"SELF CARE" IN ONE BY TENN
July 2019
Jacksonville's Actors' Collective, under the vision and direction of Caryl Butterly, presented an evening of short plays at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theater. (It's not everyday you get billing just below Tennessee Williams!) "Self Care", a ten-minute play with a cast of three about a massage appointment with a time-bending twist, premiered with this event.
NEW VOICES: YOUNG VOICES
premiering June 2019
I am dramaturging Players by the Sea's 2018-2019 New Voices program, which I participated in during its initial 2016-2017 season. This year, the program puts a spotlight on teen voices Lauren Hancock and Worth Culver. I have supported their writing and editing process with feedback, readings, research, and guidance and am happy to lead a talkback after the June 7th premiere.
THE FOOD OF LOVE
Thursdays April 4th, 11th, and 25th, 2019
A mystery of identity, the poetry of a beautiful meal, a recipe for romance. This site-specific play in five courses is a queer take on the literary classic Cyrano de Bergerac and gives "dinner theater" a whole new meaning: attendees are served the same romantic dinner Roxanne enjoys in the show's plot.
The script was developed with Phase 8 Theatre Company's ensemble of Stephanie Santiago, Linzy Lauren, and Terrence Scott under the direction of JaMario Stills. Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art's Head Chef Amanda Henninger created the menu and feasts for two performances and an encore at the museum's NOLA cafe.
A CAPTIVATING CAPER
April 11, 2019
Three suspicious characters; two stolen artworks; several clues; one night of museum mystery and interactive intrigue. This one-hour immersive experience was designed for a dinner party in the galleries of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens.
HALLOWEEN MOON RISING
October 25-26, 2018 at the Matheson Museum
Museum-goers became Prohibition-era murder witnesses and active investigators in this immersive theater experience equally inspired by authentic Florida history and the cult film CLUE. The Matheson History Museum and Y-Not Theater company brought this seance-sational story to life.
Photos by Aleksandr Wilde.
PONTYPOOL
October 2019
Canadian playwright Tony Burgess' cerebral take on zombie viruses PONTYPOOL was selected for adaptation to the Players by the Sea stage and a Northeast Florida setting. I worked with Tony and local makers to ensure the transposed location and elements (e.g., blizzard to hurricane) served the story.
NOMINEE: BEST PLAYWRIGHT
FOLIO Weekly Best of Jax 2018
It's an honor just to be a playwright, but I'm delighted to be nominated alongside talented folks for the reader-determined title of Best Playwright. Congratulations to Al Letson on winning this honor.
WOMEN'S WORK
July 12, 19, & 26, 2018
Commissioned by Phase 8 Theatre in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, this immersive theatre piece centers on three freshman art students whose experience of a semester long course unfolds over three acts and three stories of the downtown museum campus, including the third floor exhibit "A Dark Place of Dreams", featuring the work of Louise Nevelson.
NYC READING: MADAME BONAPARTE
March 2018
A staged reading produced by Rockslide Productions at Park Center West not far from the New York Historical Society.
MADAME BONAPARTE
May 26 - June 3, 2017
Players by the Sea's inaugural New Voices festival, the culmination of a year-long play development process, presented Madame Bonaparte, adapted from the book Wondrous Beauty by Carol Berkin.
EU Jacksonville said, "...facts were so well presented that we were enthralled by Betsy’s unlikely but true story."
THE FUTURE IS FEMALE FESTIVAL
May 16, 2017
Clamour Theater Company invited me to participate in a night of one acts. I obliged with "The Precdent", a ten minute play about a continuum of women throughout history making the decision to strike out on their own.
TO THE SEA
October 21, 2015
Like the creek, sea, and river they connect to, the stories of a boy, a man, and an elder flow, shift, and interweave in this three-man, theatrical exploration of the human relationship with water commissioned by Players by the Sea and LEAP Creative.
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Photo illustration by Jim Alabiso.
FROM FATHER TO SON: AN ODYSSEY
November 2014
I adapted and directed Homer's classic from the point of view of his son Telemachus in order to suit the high school that commissioned.
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Photo by Celeste Burns.
WAR PAINT: A SUMMER CAMP STORY
2012
This original one act chronicles the night before summer camp ends: games are afoot, friendships will be tested, and hearts may be broken, all by the glow of the stars and in the beams of the flashlights. Offers colorblind and some gender flexible casting.
XOCHITL: A TALE OF A PRINCESS AND A PEA
April - May 2011
Express Children's Theatre in Houston, Texas commissioned this bilingual, one act version of The Princess and the Pea set in Mexico. Informed by the convergence of European and Native cultures, I set it in the 1700s.
SLAMMED
2009-2010 season
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater commissioned this three-person one act to tour as a complement to their mainstage, August Wilson's Radio Golf. Developed in partnership with and directed by Brent Hazelton.
MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB FINALIST
2009
My ten-minute play off the couch was presented at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Utkarsh Ambudkar (Pitch Perfect) and Chris Abbott (Girls), as a finalist for the Dentyne REALationships playwriting competition.