Festival of Unfinished Work at Bramble Theatre Company

CHICAGO – Bramble Theatre Company, is proud to announce the third annual Festival of Unfinished Work at the new Bramble Arts Loft located on the second floor of the historic Capital Garage building at 5545 N. Clark St, June 26 - 30. Press are invited to attend Wednesday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m. The Festival’s performance schedule is Wednesday, June 26 through Saturday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 30 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 each and may be purchased at BrambleTheatre.org.

The submission process for this year's Festival of Unfinished Work began in fall 2023. A call was put out for original, unproduced plays by Chicago playwrights. From the submissions, the literary committee, composed of Bramble ensemble and staff, went through an extensive review process to narrow the submissions to a list of finalists, which was presented to Bramble Theatre Co-Founder and Artistic Director Karissa Murrell Myers for the final selection. Each 10-15 minute scene will be brought to life by a team of Chicago directors and actors during the Festival.  

The Festival of Unfinished Work was born out of the desire to help amplify writers’ new work and provide them development resources while their plays are in progress. Murrell Myers explains, “When we sat down with each of our ensemble members in 2019 to ask them what they wanted to see Bramble produce, every single one of them said, ‘new work.’ A new works festival seemed like the perfect chance to give writers a platform to have their in-development plays heard.” 

Another element of the Festival of Unfinished Work is audience participation. During the Festival, the audience will be invited to vote on which pieces they would most like to see developed by Bramble Theatre. Upon entry, audience members get a handful of dried beans, and they vote by dropping beans into cups labeled with each show's title. This voting process will impact which pieces will be given a workshop and public staged reading by Bramble at a future date. 

To see the full program for the Festival of Unfinished Work visit www.https://www.brambletheatre.org/festival-unfinished-work-2024