NEWxNW
NEWXNW New Play Competition Winner will be Featured in Fertile Ground 2012:
A Noble Failure
by Susan Mach
Staged Reading, directed by Erin Lucas
Sunday, January 22 – 2:00pm
Sunday, January 29 – 7:30pm
CoHo Theater
Tickets are Pay-What-You-Will: Buy Now!
Cast:
Bruce Burkhartsmeier
Kenneth(KC) Sergienko
Jacklyn Maddux
Eleanor O’Brien
Dennis Kelly
Duffy Epstein
A Noble Failure examines what happens when a public school is co-opted by a private, for-profit company. As Ms. Mach describes it, “At present in our country, career teachers are being maligned and demonized in the media for economic and social ills beyond their control. Public schools are being shut down in record numbers, and replaced by privately owned charter schools that often cherry-pick students, disregarding those with low incomes and/or learning disabilities. In addition, these schools fare no better (and in many cases their students perform much worse) on academic achievement tests than they would in a public school setting.”
Lifelong English teacher Rosalyn is trying to keep Ivan, a young Russian immigrant, in school after he gets into trouble for damaging school property. Principal, Truman Spencer, is at the end of his rope because his school’s low test scores have failed to meet the provisions of “No Child Left Behind.” In danger of being closed, the school hires a testing coach from a standardized testing company to work with teachers Rosalyn and Teach for America recruit Darren. When the students’ scores rise dramatically, controversy arises over whether the test coaching was successful, or the high scores were achieved in a less honest fashion. A Noble Failure is a fascinating look at the high stakes environment today’s teachers face as public education revolves around standardized testing.
Playwright Susan Mach has an MA in Playwriting from Boston University. Her first play, Monograms, was produced at Theatre for the New City in New York City, the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in Bloomsburg, PA, Portland Repertory Theatre, and the Icarus Theatre Ensemble in Ithaca, New York. The script, published by Rain City Press in Seattle, also received a Portland Drama Critics Circle Award. Her second play, Angle of View, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and received readings at Portland Repertory Theatre and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. For her third play, The Shadow Testament, she received a Woman Writers Fellowship from Literary Arts. This piece has been workshopped by Artists Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, and JAW/West. It was recently produced by Portland World Theatre. Her play, The Difficult Season, a collaboration with renowned jazz pianist and songwriter Dave Frishberg, was workshopped at Artists Repertory Theatre. She was recently awarded a fellowship from Oregon Literary Arts for her latest play, The Lost Boy, which was also part of Portland Center Stage’s JAW/West development series and recently received a staged reading at Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and was a winner of the 2011 Angus Bowmer Award for Drama at the Oregon Book Awards. Susan has received grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Commission, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the Oregon Council for the Humanities. She has been teaching literature and composition classes at Clackamas Community College for the past twelve years.
The runner-up submission, Apples Fall, by Rebecca Frost Mayer, is an examination of an Oregon family in the apple-growing business, on the east side of Mt. Hood. Familial conflicts arise as children are called back home to attend their ailing father, and determine who should care for him, and the family farm and business. Resolution must occur, even if not smoothly or to everyone’s satisfaction. Rebecca Frost Mayer earned her BFA in Theatre Studies from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. Her plays The Elevator and O’Flannery’s Pub have received staged readings in Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival. She is a recipient of the 2010 National Novel Writing Month Award.
Erin Lucas received a BA in Theatre Arts from Drew University and is currently working toward her MFA in Directing at the University of Portland. She was the founding Producing Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Flashpoint Theatre Company, where she directed The Credeaux Canvas by Keith Bunin, Between Us by Joe Hortua, US Drag by Gina Gionfriddo, Memory House by Kathleen Tolan, The Pink Room by Tennessee Williams, Drive Angry by Matt Pelfry, Division III by Wendy MacLeod and The Box by Dan Aibel. Erin has also directed and dramaturged at HERE Arts Center (NYC), the San Diego Actors Alliance Festival and the University of Colorado. Erin served as intern and play selection committee member for Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival in July 2011. Erin is the Managing Director of CoHo Productions.
