Community Conversation: Mamet Speak
January 27 2016
Join Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre in partnership with the Midtown Book Group at Georgia Tech Barnes and Noble for a conversation about David Mamet’s writing style in American Buffalo.
Moderated by Co-founder and Artistic Director of Push Push Film & Theater, Tim Habeger. Panelist include American Bufflo Director John Dillon, Suzi Bass Award Winner Neal Ghant, and author and teacher Ina Williams.
Copies of the play are available for sale at Barnes and Noble. Attend the conversation for free, then purchase tickets to see American Buffalo live at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre February 9- March 6! Attend the conversation for a chance to win tickets to see the play!
CONVERSATION IS FREE
When: Wednesday January 27 at 7pm
Where: Georgia Tech Barnes and Nobles
48 5th St Atlanta, GA 30308
MEET THE MODERATOR
Tim Habeger is an American writer, director, producer and actor. He is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Atlanta’s award-winning film/theater incubator, PushPush Film & Theater. Tim started working as a writer in the 1980’s with Round World Films with two features and several short films including Girl in the Picture (Rank Films and Sony Pictures). He worked in New York with Ellen Stewart at La Mama ETC, was an ensemble member at The Neighborhood Group Theater, and served as artistic director of Bridge Arts, Inc. During this time he also completed a three-year apprenticeship in dance/theater with Stanley Zompakos of The New York City Ballet and taught film acting and movement at AMDA.
Tim moved to Atlanta’s 7 Stages Theatre in 1990 where he worked as Joseph Chaikin’s assistant and worked on Samuel Beckett productions and the premiere of Sam Shepard’s When the World Was Green. While at 7 Stages he coordinated a 5-year U.S./Netherlands Touring and Exchange Project and founded a series of artist development workshops. Out of the workshops, PushPush was developed, and has since presented over 280 productions, 25 theater and play festivals, 350 artist workshops, and 28 world premieres.
In 2007, PushPush launched The Portal International Project, and has since exchanged more than 20 successful projects between Atlanta and different parts of the world. PushPush’s film program, Dailies Filmmakers – hailed as one of Atlanta’s flagship filmmaking programs – produced over 250 short films and was instrumental in the development of two feature-length films: The Last Goodbye (Warner Brothers, 2005) and The Signal (Magnolia Pictures, 2007) that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2009 his co-productions, Worth #1 and copyME, written with Rahel Savoldelli, were bi-lingual plays produced in Germany and France.
As an actor he has numerous stage and film credits. In 2010, he appeared as Faust in a controversial new adaptation called Faust Module, touring Zagreb and Southeast Europe with Croatia’s Exit Theater. He will be featured in the 2014 short film, SHIA, a stolen film about copyright law.
Tim has written over 30 scripts for stage and film in America and Abroad. He also adapted the English version of Drift by Shanghai’s Nick Rongjun Yu, China’s most published living playwright.
Tim’s current film-theater project is a co-production with Padua Playwrights about drone warfare called Say I’m Hillary by Guy Zimmerman. With development support from a New Media Grant from The NEA , he is currently developing a film series, GRFX, about a new generation of creatives battling commercial forces. He is also the Series Creator for the developing episodic series, Slow Down Atlanta (Turner Voices recipient), an irreverent comedy about a fumbling paranormal start-up with supernatural clients.
As a teacher Tim has been a mentor to hundreds of performing artists locally and globally. PushPush, developed with partner Shelby Hofer, continues to garner awards and recognitions as an arts organization dedicated to the development film and theater artists.
MEET THE PANELISTS
John Dillon has staged productions at leading theaters in England, Russia, Egypt and Japan and has directed new works by such noted playwrights as David Mamet, Romulus Linney, Larry Shue, Ariel Dorfman, Y York, Israel Horovitz, Joanna Glass, David Rambo, Anthony Clarvoe and Amlin Gray. He’s worked at over two dozen of the country’s leading regional theaters, including the Alliance Theatre, Georgia Shakespeare, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Syracuse Stage, Chapel Hill’s PlayMakers Rep, the Missouri Rep, D.C.’s Arena Stage, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, New Haven’s Long Wharf, Seattle’s ACT Theatre, the Seattle Children’s Theatre, the Berkeley Rep, Portland’s Artist Repertory Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (where his staging of WIT won him a BackstageWest Garland Award). His production of David Mamet’s RACE at True Colors gained a Suzi Bass nomination for outstanding production and for outstanding direction.
Although he makes his home in Seattle, John is also the Associate Director of Tokyo’s Institute of Dramatic Arts (and where his productions have twice won Japan’s highest theater award). From 1977 to 1993 he was the Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and during his time there launched a number of innovative exchanges with theater companies in Mexico, Russia, Ireland, Chile, Japan and England. From 2004 to 2010 he served as the director of the theatre program at Sarah Lawrence College. Dillon is a fellow in the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and was also elected to membership in the National Theatre Conference. He is a Danforth and Woodrow Wilson fellow with graduate degrees in theater from Columbia and Northwestern Universities. Oh yes, and he had a burger named after him at a restaurant in Baltimore . . .
Ina Williams is an Atlanta-based writer whose work is a reflection of her open heart and unique humor. In everything she creates there is evidence of a curious mind exploring the nature of the human heart. Her stage play McCullough Boys is a heartfelt exploration of a family and their expectations of each other. While her series Roomies is a fun and whimsical look at identity, friendship and belief. In everything from her blog Jesus Girl to her albums “Masterpiece” and “Before” showcase Ina’s belief in words as a tool to explore, understand and share love.
Recently Ina began work on the revolutionary one man show Not Here Right with creator Royce Bable which documents his life changing journey through South East Asia. Her newest project the House We Built is a love story for all ages that examines the nature of relationships between two people whose pasts have informed their present, for better or worse.
Neal Ghant Regional credits include: Glenn Gary Glenn Ross, A Christmas Carol, Shakespeare’s R&J (Alliance Theatre); Bus Stop, A Life in the Theatre, Tradin’ Paint (Theatre in the Square); Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Titus Andronicus (Georgia Shakespeare Festival). Film credits include “Remember the Titans”. He is currently Head Artistic Consultant for Giddeon Games, a company he and a childhood friend have built from the ground up. He also spends many a late weekend night performing hip hop music with his band Phace Oricalz.
