Plays across the walls
From 2018-2023 Plays Across the Walls celebrated community connections, theatre and storytelling as a means of bridging the walls. Plays Across the Walls was a festival of new ten-minute plays written by community participants. Each spring Rivka taught a free playwriting workshop (at various community sites) and then staged the plays at SUNY Potsdam's campus (plays have also been staged at local correctional facilities, Potsdam Public Library, and streamed virtually). The play festival represented the perfect opportunity for playwrights from all walks of life to meet as artists and create community through theatre-making.
Some stats over the six year run of the festival:
Some stats over the six year run of the festival:
- 46 new plays produced
- Partnerships and performances at four community sites
- $10,000 of NYSCA grant funding supported community partnerships and costs associated with the playwriting workshops
PATW 2023
Playwriting workshop sites: Potsdam Public Library & Riverview Correctional Facility
Readings: Riverview Correctional Facility and Potsdam Public Library
Plays Included: Kelvin Velasquez' "Love is Deaf, " Deanna M. Ossenkop's "The Betrayal," Charlie Champion, Chase Bond, and Hannah Richards' "The Twilight Location"
playbill
- Co-facilitated with Aubrey Slaterpryce
Readings: Riverview Correctional Facility and Potsdam Public Library
Plays Included: Kelvin Velasquez' "Love is Deaf, " Deanna M. Ossenkop's "The Betrayal," Charlie Champion, Chase Bond, and Hannah Richards' "The Twilight Location"
playbill
PATW 2022
Playwriting workshop site: Virtual
Readings: SUNY Potsdam and Potsdam Public Library
Plays include: Trudy Caswell-Ryan’s “Bright Red,” Aubrey Slaterpryce’s “Outside, Or, Who is the Skeleton?,” Elaine Kuracina’s “The Island,” Danielle Wirsansky’s “Qui Vivra Verra,” Rivka Eckert’s “Lil Tots Storytime,” and Joshua Vink’s “Conciliation.”
Readings: SUNY Potsdam and Potsdam Public Library
Plays include: Trudy Caswell-Ryan’s “Bright Red,” Aubrey Slaterpryce’s “Outside, Or, Who is the Skeleton?,” Elaine Kuracina’s “The Island,” Danielle Wirsansky’s “Qui Vivra Verra,” Rivka Eckert’s “Lil Tots Storytime,” and Joshua Vink’s “Conciliation.”
PATW 2021
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Playwriting workshop site: Virtual/Potsdam Public Library
Readings: SUNY Potsdam and Potsdam Public Library First partnership year with Potsdam Public Library. Listen to a recorded conversation between PPL's Adult Program Coordinator, Rivka, and former participants. Interview/coverage with NCPR Watch PPL's recording of the performance |
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PATW 2020
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Playwriting workshop site: Virtual
Readings: SUNY Potsdam virtual stream The closures as a result of the pandemic meant more playwrights from all over the globe joined in on the virtual workshop/staging of the plays. Read the Watertown Daily Times and Northern New York Newspapers' feature on Rivka's work with Plays Across the Walls, 2020. The interview includes a description of the project and the pivot from teaching playwriting inside Riverview Correctional Facility to an online offering. Playbill |
PATW 2019
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Playwriting workshop site: Riverview Correctional Facility
Readings: SUNY Potsdam and Riverview Correctional Facility Rivka and Potsdam students, Olivia Mele and Drew Reuther, share process/performance at SUNY Buffalo's Anne Frank Project Social Justice Festiva.l Press Release |
PATW 2018
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Playwriting workshop site: Riverview Correctional Facility
Readings: SUNY Potsdam/virtual stream, Riverview Correctional Facility, and St Lawrence County Correctional Facility Press from the Watertown Times on the Festival. Virtual stream: watch the festival. Press release |
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