Spotlight on...Women Writing
Introducing Spotlight on... Women Writing: Festival of New Works, presented by Prism Theatre Company
The festival took place at Brittany Woods Middle School on Friday, August 13th and Saturday, August 14th, 2021 at 7:30pm. Each evening featured staged readings of two plays (one short and one full-length) followed by a talkback with the actors, playwrights, and creative team.
Friday, August 13, 7:30pm
Saturday, August 14, 7:30pm
The Plays
ACADEME.compassion by Dr. Laura Perkins
Friday, August 13th, 2021
Directed by Wendy Greenwood
A whimsical romp inside the final test of graduate school: an oral defense of the written exams. The premise of this academic tradition seems simple enough. Yet, three faculty with wildly different motivations complicate what should be a pro-forma ritual. In comps, an epic battle ensues; passions flare, emotions erupt and manipulative moves threaten the student’s chances for success.
Starring:
Kelly Howe as Dr. Stepoloni
Eleanor Humphrey as Student
Phil Leveling as Dr. Trout
Kay Love as Dr. Fenmore
See the Dove by Laurie McConnell
Friday, August 13th, 2021
Directed by Rayme Cornell
When a friendless white woman encounters a homeless Black man in a city park, their contentious first meeting morphs into mutually satisfying verbal skirmishes as they battle prejudice, loneliness, Sarin and Spanx to find friendship and love among pigeons and doves.
Starring:
Eleanor Humphrey as Ava/Pidge
Don McClendon as Jay
Kelly Schnider as Evelyn
Stay Awhile by Dana Hall
Saturday, August 14th, 2021
Directed by Wendy Greenwood
Samantha has been concerned about her mother, Janice, since her father’s passing. This play deals with complex grief and how it impacts the entire family.It illustrates the changing landscape of mother/daughter relationships. It’s a window into the world most families do not talk about.
Starring:
Carmen Garcia as Janice
Kelly Howe as Samantha
Bandera, Texas by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend
Saturday, August 14th, 2021
Directed by Trish Brown
A dramedy about marriage, motherhood, and the women who came before us and paved our way, Bandera, Texas follows Liz, a native New Yorker forced to relocate to the Texas Hill Country for her husband’s job. She is visited by her long-dead grandmothers, who help her adapt to her new life and remind her that an uprooted woman can grow wherever she is replanted when she knows who she is and carries the people and places she loves inside her.
Starring:
Carmen Garcia as Genevieve
Sam Hayes as Liz
Kay Love as Mary
Jeffrey David Thomas as Dave & 11 others
The Authors
Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend
(Bandera, Texas)
Virginia-born and Chicago-based, Lisa is a member of the Dramatists Guild, an associate member of the Saint Sebastian Players Theater Company, and President of the Board of Arts For All, a NYC-based nonprofit bringing the arts to in-need youth communities (arts-for-all.org). She has a BFA in Film & TV from NYU and two kids who are disappointed she doesn’t write plays about dinosaurs. Lisa is thrilled to be part of Spotlight on... Women Writing!
Dana Hall (Stay Awhile)
Dana Hall is an accomplished and award-winning author, playwright, speaker, and mental health therapist. Her award-winning children's book, Beyond Words was released in 2020. She has been featured in the anthology, Made to Overcome and We All Belong: Musings on Inclusion, Acceptance, and Kindness. Her plays have been featured at Inkwell Theatre Ca., Drawing Cats Theatre (NYC), Palos Village Players (Chicago), Equity Theatre (NYC), Triangle Rainbow Theatre & Riante Theatre (NYC), The New Deal Deal Creative Arts Center (NY), Dramatic Question Theatre (DQT) (NYC), This Moment Productions (IL), Scripps Onstage (CA), and 5 & Dime Theater (FL). Her current projects include: Acceptance into the Women’s Theatre Festival (NC) summer/2021 for her examination of social disparities with the play, No Justice. Her original full-length virtual comedy The Tenant is featured in the Rogue Theater Festival (NYC) 2021. Her comedic monologue Plaque Kills is featured in the Equity Theatre Library. She is thrilled to have her first TYA piece Magic Memories produced by 23 Miles South Theater summer/2021. In addition, she has been published with Smith Scripts UK & Stage Plays. She enjoys writing pieces that speak to the complexity of the human condition with humor and heart.
She is the co-founder and artistic director of This Moment Productions, a virtual theatre company with the mission to increase access and equity in the theatrical arts. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America, International Centre for Women Playwrights, and HonorRoll! DanaHallCreates.com
Laurie McConnell (See the Dove)
Laurie is thrilled to be part of Prism’s inaugural new works festival with See the Dove, which received its first staged reading at R-S Theatrics in 2018, directed by Christina Rios. Laurie’s first foray into playwriting, The Dick and Doe Show, earned a staged reading at Chicago’s Fine Print Theatre in 2013. While writing has been a life-long passion, acting has been Laurie’s primary connection to the arts. Recent roles include Emma in Annapurna (St. Louis Actors' Studio), Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs (New Jewish Theatre - Best Comedy: St. Louis Theatre Critics Circle), Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists (Insight Theatre), Birdie in The Little Foxes (St. Louis Actors' Studio - Best Supporting Actress: St. Louis Theatre Critics Circle), Jennifer in The Realistic Joneses (Rebel and Misfits Productions), Miss Julie in Miss Julie, Clarissa and John (The Black Rep - Best Villain: St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and Joanne in Company (Insight Theatre Company - Best Supporting Actress: St. Louis Theatre Critics Circle). Laurie was also honored to be named “Favorite Stage Actress of 2019” in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Go! List. But her greatest achievement so far has been working with and still staying married to her amazing and forgiving husband, Alan Knoll.
Laura Perkins (ACADEME.compassion.)
Laura Perkins, PhD, APR
Dr. Laura Perkins, former professor and department chair of communication at SIUE, has published and performed both in academic and artistic circles. A sample academic piece she co-wrote and performed with Duff Wrobbel on the Bush-Kerry rhetorical styles won the “best paper award.” She has participated in playwriting workshops with Chicago Dramatists and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and fiction writing at the Chicago Writers’ Loft. She has read her works at prose monologues and poetry slams, open mic nights and salons throughout the Midwest. Born in Mexico City, D.F., she returns often, in person or in her imagination.