2018-2019
Heller Shorts 2018: “On Cloud 9”
Heller Shorts 2018: “On Cloud 9”
For the first production of our 2018-19 Season, Heller Theatre Company proudly presents the latest collection of short plays for the ninth annual “Heller Shorts” festival. Loosely based around the themes of paradise, dreams, and desires, the seven short plays cover an array of topics, genres, characters, and tones:
“A Dream to Save Your Back”
written by Riley VanZee; directed by George Romero
“The Gates of Bliss”
written by John Fisher; directed by Thomas Hunt
“Wind and Shadow”
written by Brad Sinor; directed by Nichole Martin
“The Makeover”
written by Susan Apker; directed by Jenny Clyde
“The Moon is My Neighbor”
written by Shadia Dahlal; directed by Tara Moses
“Make a Wish”
written by Dan Hitzman; directed by Luke Thomspon
“Renovations”
written by Luke Thompson; directed by Beka Buster-Schenck
Double Feature!
The Prairie and La Frontera
Coming off the smash success of last year’s “Triple Feature!” (winner of four awards from the 2018 Tulsa Awards for Theatre Excellence [TATE] including Outstanding Original Play, Outstanding Ensemble Cast, and Outstanding Direction), Heller Theatre Company has selected two one-act plays by Tulsa playwrights to continue its mission of supporting original work.
Subtitled The Prairie and La Frontera, “Double Feature!” pairs two world-premiere one-act plays that explore and celebrate diversity, humanity, and building bridges.
“Trade Privileges”
written by David Blakely; directed by Michael Wright
Heller Theatre Company’s Playwright-in-Residence and winner of both Outstanding Direction at the 2018 TATEs and Outstanding Original Play at the last two ceremonies, David Blakely presents his latest world premiere one-act. "Trade Privileges" examines race relations among whites, Indians and freed former slaves in Indian Territory in 1859. Though historical, the story is a personal one, and the societal conflicts remain timely.
“Niñas de la Tierra”
written and directed by Shadia Dahlal
¡Viva la vida! Life is magic. But for immigrants who choose to cross our southern border seeking a better life, the path is filled with danger from humans, and sometimes from supernatural spirits. “Ninas de la Tierra” is a modern Mexican folktale of struggle, survival and magical realism along la frontera.
Check out the cast here.
"Sovereignty”
Sovereignty
By Mary Kathryn Nagle
The personal and the political are one and the same in the deeply moving, daring drama from native Oklahoman playwright and lawyer Mary Kathryn Nagle. Sovereignty splits its time in two parallel, deeply connected timelines: the early 1830s in Cherokee Nation, and in what is now called Oklahoma in the year 2020. In the first, tensions rise as Andrew Jackson’s White House threatens to remove the Cherokee from their land; in the second, Sarah Polson must confront her ubiquitous past in her work as a young Cherokee lawyer fighting for the restoration and preservation of her Nation’s inherent jurisdiction.
Check out the cast in our blog.
The 25 Hour Play Festival
Attention all Playwrights, Directors, Actors, and Stage Managers: Heller Theatre invites your participation in its upcoming June production, “The 25 Hour Play Festival.”
“The 25 Hour Play Festival” is Heller Theatre Company’s inaugural venture into this format—writing, rehearsing, and performing an evening’s worth of short plays in a single day. As opposed to ordinary 24 hour play festivals, Heller is giving its artists an entire extra hour, ensuring that we will have the absolute best festival of its kind ever.
Beginning on the afternoon of Friday, June 21, participants will meet at Henthorne Performing Arts Center off Brookside, where all activities of the Festival will take place. Actors will be divided into groups. Playwrights will be given a number of Tulsa themed “prompts” which will serve as inspiration for a short, 10-minute play which they will write overnight. Plays will be limited to 8 typewritten pages. Prompts might include props, settings, costume pieces, or a single line of dialog. Writers then have to include a certain number of the prompts in their piece.
Beginning Saturday morning, directors take their newly written scripts and begin rehearsal time with their assigned actors. Each group gets a quick tech rehearsal late afternoon. Finally, all plays will be performed that evening, Saturday June 2 at the Henthorne PAC.
“The 25 Hour Play Festival”, with its creation of multiple original plays by area artists, embodies Heller Theatre Company’s mission statement: "Heller Theatre Company presents compelling and original theatre to raise awareness and open minds through art."