How we chose LETTER FROM ALGERIA

Hey blogoshere,

This is Guy Olivieri, a producer for GUP, and today I wanted to talk a little bit out how we found LETTER FROM ALGERIA, our upcoming fall show.

Well, first, my big project for the year is coordinating the annual reading series; this year it was in November. We try to find new scripts (as many as we can) and then we choose the 4 best for staged readings. The hope is that one of them will resonate, and we’ll want to do a full production.

We’ve gone through this process in the past, but this was the first year that it worked like a charm. After the staged readings, we all knew: we had a great play on our hands.

The Process:

So, I put an ad in Backstage, and on Facebook, and contacted all of my friends who were writers, and asked for play submissions. One of those friends was Michael Ian Walker. I’m an actor myself, and I’d been in a staged reading of a great musical called THE MAKING OF MADELINE MOORE, written my Michael Walker and Kyle Ewalt, a couple of months before. I asked Michael if he had a play and he sent LETTER FROM ALGERIA.

Y’all, these two scripts could NOT be more different: MADELINE MOORE is a supremely silly musical about vapid socialites, and ALGERIA is a dark and sexy drama that takes place in Belgium and war-torn Algeria. Night and Day. I’m still floored that Michael could be that versatile a writer, and still pretty-much undiscovered.

Back to the selection process! Thanks to a large committee of play readers, we got all 70 plays and musicals read, and each was given a score (1 to 100). If it scored over 60, then I read it as well. The finalists, about 10 plays/musicals, were all read by me, Kate and Phil – and we made our choices:

LETTER FROM ALGERIA

By Michael I. Walker

Directed by Jordana Williams

AVOW

By Bill C. Davis

Directed by Jerry Less

THE OTHER PLACE

By Sharr White

Directed by Ethan McSweeney

THE THING ABOUT JOE

Book & Lyrics by Matthew Hardy

Music by Randy Klein

Directed by West Hyler & Shelley Butler

We had a board meeting where we all met to discuss the pros and cons, and ultimately we choose ALGERIA. Each play was great, and each reading had its own strengths, but when it came down to it, ALGERIA felt like the best fit with GUP.

I’m, personally, psyched to see what we come up with for this Fall production. Hope to see you all there!

OK, THIS IS OUR BLOG!
The Ground UP blog is an exciting new addition to both our snazzy new website and our company. Not to mention, it's about time that we joined the 21st century....
So welcome!

For those of you who don't know, Ground UP has made it for 5 years and 15 productions thus far. Whew! Our mission is to produce The New Classics- basically finding the hottest new American work in NYC right now or reviving favorites in really unique ways. We also have a great Education Outreach Program, based out of UNC-Chapel Hill that provides undergrads with a professional bridge between life as a student, and that of a theater professional. We teach master classes, direct shows, and even host students for a week here in NYC. Almost half of the company is based somehow out of NC, so we have quite a soft-spot for the South.

For more information on everything that follows, check out the fab website that Travis McHale (our resident lighting and set designer) designed and put together: www.GroundUPproductions.org
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Our remaining 2010 Season looks like this...
The Bootleg Revue, our 5th Anniversary Bash
June 12th at The 13th St. Theatre, 136 E. 13th St., near Union Square
And yes, we are all gonna be performing; tickets $45, food and all you can drink!

Education Outreach 2010
August is all about the Tarheels, with a NYC Internship from August 1-8 and our UNC Residency from August 22-September 1. We will be workshopping our Fall show, LETTER FROM ALGERIA, in a full-scale production with a fabulous cast and crew of undergrads/grads!

LETTER FROM ALGERIA, A World Premiere Play
By Michael Ian Walker and Directed by Adam Fitzgerald
October 29th- November 20th
The Abindgon Theatre Complex
This is a fantastic and HOT new play that we are thrilled to have discovered last year at our From The Ground UP.. Reading Series. (We knew it would pay off!)
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So what you can expect from the new blog?
Updates twice weekly from different people in the company (there are 24 of us now)!
The blogs will include everything, from show info to graphic design, to upcoming parties, to our casting process, to how to be a stage manager.
We want to give you a closer look at who we are, what we want, and what we do.
If you wanna know about something specific... give a shout!
We'd love to tell you all about this thing called Ground UP.

Here's to the next post, coming this Thursday!
And big cheers to FIVE YEARS.