Columbia University School Of The Arts Presents NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL

Columbia University School of the Arts presents an expanded festival of new plays written by Columbia MFA Playwriting Students. The esteemed faculty who have nurtured these students, including Tony©, Pulitzer, and Obie Award winners such as David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Charles Mee, and Rogelio Martinez invite you to experience these innovative new playwrights.

This is the third round of our New Plays Festival presenting the work of the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Playwrights of Columbia's MFA Theatre Program. The festival will run continuously throughout the summer.

From the Head of Playwriting, David Henry Hwang: "These plays have been created by visionary writers under extraordinary circumstances. Some were originally scheduled to be produced as far back as 2020; others were written during the pandemic itself. Like theatre itself, they have survived the shutdown of our art form to come roaring back to life. We are so proud of what our writers have achieved during these challenging and traumatic times. Enjoy the rebirth!"

About the Plays

...enough by Tré Calhoun

Fynn, a successful black man, ropes his white childhood friends into a martyrdom ploy against the police. This genre-bending thriller asks: what people need to be sacrificed to find peace in the heart and in the world?

Performances:
Thursday, August 11 at 2:30pm
Saturday, August 13 at 2:30pm
Saturday, August 13 at 8pm

Tickets: FREE
Location: Lenfest Center for the Arts 615 W. 129th St., New York, NY 10027
Ticketing Info: https://lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/enough

Nine Ways to Plead With a God by Kanika Asavari Vaish

A group of travelers set out to illegally summit a Himalayan mountain believed to be the abode of several Godly presences. As their physical limits, relationships to one another, and perceptions of reality are tested with each meter they climb, they must find a way to achieve their new collective goal: survival.

Performances:
Friday, August 12 at 2:30pm
Friday, August 12 at 8pm
Sunday, August 14 at 2:30pm

Tickets: FREE
Location: Lenfest Center for the Arts 615 W. 129th St., New York, NY 10027
Ticketing Info: https://lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/nine-ways-plead-god

camp champ by Morgan McNaught

camp champ is a dark comedy about a bitchy but wildly competent West LA Girl Scout Troop, one of the last communities left in the world. they are on a pre-destined mission to save the last of humanity, that is, if they can sacrifice their crush.

Performances:
Thursday, August 18 at 2:30pm
Saturday, August 20 at 2:30pm
Saturday, August 20 at 8pm

Tickets: FREE
Location: Lenfest Center for the Arts 615 W. 129th St., New York, NY 10027
Ticketing Info: https://lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/camp-champ

Tom by Daniel Irving Rattner

You're in a real apartment. You are seated on the couch. The TV turns on, and "The Matchmaker," episode 3 of season 2 of Frasier, plays. It's a classic Frasier-ian farce, in which Frasier is set up on a date with his gay boss, Tom, as a prank. When the episode ends, the credits play. The sun has set outside. It's dark. You are alone. And then the door opens: It's Tom.

Performances:
Thursday, August 18 at 7 pm
Friday, August 19 at 7 pm & 9 pm
Saturday, August 20 at 7 pm & 9 pm

Tickets: FREE
Location: This show takes place at a real apartment in Brooklyn, with limited capacity. Exact location will be provided with your ticket confirmation.
Ticketing Info: https://lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/tom

I've never planned to be on this earth long by Clarity Bian

I've never planned to be on this earth long by Clarity Bian was born as a personal experiment on what can be the boundaries and possibilities of forms and narratives on stage and on page. sitting at the intersection of poetry, prose, and play, the sequence is an exploration of growth, desire, romance and diaspora. an ongoing existential crisis. a fanfiction of a life. mostly love. mostly desperation. mostly hope.

Performances:
Friday, August 19 at 2:30 pm
Friday, August 19 at 8 pm
Sunday, August 21 at 2:30 pm

Tickets: FREE
Location: Lenfest Center for the Arts 615 W. 129th St., New York, NY 10027
Ticketing Info: https://lenfest.arts.columbia.edu/events/ive-never-planned-be-earth-long

Tré Calhoun is originally from Ohio, and he recently moved to NYC from Seattle, where he resided for four years. He appeared in Taproot's A Civil War Christmas, WET's Every Five Minutes, Forward Flux's The Wedding Gift, and Book-It's The Brothers K: Parts I & II. His solo rap-musical, 25-35, debuted in Seattle, and his plays Superpowers, The Other Town, The Black Eye Society: A Cycle, and Dirt + Dew and have been performed around town. He co-wrote Pony World Theatre's American Archipelago. His play, Hand, was commissioned by Mirror Stage.

Kanika Asavari Vaish is a writer, director, performer, and the co-founder and co-artistic director of the South Asian theater ensemble and incubator Fresh Lime Soda Productions. She is also a proud New Yorker, Wellesley College alum, and former legal assistant. Recent credits include: Jyoti's Bridge (Playwright, Schapiro Studio @ Columbia University, dir. Phoebe Brooks), The Divine Feminine (Playwright, Fresh Lime Soda Productions, dir. Sabina Sethi Unni), and Guards at the Taj (Director, SoHo Shakespeare Company). She writes about hope, community, and transformation, and believes in using theater as a tool for collective healing. www.kanikavaish.com

Morgan McNaught brews new worlds/futures/identities into existence by redefining convention through queer interpretations of familiar narratives. they deftly mix pop culture concepts with new age mysticism, glitter, and millennial nihilism-bringing engagement and dissonance. they have performed at the Steppenwolf Garage and with The Goodman, Second City, Chicago Dramatists, Victory Gardens, The Fly Honey Show, About Face, ART-AIDS America, The Guild Literary Complex, Red Tape Theater, and The Actors Theatre Columbus and has done videos for ClickHole, Everything Is Terrible and Second City's BizCo and The Onion. morgan is also a contributor to The A.V. Club's Podmass and has an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University in the City of New York and has a BFA in performance, studying playwriting under the late and great Esiba Irobi at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. they are currently working on a ton of new plays, a new family-friendly opera, and figuring out how to make really good pork shoulder for tacos.

Daniel Irving Rattner is a playwright, director, and dramaturg based in New York City. He received his MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University. He was the inaugural recipient of the Wasatch Playwright Residency for his play Better and was a finalist for the Columbia@Roundabout prize for his play Rooster Teeth, which was also produced at Shanghai Theatre Academy. He currently works as the Associate Producer for Anna Deavere Smith Projects. Previously, he worked as the Director of Interviewee Relations for Smith's The Pipeline Project, working on research and production for her play Notes From the Field and as the Script Assistant on David Henry Hwang's Soft Power. Daniel also served as Artistic Director of Princeton Summer Theater and is currently President of their Board of Trustees.

Clarity Bian 卞家昊 (she/her/她) is a playwright and poet from China. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in English and is currently in NYC pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Columbia School of the Arts. She is particularly interested in the ugly, the painful and the blank. She writes for people who have failed to make it to the bright and happy stories and for things that are destructed and decayed.

About Columbia University School of the Arts:

The Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University School of the Arts presents a season of thesis acting and directing productions as well as a festival of new plays by emerging playwrights each year. The Theatre Program at the School of the Arts offers MFA degrees in: Acting, Directing, Playwriting, Dramaturgy, Stage Management, and Theatre Management & Producing. For more information about the Theatre Program, visit: http://arts.columbia.edu/theatre.

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For tickets and up-to-date information, please visit: https://arts.columbia.edu/new-plays-festival-2022-part-3

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