Left to Right: Daniel J. Petrie, Ethan Yazzie-Mintz & Emily Goodson in Artifice

Artifice

Winner of the 2010-11 Reva Shiner Comedy Award

December 3 - 18, 2010

"... light, breezy, clever and fun... Anne Flanagan’s quirky script, wastes no time immersing its audience in the world of egotistical artists, conniving dealers and vengeful wealthy patrons. It’s the perfect setting for intrigue and a bit of misdirection comedy." ~ Herald Time

“Everyone has more than one moment in the sun in this often very funny show… Artifice is an entertaining and nicely worked-out farce…” ~ George Walker, WFIU

In the hilarious world of art, sometimes you’re better off dead

In December 2010, the Bloomington Playwrights Project (BPP) produced the 2010/2011 Winner of the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, Artifice by Anne Flanagan.

In Artifice, struggling artist Payne Showers finally gets his big break.  He dies.  Fortunately, his death sends the value of his work skyrocketing.  His widow Maggie must auction it all off to avoid bankruptcy and (yikes) a mob hit.  Unfortunately, as the day of the auction approaches, it’s learned that reports of Payne’s death have been greatly exaggerated.  Artifice is a hilarious look at celebrity, success and art.

“I am thrilled to win the Reva Shiner award!” says Playwright Flanagan.  “I am originally from the Midwest, and I can attest first hand to the strong passion for the arts and the high degree of talent that exists in the so called fly over states.  I am looking forward to seeing that talent applied to my play.”

Artifice starred Emily Goodson and Ethan Yazzie-Mintz as Maggie La Rue and her not-so-dead husband, Payne Showers.  Daniel J. Petrie played Richard, Maggie’s art gallery manager who helps sort out her unexpected debacle.  Derrick Krober, Gerard Pauwels, Kelsey Sheppard, Margot Morgan and Mary Carol Reardon rounded out this talented local cast.

“As an actor, I wanted to write a play that featured a strong ensemble cast,” explains Flanagan.  “Artifice is a fast paced, smartly funny piece; and I hope the audience has as much fun watching it as I did writing it.”

Tom Evans returned to the BPP stage to direct Artifice after helming 2009's successful special-event production of Talley’s Folly by Lanford Wilson.  While Talley’s Folly was a two-person romantic comedy, Artifice featured a large cast and a more complex, farcical plot.

“In any large cast production there are always characters on stage who, at certain times, will be peripheral to the action, while others will be in the thick of it, executing the main action and/or dialogue,” explains Evans.  “The problem this raises concerns how to keep peripheral characters at the ready—prepared to leap into the action when needed but be unobtrusive at other times.  It is sort of like a card trick artist stacking the deck to be sure the predicted Jack or Queen will appear in time to astound the skeptical spectators.”

The Reva Shiner Comedy Award is one of the few full-length play contests in the nation that awards the winner not only with a cash prize but also with a full production of the winning play. The BPP received over 225 submissions this past year, narrowing them down to ten finalists over the course of four months, with Artifice emerging as the favorite.

Anne Flanagan (Playwright) is a Los Angeles-based writer/teacher/private investigator.  Anne's stage play, Artifice, was awarded the 2007 McLaren Memorial Comedy Award as well as the 2006 Mountain Playhouse International Comedy Playwrighting Award.  Artifice was also a finalist for the 2007 Dayton "Future Fest" Competition.  Additionally, Anne's play First Chill received the Julie Harris Playwright's Award and the Plays for the 21st Century Award.  Anne is also the recipient of the 13th annual AFI/SONY "Visions of the US" Award and was a top ten finalist for the Chesterfield Film Writer's Project two years running.  Flanagan is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, United Teachers of Los Angeles, the Young Storytellers Foundation, Phi Beta Kappa and the Auto Club.

Tom Evans (Director) started making theatre in high school in 1948 when he stood five feet eleven and a half inches tall.  After working over a half century in the trenches of this challenging and rewarding art form, Tom finds he is down to five feet ten.  Considering how much fun he has had on the journey, he believes this to be an entirely acceptable wear down rate.  In addition to directing BPP’s Talley’s Folly last season, other artistic locales where Tom has worn himself down include Circle Repertory Theatre in New York City (The Diviners); New Playwrights of Washington, DC (And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson); Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA (Grace and Glorie); Creede Repertory in Colorado (Dancing at Lughnasa); Phoenix Theatre,  Indianapolis (Wit); Monomoy Theatre, Cape Cod (The Foreigner); Hartt School, Hartford, CT (The Cripple of Innishmaan and Darlin’) and Kaleidoscope Players in Raton, New Mexico (Foxfire, Last Train to Nibroc, and Driving Miss Daisy, among many others).