New Plays Festival V

Written by Faculty, Students, and Alumni

Directed by Faculty and Students

The New Plays Festival takes place in spring term every three years, following Repertory Term in winter. Current department Chair Liz Carlin Metz first proposed a new plays festival to the department in 2012 in response to the exploding interest in playwriting among the students. “We have always had strong writers creating new works—alumni Tim J. Lord (’98), Jennifer Ward (’94), Ross Kelly (’03), Nikki Acton (’16), Aidan Murphy (’18), and Maddie Mondeaux (’15) all wrote Honors Projects that mounted original plays or adaptations.”

With the arrival of playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Sherwood Kiraly, Distinguished Visiting Professor in English and Theatre, student interest really took off. The department went from one weekend a year of new plays readings to one every term and from one section a year of Introduction to Playwriting to three sections and multiple sections at the advanced level—and always oversubscribed. A festival celebrating the work of the students, our alumni, and the faculty just seemed the natural next step. Additionally, the experience of working on new plays for actors, stage managers, and directors is preparatory to the kind of experiences graduates can expect as entrée level jobs in professional theatre—or as professional career tracks.

As Sherwood Kiraly observed, “After all, new works is the way to keep the art of theatre evolving—new plays mean new topics, new faces, new voices, new styles, new challenges, and new reflections of ourselves as human beings.”