Two unique events

News
On Monday, October 12, the Guthrie will be participating in a national event with 120 other theaters around the country. (Can you say "National Theater Project"?) Directed as a stage reading by Ben McGovern and featuring actors like Tracey Maloney, Kris Nelson, Charity Jones, Bob Davis, Michael Booth, Mark Benninghofen, Melissa Hart, and Michelle O'Neil - The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later will start at 7 p.m in the proscenium. The script is exactly what it sounds like: The creative team that created the original returned to the scene and did more research. This is like an epilogue. It may be your only chance to see it in the Twin Cities. On Sunday, October 18, the Playwrights' Center will be hosting an event with the Dramatists Guild (the psuedo-sort-of union for playwrights). At 5, there's schmoozing. At 5:30, there's some play reading. At around 6, there's some discussion of what these two service organizations do for playwrights and, at 7 - and probably the reason that we felt this worth including in the news and notes - there will be a panel discussion about "trends in theatre, playwriting, and dramaturgy with Gary Garrison as the moderator." You're kidding me, you're thinking, Not another panel discussion that will just bore the crap out of me and depress me because the panelists just repeat what we all already agree we know instead of what we secretly believe but are too polite to say then make it sound like they said something worth saying when really they could have phoned it in.. . . OK. That's me thinking that. . . But this panel is pretty impressive; It includes Hayley Finn (Playwrights’ Center), Gary Garrison (The Dramatists Guild), John Miller-Stephany (The Guthrie Theater), Ben Krywosz (Nautilus Music-Theater), John Heimbuch (Walking Shadow Theatre Company), Ron Peluso (the History Theatre), Trista Baldwin (Workhaus Collective), Steve Busa (Red Eye Theatre), Anne Bertram (Theatre Unbound), and Elissa Adams (The Children’s Theatre Company). With that many cool people, 1) Someone's gonna slip up and something truthful - The smart money's on Trista or Ben, if you're a gambler - and 2) They must have some large tables over there. Enjoy.
Alan M. Berks

Alan M. Berks is a Minneapolis-based writer whose plays have been seen in New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and around the Twin Cities. He helped create Thirst Theater a while back. Now, he’s the co-founder of this here magazine. He’s also written Almost Exactly Like Us, How to Cheat, 3 Parts Dead, Goats, and more.