Our first reading is fast approaching and we couldn’t be more excited! We hope you’ll join us in Santa Barbara on April 12th @ 7:00 p.m. at Left Coast Books & Gallery. Our Producer and Director, Kate Bergstrom, is even providing wine! Huzzah!
And in the meantime, let us introduce you to the awesome playwrights whose work is being read:
THE PLANTING MOON, by Anne V. Grob
Anne V. Grob is a playwright and artist residing in Irvine, California. A native New Yorker, Anne was thrilled to have her play One Fifth produced at the historic Greenwich Village Player’s Theatre in their Short Play Festival last June. Anne has had staged readings at South Coast Repertory’s Playwriting and Screenwriting programs and is a member of Orange County’s New Voices Playwrights Theatre. As an artist, she creates mixed media collage and has exhibited at Orange County Center for Contemporary Art and Huntington Beach Art Center. She is also an art educator at Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach. Anne is currently exploring the interface of art and theater through her dramatic writing of short, one act, and full length plays.
MAN IN A MACHINE SHOP, by Christina Pages
Christina Pagès, a native of Kent, England, received her Ph.D. in English in 1993, at the University of South Carolina where she held a post-doctoral position as visiting Professor until 1995. She published part of her dissertation in Theatre Survey 31:1 (May, 1990) 85-106. Since 1995, when she came to California, she has focused on creative writing. She received a publication award from the International Society of Poetry in 2004 for her poetry collection, Shadow Words (Watermark Press, 2006), and was the California State Poetry Society’s 19th Annual Contest Winner in 2005. She was also winner of California State Poetry Society’s monthly contest in January and October 2008. She has published several single poems in anthologies and literary journals. Her second full collection of poetry, Remember Not to Forget and Other Poems was published by Summerland Publishing in November, 2013.
THE OLD SALT, by Katherine James
Katherine James (MFA from A.C.T.) has been in the theatre since her father first put her onstage in one of his shows at the age of five. Still crazy about the theatre fifty-five years later. An accomplished actress and director as well as playwright, she currently makes her home in Los Angeles where she is part of the Theatricum Botanicum company and on The Seedlings (new plays) Committee. Recent projects include a workshop of her jamming spoken word opera, OLYMPUS, at the Sontag Greek Theatre, staged reading of THE OLD SALT at Theatricum, and DIRTY LAUNDRY for The Dirty Laundry Festival. She has been the artistic director of Free Association Theatre for 35 years.
WMPS* AND WARRIORS (*WELL MEANING PEOPLE), by Inbal Kashtan
Inbal Kashtan has written a full length play, Interference, and numerous short plays, some of which have had performances or readings on both coasts. She has also written and performed short solo work in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is a Playground “Writers’ Pool” company member. Two of her short plays will be part of The Fringe of Marin in May, and Interference will have a reading in April in San Francisco. B.C. (Before Cancer), Inbal co-founded BayNVC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a world that works for all, a passion that now infuses her writing. Her family and community are an ongoing dream come true.
HAPPY RETURNS, by Jessica Abrams
Jessica Abrams is a playwright, television writer, storyteller and actress. Her plays have had productions and readings all over Los Angeles, with “The Laughing Cow” receiving Pick of The Week by LA Weekly. It is now published by Off The Wall Plays. In addition to performing storytelling events, she writes dance reviews and blogs for the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative. Her most recent project is KNOCKING ON DOORS, a web series she wrote, directed and starred in. Watch it HERE.
LITTLE SWIMMERS by Sharon Goldner
Sharon Goldner‘s award-winning plays have been produced (2010- present) multiple times in NYC; Brooklyn, NY; Baltimore; FL; and singularly in WI; PA; VA; OH; & MN. Her work appears in Smith & Kraus’ Best Female Stage Monologues 2013. Currently, she has a play being workshopped in Newfoundland, Canada. Sharon is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Additionally, over 30 of Sharon’s short stories have been published in literary journals across the U.S, and England, and she is a 3-time Pushcart Prize nominee for her short fiction.
SOIL, by Kate Bergstrom
Kate Bergstrom, the head of Drama at Laguna Blanca School, is a Santa Barbara native and graduate of UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film & Television with a degree in acting and directing. As a director, her thesis production of Woyzeck with an all-female cast was featured as a sponsered department show. She has spent the last three years working as an educator, director and performer in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, bringing theater into classroom curriculum through Blue Palm, a Silver Lake arts education organization and the Laguna Performing Arts Department. As an actor (AEA), she has performed in everything from Medea with Annette Bening to an installation as part of Suzan-Lori Park’s 365 Plays/365 Days.
