Winners of IGNITION: Emerging Playwrights of Color Announced

Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago’s #1 presenter of new plays, announces the six plays selected for IGNITION:  Emerging Writers of Color, a summer festival to be held August 7-10, 2008 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater.

IGNITION has a dual goal: to introduce exceptional new writers under the age of 40 to Victory Gardens and to jump-start future productions of the winning plays around the country.  The six plays were selected out of 120 submissions from throughout the U.S. and internationally. The six plays chosen for IGNITION and their performance times are:

The Imagine Man

by Christopher De Paola (Chicago)

Thursday August 7th, 7:30p

In an unnamed country, it is illegal to buy and sell real estate. That doesn’t stop Daniel from brokering dangerous deals for people desperate to fulfill their dream of home ownership.

A Better Babylon

by Michael Lew (New York)

Friday August 8th, 7:30p

In 1960s UC Berkeley, a wave of student radicalism engulfs a young Chinese couple, a black protester, and a Chicana biologist. Personal dreams collide with political conscience, testing the limits of mentorship, friendship, and love. 

 The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

by Kristoffer Diaz (New York)

Saturday August 9th, 3:00p

Macedonio Guerra is a pro wrestler who has discovered the next big thing: an impossibly charismatic hip-hop-influenced Indian kid from Brooklyn.  His boss has the perfect idea for their characters: terrorists. An in-depth comic look at pro wrestling, geopolitics, and refrigerator crispers. 

Bathing Van Gogh

by Brian Tucker (New York)

Saturday August 9th, 7:30p

Bathing Van Gogh is a generational glance at four friends negotiating a dying friendship and coping the best they can—with drugs, booze, sketchpads, and jazz.

Year Zero

by Michael Golamco (Los Angeles)

Sunday August 10th, 12:00p

Year Zero is a comedic drama about young Cambodian Americans in Long Beach, California – about reincarnation, redemption, and everything that we try to leave in the past… but we can’t leave behind.

Fati’s Last Dance

by France-Luce Benson (Pittsburgh)

Sunday August 10th, 3:00p

Can an aging Ballet diva, a princely break dancer, a reality show reject, and a Brazilian Guru move a sleeping beauty off the couch and into the spotlight? Fati’s Last Dance, a touching, off-beat comedy tells the story of a young Haitian woman’s journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance, and her family’s gracefully awkward steps towards overcoming grief.

All six winning playwrights are coming to Chicago to participate in the festival, and leading theater artists of color from Chicago and nationally are being tapped to direct and perform the new play readings.

In addition to the six festival participants, Victory Gardens Theater has named six finalists. The finalist plays are Dirty by Carla Ching (New York), Holly Down in Heaven by Kara Lee Corthron (New York), The Great White Way by Sigrid Gilmer (Los Angeles), Native Speaker by Nambi E. Kelley (Chicago), West of the Willow Tree by Janine Nabers (New York), and How Far? Too Far? by Tania Richard (Chicago).

An IGNITION Festival Pass, offering entry to every reading and special event, is only $20.  Single tickets to individual readings and select special events are $5.  For tickets, information, and the complete IGNITION schedule of events, call the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater box office, 773.871.3000, or purchase tickets online at VictoryGardens.org.

In addition to the readings, IGNITION will boast an invitation-only pre-festival kick-off event on Wednesday, August 6, a late night party with music on Friday, August 9, break-out sessions, and a celebrated keynote speaker to be announced. 

Following the festival weekend, two of the plays will be selected for intensive workshops during Victory Gardens’ 2008-2009 season.