Live Girls! Theater Presents
The World Premiere of:
Hardball by Victoria Stewart
Directed by Meghan Shalom Arnette
March 4th-26th, 2011 | Fri-Sat at 8 pm
Monday March 14th at 8pm, Saturday March 19th at 2pm
ASL interpreted performance March 19 at 8pm
$5-$18
Hardball is a complex exploration of modern day news and commentary and the maneuverings of those who provide it. In this timely and provocative play, Stewart turns her razor sharp pen toward the rise of opinion journalism in the 24-hour cable news landscape. Hardball tracks the transformation of a young woman from budding journalist to celebrity pundit and the sacrifices she makes on the way up.
Is it possible to deliver news without an angle? Is journalism as we once knew it dead? When Washington Post reporter Virginia Eames is fired for openly displaying her politics in the office, she sets off on a crusade to prove that bias in media is inevitable. As she fights to make her voice heard, she embarks on a very public crash course in the rules of the news commentary game. In an age where some media outlets claim to be “fair and balanced,” while others unapologetically “lean forward,” this timely piece will leave you questioning the power of truth in journalism.
Stewart’s play 800 Words: The Transmigration of Phillip K. Dick was a smash hit with Live Girls! audiences in 2007. Hardball was the winner of the 2007 Francesca Primus Award and a finalist for the 2008 Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Live Girls! has the honor of producing the World Premiere of this dynamic play.
Hardball features the local acting talent of: Shawn Belyea, Alyssa Keene, Jaime Roberts, Jill Snyder, Roy Stanton and Shawnmarie Stanton.
Hardball features the local design talent of: Erin Stewart, Michele Hallman, Mike Lindgren, Melinda Short and Brian Stricklan
About Victoria Stewart:
Before graduating from the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa, Victoria Stewart was a professional stage-manager, working with David Rabe, Anne Bogart and Peter Sellars among others. Victoria was the 2008-09 recipient of a McKnight Advancement Grant at the Playwrights’ Center and she has received the Francesca Primus Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, the Martha R. Ingram Artist-in-Residence: New Work for the Theatre Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. She’s been in residence at Ucross/Sundance, Donmar Warehouse, the Hermitage and Hedgebrook. Her plays include Rich Girl, Hardball (SPF), 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick, (Workhaus Collective, Hourglass Group, Live Girls Theater, named one of the top ten productions of 2009 by Citypages), LIVE GIRLS (Urban Stages, WHAT, Stage Left), Leitmotif (South Coast Rep, Page 73), Nightwatches (Overlap Productions), The Last Scene and an adaptation of Henry James’ The Bostonians. She is a producing member of the Workhaus Collective and she was one of the collaborators on Fissures (lost and found) presented at the 2010 Humana Festival. She is now working on a screenplay for HBO about the recording industry’s battle with Napster and a play based on the Mercy Watson series for the Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis.
