Dennis is proud to announce that he will be attending the HBMG Foundation's 2017 National Winter Playwright Retreat in Creede, Colorado, in cooperation with Creede Repertory Theatre (CRT).

Dennis will be attending the week of January 8th through the 14th and will be developing his play with music Soldier Song, which he did a workshop of in October of 2016.

​For more information and to see all the writers attending this year, please check out this link.

From the HBMG Foundation website: "Nestled between the cliffs of this winter wonderland is a LORT D Theatre boasting some of the best performances in the United States. But CRT only has a summer performance season, so the Foundation and CRT want to use the serenity and creative energy of the Rocky Mountain winters to set the stage for new play development. Last winter, 30 playwrights from across the U.S. accepted our invitation for an extraordinary creative retreat."

Dennis recently returned from Ameglia, Italy where he participated in the IUGTE Arts Oasis residency at the Monastero Santa Croce. While there, he spent six days working with Russian theatre artist and educator Sergei Ostrenko (pictured below Left) learning Meyerhold's Biomechanics, Michael Chekhov's techniques and other physical theatre and ensemble-building techniques. The residency included 17 artists from countries such as Russia, Lithuania, UK, Ireland, Canada, U.S., Australia, and Singapore.

This summer and fall Dennis will be developing a new ensemble-based project entitled Soldier Song, an examination of the veteran/civilian relationships and how veterans struggle with re-entry into civilian life. This will be an ensemble-driven project  integrating acting, movement, and music with a scheduled development workshop performance in mid-October.
(all photos courtesy of IUGTE, photo credit Inga Ryazanoff)

Dennis received a grant from the IUGTE (International University Global Theatre Experience) and funding from the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh to attend the week long Artist Oasis residency in June in Ameglia, Italy at the Monastero Santa Croce.  This creative residency is open to dancers, choreographers, actors and multidisciplinary artists passionate and inspired by movement, dance and Physical Theatre, interested in practical research of contemporary performance practice together with colleagues from all over the world. Arts Oasis provides an international epicenter for meeting artists of several countries, a safe environment for exploring new ideas and an exchange network for collaborations and creative partnerships.
 
At this residency, Dennis will study with theatre artist Sergei Ostrenko (Russian Theatre School) and be trained in various physical theatre techniques including Vysevold Meyerhold’s Biomechanics, Michael Chekhov’s gesture work, and the ensemble exercises of Jerzy Grotowski. 

After his week long residency in Italy, Dennis will then travel to London to participate in workshops and watch several productions of Shakespeare at The Globe Theatre and the RSC.

Dennis is proud to announce that his two short plays Hipsters in Love and Half Full, which originally premiered as part of Bricolage Company's Urban Sprawl (or B.U.S.) festival fundraiser, which be published as part of an anthology of plays entitled B.U.S. (Bricolage Urban Sprawl): 10 Years of 10-Minute Plays.

The book will be released on March 5, 2016, coinciding with the B.U.S. 11 event, happening at the August Wilson Center. For more information and tickets to bus, check out their website.

Spanning the years 2005 to 2015, the anthology features 34 individual playwrights and over 160 actors and directors who have lived or worked in Pittsburgh’s theater scene during the past decade. Inspired by a 90-minute PAT bus ride, it’s no surprise that many of the plays highlight Pittsburgh haunts such as the Thunderbird Café, the Southside Dollar Store, the ACE Check Cashing in Lawrenceville, and the Allegheny Cemetery. Well-known playwrights like Gab Cody, Wali Jamal, Gayle Pazerski, Tammy Ryan and Mark Clayton Southers authored multiple plays in this unique collection. Although widely variant in subject and form, the totality of the anthology shares the common thread of being by, for, and about the people of Pittsburgh.

Book Design by Tyler Crumrine
Cover Design by David Pohl
Foreword by Christopher Rawson

Dennis has begun rehearsals on the musical NINE by Arthur Kopit and Maurey Yeston, which he is directing. The production features teaching artist Ricardo Vila-Roger and special guest star Dr. Kathy Humphrey, Senior Vice Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. The production begins its run in the Charity Randall Theater on April 7th and closes on April 17th.

The play is based on Fellini's acclaimed and surrealistically autobiographical 1963 movie 8 1/2. The story revolves around film-maker Guido Contino and his search to come up with an idea for his next movie while juggling relationships with his wife, his mistress and a movie star. The play features prominent dance and song numbers such as "Folies Bergere", "Be Italian" and "Grand Canal".

For more information and tickets, please visit the University of Pittsburgh Stages website: play.pitt.edu.

Dennis is excited to announce that the short play DOG PARK OR SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN MAGNUSON has two upcoming productions in November. It will be produced by the Under Lights company at Claremont McKenna college in California on November 14th and 15th as part of a one-act festival and will also be produced by Elizabethtown College in New Jersey on November 20th and 21st. 

It recently was part of a student one-act festival at Philips Academy in Massachusetts.

DOG PARK is a play written in the style of David Mamet specifically for the Mamet Schmamet Festival at The Schmee theater in Seattle.  Set in Magnuson dog park, Jake the pug teams up with the older, wiser Duke, a great dane, to help Tiger, a young retriever, mate with Bambi, the poodle.  Riffing on Mamet’s dialogue, style and his famous plays American Buffalo and Sexual Perversity in Chicago, we see how dogs relate when humans aren’t watching. The play is published in Ten 10-Minute Plays Volume III, 2010 and can be read online here.

(Photo: Maddy, the dog who helped inspire the play.)

 

DOG IN THE MANGER by Lope de Vega, translated by David Johnston, opened on February 13, 2015 and was met with rave reviews, most notably from the City Paper of Pittsburgh.

The review comments that the play overflows with delicious puns and spot-on hilarity and that "Director Dennis Schebetta takes this serio-comic look at the restrictions of class structure and plays it for pure farce — with plenty of physical humor"

The production was also praised for the "frothy visuals" of the set design by Cully Long and gorgeous costumes designed by faculty member Karen Gilmer.

Dennis is proud to announce that his short comedy film MY DATE WITH ADAM is an official selection of the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada (just outside Las Vegas). The Dam Short Film Festival runs February 4-7 and will highlight 114 short films in 21 thematic program blocks. MY DATE WITH ADAM will screen as part of a special "Love" evening.

For more information about the festival and screening, please check out their website.

Dennis began rehearsals as director of the stage production of DOG IN THE MANGER by Lope De Vega, translated by David Johnston at the University of Pittsburgh Stages season. The production will premiere in the Charity Randall Theater on February 13th, 2015.

In this sexy and hilarious new translation of the Spanish golden age classic, a strong-minded countess discovers her handsome secretary seducing her favorite lady in waiting and fueled by jealousy, she weaves her way into his heart.

For more information and for tickets, check out the Pitt website.