Eight Projects Selected for the 2005 Sundance Summer Theatre Laboratory

A musical inspired by the life of Gianni Versace’s murderer Andrew Cunanan, a comedy of manners in which an 18th century male prostitute assumes any one of a range of guises, and a look at New York City during the height of the Civil War among the wide range of new theatre pieces selected for development at the 2005 Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab. Running from July 11-31 at Sundance Village in Utah, theatre artists who participate in the intensive three-week workshop are given the time, space, and support to develop their new work or explore new approaches to existing scripts, without the pressures of production.

“These eight projects join a distinguished group of plays supported by the Theatre Program over the years, many of which have gone on to garner critical and popular acclaim,” said Philip Himberg, producing artistic director of the Institute’s Theatre Program. Projects developed through past Theatre Labs include Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project, and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife.

Himberg said that the playwrights and directors invited to attend the 2005 Theatre Lab represent both emerging and established artists, and that their projects represent a diversity of topics. “Their range of work surveys a wide swath of world history, and includes plays set in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as very contemporary issues,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the collaboration between the Lab’s playwrights and directors, and to moving these pieces forward toward future production at theatres around the country.”

At the Lab, Fellows will focus on issues and challenges specific to their works-in-progress while working with a team of creative advisors and dramaturgs. The creative advisors for this year’s Lab include: dramaturgs Jocelyn Clarke (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Sydne Mahone, Mame Hunt and Tony Taccone, Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep. Meg Simon is the casting advisor for the 2005 Lab.

The eight projects selected for the 2005 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab are:

MOST WANTED Music and Lyrics by Mark Bennett, Book and Lyrics by Jessica Hagedorn
Directed by Michael Greif
Inspired by the short, tragic life of Andrew Cunanan and the events leading up to and surrounding the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace, MOST WANTED is a music theatre piece, which explores the cult of celebrity, the contradictions between narcissism and notoriety, issues of "passing", sexuality, class and race.

Terra Haute by Edmund White
Directed by David Drake
Terre Haute is Edmund White's two-character play about a young man on death row for a political crime and the visit paid him just before his execution by an old man who is a celebrated writer.

Measure for Pleasure by David Grimm
Directed by Peter Dubois
Measure for Pleasure by David Grimm is a neo-restoration comedy of manners, set in the 18th century, but told with a uniquely contemporary feel. The play’s protagonist is a 20-year-old male prostitute who passes himself off as a chambermaid, a valet, a landed gentleman and his wife, a beautiful country lass and a handsome rake.

Blue Door by Tanya Barfield
Directed by Marion McClinton
Blue Door by Tanya Barfield is an exploration into the rich oral history of African-Americans during slavery and Reconstruction. Written for two actors who play a wide range of roles, the play follows four generations of black men, spanning a hundred and fifty years. Blue Door was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons.

BFF by Anna Ziegler
Directed by Lisa Peterson
Anna Ziegler’s play, BFF (which stands for “best friends forever”) deals with the effects of adolescence on a deep young female friendship. The story follows the journey of two teenage girls who enter puberty at different times and how that gap in their physical growth takes a serious toll on their relationship as they grow into adulthood.

Taking Flight by Adriana Sevan
Directed by Giovanna Sardella
Taking Flight, a solo piece from writer/performer Adriana Sevan, tells the story of two close friends, one of whom is seriously wounded during the 9/11 attacks in New York. The play examines the sacrifices of caregivers and the cost of giving without time out to replenish and refuel.

New York is Bleeding by Said Sayrafiezadeh
Directed by Kate Whoriskey
New York is Bleeding by Said Sayrafiezadeh is set in 1863, in New York City, at the height of the Civil War. The play follows the lives of seven New Yorkers, including Irish-Americans, African-Americans and a wealthy white family as they respond to our country’s first conscription army.

Passing Strange by Stew, and co-composer Heidi Rodewald
Directed by Annie Dorsen
Choreography by David Neumann
Passing Strange by poet and composer Stew, and co-composer Heidi Rodewald, began as an evening of music and spoken work in Joe’s Pub at the New York Public Theatre. It is the story of a young man whose search for belonging takes him from the African-American middle class culture into various Bohemias.