Beaty was just announced as the Aetna American Voices playwright-in-residence for Hartford Stage. This performance will inaugurate his year-long collaboration with the company.
He joins the previously announced Edward Asner in the week-long event that will feature works by Jose Rivera and Michele Lowe as well as a new musical by Cheryl Davis and Doug Cohen.
The festival — which features "script readings, workshops and performances of new plays" — will run Nov. 1-6 at the Connecticut stage. Other events include a discussion with playwrights and an evening of short plays by the winners of the annual teenage playwriting competition "Write On!"
The schedule (subject to change) of events follows:
by Michele Lowe - directed by Rebecca Taichman
"A provocative look at the value of art and culture in wartime set against the back of the Iraq war."
by Jose Rivera - directed by Michael Wilson
"A love story that begins in Puerto Rico and spans 40 years."
book/lyrics by Cheryl Davis, music by Doug Cohen - directed by Jerry Dixon
"A new musical about Bessie Coleman, the world's first African American aviatrix."
by Emilie Beck - directed by Shira Piven
"Emmy Award winner Asner plays Leo Gold, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor in the early stages of dementia."
by Victoria Stewart - directed by Jeremy B. Cohen
"Story of a rising young conservative female political pundit and the lengths she'll go to advance her career as news becomes entertainment and politics a performance."
Scheduled guests: David Grimm (Chick, The Great Osram), Luis Alfaro (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) and Elizabeth Egloff (The Ether Dome)
by Daniel Beaty The performer-playwright "portrays an amazing cast of over 40 characters" in this work set in motion when "the supernatural emergence of a slave ship in front of the Statue of Liberty sends New York into a frenzy."
by Michael Tisdale - directed by Andy Paris
"Real-life stories of Ohio families coming to terms with military losses."
