Theatre Kalamazoo Presents New Play Festival: 2/3-4, 2017

For the past six years, Theatre Kalamazoo (TK) has been providing a platform for local playwrights to develop and share new plays with the community. Theatre Kalamazoo is proud to announce that the seventh annual Theatre Kalamazoo New Play Festival will be held February 3-4, 2017 at the Judy K. Jolliffe Theatre (formerly the Epic Theatre) in downtown Kalamazoo. The free event will feature new plays by 8 local playwrights, performed and directed as staged readings by local actors and directors representing the member theatres of Theatre Kalamazoo.

Plays were submitted from across the Kalamazoo area and were selected by a committee this past summer. Selected playwrights being featured in the festival are Kendra Flournoy, Jeremy Hermann, Laura Livingstone-McNelis, Nicole Mullis, Tucker Rafferty, R.D. Rivers, Darcy Sturges and Austin Wines.

To launch the festival, Theatre Kalamazoo is honored once more feature a new work by accomplished and published playwright, Emilio Rodriguez. A reception for the public will follow the reading of his play. He will also conduct a free workshop for our local festival playwrights.

Due to the success of the event over the past six years and the recognition of the diversity and enormity of local playwriting talent, the New Play Festival has grown to include new work by Kalamazoo County playwrights, as well as that of WMU and Kalamazoo College student playwrights to provide a unique, free and useful platform for our local playwrights to develop their work and further their writing skills. Steve Feffer (Professor of Playwriting at WMU) will conduct post-show conversations to assist the playwrights in further developing their work with input from the audience.

This is a free event. No reservations are necessary. All shows are at the Judy K. Jolliffe Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo. For more information please call any participating theatre or log onto www.theatrekalamazoo.com. 

The schedule for the festival is as follows:

Friday, February 3, 2017

7:30pm    Blood Moon Baby by special guest Emilio Rodriguez, produced by WMU Theatre
               Followed by discussion and reception.

9pm        Late Night 10-minute Plays
              Red Sauce by Nicole Mullis, produced by Center Stage Theatre
              Crossroad by Jeremy Hermann, produced by Queer Theatre Kalamazoo 
              Familial Auctions by Darcy Sturges, produced by Kalamazoo College
              I’m Holding Only Air by Austin Wines, produced by Kindleberger Arts Commission 

Saturday, February 4, 2017

2pm        Four 10-minute Plays    
              Lost in the Shuffle by Laura Livingstone-McNelis, produced by the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre
              The Land Behind the Mill by Kendra Flournoy, produced by Face Off Theatre Company
              Red Sauce by Nicole Mullis, produced by Center Stage Theatre
              Crossroad by Jeremy Hermann, produced by Queer Theatre Kalamazoo 
              Followed by a discussion with the playwrights

7:30pm    Four 10-Minute Plays
               The Forager by Tucker Rafferty, produced by Farmers Alley Theatre
               Familial Auctions by Darcy Sturges, produced by the Festival Theatre at Kalamazoo College 
               I’m Holding Only Air by Austin Wines, produced by Kindleberger Arts Commission 
               Miracles, or Whatever by R.D. Rivers, produced by The New Vic Theatre 
               Followed by a discussion with the playwrights

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