Ingram New Works Festival Features 5 New Plays in 2017

Five new plays - including one by Christopher Durang - will be unveiled in Music City next month, as Nashville Repertory Theatre today announces the lineup for the 2017 Ingram New Works Festival taking place in Nashville May 10 -20.

"Since 2010, the Ingram New Works Festival has been the most exciting event in Nashville theatre" says Nate Eppler, Nashville Rep playwright-in-residence, "and this year is no different. If anything, with all of the added attention we've been getting, we've gone out of our way to curate the most dynamic lineup of playwrights and plays yet."

The Ingram New Works Festival runs May 10-20, 2017 and includes plays by Nate Eppler, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Gabrielle Reisman, Andrew Rosendorf and a new play by Tony Award-winner Christopher Durang.

Durang's new play will be presented on May 19 and 20.

Among the other new plays being presented during the annual festival:

Primary User by Nate Eppler (May 10 & 17) - Oz and Mia built a chatbot. They used Oz's social media posts and emails and texts as a basis for the personality of this digital assistant. When Oz suddenly dies, Mia is unexpectedly left with a digital monument. But she isn't the only one grieving the loss - Oz's new fiancé Liz had no idea this is what Oz and Mia were working on. When Mia offers a copy to Liz, the women do not agree on who can claim ownership of the technology or ownership of the grief. (Adult Content, Adult Language)

Pattern Seeking Animals by Gabrielle Reisman (May 11 & 18) - Louisiana's coastline is disappearing. A plot of land the size of a football field is swallowed every hour by rising water. As the ocean creeps up on the town of Jean Lafitte, scientists and state administrators bargain over its future, and a theatre troupe arrives to tell the town's story. When a storm threatens everyone's plans, the citizens of Jean Lafitte - from the mayor to a pair young Piggly Wiggly - employees try to make some sense of what comes next. (Adult Language)

Mermaid by Andrew Rosendorf (May 12 & 16) - When Everett, 9-years-old, tells his parents he's a girl, it shakes up the entire family and sends them smashing into an altercation with their own beliefs - no matter how liberal they think they are. Mermaid explores our ever-evolving understanding of the spectrum of gender and sexuality, of masculinity and femininity, and where we presently are with it in society - especially when looking at the gap between generations. (Adult Content, Adult Language, Frank Discussions of Sex and Sexuality)

Big Nose by Stacy Osei-Kuffour (May 13 & 15) - Regina hates her nose. She believes she was cursed by her father when she ran away from Africa to live in the United States and that her nose is growing larger and larger and slowly taking over her face. Due to her fears, Regina is increasingly paranoid and has become a shut-in. She starts working for a bizarre phone sex line and saving up for an operation to "fix" her nose. When her sister arrives at her doorstep with news about their father and a strange new husband in tow, Regina's world starts to break open. (Adult Content, Graphic Language, Strong Sexual Content, Violence)

All staged readings begin at 7 p.m. and are held at the Nashville Public Television building at 161 Rains Avenue. Make reservations at www.nashvillerep.org. Admission is $10 per person and a festival pass - providing one person admission to one reading of each play - is $35 per person.

About Nashville Repertory Theatre Nashville Rep is a non-profit theatre bringing classic and contemporary theatre to Nashville that inspires empathy and prods intellectual and emotional engagement in audiences. Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Project was created with the support of co-founder Martha R. Ingram to provide an opportunity for theatre artists to develop new theatre works while in residency at Nashville Rep.

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