Feature: Festival of New Plays Promotes Diversity

Maine playwrights - and those from across the United States - will have an opportunity to submit their work to the Fulton Theatre's first National Festival of New Plays, which will debut May 21-23, 2021 in Lancaster, PA. Entitled "Stories of Diversity: Reflections of Community,' the festival is dedicated to works - comedies, dramas, or musical, that "celebrate perspectives from the spectrum of diversity, including voices from Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color, LGBTQ communities as well as voices from different religious and economic viewpoints. The initiative was launched this year as part of the theatre's commitment to what Director of Community Engagement, Steph Jo Wise calls "theatre's commitment to be an agent of change though the stories we tell" and to make a positive difference in the ongoing struggle for equity and inclusion.

Executive Artistic Producer, Marc Robin, expressed his hopes for the project: "The Fulton Theatre has always been a gathering place for the community. The programming needs to reflect the diverse makeup of our community. We hope that by taking this necessary step of increasing the opportunities to foster diversity that the entire community feels included at the Fulton Theatre, their home for the performing arts."

The competition will be judged by the Fulton's newly formed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee - a group selected through an application process - whose mission as described by Eric Pugh, Director of Marketing, is "to build relationships and foster inclusiveness by diversifying our programming, artists, staff, volunteers, and community stakeholders." Together with the Fulton's Board of Directors and representatives from the theatre's staff, among them Pugh, Wise, and Sara Habecker, Director of Human Resources, the committee will review the plays submitted and choose four finalists who will have their work presented in workshop format on the May weekend. Serving as one of the consultants for the festival is Maine-based actor, writer, producer, and Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre, Curt Dale Clark. On May 23rd at the close of the festival the panel of judges and the audience will select the winner of this inaugural festival. This writer's work will receive $500 prize and a full production in the Fulton Theatre's Groff Studio Series in the Tell Studio Theatre.

Among the parameters for the works submitted are that the play or musical has six characters or fewer and lasts at least sixty minutes or longer; that it is completely original; and that this represents the first step in its development. Applications to submit plays are currently being accepted and must be received by January 4, 2021. The submission form is available at https://thefulton.org/community/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ Winners will be announced March 1, 2021, and two members of each creative team will be receiving a travel and expenses paid invitation to the festival.

The Fulton Theatre is one of many across the nation taking renewed steps to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in a year marked by increasing calls for social justice. Robin sees the theatre as the ideal place to foster communication and conversation about the difficult issues facing the nation and our communities. Of the new festival he says, [We hope]"anyone who has a perspective and passion to speak out and to be heard about how they feel about all the conversations taking place in our country and in our world will write and submit a play. Theatre is the perfect place to present that story without being caught up in the political realm, but rather [by being] focused on our mission to engage our audiences and to foster communication and dialogue."

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