Follow Heller Theatre Company as we perform across venues throughout Tulsa, offering original works that entertain and provoke. We are thrilled to announce our best season yet! Entering our sixth year as an independent theatre company, we are reflecting on our past while blazing ahead.
For our third all-original season, we honor our past by presenting a series of shows that highlight what we do best. In August, Heller Shorts celebrates its tenth year by pairing a mix of never-before-seen world-premieres alongside some of our favorites from the past decade of Shorts. In the Fall, we present The Deaths of Sybil Bolton, the newest work by Playwright-in-Residence David Blakely, an expanded reworking of his TATE-winning* one-act play Four Ways to Die. Returning in Spring 2020 is our newest tradition, Double Feature. Do you have a favorite Short that didn’t get its due or a Second Sunday Serial you didn’t want to end? They may pop up again in Double Feature!
We are overjoyed to announce that we will be providing a stipend to our actors for our two full-length productions (The Deaths of Sybil Bolton and Double Feature!. Heller Theatre Company believes in the value of all artists and is proud to be the first non-equity company in Tulsa to pay every artist. (As “Heller Shorts” is a fundraiser, actors will not receive a stipend for that production.)
Heller Shorts 2019: Now and Ten
The Tenth Annual Festival
August 22, 23, 24 & 25 at 7:30PM
August 25 at 2:00PM
Lynn Riggs Theater, Dennis R. Neill Equality Center
621 E. 4th St.
(Auditions will be held Saturday, June 29 2-5PM at Henthorne PAC.)
Since its premiere in 2009, Heller Shorts play festival has produced 66 plays by 42 playwrights, most of whom live right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From humble beginnings, the annual collection of shorts has morphed into a Tulsa theatre tradition (and HTC’s biggest fundraiser). The popular event has sold out the last few years, so we are expanding once again: this year’s Shorts will run Thursday through Sunday evenings at 7:30PM, with a matinee on Sunday afternoon (2:00 PM).
This year’s Heller Shorts festival, subtitled “Now and Ten” will feature ten short plays, a mix of brand new world-premieres and a few of the favorites from the past decade of Shorts. The scripts are all original pieces written by Oklahoma residents and directed and brought to life by some of Tulsa theatre’s MVPs and up-and-comers.
A Ten Years of Shorts Gala will be held in the Lynn Riggs Theater immediately following the Saturday, April 24 performance. Join us as we celebrate ten years of Heller Shorts with all manner of food, drinks, and fun! Tickets for the event may be purchased at the door or online with your Shorts tickets.
The Deaths of Sybil Bolton
from the book by Dennis P. McAuliffe, Jr.
Adapted by David Blakely
Nov. 1, 2, 8 & 9 @ 7:30PM
November 9 & 10 @ 2:00PM
Lynn Riggs Theater, Dennis R. Neill Equality Center
621 E. 4th St.
(Auditions will be held Saturdays July 13 and 20 from 1-4PM at FlyLoft.)
HTC Playwright-in-Residence David Blakely returns to recount a shocking true-life piece of Oklahoma history: the Osage Oil Murders. Based on Dennis P. McAuliffe, Jr.’s 1990 nonfiction book The Deaths of Sybil Bolton, Blakely’s adaptation depicts a journalist uncovering lies, cover-ups, and murder on his quest for the truth: what exactly happened to his grandmother during the systematic reign of terror that killed an estimated 60-plus wealthy, full-blood Osage Native Americans in the 1920s? Blakely expands his four-time TATE-winning one-act play Four Ways to Die into a full-length true-crime story from Oklahoma’s past, with an intimate look at how it resonates culturally, and personally.
Second Sunday Serials
Second Sunday of each month at 8:00PM, September 2019 through May 2020.
Studio 308, 308 S. Lansing Ave.
(Submissions will be accepted over the course of the season, with the submission deadline for each month’s event being the 1st of that month (ex. Deadline for March’s event is March 1st).
Heller Theatre Company’s dedication to fostering local playwrights takes us to the third season of our most daring and unique project yet. “Second Sunday Serials” allows playwrights to create new works one scene at a time over the course of a theater season. We are relocating this monthly event to Studio 308 and pushing the show time back to 8:00PM.
Each month, 5 short pieces compete for bragging rights and royalties. With only 3 audience favorites moving forward to the next installment, plays that don’t move on will be replaced by new pieces alongside the returning stories. While there is a serialized nature to the plays, each returning piece is a self-contained story and short recaps will be provided for the audience. What happens next? Find out on Second Sundays!
Double Feature! 2020
April 17, 18, 24 & 25 @ 7:30PM
April 26 @ 2:00PM
Nightingale Theater, 1416 E 4th St.
(Auditions TBA.)
The next part of our third all-original season, HTC presents an evening of one-act plays by two local playwrights. We are excited to bring back “Double Feature!” as a new audience-favorite tradition. This year, at least one of the plays will be adapted from one of the most popular plays from the first two seasons of Second Sunday Serials or from the long history of “Shorts”. You loved them the first time around, but you have never seen them like this: revised scripts, full costumes, sets, props, lights, and sound.
The plays are currently being commissioned and titles and content will be announced at a later time.
25-Hour Play Festival
June 2020
Location TBA
Closing out our season, we will keep the fun rolling into Summer with the second iteration of our 25-Hour Play Festival. Playwrights, directors, and actors will meet at 6:30PM on Friday and have 25 hours to write and rehearse a series of short plays, culminating in a performance at 7:30PM on Saturday. Food, drinks, rehearsal space, and all necessary supplies for participants will be provided by HTC. More information and sign-up details will be made available in Spring 2020.
These shows may contain mature themes and adult language. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.hellertheatreco.com or check out Heller Theatre Company on Facebook and Twitter.
