American Blues Theater Celebrates Kristoffer Diaz, Winner of 2023 Blue Ink Festival of New Plays

American Blues Theater, under the continued leadership of Executive Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside, presented the 2023 Blue Ink Festival of new plays, featuring four staged readings of works by the 2023 Blue Ink Award winner and featured finalists. The line-up included award winner Kristoffer Diaz’s Things With Friends, Trouble (at the Vista View Mobile Home Estates) by Audrey Cefaly, Cold Spring by Victor Lesniewski, and Uhuru by Gloria Majule. The Blue Ink Festival ran August 12 - 13 at 4809 N Ravenswood, Suite #221, in Chicago.
 
 
The 2023 Blue Ink Festival included:
 
Saturday, August 12 at 1:00pm
Things With Friends
by Kristoffer Diaz
directed by Dexter Bullard
Manhattan. Burt and Adele are hosting a dinner party. Steak is on the stove. The George Washington Bridge has collapsed into the Hudson. Kristoffer Diaz has written a play about it. I’ve already said too much.
 
2023 Blue Ink Award winner Kristoffer Diaz noted, “It's truly an honor to receive this year's Blue Ink Award. Wendy Whiteside and American Blues have been an important part of my career dating back to before I even really had a career to speak of. It's fantastic to come full circle. Even though my life and work are based on the east coast these days, I'm proud to consider myself a Chicago playwright.”
 
Saturday, August 12 at 4:00pm
Cold Spring
by Victor Lesniewski
directed by Marti Lyons 
After a teenager accuses his baseball coach of sexual assault, four parents attempt to deal with the response of their close-knit community while the ramifications resound through their own relationships.
 
Sunday, August 13 at 1:00pm
Uhuru
by Gloria Majule
directed by Ensemble member Manny Buckley
Mshale, a Mount Kilimanjaro tour guide, dreams of marrying a white woman and moving to the West. Sprite doesn’t like white people and sets out to decolonize what he deems “his mountain”. Henry and Frannie are white missionaries who claim to be Tanzanian. As the four journey up to the roof of Africa, the looming ghost of colonialism dictates who gets to reach the peak, and who gets left behind.
 
Sunday, August 13 at 4:00pm
Trouble (at the Vista View Mobile Home Estates)
by Audrey Cefaly
directed by Ensemble member Elyse Dolan
Trouble is a portrait of fierce women in the small (fictional) mill town of Litman, Alabama. The play centers around struggling ex-mill worker Euba on the eve of her “unwanted” birthday party, which her mother Bernie (against Euba’s express wishes) is intent on hosting. Also in the mix are mill workers Lila (8-months pregnant) and Fin (Euba’s best friend), along with YoYo, a local security officer. As the birthday hour approaches, Euba is visited by a raven, sending her spiraling in search for answers to the untimely death of her father. This all-female drama traverses the landscape of family ties, mental illness, addiction, and the trials and tribulations of motherhood.
 
 

About the Blue Ink Award for playwriting

The nationally-renowned Blue Ink Award was created in 2010 to support new work. Since inception, American Blues Theater has named 13 Blue Ink Award winners, 129 finalists, and 203 semi-finalists. Nearly $10,000 in cash and prizes has been distributed to playwrights in 2023.
 
Each year American Blues Theater accepts worldwide submissions of original, unpublished full-length plays. The winning play will be selected by Executive Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside and the theater’s Ensemble. The 2023 winning playwright received a monetary prize of $2,500. Cash prizes are awarded to finalists and semi-finalists too.  All proceeds of the administrative fee are distributed for playwrights’ cash prizes.
 
Submissions for the 2024 Blue Ink Playwriting Award open August 1, 2023. All submissions must be received by American Blues Theater by August 31, 2023 at 11:59pm. Playwrights may only submit one (1) manuscript each year for consideration.
 
About Kristoffer Diaz, winner of the 2023 Blue Ink Award
Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and educator. His play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He wrote the book for Hell’s Kitchen with music and lyrics by Alicia Keys which will receive its world premiere at The Public (NYC). Other full-length titles include Welcome to Arroyo’s, Reggie Hoops, Hercules, and The Unfortunates. His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, ACT, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among many others. Awards include the Guggenheim, Jerome, Van Lier, NYFA, and Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowships; New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; Lucille Lortel, Equity Jeff, and OBIE Awards; and the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant, among others. As a screenwriter, Kristoffer has developed original television pilots for HBO and FX, written for the first season of Netflix’s GLOW, and adapted the musical Rent for FOX. Kristoffer teaches playwriting at New York University. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists and a member of its Board of Directors, and the current secretary of the Dramatists Guild Council.
 

About American Blues Theater

Winner of the prestigious National Theatre Company Award from American Theatre Wing (Tony Awards), American Blues Theater is a non-profit arts organization that produces high-quality productions with a focus on stories that are relevant, timeless, and inclusive to the American spirit.
 
The diverse and multi-generational artists have established the second-oldest professional Ensemble theater in Chicago. As of 2023, the theater and artists received 226 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations that celebrate excellence in Chicago theater and 44 Black Theatre Alliance Awards. The artists are honored with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize nominations, Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards, and numerous other accolades.