Award Winning Playwrights Speak About Playwriting

Award winning playwrights Bill Johnson and Doug Baldwin speak about writing plays with Kristan Seemel, who reads and develops new plays for Portland Center Stage.

(PRWEB) April 14, 2005 -- Bill Johnson, Doug Baldwin and Kristan Seemel speak about writing and developing plays for Willamette Writers on Tuesday, May 3rd. Johnson is author of A Story Is A Promise, a workbook exploring how to create dramatic, engaging stories be they for the stage, screen or in novel form. He is also web master of Essays on the Craft of Dramatic Writing (www.storyispromise.com), a site that explores principles of storytelling through reviews of popular films, books and plays.

His play, The Baggage Handler, won at the Creative Mechanics Play Festival, held in New York last month. Pre-Life, Pre-Nuptial, about a couple arguing about a prenuptial agreement before they are born, was produced in New York and Oregon.

He'll speak about writing short plays.
Doug Baldwin is a playwright, actor, plus journalism and freelance writer. Baldwin's two one act plays, Wrestling With Charlotte, won second place in Writer's Digest 2004 Writing Competition, Stage Play Category.

A Chair and Tess, Muze, and Host in the Machine, one-act plays, were produced by The Haven Project at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts and Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland during the 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons.

His full-length play, The Xenophobe, was performed as a public reading at Profile Theatre Project in 2001, received the 2000 Oregon Literary Fellowship from Literary Arts, Inc., won first place in Writer's Digest competition in 2001 and was selected for publication at the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region in 2004.

Baldwin co-authored The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Jesse James, a full-length play, which was performed at Manhattan Punch Line, NYC in 1980.

Completing our panel will be Kristan Seemel, a local dramatist and director. He serves as the Literary Associate at Portland Center Stage where he handles new play submissions, administers new work development and aids in season selections. Seemel's previous local dramatist credits include Much Ado About Nothing for Portland Center Stage, Gilgamesh for the Haven Project and readings of Moore's Hazard Country and Fisher's Thunderbird for the Just Add Water/West Festival. Recently, Seemel directed the world premiere of Matthew B. Zrebski's The Vespiary for Stark Raving Theatre, Portland's theatrical home for new works.

Come join these gentlemen of the theatre. Explore this avenue of giving voice to your written words.

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