Over 300 Attend NEWvember New Plays Festival

The 4th Annual NEWvember New Plays Festival took place November 6th - 9th at the Carpenter Shop Theatre in the historic village of Tivoli in upstate New York. A co-production of Tangent Theatre Company and AboutFACE Ireland, over 300 patrons attended the festival and the Carpenter Shop broke its all time box record for a single performance at the Saturday evening reading of the play Strong Force by Shawna Casey.

In all, six new plays were presented as rehearsed readings before packed houses over the four-day weekend. Five of the playwrights attended the readings - Shawna Casey, Samantha Charlip, Jan Rosenberg, Caitlin Saylor Stephens and Ryan Sprague - and gave Q&As with the audiences afterwards, with Jessica Moss (working on a show in Toronto) sending questions that were asked of the audience. Four of the writers traveled from New York City while Shawna Casey came from Los Angeles to be at the festival.

The weekend's company of established and emerging actors and directors included: Rosalind Ashford, Summer Corrie, Ben Fundis, Sam Hoeksema, Jacob Horstmeier, Kelsey Landon, Amy Lemon Olson, John Charles McLaughlin, Teresa Meza, Anna Nugent, Paul Nugent, Brenny Rabine, Jared Reinmuth, Michael Rhodes, Amie Tedesco and Steven Young.

Led by Tangent's Andrea and Michael Rhodes and AboutFACE's Anna and Paul Nugent, the NEWvember Festival aims to provide a dynamic, interactive and comfortable setting where writers can hear their plays read by seasoned actors and discuss their work and creative process.

This year, nearly 500 plays were received (via blind submission) from across the U.S. and around the world, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and Israel, and were read by a reading-panel of 17 members of the entertainment industry and the arts. The six final invited plays were selected based on originality, range, storytelling quality and emotional resonance and were as follows:

Thurs., Nov. 6 @ 8pm - The Soldier's Daughter by Ryan Sprague from Astoria, NY: In the wake of her Army father's death, Carly befriends Jasper. Secrets slowly rise to the surface, showing that her father may not be the war hero he was once thought to be.

Fri., Nov. 7 @ 8pm - Next to Him by Jessica Moss from Toronto, Canada: Ash is struggling to fit in at his new school, until he makes a new friend, Peter. And then things get really interesting, in this drama about what it means to be different.

Sat., Nov. 8 @ 2pm - Futurama by Samantha Charlip from Brooklyn, NY: A self-improvement workshop at a second rate amusement park forces two park employees to overcome debilitating emotional paralysis and attempt to change their lives.

Sat., Nov. 8 @ 8pm - Strong Force by Shawna Casey from Los Angeles, CA: A fantastical rom-com that takes a look at love from the standpoint of life, death and romantically-skewed physics in a surreal metropolitan hospital.

Sun., Nov. 9 @ 2pm - Do Not Leave Unattended by Jan Rosenberg, Ardsley, NY: Eddie has a dangerous new playmate who brings some wild company with him. A darkly funny look at what constitutes "family" and the lengths we'll go to preserve it.

Sun., Nov. 9 @ 6pm - Two Men Missing in the Hudson River by Caitlin Saylor Stephens, Brooklyn, NY: After an epic night of partying, Mike and Greg find themselves at the bottom of the Hudson River. A search party is thrown on behalf of the living. Are the two men forever gone or are they just missing?

For the second year in a row, NEWvember was awarded a NYSCA-funded Project Grant from Arts Mid-Hudson to further spotlight this artists-driven event. Plays featured at NEWvember have gone on to further development and acclaim. Of note, John Cariani's Love/Sick (NEWvember 2012) has been widely produced since, and Seamus Scanlon's The Long Wet Grass (NEWvember 2013) was recently part of his award-winning The McGowan Trilogy appearing at the Cell Theatre in New York, during the seventh annual 1st Irish Festival.

The two companies met in 2006 when Tangent visited Dublin and contacted Irish theatre companies. AboutFACE responded, the two companies met up, found huge common interest in producing new plays, and have been working closely ever since. While collaborating on a project together in 2011, AboutFACE's Paul Nugent had the idea that Tangent's intimate space, the Carpenter Shop Theatre in the picturesque village of Tivoli in upstate New York, would be the perfect venue for a weekend of play readings. Since then, the festival has grown from strength to strength.

The festival will being accepting submissions for the 5th annual NEWvember in May 2015. For more details and to read more about this year's writers, actors, and past year's festivals, see www.newvemberfestival.com.