Ensemble Theatre is proud to host the 3rd event of our 7th Annual Colombi New Plays Festival with readings of new short plays by area playwrights.

March 28 will see new short plays by:

Richard Asbury (DRUMS OF ZANZIBAR)
Ann Cohen (OUT OF THE WOODS)
Barbara Harkness (BUMBLEFUZZ AND CATERWAMP)
Agnes Hermann (NUDITY REQUIRED)
Michael Oatman (FRIENDS LIKE THESE)

The short play readings will be held at
CLE Urban Winery
2180B Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118

The Annual Colombi New Plays Festival is an opportunity for area playwrights to showcase their work for Ensemble audiences. This year's Festival, our 7th, also features a production of Cleveland Heights playwright Tom Frattare's new play MAMA / MOON running March 9 - March 25 at Ensemble Theatre.

All Colombi Festival new play readings are FREE and open to the public.

For a complete list of events and to our upcoming production of

Angels in America: Perestroika running April 27-May 20

 please visit www.EnsembleTheatreCLE.org

call 216-321-2930

or email info@ensemble-theatre.org.

 

 

Playwright Bios:

RICHARD ASBURY
Richard S. Asbury is an African American writer born in Western PA as the
son of a Postal Worker and a Beautician. He is married with two grown children and three grandchildren.

Richard earned his BS Ed. from Ohio University and his MA Ed. from Pepperdine University. He also earned his MS Ed. from Cleveland State University.
Richard is a 20-year U.S. Navy Vet (Retired as a LCDR) and 20-year Training Consultant.

He is a self-taught Playwright who hopes to bring forth stories of the Black community, that deliver messages everyone can relate to and find enlightening, and entertaining.

Richard would like to thank everyone for your attendance tonight.

ANN COHEN
Ann Cohen is a playwright, poet, songwriter, librettist, journalist, interior designer and when the mood strikes, she sketches people. And she sings. Her screenplays include Ancient History and Murder in B Flat. Her musical, Openings, graced the stage at Ensemble Theatre as a concert reading, part of Stagewrights New Works Festival. A reading of her short play, Prospect, was also presented there. As a journalist, she was a film reviewer, specializing in French cinema, and she has written about interior design. Currently, she creates works for the theater. Out of the Woods is a monologue about a particular kind of journey. Ann was born in Cleveland, and her higher education took her to the University of Cincinnati, and then to University of Connecticut.

BARBARA HARKENSS

Emeritus Professor of Anthropology from Kent State University, Barbara has taken up playwriting since her retirement. When professionally active, she worked with archaeological teams in Ohio, Illinois, France, and Mexico. Several of her ten-minute and short plays have been produced in Cincinnati, Yellow Springs, OH, Seattle, WA and Ensemble Theatre of Cleveland Heights. Full-length plays given New Voices presentation by Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative include The Disappointed, Edge Walking, and Stairway to the Crown. 

 

AGNES HERMANN
Agnes Herrmann is an actor and has worked on stage, on film, and for many years in NYC doing voice-overs. She is a member of Ensemble Theatre’s Stagewrights Workshop in Cleveland. She’s written many 10-minute plays and a full-length play, Makin’ Sawce, all of which had readings at Ensemble Theater. She is working on a full-length musical, currently entitled The Curious Cabinet, a story about illegal immigration, intended for both adults and children, as well as a new piece entitled Limbo.

MICHAEL OATMAN
In 2011, Michael Oatman won the CPAC Workforce Fellowship and the Cleveland Art Prize in 2010 for Best Emerging Artist and the 2010 Lantern Award for Best Play. In 2017 he co-wrote Objectively/Reasonable which tackled the community’s response to the shooting of Tamir Rice. In 2016 The Phoenix Theater produced Starve the Devil. 2015 brought the production of Killing Black Superman at the Kultivation Theater and a commissioned piece Crazy Man for Weathervane Theater. Michael Oatman earned an English Degree from Cleveland State University in 2004 and completed his MFA in theater, from the Northeastern Ohio Master of Fine arts Consortium in 2008. He currently teaches playwriting at Kent State University and serves as a playwriting mentor the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

 

 

 

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