[ This Just In! ]

For Immediate Release
Date: March 26, 2008
Contact: Lee Eddy (512) 474-7886

SVT READS! PRESENTS CORY HINKLE'S PHOSPHORESCENCE

(Austin, TX)- On April 12, Salvage Vanguard Theater's SVT Reads! Series will present a reading of Cory Hinkle's Phosphorescence at 2:00pm at Salvage Vanguard Theater.

Salvage Vanguard Theater's SVT Reads! Series chooses a 'script in progress' and provides the playwright with a director, dramaturge, cast and rehearsal space to put the work on its feet for exploration and rewrites. The workshopped script is then presented to the public free of charge with a wine and cheese reception following.

Phosphorescence, inspired by the recent Abu Ghraib scandal, originated from a script written in 48 hours under the auspice of acclaimed playwright Paula Vogel.

"We were studying German Expressionism and we had to write a play in 48 hours that took place in a woman's bathroom," writes playwright Cory Hinkle. "I chose a woman's bathroom that had been converted into a torture room in Abu Ghraib-- woah, yeah - it was just on my mind at the time."

The images from Abu Ghraib, the details of the alleged abuse in the Taguba Report, and the soldiers linked to the case deeply affected Hinkle: "I felt the soldiers implicated and court-martialed because of Abu Ghraib were obvious scapegoats for the results of US policy on torture… no one seemed to care that they were so obviously back-stabbed by the government and, because they were poor grunt soldiers, they didn't have a voice."

Phosphorescence focuses on three soldiers placed in an  "absolutely impossible situation" and explores the act of torture, cycles of violence and the pornography of revenge. Tongue and Groove Theater's David Yeakle will direct the two-week process.

Cory Hinkle is the recipient of two Jerome fellowships from the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and a graduate of the Brown MFA playwriting program. His works have appeared at the Guthrie Theater, Trinity Rep, the American Repertory Theater, Perishable Theater, the Hangar Theatre and the Playwrights’ Center.  He is a recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship, a grant from the Kennedy Center/National New Play Network and a new play commission from the Guthrie Theater.

David Yeakle has been the Producing Artistic Director of Tongue and Groove Theatre in Austin since 1995 and for fifteen years he was artist-in-residence with Fort Worth’s innovative Hip Pocket Theatre. He is an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Yeakle holds a BFA in modern dance from Texas Christian University and an MFA in directing from the University of Texas.

For more information about the SVT Reads! Series, contact Associate Artistic Director Jenny Larson at jenny@salvagevanguard.org.