[NEohioPAL] Mark Your Calendars! The Mac Wellman Homecoming Festival

[Playwrights Local via NEohioPAL]

PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL ANNOUNCES

THE MAC WELLMAN HOMECOMING FESTIVAL


COMING IN MARCH 2017!

Playwrights Local announces *The Mac Wellman Homecoming Festival*, a
three-day celebration of the widely renowned, groundbreaking playwright who
was born and raised in Cleveland. Running March 23 through 25, 2017, the
Festival provides long-overdue recognition of one of the city’s most-lauded
literary products.


Most events are free and do not require reservations, and will be held at
Cleveland State University, a major partner in the event. Playwrights Local
proudly welcomes Mr. Wellman himself to the proceedings, thanks in part to
funding provided by the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (NEOMFA)
creative writing program.

As a playwright, Mac Wellman has been described as an “avatar of
alternatives to the well-made play” (American Theatre) and “James Joyce
reborn as a rap artist” (The New York Times). As a professor of
playwriting, he has been praised by prominent former students as “a teacher
who changed my life” (Annie Baker) who “explodes all the boundaries” (Sibyl
Kempson) and “extends the limits of what’s possible on stage” (Sarah Ruhl).
He has received multiple Obie awards along with NEA, Guggenheim, and
Rockefeller fellowships; had hundreds of productions in the U.S., U.K.,
Europe, and Asia; and founded one of the country’s most prestigious Master
of Fine Arts programs at Brooklyn College. The Festival is the first
Cleveland-based event in honor of this tireless theatrical innovator, who
moonlights as an accomplished writer of poetry and fiction.

The Mac Wellman Homecoming Festival features *productions and readings of
classic plays* *including **Cleveland, Bitter Bierce, Harm’s Way, and The
Sandalwood Box*. There will be *a Q&A with the playwright, an exhibit of
memorabilia, a panel discussion, and an open wrap party*. Special sessions
include *Bad Scenes**, a collection of short plays by local writers*
responding to a signature Wellman exercise.


Additional *partners for this event are Cleveland State University’s
Department of English and Michael Schwartz Library. Along with Playwrights
Local, performers include Theater Ninjas, convergence-continuum, Baldwin
Wallace University Department of Theatre and Dance, and Cleveland State
University Department of Theatre and Dance*. The Festival was curated by
David Todd, Artistic Director of Playwrights Local in Cleveland.

The Festival’s primary locations will be Drinko Hall and the Michael
Schwartz Library, both on the campus of Cleveland State University (2121
Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115). All events at those locations are free
and open to the public, with no tickets or reservations required. Tickets
for the March 25 performance of Harm’s Way at The Liminus can be purchased
through convergence-continuum at http://www.convergence-continuum.org/. A
final gathering at The Tremont Tap House also will be free.


*Complete information, including a schedule and a Mac Wellman press pack,
is available on the Festival website at
http://playwrightslocal.org/mac-wellman-homecoming-festival/
<http://playwrightslocal.org/mac-wellman-homecoming-festival/>. *

“Mac Wellman is the present-day experimental theatre’s wily uncle,” says
Clyde Simon, Artistic Director of convergence-continuum. “His plays are
roller-coaster rides across this strange landscape we call America, and the
Mac Fest is a rare chance for us all to hop on.”


CONTACT

Tom Hayes

Managing Director

Playwrights Local

(216) 302-8856

hayes at playwrightslocal.org
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