william kennedy

William Kennedy Among Playwrights to Read from Technology Plays
Plays sponsored by UAlbany�s HumaniTech and Cap Rep explore humanity in a high-tech world

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 28, 2003) -- Playwrights William Kennedy, Richard Dresser, and regional winners of the HumaniTech Technology Play Project will read from their Technology Plays Monday, March 31, 6 p.m. at the Capital Repertory Theatre, 111 North Pearl Street in Albany. The $35 cost includes a reception, and all proceeds support the project. Call (518) 462-4531 ext. 201 for reservations and information.

The Technology Play Project, funded in part by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation�s "Imagining America" grants program, unites UAlbany�s HumaniTech Semester initiative with Capital Repertory Theatre to bring players and audience members together in a series of short, interactive plays that explore the complex relations between humans and machines. The project updates an ancient dramatic form by staging plays through contemporary devices, such as computers.

In addition to commissioned plays by William Kennedy and playwright and television writer Richard Dresser (�The Education of Max Bickford�), regional winners will read from their work, including Daniel Ho and Stacey Orisini of Albany, Malcolm Messersmith of New Baltimore, and Daniel Whalen, who won the contest for UAlbany students.

Kennedy has been on the University at Albany faculty since 1974. His novel Ironweed (1983) won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and his latest work, the critically acclaimed Roscoe, has been nominated for the 2003 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In 1984, Kennedy founded the New York State Writers Institute at UAlbany.

Dresser is the author of Gun-Shy, Wonderful World and Something in the Air (Dramatic Publishing). Other plays include Below the Belt, Alone at the Beach, Better Days, Bait and Switch, Bed & Breakfast, At Home and Splitsville. Dresser is a former member of New Dramatists and is currently writing the book for a musical using the music of the Beach Boys.

UAlbany�s �HumaniTech Semester: Humanity and Culture in an Age of Technology,� is a bold interdisciplinary initiative to revitalize the humanities in an age of rapid scientific and technological advancement, and to raise philosophical questions about how technology is reshaping humanity. The project�s diverse blend of programs, exhibitions, performances, seminars, film and media presentations will run through the spring 2003 semester and showcase faculty research and educational programs in areas where the humanities, sciences and technology intersect.

Established in 1844 and designated a center of the State University of New York in 1962, the University at Albany's broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research and public service engages 17,000 diverse students in eight degree-granting schools and colleges.

For more information about this nationally ranked University, visit https://www.albany.edu.