Anita Montgomery, ACT Theatre's Education and Outreach Director, directs four short plays chosen from a Field’s End playwriting workshop conducted earlier this year. Elizabeth Heffron led “The Play’s the Thing”, a dynamic craft course in which students wrote original one-act plays. Each finished play became eligible for BPA’s Stage Off playwriting competition.
Caroline Smith's The Taming of the Shrewd is a modern take on the battle of wills in a marriage. Sharon Fentiman's Remembering Ishcabibble presents a pair of old men haunted, or visited by, their future. Breathe Easy by Amanda Paige shows how strangers forge a bond in an emergency room. And Cracked by Christie Capps presents an honest and funny portrayal of two women in a psychiatric ward.
Of the seven workshop participants, three submitted two plays each for consideration. Montgomery, who described all the entries as “very human stories,” anticipates that the showcased works will form a nice evening together. “The works carry a common thread – they focus on people making their way in the world and overcoming their hardships.” She continues, “Each work offers a lovely arc, and I was especially drawn to the strength of the character relationships.”
Anita Montgomery is an acclaimed theatre director, teaching artist, and arts administrator. For the last five years, she has been Literary Associate and Director of Education and Outreach at ACT Theatre in Seattle where she manages the literary and new-play development departments. Anita also created and manages ACT's Young Playwrights Program (YPP), in which four Bainbridge Island young playwrights were recently recognized through BPA’s Word Series.
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