MOST RECENT AUTHORS THEATRE EVENT

Monday, April 14, 2008
Staged Reading of Dava Sobel's AND THE SUN STOOD STILL
7:00 p.m. Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

The Writers Institute offered a staged reading of Dava Sobel’s new play-in-progress, And the Sun Stood Still. The play presented the brilliant Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, in his struggle to understand and describe the solar system. Copernicus’s master work, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, caused a firestorm of controversy in its own day, particularly among religious authorities who believed, based on statements in Scripture, that the Earth stood—fixed and immoveable—at the center of the Universe. The play was originally commissioned by the Manhattan Theatre Club with funds provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

EXPLORING THE LITERATURE OF THEATRE
Authors Theatre was created to bring dramaturgy and audience response into the creative process. Featuring staged readings of original plays-in-progress or adaptations of work from other genres, Authors Theatre is designed to focus on dramatic writing as literary text and to provide a mechanism to assist playwrights in the creation of new work. Discussions following the readings allow the audience to interact with the playwright, actors, and director to respond to the work. This allows the playwright to receive valuable feedback on the work for the purpose of revision. In addition to assisting the playwright these discussion sessions also offer the audience a rare glimpse into the creative process as well as an opportunity to contribute to the formation of a work of art. Authors Theatre two-way conversation transforms to private nature of reading and writing into a more public creative act.

PREVIOUS STAGE READINGS

• Staged Reading of Dava Soble's And The Sun Stood Still: April 14, 2008
  
  
• Staged Readings of Single Black Female and Underground by Lisa Thompson: February 5, 2007
  
  
• Threeways of looking at The Moor by Russell Banks: October 10, 2006
  
  
• Staged reading of Blind Date by Horton Foote: May 1, 2006
  
  
• Staged reading of Mohawk by Richard Russo: March 9, 2004
  
  
• Staged reading of The Doctor Stories by Richard Selzer: February 3. 2004
  
  
• Sally by Sandra Seaton, performed by Zabryna Guevera: February 4, 2003
  
  
• All Hallowed, by Bill C. Davis: January 31, 2002
  
  
• An evening with Anna Manahan: February 8, 1999
  
  
• Oscar Wilde: Confounding the Critics and Surviving the Scandal: February 10, 1999
  
  
• Side Man, by Warren Leight : January 26, 1998
  
  
• Reading and demonstration by Mary Gallagher: February 2, 1998
  
  
• The Talk, by Frank Pugliese: February 9, 1998
  
  
• A Question of Mercy, by David Rabe, Adapted from the essay by Dr. Richard Selzer: February 12, 1998
  
  
• The Last Man in Europe: George Orwell in His Own Words by Mark Weston: January 27, 1997
  
  
• Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher: February 8, 1997
  
  
• Miserere, by Robert Stone: February 15, 1997
  
  
• A staged reading of Shopping Cart Soldiers, by John Mulligan: December 3, 1997
  
  
• Grand View by William Kennedy: January 13, 1996
  
  
• The Black Swan by Richard Selzer: January 27, 1996
  
  
• Irene Worth's Portrait of Edith Wharton by actress Irene Worth: February 2, 1996

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