The 2008 Finalists for the Angus Bowmer Award for Drama are:
Dori Appel for Hat Tricks. Dori says Hat Tricks "is a compilation of thematically-related scenes and monologues. This makes casting very flexible- it may be performed by as few as three or by more than a dozen actresses. All of Hat Tricks' scenes can stand alone as short plays, all are to some degree comedic, all involve experiences of women in the second half of life, and all feature a prominent or unusual use of a hat." Dori also says "I write comedies that include some serious commentary, and since I'm a poet as well as a playwright, the use of language is important in my work. In those plays which are compilations of interconnected short scenes, a piece that started out as a poem has sometimes become a monologue or a scene for two or more actors."
Jacklyn Maddux for Strange Sightings in the Great Northwest. Jacklyn describes her play this way: "In this coming of age play, things are not always as they appear. The old have a lot to learn from the young about seven ex-husbands, bad English accents and a neighbor who flies the flag at night." Jacklyn's favorite playwrights include Chekhov, Ibsen, Albee, Sam Shepard, Athol Fugard and Shakespeare; her inspirations include "good plays, good actors, and good books", as well as "an open landscape where anything seems possible."
Steve Patterson for Lost Wavelengths. Steve describes his play: "In a bittersweet comic drama, DJ and self-styled musicologist Murray stalks the wilds of Middle America in search of strange and wonderful songs by amateur musicians to record for his public radio program. From a parade of odd, self-deluded, and at times deranged outsiders, he hopes to lure "Enola Guy"--a mysterious, death-obsessed guitarist who never reveals his identity, grants interviews, or plays in public--into the open." When asked about his influences, Steve says "Probably my big three influences have been Samuel Beckett, Sam Shepard, and Eugene Ionesco. In a form with so many constraints and structures, they showed me the pleasure and power of breaking the rules."
George Taylor for Renaissance. George describes his play: "Renaissance uses a real-life painting competition between Leonardo and Michelangelo as a springboard for a drama that examines art and politics, power and manipulation, jealously and regret, life and...whatever comes after that. It puts two egomaniacal, polar-opposite artists on stage with one politician, during a time of artistic and political upheaval and watches what develops. But then Renaissance imagines that they are still with us, still working out the issues that divided and united them 500 years ago. It deals with the clichés of what we think we know about them, in historic and contemporary terms." George says "I view theatre as a continuation of philosophy by other means. Philosophy is how we seek to understand our world and our place in it. Same goes with theatre. It’s not a coincidence that both disciplines come to us from the same place and time." George says his influences include Chekhov, Albee, Shaw and Stoppard.Labels: Oregon Book Awards
