Richmond Triangle Players Announces Finalists for So.QUEER PLAYWRIGHTS' FESTIVAL

Richmond Triangle Players has announced the five finalists in its inaugural So.Queer Playwrights' Festival. The plays and their playwrights are:

· Acute Exposure by Alice Hakvaag

· Red Wave by Ty Autry

· Stonewallin' by Kari Barclay

· Straight Wedding by k. lyons

· Talmadge & Ray by Andy Nagraj & Jonathan Spivey

Each of the finalists will present an excerpt of their work, introduced by them personally, in a collaborative online presentation, available via Video-On-Demand beginning January 15, 2020 and ending January 29, 2020. The works can be viewed for free by anyone across the country. Those viewing the works will be will be sent a survey to determine the winner; those votes, in conjunction with an adjudication committee selected by RTP, will determine the final winner of the Festival.

Over the course of the following year, RTP will develop further that winning work, in close collaboration with the chosen playwright, through a series of through a series of private workshop readings and public staged readings, as well as consultations with local artists, mentorship from theatre experts, and the provision of other creative supports. The goal is to give the play a full mainstage production in a future RTP season, possibly as early 2021.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Alice Hakvaag is a queer playwright based in Philadelphia, PA. She holds a BA in Theater from Temple University, was a recipient of the Kunal Nayyar Scholarship Award in 2018, and is a proud Ring of Keys member. Her work has been seen at Elephant Room Productions, Maladjusted Theatre Company, Mad Cow Theatre, Wings of Paper Theatre Company, 24 Hour Plays, as well as the End of Play initiative through Dramatists Guild. She has also worked internationally as a director, actor, and sound designer. When she isn't writing, she's probably doing something else in theatre, and when she isn't doing that, she's playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Ty Autry (he/him/his) is an award-winning playwright and actor from the Deep South who has had the opportunity to call both New York City and Atlanta home over the years. After graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in Electrical Engineering he made his was to New York and graduated from Atlantic Acting School. His other works include his critically acclaimed solo-show A Southern Fairytale and To All The Good Boys. @JTyAutry | tyautry.com

Kari Barclay (he/him or they/them) is a queer playwright who tells big stories of intimacy and freedom. He is the author of six plays, including CAN I HOLD YOU, one of the first comedies in the U.S. to explore asexual identities. When he's not in the rehearsal room, Kari writes about art and sexuality as a PhD candidate in Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University. Kari grew up in Lexington, VA and Bethesda, MD and currently lives with his houseplants in Berkeley, CA. kari-barclay.com

k. lyons is a Black queer playwright and memoirist from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Her work has been seen most recently in festivals at Possibilities Theatre Company and the Playground experiment, and she is an alum of the HBMG Foundation's National Winter Playwrights Retreat and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Her work often (and not surprisingly) explores Blackness and queerness, as well as historical events and phenomena and love in all its forms. She describes her work as plays "about someone who is running full-speed-ahead towards something they aren't sure is there, only to almost very nearly fall off the edge of the earth. And sometimes they find it. And sometimes they fall."

Andy Nagraj is a Chicago-based actor, writer, and musician. Originally from Yorktown, Virginia, he's performed for theatres across the country including Steppenwolf, Goodman, Milwaukee Rep, Denver Center, and the Utah, Idaho, Ohio, and Virginia Shakespeare Festivals. TV credits include Chicago Fire (NBC), Proven Innocent (FOX), and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), and he currently provides the voice of Tony the Tiger. With Jonathan Spivey, he co-authored the musical Murphy's Law which enjoyed a sold out reading at RTP. Jonathan Spivey is an actor and writer based in New York City where he performed on Broadway in The Front Page and Lincoln Center's Act One, and off-Broadway in Smart Blonde (59E59) and Summer & Smoke (Transport Group/CSC). Extensive regional credits include several shows at The Old Globe in San Diego where he earned his MFA in Acting. With Andy Nagraj, he is the co-author of the musical comedy Murphy's Law which enjoyed its professional premiere in 2016. Jonathan is also the writer and performer of Rodgersandhart, a one-man-and-a-piano evening with famed lyricist Lorenz Hart. He's originally from Windsor, VA.

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