UPDATE - 11/12:
Bivins just landed another world premiere for this season. See below for the complete list, but this February, PianoFight will premiere "The Position," the show we commissioned Bill to write after winning our playwriting competition "ShortLived 2.0."
Also in February, SF Playhouse will premiere Bivins' "The Apotheosis of Pig Husbandry" as the inaugural show in their "Sand Box Series" of new plays.
That brings my count to four world premiere full-lengths and another world premiere one-act.
Two excellent aspects of this: 1) Couldn't happen to a nicer, more talented or professional guy than Bill, and 2) It's evidence of new work making a bit of comeback in the SF Scene.
- CB
# # #
And the Most Produced Local Playwright Is ...
Bill Bivins.
I'm not actually sure if this is factually accurate, but allow me to present my case:
"The Afterlife of the Mind" - premieres at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley tonight and moves to Stage Werx in November.
"The Apotheosis of Pig Husbandry" - Part of the SF Playhouse reading series this year.
"Pulp Scripture" - Premiered at Fringe and is moving to Off-Market in November (it also won more awards than any other show at the Fringe)
"The Position" - No links up on this yet but this full-length (slated to premiere at Off-Market in February) was commissioned by PianoFight after Bill won our playwriting contest ShortLived 2.0
Also, insider info has it that he's probably getting into the Bay Area One Acts Festival in February.
So I guess this is the question I'm posing to the SF Theater Community: Is there another local playwright who has this number of productions in the current season?
If not, Bill Bivins is hands down the most produced local playwright of the 2009-2010 season.
Congrats Bill!
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5 comments:
As far as actual productions (not staged readings) and world premieres for the 2009-10 season:
Philip Kan Gotanda has #5 Angry Red Drum & the Future Project.
Octavio Solis has the Future Project & Ghosts of the River (Teatro Vision and moved to Brava) and at some point the Steinbeck Project.
Enrique Urueta has Forever Never Comes and Learn To be Latina.
A list of world premieres by local playwrights is in the Oct issue of TBA magazine, and doesn't include non-world premieres by locals.
Cool! Thanks for this Karen. So as far as I can tell it's a dead heat between Octavio Solis and Bill.
Bill's three world premiere full-lengths are "The Afterlife of the Mind," "Pulp Scripture" and "The Position." And whatever goes into BOA will presumably be a world premiere fully-staged one-act. And my guess is Bill picks up one more new something throughout the course of the season.
I made the point about Bill mostly because I was surprised. Before this year I'd heard of the cats you mention (most of them from TBA magazine), but I hadn't heard Bill's name or seen his work. Then suddenly he's got four world premieres popping up around town and it's like, "Whoa, where'd he come from?"
I'm sure he's been around, but the Afterlife of the Mind production came about, I believe, as a result of Bill being in TBA's Playwrights Showcase, where Virago saw his play.
I feel a little weird posting on a blog when the topic is, um, me; but yes, Karen, my scene reading at the 2008 Playwrights Showcase helped make the initial connection with Virago Theatre Company. Laura Lundy-Paine, Virago’s artistic director, invited me to submit “The Afterlife of the Mind” for their summer reading series; it got accepted, had a staged reading in July of that year and, based on the response to that reading, Virago made me an offer to produce the play.
And, yes, I have been around—working for years in film, more recently developing plays in the Will Dunne workshop and the Monday Night Group. But Carl is right in the sense that I haven’t gotten much press. Who knows? Maybe that’ll change now.
Come see “Afterlife”! Tickets available at http://www.viragotheatre.org/home.html. Bring friends. Bring reviewers! Do you know any reviewers? And come see “Pulp Scripture” when it opens at Off-Market on Nov. 7th. And come see “The Position” when it opens in January. And come see “The Apotheosis of Pig Husbandry”… oh, wait. I’ve said too much….
Bill Bivins
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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