Austin Playwright Allan Baker's 'Eskandar' To Be Given Staged Reading at Texas Playwright's Festival July 30 - August 1, 2015

Austin gay playwright Allan Baker's full-length play, Eskandar, will be part of Wordsmyth Theatre Company's Texas Playwright's Festival at Houston's Stages Repertory Theatre from July 30th to August 2nd.  Three plays, from seventy-one submitted by playwrights across Texas, were selected to be given two staged readings during the Festival. There will be a talk back with the playwright, director and audience after each reading.  Playwrights may revise their work between readings.

Others plays selected were Remnants of a Dream, by Dallas playwright, actress, acting teacher and New Mexico State professor emeritus of theatre, Ruth Cantrell; and Supremacy, by Austin Grammy award-winning music video director, indie film maker, award winning stage director and playwright, Rosalyn Rosen.

Allan's play will be read at 7 PM on Thursday, July 30th and 7:30 PM on Saturday, August 1st at Stages Repertory Theatre at 3201 Allen Parkway, in Houston.  For tickets, you may call Stages Repertory at 713-527-0123 or go to:  http://boxoffice.printtixusa.com/stagesrepertorytheatre/eventcalendar.

Inspired by Bizet's Carmen and the Shahnameh, or "Epic of Kings" of the 10th Century Persian poet Firdowsi, Eskandar is the story of the tragic clash of cultures, histories, social and gender roles and geo-politics in today's Afghanistan.  Joe, an Afghan-American who has returned to Afghanistan as part of a covert operation, falls in love with Eskandar, the wild, impetuous and entrancing "kept boy" of an Afghan warlord.  They develop a relationship that ends in tragedy.  

In 2014 Eskandar was a finalist for New York City's Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Playwriting Competition for plays based on LGBT themes.

A long-time gay political activist in Texas, Allan began writing in 2004 and has since written eleven plays, all with gay characters and themes.  By September, these plays will have had twenty-one productions and six staged readings, from coast to coast and internationally...from Canada to Guam.

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