SC New Play Festival to Present Works From Gwon, Grays, Cabaret from Boykin, and More

The South Carolina New Play Festival has announced the 3rd annual festival. It will take place over four days, starting on Thursday, August 8, and will feature a wide range of musicals, plays, town halls, an outdoor variety stage, and will culminate in a Cabaret featuring Tony-nominee Phillip Boykin (Hadestown) on August 11.  

"We are excited to bring the South Carolina New Play Festival back for another year," said Executive Director, West Hyler. "Last year we commissioned Donnetta Lavinia Grays, and this season we will present excerpts from her new play in progress, and announce our second commission of John van der Put, more famously known as Piff the Magic Dragon.” Shelley Butler, Artistic Director, added “For our third festival we've expanded to present three musicals and a play, an outdoor variety stage, an insider package of industry sessions, and a town hall. We are thrilled to support this dynamic collection of writers: Jake Brasch, Greg Dean Borowsky and Melvin Tunstall III, Sophie Boyce and Veronica Mansour, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, and Adam Gwon, whose visions are distinct but who collectively embrace theatricality and speak to the present moment.” 

The festival will take place in historic downtown Greenville, South Carolina at venues including The Gunter Theatre at the Peace Center, CentreStage, The Warehouse Theatre, Greenville Theatre, South Carolina Children's Theatre, Reedy River Falls Park, and at the Greenville One Center. 

All readings are free with reserved seating, festival patrons have early access to reserved seats. To become a patron or learn more about the South Carolina New Play Festival, visit www.southcarolinanewplayfestival.org and follow us on Instagram at @SouthCarolinaNewPlayFestival. SCNPF is supported, in part, by grants from the Community Foundation of Greenville, the Daniel-Mickel Foundation, the South Carolina Endowment for the Humanities, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Peace Center, and by public funds from the City of Greenville tourism tax fund. 

Town Hall following excerpts from Donnetta Lavinia Grays' THE Josh White PROJECT

Thursday, August 8

7:00pm | CentreStage

The Josh White Project was commissioned by the SC New Play Festival and the presentation of excerpts will precede a public town hall on the impact of Greenville, SC on Josh White's life and legacy. Donnetta Lavinia Grays is an award-winning playwright and actor, whose work has been seen on Broadway and at theaters across the country. She is the recipient of The Whiting Award for Drama, Helen Merrill Playwright Award, The National Theater Conference's Stavis Playwright Award, Lilly Award, Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. Josh White was a prominent blues and folk musician who rose to fame in the 1930s and 1940s performing with legends such as Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly, and on Broadway and in Hollywood. He was a key figure in the civil rights movement before his career was negatively impacted by the House Un-American Activities Commission. 

Adam Gwon's ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE, directed by Jonathan Silverstein

Friday, August 9

7:00 PM | Gunter Theatre at the Peace Center

Adam Gwon made his off-Broadway debut in 2009 with Ordinary Days at Roundabout Theatre Company; a 2018 revival by the Keen Company was nominated for a Drama League Award for Best Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical. His musicals have been produced on six continents in more than half-a-dozen languages, including the Off-Broadway hits Scotland, PA (Roundabout Theatre – Drama Desk Award nomination, NYT Critic's Pick) and Old Jews Telling Jokes (Westside Theatre, NYT Critic's Pick). All the World's a Stage was commissioned by Keen Theater Company, NYC (Jonathan Silverstein, Artistic Director). The show tells the story of closeted Math teacher Ricky Alleman and the high school senior who cajoles him into coaching her for the 1996 State Thespian Competition with a monologue from "Angels in America". Soon, Ricky has trouble navigating his carefully compartmentalized life, between his outspoken new boyfriend and the conservative Principal of the High School where he teaches. All the World's a Stage is a funny and heart-wrenching new musical about being true to yourself in a polarized world.

INSIDER SESSIONS

Friday, August 10

10:00 AM- 5:30 PM | Greenville One Center

Six hour-long “Insider Sessions” will feature theatrical industry leaders including Barbara Pasternak (Artistic Director of TheaterworksUSA), Kent Nicholson (Senior Vice President of Broadway Licensing Global), Travis Ballenger (VP of Spoke Entertainment), and Merri Sugarman (Tara Rubin Casting), who will share professional insights from their expertise in areas of casting, play licensing, theatrical adaptations, and podcasting with a small group of no more than 50 people.

Jake Brasch's TRIP AROUND THE SUN directed by Shelley Butler

Saturday, August 10

2:00PM | The Warehouse Theatre

Jake Brasch (he/they) is a queer sober clown from Colorado and a graduating playwriting fellow at The Juilliard School. The World Premiere of his play The Reservoir, also directed by Shelley Butler, will be presented in 2025 as a co-production between the Denver Center, Alliance Theatre, and Geffen Playhouse. Jake is a member of the 2024 Page 73 Writers Group and a 2023-2024 Alliance/Kendeda Finalist. He is the winner of the Kennedy Center's 2024 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. Their work has been developed by New York Stage and Film, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Farm Theater, ArtHouse Inkubator, Letter of Marque Theater Company, Eden Theater Company, and LAByrinth Theater Company. BFA from NYU Tisch (Experimental Theatre Wing/New Studio on Broadway). Trip Around the Sun is a dark comedy about a couple of Parrotheads in Florida planning the remaining time they have left on Earth. 

Sophie Boyce and Veronica Mansour's THE DARK LADY with Music Direction by Anessa Marie

Saturday, August 10

7:00 PM | Greenville Theatre 

Sophie Boyce is the winner of the Eugene O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference, a finalist for the Kleban Prize, Write Out Loud and the Stiles & Drewe Song Prize. Veronica Mansour is a 2024 Richard Rodgers Award Winner and Jonathan Larson Grant winner, was recently nominated for a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award and was selected as one of four writers for DreamWorks Theatricals, MTI & NBCUniversal Emerging Writers Program. The Dark Lady is an electrifying synth-pop spectacle that uplifts the story of Emilia Bassano: a woman theorized by some to be the true, uncredited author of Shakespeare's works. Audacious and joyful with an effervescent wit, The Dark Lady brings this "what if" scenario to life in a gleefully subversive celebration of theatre. 

Melvin Tunstall III and Greg Dean Borowsky's STUNTBOY directed by Banji Aborisade

Sunday, August 11

3:00 PM | South Carolina Children's Theatre

Melvin Tunstall's show Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Show in 2018. Greg Dean Borowsky is a songwriter and producer from South Africa behind some of South Africa's biggest SAMA (SA Grammy) winning artists and is the co-writer and producer of the official “20 Years of Freedom” song for the South African Government.  Stuntboy, a commission from Theatreworks USA, is based on the book “Stunt Boy in the Meantime” by Jason Reynolds and Raúl the Third, and used with permission of Pippin Properties, Inc. Stuntboy follows the middle-schooler, Portico Reeves, whose superpower is making sure his parents and two best friends stay safe from bullies. He lives in the biggest apartment building on the block, a building with fifty doors, all of which would be swell except for the secret that Portico's parents are about to divorce. All this stress gives Portico “the frets”, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all. TheaterWorksUSA has led the Theater for Young and Family Audiences movement for over half a century through its mission to create exceptional, transformative theatrical experiences that are accessible to young and family audiences in diverse communities throughout in New York City and across the United States. Since 1967 TheaterWorksUSA has been a trailblazer in the not-for-profit theater industry and has reached more than 100 million audience members nationwide. (www.twusa.org).

OUTDOOR VARIETY STAGE 

Saturday August 10 and Sunday August 11

3:00 PM- 8:00 PM | Reedy River Falls Park 

SCNPF's first outdoor variety stage will include internationally renowned performers making their first appearance in Greenville. Clowns, Jugglers, Aerialists, and Acrobats will perform in the Reedy River Falls Park, 32-acre park adjacent to downtown Greenville, South Carolina, in the historic West End district.

BROADWAY CABARET featuring Phillip Boykin 

Sunday, August 13

7:00 PM |Greenville One Center 

TONY-nominee Phillip Boykin, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, will share the story of how he went from Greenville to Broadway, with backstage tales from the Broadway productions of Hadestown, Porgy and Bess, and Music Man, among others and perform a selection of songs from the shows that made him famous.  

The South Carolina New Play Festival is also excited to announce its second commission, a new musical inspired by iconic character PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON Since breaking out on America's Got Talent in 2015, Piff has won the heart of America through his Vegas residency, network television appearances and non-stop touring. For the past five years, Piff has headlined the iconic Flamingo Hotel and Casino in the heart of the Las Vegas strip, with over 250 shows a year. In  2019, Piff was voted one of Variety's Top Ten Comics to Watch and scooped Best Comedian, Best Magician and Best Headliner at the Best of Las Vegas Awards, and in 2020 he was crowned the winner of TBS' Tournament of Laughs. The commissioned work will be written by John van der Put (Piff the Magic Dragon) with songs composed by Matt Schatz (A Wicked Soul In Cherry Hill, An Untitled New Play By Justin Timberlake, The Door You Never Saw Before, The Burdens).

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