Technicolor Life by Jami Brandli

Maxine, a book-smart teenager, has to deal with family arguments, online dating, PTSD, and classic movie musicals when her sister returns from Iraq and their grandmother moves in. 

Directed by Marissa Wolf

Jami Brandli's plays include Technicolor Life, BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!), S.O.E., MTheory, ¡SOLDADERA!, as well as shorter works. Her work has been produced and developed at HotCity Theatre, WordBRIDGE, Ashland New Plays Festival, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Moving Arts, Milwaukee Rep, Rogue Machine Theatre, among other venues. She received the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award and Holland New Voices Award and was a finalist for the Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Fellowship. A proud member of the Playwrights Union, Jami teaches dramatic writing at Lesley University's low-residency MFA program and is represented by The Gersh Agency.

Currently in her fifth season as the Artistic Director of Crowded Fire Theater, Marissa Wolf’s recent directing credits include the World Premiere of The Taming by Lauren Gunderson at Crowded Fire, Precious Little by Madeleine George at Shotgun Players (2012 Top Ten list in the SF Chronicle), and the West Coast Premiere of Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee (nominated Best Director by Broadway World San Francisco and the Bay Area Critics Circle Award) with Crowded Fire Theater and AATC. Other credits include, The Secretaries by The Five Lesbian Brothers, Good Goods and DRIP by Christina Anderson, Gone by Charles Mee (Crowded Fire), Act II of The Lily’s Revenge by Taylor Mac (The Magic Theatre), the Bay Area Premiere of Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno, listed as #1 on Bay Area Critic Sam Hurwitt’s 2009 Top Ten list, (Cutting Ball Theater), and Truce by Marilee Talkington (Vanguardian Productions). Marissa previously held the Bret C. Harte Directing Internship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for two years, where she assisted renowned directors, including Tony Taccone, Les Waters, Lisa Peterson, Annie Dorsen, Frank Galati, and Mary Zimmerman. Marissa has her degree in drama from Vassar College, and received additional training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Global Age Project

Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as prize winners by a committee of local directors for the ninth annual Global Age Project (GAP), the company’s new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theater: #therevolution by Kristoffer Diaz; Technicolor Life by Jami Brandli; Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman; and Welcome Home by Stephen Brown. The selected GAP plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 10-March 3, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company’s fully-staged Bay Area Premiere of Johnna Adams’ provocative new play, Gidion’s Knot (January 31-March 2), directed by Jon Tracy.

Each of the four prize-winners will receive a $1,000 award and travel and accommodation expenses; their work will also be considered for further development and production during Aurora Theatre Company’s regular main stage season. Each GAP reading will be followed by an audience discussion of the contemporary issues raised in the work; please see below for information about the festival lineup.

Aurora Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Tom Ross states, “The ninth year of The Global Age Project has brought the diverse perspectives of many new playwrights to our attention. We are excited to have the opportunity to present readings of fresh new works from Pulitzer Prize finalist (and author of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, presented by Aurora in 2012) Kristoffer Diaz, as well as rising stars Jami Brandli, MJ Kaufman, and Stephen Brown. We received over 360 script submissions, more than double the submissions we received last year, with subject matters focused primarily on home front issues, including parent and child relationships, sexual faithfulness, sexual identities, and bullying; we also received a number of relevant yet surreal political allegories. Led by GAP co-producers M. Graham Smith and Deborah Taylor, this year’s GAP script reading committee and the GAP Director’s Council sessions were filled with strongly expressed opinions and no holds barred excitement; I believe that our GAP audiences will feel the same way.”