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• New Works on the way

HUNTINGTON -- With summer musicals ready to take aim and spray that sure-fire Broadway comedy into the amphitheaters around the region, Marshall University's Department of Theatre is diving inside for something completely different.

The play-writing lab for new theatrical works is now open.

Presented by Marshall University Theatre and the Marshall University College of Fine Arts, the second annual Robert Hinchman New Works Festival starts Thursday and runs through Saturday with both staged and unstaged readings of six new plays.

All readings will begin at 8 p.m. in the Francis Booth Experimental Theatre of the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse.

Following the readings, there will be a discussion/question-and-answer session with the playwright, director and cast. Participation is both welcome and encouraged.

Jack Cirillo, associate professor of theater, said New Works is a behind-the-scenes slice of how a play is formed that lets an audience interact with the writer and give feedback on freshly written plays by some of the Tri-State's most prolific playwrights and personalities, including Jon Joy and Clint McElroy, as well as guests from Louisville and New York.

"We've been doing the summer stock tradition for some time, and we feel that the world doesn't need any version of a Neil Simon play from us," Cirillo said. "We're doing something a bit different and we think valid and worth coming out for."

Cirillo said New Works is something akin to a laboratory experience where the playwright and the director can feed off of what they are seeing in the reading room and rewrite on what they are seeing organically.

The feedback and interplay with audience following a presentation is valuable for both community and theater students as well.

"I think it's critical in the present-day environment because this is the only time during the year our students are getting exposed to how a play is developing as it is developing," Cirillo said. "We're usually in working on actors and scenes and building sets and producing shows that are already established ... This is a play in its infancy and getting to see how it develops and what leads to a final performance of a play."

Tickets for the performances are $8 per evening or a $20 pass for all three nights.

For further information or to purchase tickets, visit the Marshall University Theatre box office in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center or call 696-ARTS (2787). Box Office hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Chris Harris/The Herald-Dispatch

Chris Ferris, left, Travis McElroy, center, and T. Michael Murdock perform the play “Interrogation” during the 2007 New Works Festival at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center at Marshall University.

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File photo/The Herald-Dispatch

Clint McElroy will present “Knight-Owl” during the New Works Festival at Marshall University.

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File photo/The Herald-Dispatch

Jon Joy will get feedback on his “Lunch at the Fork ’n’ Finger” and “A Sheep Among Wolves” during the New Works Festival.

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