SouthCity
Theatre debuted with its first (now annual) May Day Play Day Festival
on Memorial Day
weekend of 2003. This festival, in which four brand new plays
followed
the entire path from conception to performance in only 24 hours, took
place at ImprovBoston and combined
artists from numerous area companies, including the SouthCity,
ImprovBoston and Devanaughn Theatre Companies. The festival was a
success in every way: participants found the experience to be a
fantastic challenge, the audience was extremely complimentary, and one
play has since been published by Brooklyn Publishers in Brooklyn, NY.
The
company's first full-length production took place in
November of
2003: a play entitled Critical
Acclaim, written by John
Michael Manship
and directed by Colleen Rua. The production starred Suffolk
University undergraduates Molly Kimmerling, Kenneth Fonzi and Aaron
Pitre. It ran for 5 nights in the forty-seat black box space at
the Actor's Workshop (Fort Point, Boston) and sold over one hundred
seats.
Fueled by extremely talented but relatively unknown actors, written and
directed by SouthCity's co-founders and thematically tied to the value
of uninhibited creation, Critical
Acclaim was exemplary of SouthCity Theatre and its mission
statement.
SouthCity
Theatre also sponsors an ongoing cast who write both as
individuals and as an ensemble. The ensemble's goals
coincide
directly with those of the theatre company as a whole: to provide
honest, relevant, provocative theatre that both engages and challenges
an
audience. The ensemble has created a variety of shows and earned
a reputation both for innovative scripted work bordering performance
art and sketch comedy. The ensemble's late-night
show, Meet Mr Manley, ran in
Fall 2004 at
the Devanaughn Theater at the Piano Factory. Its most popular
show,
MOSAIC, enjoys frequent runs at ImprovBoston in Cambridge. The
ensemble is also available for booking (see the Ensemble page).
