off by Phyllis Nagy, a master of theatrical language, poetic imagery and non-realistic form.

Formerly known as the IN10 Festival, Grrl Parts is an annual event, now in its 5th season, dedicated to commissioning major American playwrights to create new roles for actresses.

About the Playwrights

Phyllis Nagy's plays include: Weldon Rising, Royal Court Theatre, 1992; Butterfly Kiss, Almeida Theatre Company, 1994; The Strip, Royal Court Theatre, 1995; Disappeared, premiered at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester in 1995 in a production directed by the author which subsequently toured the UK before a London run at the Royal Court Theatre (joint winner the 1992 Mobil International Playwriting Prize and the 1995 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize) and Never Land, Royal Court, 1998. Nagy's adaptations include: Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, Palace Theatre, Watford, 1998; Chekhov's The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre, 2003 and Nathaniel Hawthorn's The Scarlet Letter, Classic Stage Company, New York, 1994 and Chichester Festival Theatre, 2005. Nagy has also directed extensively in the theatre. Nagy's work for radio includes Delores, a contemporary version of Euripides's Andromache (The Sunday Play, BBC Radio 3) and her films (as writer/director) include the award winning Mrs Harris (HBO Films, 2005). She is currently developing a new anthology series of stand-alone dramas with Neil La Bute and Tony Kushner, to be produced by Tom Fontana for HBO.

Naomi Iizuka is a prolific young playwright and head of the graduate MFA playwriting program at the University of California, San Diego. Her plays include 36 Views, Strike-Slip, Anon(ymous), At the Vanishing Point, Polaroid Stories, Language of Angels, War of the Worlds (in collaboration with Anne Bogart and SITI Company), Tattoo Girl and Skin. These plays have been produced by Actors' Theatre of Louisville, the Huntington Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, the Children's Theater Company, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, the Dallas Theatre Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Next Wave Festival", and Soho Rep. lizuka is a member of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award, an Alpert Award, a Joyce Foundation Award, a Whiting Writers' Award, a Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference, a Rockefeller Foundation MAP grant, an NEA/TCG Artist-in-Residence grant, a McKnight Fellowship, a PEN Center USA West Award for Drama, Princeton University's Hodder Fellowship, and a Jerome Fellowship.

Gregory L. Farber is a Boston-area playwright and instructor at Bentley College. He received his M.F.A. from Arizona State University where he taught playwriting and screenwriting classes. He produced several staged reading series and festivals of new plays in addition to mentoring undergraduate playwrights. His work has been produced at various theatres in Arizona, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. He currently works as Director of Development for Theatre on Fire, a Boston-based theatre company.

Performances
Wednesday, March 3rd, 8 pm (preview)
Thursday, March 4th, 4 pm (free performance for UMBC students, faculty and staff)
Friday, March 5th, 8 pm (opening night)
Saturday, March 6th, 8 pm
Sunday, March 7th, 4 pm

Some language may be inappropriate for children.

Talkbacks with the directors and the festival's artistic director, Susan McCully, will take place after the Thursday through Sunday performances.

Admission
$10 general admission; $5 students and seniors; $3 for the preview.
The performance on Thursday, March 4th is free for UMBC students, faculty and staff.
Information and reservations: 410-455-2476 or http://www.umbc.edu/theatre/res_GRRL_PARTS_2010.html

Public Information
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts

Media Resources
Online News Releases: http://www.umbc.edu/news
High resolution images: http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/ (photos by Rich Riggins, design by Monique Cucchi)

Directions
-- From Baltimore and points north, proceed south on I-95 to exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Theatre.
-- From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the roundabout intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to the Theatre.
-- From Washington and points south, proceed north on I-95 to Exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Theatre.
-- Visitor parking is available in the Commons Garage. Visitor parking regulations are enforced on all University calendar days. Hilltop Circle and all campus roadways require a parking permit unless otherwise marked.
Online campus map: http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/