It’s opening night! Come see “The Night We Bombed Lincoln Towing” by Steven Young tonight! And read all about Mr. Young below, as we turn our attention to the talented playwrights whose work is featured in Fresh Reads 2!
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fresh-reads-2-an-annual-festiv…
Steven Young’s biography:
Steven is the author of A Proper Man, to be produced by Pegasus Theatre in August of 2018. His new play Put Out the Light: THE REHEARSAL is under consideration for the 2018 PlayFest at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. In June, Under the Overpass is being mounted by Nylon Fusion Theatre n NYC.
– The King’s Face – produced by Dallas Shakespeare and the winner of the FutureFest and Southwest Playwriting Competitions – was a finalist at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, The Landing Theatre, and the Woodard/Newman Drama Award. Staged readings of The King’s Face have been held at Blank Theatre and the Skylight Theatres in Los Angeles, and it was produced by Giant Olive Theatre Company Off West End.
– Exit Cesar Chavez was part of Bellarmine International Play Festival and a MATC participant as well as an ATHE alternate.
– Under the Overpass is the winner of the TeCo Literary Award and the Broadway World Dallas Regional Award for Best Short play, and has been produced in Texas, Cleveland, Denver, and New York.
Steven Young’s answers to our probing questions:
1. How long have you been working with Pegasus Theatre?
Answer: This is the second year I’ve been involved with Fresh Reads. Pegasus Theatre is producing my play “A Proper Man” this August.
2. What appeals to you about this project?
Answer: The opportunity to hear and see my work in front of multiple audiences and getting to collaborate with talented actors and directors.
3. How long have you been involved in theatre in general?
Answer: Since I was a little boy. I burst onto the theatrical scene at age four in a summer Bible School production. I played the highly complex and coveted role of Job. My costume consisted of a bath towel for a headdress and my bathrobe…the robe belt was used to hold the towel on. When my tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth, it brought the house down—not sure that was the intention, but I ran with it. Chuck Heston had recently completed Ben Hur. I figured both of us were making our mark performing religious material, he just had bigger budgets.
4. What do you do when not involved in this project?
Answer: When I was in high school we had to take a career test to determine what we wanted to do with our lives. One of the questions asked: Would you like to check cans for dents? I thought about it…then circled—no. The next question: Would you like to perform bone surgery? I thought about it…then circled—yes. Now I hang out in hospital parking lots hoping to get a shot at it. Despite the fact I have no medical training, I remain hopeful. In my spare time I write and complain that more people do not produce my writing. I am an assistant professor of theatre at Texas Woman’s University and act frequently with Shakespeare Dallas.
5. Give an odd fact about yourself, something people wouldn’t guess from having first met you!
Answer: As a twenty-something performer, I seldom appeared onstage wearing a shirt…we could be doing the Odd Couple and the director would find a reason for me to take my shirt off. Now everyone requests I wear a shirt, even in the dressing room. You might say I’m twice the man I was. I once wanted to be an FBI agent until I realized criminals shot back.
6. Describe your first live theatre memory.
Answer: As a little boy, I saw the St. Louis Muny Theatre do Camelot—I was extremely upset by the show’s end. There was not a single camel in the production. The theatre was outdoors and it was summer. I have a vague memory of Robert Goulet sweating.
7. What inspired you to get involved in theatre?
Answer: The Guthrie Theatre did HENRY V. In the dark a cannon went off and when the smoke cleared there was Henry V in chrome armor speaking once more unto the breach…I knew, in that moment, I wanted to do that.
8. Theatrical pet peeves?
Answer: Actors who, in performance, paraphrase the lines I write.
9. Favorite play/musical/movie musical (that you didn’t write)?
Answer: I love Shakespeare’s Henry plays. My favorite musical is Les Miz. My favorite movie musical is Sweeny Todd.
10. What is your hometown and where else have you lived? If you’re not from North Texas, what brought you here?
Answer: Other than living in a perpetual state of confusion, I was born in St. Louis, MO. I have lived for significant amounts of time in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Prior to coming to Texas my family and I lived in England for 8 years. The faculty position at TWU was what brought us to DFW.
11. What would you like the audience to take away from the piece you have written/are directing?
Answer: Through voracious laughter, I want to pass the experience that the line between chaos and order is very thin.
Steven Young’s resume:
EDUCATION:
Certificate in Novel Writing, City University of London, UK
MFA – Directing, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
AFFILIATIONS:
Dramatist Guild of America
The Playwrights’ Center
ATHE: Committee for Playwrights and Creative Teams
FULL LENGTH PLAYS
Put Out the Light: THE REHEARSAL (Drama)
AWARDS: Selected for the Mid America Theatre Conference – Plays in Progress Workshop. Milwaukee, WI, March 2018
Development workshop, first 15 pages table read. Dallas Playwrights Collective, Dallas, TX, March 2018
Made initial selection and still under consideration for Playfest 2018, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando, FL, March 2018
A PROPER MAN (Comedy)
Slated for production with Pegasus Theatre, Dallas, TX, August 2018
AWARDS:
Selected for the second round of a development workshop with Joust Theatre Company as part of their Writers Round Table Series. NYC, January 2018
Winner Pegasus Fresh Reads New Play Festival, Dallas, TX, May 2017
Selected for the Mid America Theatre Conference – Plays in Progress Workshop. Houston, TX, March 2017
OBSCENITY (Drama)
AWARDS:
PlayPenn 2018 Playwriting Conference, Obscenity made the top 120 out of 800 entries for six slots, March 2018
Selected for the Mid America Theatre Conference – Plays in Progress Workshop. Minneapolis, MN, March 2016
Table Reading: Scripts on Stage, Springfield, MO, July 2017
Table Reading: The Aviary, Dallas, TX, January 2017
Under consideration, Moonshot Theatre Company,NYC, January 2018
Full Script requested from sample for the American Stage’s 21st Century Voices New Play Festival, American Stage theatre Company, Florida, May 2017
GUN SHOW (Drama)
Produced at the Edinburgh Fringe by Texas Woman’s University, 2017
Produced by Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX Nov 2016
THE KING’S FACE (Drama)
Produced by Shakespeare Dallas at the Out of the Loop Fringe, Water Tower Theatre, Dallas, TX, Feb 2015
Produced Off-West End by Giant Olive Theatre Company at the Lion & Unicorn, London, June 2011
Produced by the Iambic Theatre, Brighton, UK, May 2011
AWARDS:
Top five shows produced in DFW in 2016 as chose by the critics of Theatre Jones, 2017.
Winner: FutureFest Playwriting Competition and additionally chose as Audience Favorite, Dayton Playhouse, Dayton, Ohio, 2013
Winner: Southwest Playwriting Competition, Stage West Theatre, Fort Worth, TX, 2012
Finalist: Newman/Woodard Drama Award, Bloomington Playwrights’ Project, 2014
Semi-Finalist: Nuvoices Festival, Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, NC, 2014
Semi-Finalist: The Landing Theatre Company’s New American Voices, New Plays Reading Series, Houston, TX, 2014
Staged Reading: Chicago Shakespeare Project, Chicago, IL, 2018
Staged Reading: Skylight Theatre, 2017
Staged Reading: Last Act Theatre, Austin, TX, 2015
Staged Reading: The Blank Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Staged Reading: Panglossian Productions,Williamsburg, VA, 2013
Staged Reading: Amphibian Stage Productions, Fort Worth, TX, 2012
Full copy requested by the Yale Rep and the Public Theatre
THE NIGHT WE BOMBED LINCOLN TOWING: A Comic Fantasia (Comedy)
Development Workshop at Centre Stage, Greensville, SC, September, 2015
AWARDS:
Finalist Pegasus Theatre’s Fresh Reads New Play Festival, Dallas, TX, May 2018
Finalist in the AACT New Play Festival, 2015
Semifinalist at the Ashland New Play Festival, April 2015
Winner – Centre Stage New Play Festival, Greensville, SC, September, 2014
Finalist – Thespis Theatre Company Festival/Competition, NYC, 2015
Finalist – Method and Madness Playwriting Festival, received a staged reading at the Pointbank Black Box Theatre, Denton, TX, May 2012
Staged Reading: 5th Wall Productions, Charleston, SC, 2017
Staged Reading: The Road Theatre, 6th Annual Playwrights Festival, Los Angeles, CA, Directed by Anne Hearn-Tobolowsky and featured Jim Beaver as Janicowski, 2015
THE WAL*MART-IANS (Comedy)
Produced at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, October 2017
Produced by The Boxer Rebellion Ensemble, Chicago, April 2002
AWARDS:
Finalist: The Reva Shriner Comedy Award, Bloomington Playwright’s Project, Bloomington, IN, March 2014
Jerome Fellowship finalist, Minneapolis, Playwrights Center, November 2002
Winner Best Comedic Play of 2002, Greg Butler, Chicago Arts and Entertainment
Tip of the week by the New City paper, Chicago, April 2002
THE NIGHT WITCHES (Drama)
Produced by The Theatre Group – Santa Ynez High School, Solvang, CA, April 2016
Produced at the Brighton Media Centre, Brighton Fringe Festival, Brighton UK, May 2014
Produced at Texas Women’s University in Denton, TX, Nov. 2013
THE RESURRECTIONISTS (Drama)
Produced by The Boxer Rebellion Ensemble, Chicago, February 2001
Produced by the Virginia Stage Co. (GSA) Norfolk, Virginia, April 1999
Optioned by Mirage Entertainment International, Beverly Hills, CA, 2006
AWARDS:
Production nominated for two Joseph Jefferson Citations, Boxer Rebellion Ensemble Chicago, May 2001
Staged reading and to be submitted by the Abingdon Theatre for the Christopher Brian Wolk Award, The Abingdon Theatre, NYC, 2003
CHEDDAR HEADS (Comedy)
Staged Reading Camp Death Productions, Dallas, TX, August, 2017
Produced at Theatre Building-Chicago, October 2004
Produced by the Milwaukee High School for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee, WI, April 2008
AWARDS:
2003 finalist Prop Thtr National Showcase of New Plays in conjunction with the National New Plays Network, Chicago
THE CLINK (Comedy)
Produced by the Bishop Arts Theatre Center, TeCo Theatrical Productions, Dallas, TX, May 2016
(For the rest of Steven Young’s resume, including GM his One-Act Plays, Short Plays, Adaptations, and International Work, please email us at [email protected]!)