Bo-Nita Closes Out Pacific Northwest Run

Posted on March 16, 2014 by elizabeth

Bo-nita by Elizabeth Heffron Portland Center Stage Feb 1 - March 16 2014Elizabeth’s one actor/seven character play Bo-Nita closed out its whirlwind Northwest premiere today after its final performance in Portland. See Raves and Standing O’s for Bo-Nita in Portland for reviews. Bo-Nita ran from February 1 – March 16, 2014 at the Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage.

The World Premiere of Bo-Nita at Seattle Rep, October 18 – November 17, 2013, also garnered rave reviews.

Up next for Elizabeth: She continues workshopping Portugal, a play that centers around workers at the Hanford nuclear waste site who are exposed to radioactive materials while on the job.

Bo-nita at Portland Center Stage:

Bo-Nita at Seattle Rep:

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Raves and Standing O’s for Bo-Nita in Portland

Posted on March 10, 2014 by elizabeth
Kate Eastwood Norris in Bo-Nita by Elizabeth Heffron at Portland Center Stage

Kate Eastwood Norris in Bo-Nita by Elizabeth Heffron at Portland Center Stage

Bon-Nita is nearing the end of its run at Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage (February 1 – March 16).  Directed by Gretchen Corbett. Kate Eastwood Norris plays Bo-Nita and multiple characters.  Read the cast and creative team bios. View the playbill.  Bo-Nita was developed at the JAW Playwrights Festival in Portland, July, 2012.

Kate Eastwood Norris got standing ovations at PCS. Several performances were sold out. Bo-Nita is completing a triumphant Northwest premiere, between Seattle and Portland. Sample reviews:

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Tickets Selling Fast for Bo-Nita in Portland

Posted on November 30, 2013 by elizabeth

Bonita by Elizabeth Heffron Portland Center Stage Feb 1 - March 16 2014After a triumphant opening run at Seattle Rep, Bon-Nita comes to the Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage, February 1 – March 16, 2014. Previews don’t begin for more than 60 days but four shows are already sold out and several more have a few tickets remaining. See  pcs.org/bonita for details and tickets.

Portland may have a special affection for Bo-Nita. The single actor / many character play was developed at the JAW Playwrights Festival in Portland, July, 2012.

The Oregonian said of Bo-Nita: “… this madcap comedy of mid-American family dysfunction carries dark undertones about the effects of poverty and sexual abuse on a resourceful 13-year-old.  Bo-Nita handles such issues with sensitivity — even amid the outlandish characters and situations that had the JAW audience howling with laughter.”

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Seattle and Roanoke / A Tale of Two Plays

Posted on November 9, 2013 by elizabeth

Mitzi's Abortion by Elizabeth HeffronElizabeth has both coasts covered tonight with a performance of Mitzi’s Abortion at Hollins University Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia (see review) AND a performance of Bo-Nita at Seattle Rep.

Mitzi’s Abortion was produced in New York and Florida in 2011, Washington DC, July 12-25, 2012, and in Minneapolis, October 19-28, 2012. See reviews. Mitzi’s Abortion, received ACT Theatre’s (Seattle) New Play Award in 2005, and had its world premiere at ACT in 2006.

Bo-Nita plays at Seattle Rep until November 17 (see reviews) and then moves to a run at Portland Center Stage, February 1, 2014.

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“Stars are aligned” for Bo-Nita, a “Poignant” “Little Miracle”

Posted on November 8, 2013 by elizabeth

Beguiling, shattering, poignant … The reviews are in for Elizabeth’s Bo-Nita, now through November 17 at the Seattle Rep.

Hannah Mootz, Bo-Nita, Seattle Rep

Hannah Mootz, Bo-Nita, Seattle Rep

Sometimes the stars align perfectly in the theater. The play is excellent, the directing crisp and the acting picture perfect. This doesn’t happen very often but when it does, a spectator feels like she’s just won the Powerball lottery. A Searing Portrait of a Young Girl’s Life, by Alice Kaderlan, Seattle P-I

The magic of Heffron’s writing—and Mootz’s performance and Budraitis’s direction—is its deftness, its ability to slip these bitter questions into a story that is, despite itself, still funny. Bo-Nita, like its title character, is a little miracle. A Grim Caper, by Brendan Kiley, The Seattle Stranger

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Elizabeth Profiled in Seattle Weekly

Posted on September 27, 2013 by elizabeth

Seattle Weekly published a terrific profile of Elizabeth in advance of the Bo-Nita World Premiere at Seattle Rep. Tickets are now on sale; previews begin October 18. The beginning of the Seattle Weekly profile:

Elizabeth Heffron, Seattle Weekly“Elizabeth Heffron is one of the friendliest playwrights you’ll ever meet. She laughs easily; and when she listens, it’s usually with the attentive, sensitive smile of an experienced mom. Pretty, relaxed, and engaged, she doesn’t seem in any way a troublemaker. But that’s only true if you haven’t seen her plays. “That’s what I was told by a literary manager I met at Hedgebrook,” she says, remembering a recent encounter at the Whidbey Island writers’ colony. “After we read one of my plays, she just looked at me and said, ‘But you seem like such a nice lady.’ ” Read the rest of the story: Seattle Weekly Fall Arts: Elizabeth Heffron. Why a local playwright wants us to consider a rigged economic system.

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Tickets Now on Sale for World Premiere of Bo-Nita in Seattle

Posted on September 3, 2013 by elizabeth
Seattle Rep Bo-Nita Elizabeth HeffronTickets are now on sale for the World Premiere of Elizabeth’s Bo-Nita at Seattle Rep. Previews begin Friday, October 18. The play runs through Sunday, November 17.

Post-Play Discussions: October 27, 2 p.m.; October 31, 7:30 p.m.; November 3, 2:00 p.m.; November 6, 2 p.m. SRO Spotlights: Thursday, November 7. 11 a.m. (Meet the artists of Bo-Nita.)

Next, Bo-Nita has a run at Center Stage in Portland, from February 1 – March 16, 2014. If you Tweet it hashtag: #pcs_Bonita

Seattle Rep’s synopsis for Bo-Nita:

Life’s not easy for Bo-Nita. It never is for a 13-year-old, but especially one who winds up with a dead, semi-ex-stepfather on her bedroom floor. With humor, pathos, and a dash of Midwest magic realism, Bo-Nita follows the resourceful exploits of a working class mother-daughter duo determined to stay together—and out of jail. Elizabeth Heffron is a local playwright and alumna of the Rep’s Writers Group. Under her skillful hand, Bo-Nita, is a theatrical coming-of-age tale that is both hilarious and heartbreaking.

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Elizabeth on Portugal: Seattle Rep Interview

Posted on June 10, 2013 by elizabeth

2nd Annual Writers Group Showcase Seattle Rep

See the Seattle Rep Writer’s Group Spotlight: Elizabeth Heffron. Elizabeth talks about her latest work-in-progress, Portugal, that will have its first read at The Rep this Friday night. Excerpt from the Q & A:

(Portugal) is about a pair of tank farm workers, a young couple, and what happens when one of them gets “dosed” by radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation over in eastern Washington. How the company responds. How their family and co-workers respond—and ultimately how this accident changes both of them. The problems over there are so overwhelming and seemingly intractable, and yet people keep doing what they can to try and clean the place up, even in the face of massive technical problems and corporate corruption. I am drawn to this combination of both despair and hope.

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Dispose of Me at Erickson Theater in Seattle

Posted on June 8, 2013 by elizabeth

Sandbox One Act Play Festival, Erickson Theater, SeattleCome on down to the Erickson Theater, Seattle, June 13-15th, for the Sandbox One-Act Play Festival, four new one-act plays by Sandbox playwrights Elizabeth Heffron, Scot Augustson, Emily Conbere, and Paul Mullin. These are completely off-book and fully produced plays. Elizabeth’s piece is called ‘… dispose of me … ,’ directed by Carol Roscoe, performed by Shawn Belyea and Nicole Merat.

…dispose of me…, by Elizabeth Heffron – A young woman and a former step-father figure are reunited after the death of her mother and try to redefine their relationship in the midst of a life-changing event.

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First Read of ‘Portugal’ At Seattle Rep

Posted on June 8, 2013 by elizabeth

2nd Annual Writers Group ShowcaseElizabeth’s new radioactive drama, ‘Portugal’, is at Seattle Rep, Friday, June 14, 7:30 PM: A ‘minor’ industrial accident on the tank farm at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington changes the lives of four workers forever. Directed by Anita Montgomery. This is the first reading of the full length work-in-progress. Talkback after the reading.  Tickets are free but reservations are strongly encouraged. Call the Seattle Rep Box Office at 206-443-2222. This is a presentation of the Seattle Rep Writers Group.

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