Today?s playwrights have a chance to give their works a test run through Center Stage?s First Look series.
“First Look debuted in 2001 and was originally called ?Off Center? ? an opportunity to look at works of a different flavor than what was presented on the main stage,” said Otis Ramsey-Zoe, literary manager for Center Stage. “Today we have shifted the commitment to new play development, working more with writers and cultivating an audience that is interested in new works.”
Following each First Look reading, audiences can give feedback, either to specific questions posed by the playwright or “a general response,” Ramsey-Zoe added.
There will be four First Look readings this season at Center Stage, as well as three consecutive weeks of “First Look: Special Edition.”
Stephen R. Culp and Jason Grote were the featured playwrights in last year?s First Look series.
“There?s an unfortunate cycle in modern theater where new plays are read, workshopped and showcased in an endless cycle, while the big productions which get money thrown behind them are the established plays, revivals. There?s a point where you want to say, ?Okay, I?m ready for my closeup!?” Culp said. “But Center Stage was very comfortable and welcoming. Meeting the cast, listening to the director?s interpretation, and the audience talk-back was insightful and gratifying.”
Grote, whose play “One Thousand and One,” a “rip” on the Arabian Nights, was taken by the chance to have his play read before a non-New York audience.
“There was more openness [in Baltimore], not as jaded as New York audiences tend to be. The people are genuinely curious about new works that are out there. I noticed the conversation after the show was very constructive. I want people to be seduced into thinking about the issues while having a good time,” Grote said.
First Look debuts Friday at 8 p.m. with Melanie Marnich?s “These Shining Lives.” The play looks at 1920s radium watch-dial painters who, attracted by the chance for easy money, were not warned of the dangers of close work with a radioactive substance.
“What Marnich has done is to give humanity to the characters and a beauty to their journey. It conjures a line from the Bhagavad Gita which says the world is a struggle to be seen between two unseens, before birth and after death, and in this play we see the struggle of these women as the corporation attempts to sweep under the rug what happened to them ? they are fighting to be seen, to be acknowledged, and that is most striking to me,” Ramsey-Zoe said.
“First Look: Special Edition explores works that might be structurally or stylistically adventurous. They tend to be more experimental versus ?First Look? plays which match with the Center Stage aesthetic ? that is, a commitment to classic works, reinterpretation of classics and works that are political, bold, epic and dangerous, making a statement about our current political or social state,” Ramsey-Zoe said.
Center Stage
» 700 N. Calvert St., Baltimore
Friday at 8 p.m.
» Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at centerstage.org or by calling 410-332-0033.
» First Look readings are also scheduled for Jan. 22, March 26 and June 4
» First Look: Special Edition, Feb. 19, 26 and March 5, plays TBA.
