For Immediate Release
February 9, 2010

Vpstart Crow Productions invites directors to make proposals for our shows to be produced during our 2010-2011 season. We encourage experienced and passionate directors to submit a letter of interest along with a resume with related theatre experience and background

Vpstart Crow will be moving to our new home for the 2010-2011 season - the new Hylton Perfroming Arts Center on the GMU campus in Prince William County. The theatre will be a 300 seat flexible black box space. For more information about the theatre, please go to the Hyton Center's web site.

Vpstart Crow produces five quality shows each year. For the 2010-2011 season, our shows will be:

Fall 2010 - Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Christmas 2010 - A Christmas Carol based on the book by Charles Dickens by Michael Paller

Winter 2011 - The Lion in Winter by James Goldman

Spring 2011 - The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Summer 2011 - Rumors by Neil Simon

Specific dates are still being worked out with Hylton Center management. Each show will have ten performances over either two, or three weekends.

Our mission is to produce live theatre as a vital, accessible, and exciting part of the life of our community. We are dedicated to breaking down the barriers between audience and actors in a performance style that is lively, thought provoking, and "vpstartling." Most of our work is considered "classic" theatre. For the 2010-2011 season, we are trying something different by adding a contemporary play, which we are calling our "instant classic." In 50 years, we believe classic theatre companies will be producing these shows as they are now producing Coward, or Shaw. For this season, we have selected Neil Simon's Rumors as our instant classic.

"Vpstartling" is defined as doing something unique and different. We have changed time periods, altered casting, etc. to enhance the audiences' enjoyment and make classical theatre accessible to the comunity. Ideally, the shows will appeal to a wide family audience (primarily 12 and up, although under 18 is not the target audience).

Proposals should include the following information:

Name of director and other relavant contact information

Directing and theatre related experience (including details / reviews / etc. on the last three shows directed

Director's vision for the show (including overall thoughts about how the show would be staged and any special effects, set ideas, costume ideas, technical considerations)

Potential challenges

Proposed budget

Positions you would be bringing along (ie "I have my own stage manager and set designer")

Any other comments, or considerations

The more information in the proposal, the better it is for us to assess. Submissions are due no later than March 15, 2010 via e-mail to info@vpstartcrow.com. If you are submitting for more than one show, please complete a separate submission for each. Interviews will take place during the end of February / early March timeframe. If you have questions about the process, or Vpstart Crow in general, please check our website at www.vpstartcrow.com, or e-mail us at info@vpstartcrow.com.

ABOUT THE HYLTON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
"The project architects, Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture of New York and Hughes Group Architects of Sterling Virginia have given us a performance and entertainment environment that excites the imagination and reflects the values and traditions of the region through the use of natural materials and open space," said Bill Reeder, Dean of Mason's College of Visual and Performing Arts, which will staff and operate the facility.

The Hylton Center contails two performance venues. The 1,166 seat Merchant Hall and the 300 seat Gregory Family Theater. In addition, the Didlake Grand Foyer will provide a multi-use setting for private, civic, corporate, or social events, seating up to 300 for dinner and 600 for receptions.

Hylton Performing Arts Center

ABOUT VPSTART CROW PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Founded in 1994, Vpstart Crow Productions, Inc. (pronounced “upstart”) is a non-Equity and non-profit professional theatre company dedicated to performing the works of William Shakespeare and other theatre classics. Vpstart Crow’s mission is to produce live theatre as a vital, accessible and exciting part of community life. Employing a resident company of local professional actors and artists of the highest caliber, Vpstart Crow is dedicated to breaking down the barriers between audience and actors in a performance style that is thought-provoking and altogether vpstartling.

The term “vpstart crow” comes from one of Shakespeare’s rival English playwrights, Robert Greene. In his 1592 pamphlet, Groats-Worth Of Wit Bought With A Million Of Repentance, Greene criticizes Shakespeare: “… for there is an vpstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tigers hart wrapt in a players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes factotum (“Johnny-do-it-all” or “Jack-of-all-trades”), is in his owne conceit the onely ‘Shake-scene’ in a countrey.” In fact, Vpstart Crow spells its name with a “v” rather than a “u” in reference to the way the English language was written in Shakespeare’s day.