JAW Play Reading: The Sunnyview Elementary Art Show
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View Upcoming EventsBy Rob Smith
Directed by Josh Hecht
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As the annual Sunnyview Elementary Art Show comes to a close, the newly formed Art Committee locks themselves away to determine which student will win The Golden Paintbrush. While it was once the decision of the Art Teacher alone, now she must mix it up with the new Assistant Principal, a veteran Fifth Grade Teacher, and the eager Head of the PTO; all with their own points of view. In this comedy, penned by local playwright Rob Smith, lines are drawn, perspectives are skewed, and truths are shaded as the Arts Committee struggles to determine whether the art or the artist matter more, if emotion or execution create the best art, or if art should even be judged at all.
JAW New Play Festival FREE! July 28-30
A week-long assembling of artists and audiences to create new plays! Artistic teams, including playwrights, directors and actors, come together to rehearse — and a lot of times rewrite! — a play. The final piece of the process happens during the weekend, when we share “music stands readings” with audiences so the playwrights can hear their work, often for the very first time!
Rob Smith was so excited to bring his wife and newborn son home from the hospital that he forgot where he parked. After 30 minutes of searching, texting, and feeling overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, he finally realized he was in the wrong parking lot. Relieved, he found the car, picked up his family, and went home to start their new lives together. That experience sums up his approach to writing; emotions run high, need drives the characters, and moments will never be forgotten. Rob’s work has been produced/read/commissioned from theaters in Chicago, New York, Washington DC, and Tennessee. Some of these works include the full-length plays Dust, Underneath, Tightrope, and The Sunnyview Elementary Art Show. One-act and ten-minute plays include Do Us Part, Strands, Night and Day, The Family Photographer, and The Packer. For the screen his work includes various screenplays and pilot, including Park Rangers (named one of LaunchPad’s Top 100 Pilots of 2019), and he produced and directed the mocumentary about the world’s greatest avant-garde theatre company, The Closed Theatre. He received his BA from Catawba College and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was twice the recipient of the Shubert Fellowship for Dramatic Writing. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America. When not writing he can be found in the kitchen cooking something new, reading books about history, watching baseball, or coming up with reasons to get donuts. Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his wife Kelly, their son Bobby, and their two cats Molly and Bowie.
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