Renaissance Theaterworks Announces Playwrights for 11th Annual Br!NK New Play Festival

Renaissance Theaterworks will present the eleventh annual Br!NK New Play Festival on Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18, 2025, at the Baumgartner Center for Dance at 128 N Jackson St. Festival passes to attend this fundraising event start at $40 and can be obtained at rtwmke.org/brink.  Passes will be available starting April 1, 2025.  Walk ups are welcome with a suggested minimum donation of $20.

Since 2013, RTW has invited Midwestern women playwrights to submit their work for consideration in the Br!NK New Play Festival. Two playwrights are selected to receive the Br!NK Residency Award — the opportunity to develop and advance their scripts during a week-long workshop with a director, cast, and dramaturg.

Following the workshop week, the full-length plays are presented as featured staged readings for a public audience.  A post-performance, moderated talkback encourages audience feedback, which the playwright often incorporates into subsequent versions of their work. The Br!NK New Play Festival weekend also includes performances of Br!NK Br!EFS — a collection of fully staged ten-minute plays. 

Past Br!NK Playwrights include: Karissa Murrell Myers' Black Bear Island (Br!NK 2024), Winner - Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award (2023), Finalist - O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (2024) and Semi-Finalist - Blue Ink Awards (2024); Philana Omorontionmwan's Before Evening Comes (Br!NK 2016) Semifinalist - Relentless Award and selected for the 2019 Kilroy list; Reina Hardy's Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven (Br!NK 2017) was a Rolling World Premiere in RTW's 2019 mainstage season. 

Artistic Director, Suzan Fete commented, “I'm so excited to work with two playwrights that live right in our own backyard*.  Through Br!NK RTW has produced 27 staged-readings of new works and 30 Br!NK Br!EFS; all World-Premieres and all written by women right here in the Midwest!” 

Featured staged readings

Naked Tuesdays

by Maria Pretzl

Directed by Jess Yates

Saturday, May 17 at 7:00 p.m. 

The lives of a pretentious writer, a heartbroken actor and a naive writer's assistant collide when they're forced to share a New York City Apartment.

Maria Pretzl is an Emmy-nominated writer, director, producer and sometimes marketing manager for RTW. Select writing credits include JUNIPER FLIES (RTW Br!NK Br!efs), THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE (UW-Milwaukee) and FANCY PEOPLE LIKE FONDUE, which can be purchased on Stage Partners's website. Her award winning short film, Super Dad!, can be found on Vimeo. She is also half of Traveling Lemur Productions, an LLC that produces video and photo content for many theatre companies around Milwaukee. She earned her Regional Emmy nomination for a collaboration with First Stage on the film Christmastown Comes to First Stage in 2021. When she isn't writing, you can find her ambushing your favorite local actors on the sidewalk and asking them important questions, like “which Muppet do you identify with?” 

Great White Throne

by Cara Johnston

Directed by Maria Amenábar Farias

Sunday, May 18, at 7:00 p.m.

In her darkest hour, a pastor's wife receives an unexpected visit from the person she least wants to see, only to discover this encounter might just hold the key to her salvation.

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Cara Johnston now proudly calls Milwaukee her home. Fans of RTW will remember Cara's unforgettable turns as an actor in our mainstage seasons, THE VIOLET HOUR (2017) and L'APPARTEMENT (2024), as well as performing in almost every Br!NK festival since its inception. Her debut play, The Little Glass Slipper as Performed by the Queen of France and her Friends was televised on PBS stations across her home state of Texas. In 2023, Cara performed her original one-person play, The Madwoman, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where she received five stars and an Offies nomination.

Br!NK! Br!EFS

May 17th and 18th at 2:00pm

• The Paper Girl
  by Maria Burnham

• Grow With Me Gretel
  by Rachel Bykowski

• Little Women
  by Nina Dellaria

• Flaco
  by Kristen Field

• Search For An Ending
  by Karissa Murrell Myers

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