"If I Did This" goes to the Arkansas New Play Festival

From June 14-16, TheatreSquared in Fayetteville will be presenting four new full-length plays (and a number of other exciting events) in the 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival.  I'm delighted that I've been invited to take part with my play "If I Did This."  I'll actually be in the city for ten days -- working with a director and actors on my play, talking shop with my fellow playwrights and the theater-makers of Fayetteville, and exploring the city!

TheatreSquared presents

2013 Arkansas New Play Festival

at the Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios
Fayetteville, Arkansas
June 14-16, 2013

DON CHIPOTLE, by Juan Francisco Villa — Friday, June 14, 6:30pm

Two 11-year-old boys—a hero and his sidekick—set out on a quixotic quest through the streets of the Lower East Side to locate the missing Twin Towers. A raw, comic fable that draws on the Columbian-American experience in New York, this new play shines a bright light on social hypocrisies and the adventurous spirit of youth.

RAW VISION, by Les Wade — Friday, June 14, 8:30pm

An African-American brother and sister, both 30-something, live a ramshackle existence well off the grid in southern Louisiana. She is the brilliant, if deeply conflicted, caretaker of her artist brother, whose paintings have recently begun to turn up on the New Orleans art scene. When an outside interloper — who can't seem to keep his story straight — insinuates himself into their close-knit world, all three lives are changed forever. A gorgeously poetic drama, Raw Vision will remind many of the Oscar-nominated film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, in its heartfelt portrayal of a stubbornly offbeat way of life.

IF I DID THIS, by E.M. Lewis — Saturday, June 15, 6:30pm

A brainy, edge-of-your-seat thriller about a ghost writer, an acquitted murder suspect who is his subject, and the literary editor who may (or may not) be his best friend in the world. A brilliantly theatrical jigsaw puzzle, this play goes to the heart of the question, “What is truth?” — or maybe, “Whose ‘truth’ is really true?” Part film noir, part theatrical tease, If I Did This will toy with your perceptions and touch your heart.

SWIMMING WITH VAN GOGH, by Susan Felder — Saturday, June 15, 8:30pm

Set in a lighthouse just off the coast of Lake Superior, Swimming with Van Gogh tells the story of a middle-aged painter who stumbles into sudden prominence, only to come face-to-face with her own worst doubts—not to mention an old flame, a mid-career artist who knows just how to keep her off-balance. When an adoring young art student invades her lighthouse retreat, the chemistry becomes overpowering. This play takes a profound look at the possibility, and impossibility, of originality and renewal as an artist.

Special Performances:
ARKANSAS YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS SHOWCASE — Saturday, June 15, 2:00pmIn partnership with the University of Arkansas Brown Chair of Literacy, TheatreSquared is proud to present, for the fourth year, the Arkansas Young Playwrights Showcase. Students from across the state have been invited to submit scripts, and six will be selected for public readings at the Arkansas New Play Festival.

THE 24-HOUR PLAY-OFF — Sunday, June 16, 6:30pm TheatreSquared is partnering with Fayetteville-based Ceramic Cow Productions to present the Northwest Arkansas 24-Hour Play-Off, a perennial favorite for artists and audiences alike. Teams of artists will write, rehearse, and perform a new ten-minute play, all within the space of 24 hours, in competition for a grand prize sponsored by local businesses.

Click here for more information about the festival, and about TheatreSquared!

April 18 -- Reading of "If I Did This" in NYC!

Coming up next:  A reading of my new play "If I Did This" in New York City on Wednesday, April 18th, at 7pm.  I hope friends and colleagues in the area will come out and see!  The play is about a grieving mystery writer who is hired to ghostwrite the "story of the century" -- but finds himself becoming part of the story instead.  
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New Shoe Theatre presents a reading of

IF I DID THIS

By EM Lewis
Directed by Elysa Marden

with
Joel de la Fuente
Melanie Nicholls-King
Brian Fuqua
Juliet Brett
Pamela Nyberg

April 18, 2012 ~ 7pm
Dramatists Guild, 1501 Broadway, 7th floor
Free/No Reservations Required
www.newshoetheatre.org
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What's past is prologue.

Finished a draft of a new full-length play!

I had a wonderful weekend at Passage Theater in Trenton, workshopping the new play that I have JUST finished -- a five-character murder mystery called "If I Did This."  A big thank you to Passage for organizing this wonderful event, in which eight members of our playwriting workshop were able to work with directors and actors from New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia -- more than sixty theater artists in all!  Thank you, also, to my friend David Hilder for his dramaturgy and directing, and to my wonderful cast:

• Chad Hoepner, as mystery novelist Hal Walker
• Kathryn Markey, as senior editor Brett Martin
• David Crommett, as real estate agent (and acquitted murderer) Donnie Lawrence
• Brielle Silvestri, as Donnie's teenage daughter, Miriam Lawrence
• Nedra McClyde, as detective Hayden Quinn

Now...  delving into the rewrites!

Passage Theater Playwrights Lab Retreat! 

David Hilder, directing our merry little band of actors.

Characters, from left to right:  Brett, Hayden, Hal, Donnie, Miriam.

Characters at the music stands:  Brett, Hal, Donnie.

If I Did This
90 minutes
Five Characters:  2 Men / 1 Woman / 2 characters that can be played by either men or women (all any race)

Grieving mystery novelist Hal Walker has been sent by his editor, Brett Martin, to the home of Donnie Lawrence -- infamously acquitted in the murder of his wife.  But Hal didn't anticipate the presence of Donnie's teenage daughter, Miriam, nor the emotional undertow that his own wife's death creates as he attempts to ghostwrite Donnie's book "My Story."