Driving Miss Jennie: Telluride off Broadway at Abingdon Theatre

Often what happens in Telluride does not stay in Telluride.

For the past three summers, local Jennie Franks of Sparky Productions has orchestrated an event that takes place over several weeks in support of works-in-process by emerging playwrights. In 2009, Todd Kreidler and Jan Buttram were the featured writers at the 3rd annual Telluride Playwrights Festival.

Buttram's plays have been produced extensively in New York at the Circle Rep Lab, La Mama, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, and at the Abingdon Theatre Company, where her newest production, “The Phantom Killer,"  is now being staged. ( "Phantom Killer" was the play Butttram workshopped in town this past summer.)

Recently, in a game of tit for tat, Buttram asked Franks to enter a new play in the Abingdon's Car Challenge: Eight  playwrights invited to write a 10-minute play inspired by a “car” song for a set with an actual car onstage – a prop in "Phantom Killer." Franks' response, "Peas in a Pod," will be presented is a staged reading on Tuesday, February 2, 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. 

The Abingdon is located at 312 West 36th Street, just west of 8th Ave, in the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre.

$10 suggested donation. There are no reservations.

For more information, visit Abingdon Theatre’s website.

The 4th annual Telluride Playwrights Festival will be at the Sheridan Opera House from July 4 – 15, 2010.