The Human Capacity
by Jennifer Barclay
Saturday 5/13 @ 2:00 PM
Sunday 5/21 @ 7:30 PM
Saturday 5/27 @ 7:30 PM

Odin's Horse
by Robert Koon
Saturday 5/13 @ 7:30 PM
Sunday 5/21 @ 2:00 PM
Thursday 5/25 @ 7:30 PM

Watching for Wolves
by Joy McCullough-Carranza
Sunday 5/14 @ 2:00 PM
Friday 5/26 @ 7:30 PM

The Fair Hope Memorial
by Louise Schwarz
Friday 5/19 @ 7:30 PM
Saturday 5/27 @ 2:00 PM

MisAmerica
by Tom Patrick
Saturday 5/20 @ 7:30 PM
Sunday 5/28 @ 2:00 PM

May 12 - 28, 2006

Stage Left Theatre is proud to present our third annual festival of new plays. Spanning a wide array of current and urgent relevance, each play in LeapFest 3 brings complexity and fresh perspective to the challenges of today's world.

LeapFest is as engaging for audience members as it is helpful for our playwrights. These five workshop productions, presented in rotating repertory, give our patrons an aesthetic experience beyond that of a staged reading, while talk-backs after every performance engage our audience and provide our playwrights with valuable feedback as they continue to develop the work.

LeapFest is the culmination of Downstage Left (DSL), a multi-tiered development program with the goal to cultivate and support new and emerging voices, and inspire playwrights to address the political and social issues of our day. Learn more about Downstage Left by clicking here

Jennifer Barclay
click photo for bio

The Human Capacity
by Jennifer Barclay (Chicago)
directed by SLT producing artistic director Kevin Heckman
Saturday 5/13 @ 2:00 PM
Sunday 5/21 @ 7:30 PM
Saturday 5/27 @ 7:30 PM
www.BarclayStudios.com

A former Stasi officer is living in Berlin under an assumed name. When, by chance, he encounters a woman he tortured and interrogated, he tries to help her find the family he himself shattered. Jennifer Barclay’s insightful and disturbing script explores the possibilities of closure and forgiveness in a society shaken by the fall of the Wall.
3 M, 2 W - Drama - Full Length

(Please be aware that The Human Capacity contains full nudity and may not be appropriate for children of a certain age.)

Faced with newfound success as a writer, Arman loses his compass and struggles to find his bearings in a new and changing world. He is swept into a relationship with Callie, whose new job carries them both to Northern California, where she is handling public relations for a logging company. In the redwood forest, Arman meets Astra, a treesitter whose commitment causes him to consider the trades we all make to get the things we want. Caught in a moral conundrum, he reaches out to set his life in motion once again.
4 M, 2 W - Drama - Full Length

Becca and Asher are a young American couple eagerly awaiting the arrival their newly-adopted child from Guatemala. Unable to endure the suspense, they board a plane and visit the Guatemalan adoption agency where they meet Suzanne, an international adoption facilitator. What they encounter is not only a culture clash, but moral ambiguities that threaten their new family.
3 M, 4 W - Drama - Full Length

A female reporter from a popular New York women’s magazine visits Fair Hope, Alabama to interview the lesbian proprietors of a controversial abortion clinic. As she arrives, the town is preparing to unveil a statue of two young children, one white and one black, who were recently killed in a tragic accident. What she uncovers is a community torn apart by racial and religious tensions. With America divided more than ever on fundamental, moral issues, Louise Schwarz brings us a play of urgent relevance.
1 M, 5 W, 1 Young Boy - Drama - Full Length

Jennifer Barclay’s (Playwright - The Human Capacity) plays include Plunder, The Human Capacity, and her one-woman show, Clearing Hedges. In 2005, Steppenwolf Theatre Company produced a staged reading of The Human Capacity in the First Look Festival of New Works, directed by Bob Breuler. Ms. Barclay’s plays have also received readings at Piven, Northlight, Breadline, and A Red Orchid. She has performed Clearing Hedges at the International Theatre of Vienna, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival , and the 2003 San Francisco Fringe Festival (awarded “Best Female Dramatic Solo.” ) As an actress, Ms. Barclay has also performed with Steppenwolf, Live Bait, Peninsula Players, Mary-Arrchie, and Court Theatre. She is a graduate of Northwestern University where she was honored with the Mary Margaret Linn Theatre Award. She has been granted playwriting residencies at The Hawthornden International Writers Retreat in Scotland, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, and was named a finalist for the Princess Grace Award. Ms. Barclay is a recipient of the 2005 Pinter Review Gold Medal Prize for Drama, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Most recently, she has been awarded the 2006 MFA Playwriting position at University of California, San Diego and will begin her studies there in September.

Robert Koon (Playwright - Odin’s Horse) is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and for the past five years has served as the director of their affiliated writers program, The Playwrights Network. His play, Vintage Red and the Dust of the Road, was produced in Chicago by Visions & Voices Theatre Company, receiving a Joseph Jefferson Award Citation for New Work and a nomination for the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg Award. Mr. Koon’s other work includes St. Colm’s Inch, Inpainting, The Leverage of Affection, Changing Attire, The Point of Honor, and Looking West from Firá. His play, Odin’s Horse, was presented at California’s National Ecodrama Playwrights Festival as the festival winner. Mr. Koon also teaches playwriting at Chicago Dramatists, and in the Chicago Public Schools through the theatre’s educational outreach program. He has been a featured presenter for the Indiana Theatre Association and the William Inge Theatre Festival, and guest resident instructor for the Timber Lake Playhouse Writers Colony. Mr. Koon has received critical praise for directing productions of plays by authors such as Edward Bond and George Bernard Shaw, and for his work as scenic and lighting designer. His acting work includes appearances at regional venues and several theatres in the Chicago area. Mr. Koon received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Actors Equity.

Joy McCullough-Carranza (Playwright - Watching for Wolves) is happy to return to Chicago, where her play Hiding Hannah was a part of last year's LeapFest at Stage Left Theatre. Joy is a Seattle based playwright with a degree in theatre from Northwestern University, where she won the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award. Her plays have been developed and produced at ACT Theatre, Mirror Stage Company, Live Girls!, the Mae West Fest, new village arts, Lamb's Players Theatre and Northwestern University. Her short plays Eat Car and Little Birds have been finalists for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award. She is also an occasional actor, director, and teaches playwriting for ACT Theatre.

Louise Schwarz (Playwright - The Fair Hope Memorial) has written several plays, including As Fate Would Have It, Last Licks in the Bronx, After Wednesday, The Fair Hope Memorial, Floor Show in the Sweet Life (recipient of the 2000 John Golden Award), Last Scream of the Broken Home, This is My Reward, Veronica’s Legacy, and August November. These works have been produced or workshopped at such NYC venues as The Women's Project and Productions, Theatre for the New City, The Trilogy Theatre, The Cherry Lane Alternative, New Dramatists, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre, and the Oscar Hammerstein Center, and such out-of-town venues as The Mark Taper Forum's New Work Festival in Los Angeles, the Horizon Theatre's New South for the New Century Festival in Atlanta, and Pandora's Box PlayRites of Spring Festival in Buffalo. Fellowships and residencies include Blue Mountain Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Hambidge Center, and the Edward Albee Foundation. She has taught playwriting at Hofstra University, and heads the Theatre Department at Appel Farm Arts and Music Center, where she teaches and directs each summer. Ms. Schwarz is a member of the Dramatists' Guild. B.A. Directing, University of Georgia. M.F.A. Playwriting, Columbia University.

Tom Patrick (Playwright - MisAmerica) is an actor, writer and director. His play Descent(A Darwinian Comedy) has been produced by The Aardvark Theater of Chicago, Next Act Theater of Milwaukee and Stage Door Acting Ensemble in New York City and was published in “The Porcupine,” a literary arts magazine. His play Middleman was produced in Milwaukee by the Cedar Creek Repertory Theater which he also directed. The Vow was developed in part through LeapFest 1 in 2004 and went on to receive a full production in 2005 at Stage Left. Tom is a resident alumnus at Chicago Dramatists where his play Soft Target was produced in 2003. MisAmerica was featured in the 2005 writer’s issue of PerformInk. As an actor and director he has worked with several Chicago theatres including Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Next, Shakespeare on the Green and Shakespeare’s Motley Crew where he directed their critically acclaimed production of Twelfth Night. Tom recently moved to Los Angeles where he is a full time meeting-taker.