William Inge Theatre Festival Tickets On Sale

Tickets are now on sale for the 38th annual William Inge Theater Festival, which will honor playwright Octavio Solis with the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater Award. The Inge Festival has been the official theater festival of Kansas since 2010. It runs May 22-25, 2019 and is produced by the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College, in the lovely town of Independence, in southeast Kansas.

Octavio Solis is one of the most prominent Latino playwrights in America. With works that both draw on and transcend the Mexican-American experience, he is a writer and director whose style examines the magic, humor, and darkness of humanity with honesty and characteristic intensity.

Mr. Solis will accept the Inge Award at a multi-media Tribute in his honor on Saturday, May 25th. He joins an elite company of playwrights who have traveled to Independence to accept this award, including Arthur Miller, August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Stephen Sondheim, Paula Vogel, and Edward Albee.

"We are thrilled to recognize and celebrate Octavio Solis, one of our nation's vital voices," said Hannah Joyce-Hoven, Producing Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts. "His plays are grounded in both the epic and the familiar. I look forward to welcoming him to Kansas, where I believe audiences will find themselves transported by his stories."

Mr. Solis's newest play, Mother Road, is currently having its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As a writer in multiple genres, he has recently published Retablos, a collection of short stories about his growing up in El Paso, Texas. He also recently served as cultural consultant to the animated Disney/Pixar movie Coco, in which he also voiced the role of the Arrivals Agent. Coco will be shown as a special event for the public in Independence on Wednesday, May 22nd.

Among his many other frequently performed plays are Quixote Nuevo, Lydia, El Paso Blue and La Posada Magica.

The Inge Festival gives an additional award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theater Award, each year to a playwright of distinction who is still in the early stages of his or her career. This year the Inge Festival is pleased to honor Kara Lee Corthron with the New Voices Award. Ms. Corthron will receive the award following a staged reading of her new play What Are You Worth? directed by Chip Miller, on Friday, May 24th.

The price is admission to all events has been lowered this year to accommodate more participation and child care will be offered for free to all of the evening performances. Ticket prices range from free to $15. An all-festival pass of $75 includes all three evening performances, daytime panels, and two meals. Tickets are available online at www.ingecenter.org/festival or calling the Inge Theater Box Office at (620) 332-5602.

The 2019 Inge Festival Schedule of Events:

• Wednesday, May 22. The animated Disney/Pixar film Coco at 6 p.m., in an outdoor showing at Community National Bank, in downtown Independence. Face painting, arts, and crafts for the kids. Free admission.
• Thursday, May 23. Octavio Solis and Kara Lee Corthron read from their newest books at 7 p.m., William Inge Theater, Independence Community College, $10.
  • Daytime: Theater workshops and panels, and New Play Lab presentation of short plays, $5.
• Friday May 24. A staged reading of a new play "What are you Worth?" by Kara Lee Corthron. Directed by Chip Miller. 7 p.m., William Inge Theater, Independence Community College, $10.
  • Daytime: Theater workshops and panels, and New Play Lab presentation of short plays, $5.
• Saturday May 25. "Tribute to Octavio Solis." A multi-media salute to Mr. Solis' career. 4 p.m. William Inge Theater, Independence Community College, $15.
  • Daytime:
    • "Coffee and Conversation with Octavio Solis," facilitated by Liz Duffy Adams, 10 a.m. at the Independence Public Library, $10.
    • Picnic lunch with the artists, 12 p.m. at Riverside Park, $10 includes lunch.
    • "Moonglow" after-show celebration, 7 p.m., at Glencliff Farm, $15 includes food/drink.

Throughout the Inge Festival there are also special "Tours of Inge's Independence" of sites of William Inge's boyhood; and "Inge Off Stage" late-night social gatherings.

Major supporters of the William Inge Theatre Festival include the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the William Inge Festival Foundation, Independence Community College.

Independence, Kansas, is located 90 miles north of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 140 miles south of Kansas City, Missouri.

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