In September/October 2015 we moved forward with development on two of these plays:
STAGE 2 DEVELOPMENT OF GREENHOUSE WORK HAS BEEN FUNDED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM ART-NY

ANGEL FOOD CAKE by Kelli Burton
Set in a Tennessee trailer on the lot of an operating drive-in theater, Jean, a lost flight attendant, returns home to win back her ex-boyfriend.   After learning of his recent engagement, Jean sinks into despair. Her repeated showdowns with an obsessive mother and a deranged brother cause Jean to wonder if her family's to blame for her internal anguish, or do their wild delusions ultimately save her.  

Kelli Burton received her undergraduate degree from Berea College and her MFA in Creative Writing from Murray State where she studied under the mentorship of Dale Ray Phillips. She has written scripts for Emmy Award-winning documentaries for History Channel and PBS as well as scripts for NETA Award-winning children's programs. She has most recently worked on The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). Her short play "Foreigner" was recently produced through Grex Group Theater.  Angel Food Cake is her first full-length play.  She currently lives in Brooklyn.  

 

THE IMPRACTICALITY OF MODERN DAY MASTODONS by Rachel Teagle
An offbeat comedy set in a world where childhood dreams have suddenly come true. When everyone becomes what they wanted to be when they grew up, the world is suddenly full of astronauts, ballerinas, and one bewildered mastodon named Jessica Goldman.

Rachel Teagle is a playwright,comedian, and storyteller who grew up in the Silicon Valley and graduated from Carleton College. She subsequently migrated from Minneapolis to Atlanta to Connecticut, working with many supportive and distinctive theaters along the way including Bedlam Theatre, Serenbe Playhouse, and the Atlanta Fringe Festival, which she helped found in 2012. Previous works include: Orange: a farce (about terrorism); solo show Rachel Teagle Believes in Ghosts; and adaptations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Velveteen Rabbit. She was awarded the Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers prize for The Ever and After.

 

GREENHOUSE 2017: OUR COMMUNITY

 

  After two successful years and an overwhelming number of open submissions, Strange Sun invited some of our favorite playwrights and collaborators to submit to this year’s Greenhouse Project.  We will be exploring two plays this spring in the “On Book” phase of our development process.

 

We are happy to announce our first play, Paint It Black, You Devil by Jared Michael Delaney, which will have a public reading on

Saturday, April 29 at 2:30 PM, Shetler Studios, 244 W 54th Street, 12th floor.

 

All are welcome to attend the reading.  The event is free, and you’ll get a chance to meet the playwright and participate in the process of creating new theater! 

 

Paint It Black, You Devil

Or, Get Your Ya-Yas Out

A Concert Play

by Jared Michael Delaney

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The Rolling Stones concert circa 1970, and anything can happen.  A mismatched pair of friends debate the greatest music ever, struggle through an ill-fated drug trip, and come face to face with what may be the Devil himself – all before the concert even starts!  Paint it Black, You Devil expresses the vibrancy of rock and roll in dramatic form: “So if you meet me / Have some courtesy / Have some sympathy and some taste…”  (Jagger, Richards) 

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About the Playwright

Jared Michael Delaney is the Associate Artistic Director and co-founder of Revolution Shakespeare. As an actor, he has worked Off-Broadway and regionally with the Folger Theater, Arden Theater Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Delaware Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre, Sierra Rep. Theater, River Valley Rep, PA Shakes. Festival, Lantern Theater, Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, the Theatre at Monmouth and Azuka Theater, among others. As a playwright, he has had three short plays produced as part of the Philadelphia FringeArts Festival. The Hand of Gaul, his first full-length play, was produced by Inis Nua Theatre Company in April 2013.  His play Noli Timere (Don't Be Afraid) is receiving its world premiere this May at Theatre Conspiracy in Florida.  Jared is also due to complete his MFA in Playwriting from Queens University of Charlotte this December.

 

 

 

 

GREENHOUSE 2016

 

Happy to announce our next phase of development- AT THE TABLE

After our four fabulous readings in April we have chosen 2 exciting pieces to move on to our AT THE TABLE development series.  These two plays will each recieve 20 hours of rehearsal as well as full dramaturgical support over the winter.  We look forward to exploring these plays.

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Lineage by Anne Flanagan

Bosons by K. Frithjof Peterson

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ON BOOK

From our many, many submissions, we chose four plays as part of our ON BOOK reading series.  

Here are the outstanding plays we are looking forward to explore and share with audiences:

 

Lineage by Anne Flanagan

Sputnik: A Love Story by Lowell Williams

Bosons by K. Frithjof Peterson

Always Plenty of Light at the Starlight All Night Diner by Darcy Parker Bruce

 

We will be helping our playwrights develop these plays through a short rehearsal period, and then present a public reading of each of these plays April 2nd and 3rd of 2016. Check back in for specific details about these readings - we can't wait to share this work with audiences.

 

Strange Sun leapt into our second round of Greenhouse Project new play development with a call for plays about 
SCIENCE & ART.  Science and the Arts are intricately linked, as they both seek to answer the age-old questions of humanity.  Many people see science as a debunker of myth, but in actuality, science can be just as magical as imagination.  What is more spectacular than the feats of Mother Nature, the beauty of the human body, or the alchemy of a lab?  Strange Sun will sought out plays that explore the interplay of science and art to develop through the Greenhouse Project. 

 

 

Our selection committee has read many, many excellent plays, and we'd like to share the finalists for this year's Greenhouse project. Regretablly we don't have the resources to explore all the worthy pieces that came our way but we want to ackknowledge these terrific scripts:

 

Animal Magnetism by Brian Christopher Williams

Tap by Caleb Scott

Don't Kill the Angels by Claudia Barnett

El Fin del Mundo by KJ Dwyer

Queen of the Nile by Gwendolyn Rice

The Screen by Tomas Garcia 

What Are You Looking At by Larry Herold

The Aurora Project by Bella Poynton

 

Thanks to the playwrights who shared your work with us.  We were inspired by the breadth of talent and creativity in response to our focus of "The Interplay of Science and Art."

 

Thanks also to our Greenhouse Selection Committee, consisting of The Strange Sun Artistic Staff, Board Members, Founding Members, and other Collaborative Artists including: Kat Gavornik, Evan Mueller, Beth Leonard, Jessica Bashline, Sean Leo, Lauren Sowa, D. Currier, David A. Miller, Michael Maloney, M.L. Hart, and others.

For more information on the Greenhouse Project and its scope click here