This month we begin our Next Stage Initiative. If you’ve been following AVLT for a while, you know that we’ve a vested interest in daring, new plays. We’ve presented dozens of free readings over the years, and the Next Stage Initiative is the logical step into the future.
TRANSPLANT by Alexis Schaetzle was part of our Right Now reading series last season. It was a play that would not leave our minds. We felt strongly that it was already really, really good play, and intriguing, and that given the right kind of attention it had the potential to blossom into a truly great play.
So, this month, playwright Alexis Schaetzle will visit Columbus to work with director Jennifer Schlueter (of the for/word company and OSU’s Department of Theatre) to create an intensive workshop – with room for investigation, rewrites, and experimentation – as well as a limited showcase production. This is your chance to be part of the growth & nurturing of a soon-to-be great play.
TRANSPLANT by Alexis Schaetzle
A woman gets a dead man’s heart. And then she falls in love with him.
Riffe Center Studio One Theatre
Thursday, May 30 @ 8pm
Saturday, June 1 @ 2pm
Admission is Free
Featuring: Camille Bullock, Kyle Feldman, Ian Short, and Cassidy Slaughter-Mason.
Now that her transplanted heart is pumping new blood, Eden is eager to explore the world with fresh perspective. Stanley, her live-in boyfriend, worries she is trying to do too much too soon. Carlyn, a new widow, can’t let go of a stack of photos. And Max is on his own planet. Transplant is a whimsical story about second chances, missed connections, and new beginnings.
Recommended if you like: Sarah Ruhl, Joanna Newsom, Charlie Kaufman, Six Feet Under
ALEXIS SCHAETZLE (playwright) is a New York City transplant by way of Chicago by way of Oregon by way of Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2011 with a BA in Theatre Arts after having spent most of her life onstage (Recent credits include: A Lover’s Dismantling with Halcyon Theatre and Figments with St. Sebastian Players in Chicago) Her first one act play, Astral , was selected for production as a part of the University of Oregon’s New Voices competition, and went on to be a finalist at the American College Theatre Festival where it received a staged reading as a part of the National Playwriting Program. This workshop marks Transplant’s second time on ALT’s turf; it received a staged reading last summer with the Right Now Reading Series. Alexis is so grateful to Jennifer Schlueter and Brad Steinmetz, the cast, and the generous artistic heartbeat of Available Light Theatre for welcoming her with open arms. Alexis will be producing her newest play, Our Little Marble, in one of Brooklyn’s many warehouse theatre spaces this summer.
JEN SCHLUETER (director) is a playwright, director, and scholar motivated by a fascination with the limits and possibilities of the archive, and the challenges to fair use, copyright, and creative transformation that this work can engender. As Joint Artistic Director of the for/word company, an organization dedicated to dynamic stagings and innovative interpretations of material from the historical record, Jen has seen her work staged in Lexington, Chicago, Seattle, New York, and London. She interned in dramaturgy and literary management at the Goodman Theatre (Chicago). Her current book project, Beyond Steppenwolf: Chicago’s Established Alternative Theaters (coedited with Erica Milkovich)—which draws together the voices of practitioners, critics, and scholars—establishes the vital history of Chicago’s long-lived, non-Equity, ensemble-based companies devoted to staging original work. Jen is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at The Ohio State University, for whom she coordinates the Lab Series, a student-driven, department-nurtured performance series focused on new work development. She is a proud Member (and Regional Rep) of the Dramatists Guild.