Quote of the Month
“We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things – it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.” - Susan Glaspell
A little ways into April projects suddenly picked up, making for a busy spring of readings supporting young writers and young audiences! I am grateful for the chance to visit some theatres where I haven’t worked in-person in a while and fit in some short-range travel.
Growing New Plays (in New Jersey)
Last weekend I returned to The Growing Stage to direct the finalist play reading of Bug & Junior by Ann Eskridge for their New Play-Reading Festival. I’ve read for the festival for a number of seasons, as well as staying involved with TGS remotely as the dramaturg of their student activity guides, and it’s wonderful to be back for NPRF this year. Now in its twelfth year, the festival receives submissions of new plays for young audiences and their families from across the US and beyond, providing several phases of feedback and further development for selected playwrights before announcing a winner to be presented in TGS's next main stage season. Bug & Junior will return on Friday, May 31 for a showcase evening of scenes from all four finalists!
Bug & Junior rehearses at The Growing Stage
Launching Young Playwrights (in Connecticut)
I will also be returning to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut this spring, to collaborate on their annual Young Playwrights Festival in mid-May. This event provides the opportunity for middle and high-school aged writers to workshop their plays, supported by professional actors, directors, and dramaturgs. I will be dramaturging for one of this year’s featured plays, working with the playwright to revise and further develop the script, and I look forward to continuing my spring of theatre for young writers and young audiences! It’s also always lovely to return to the O’Neill and connect with many other alumni of their National Theater Institute.
In the Works
Post-production continues for my podcast projects, Fireweeds and this season’s installment of Premiere the Play, which will be releasing later this spring and summer.
With the end of April we have wrapped up the annual reading committee for Hedgepig’s Expand the Canon list, as our favorite scripts now move on to the curators to narrow down this year’s selections. I continue to work with the research committee, unearthing more classic plays by female and non-binary playwrights from libraries and archives for future consideration.
In June I’ll be heading up to Canada to participate in Directors Lab North, which I’ll share more about in the next update!
April Highlights & Recommendations
Favorite adventures and performances from the past month!
Listening to my dear friend Rita Castagna’s incredible concert at the Bowery Electric and new single love me in september
Visiting the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for solar eclipse viewing AND an evening reading of Susan Glaspell’s gripping play The Verge presented by Hedgepig, Classic Stage Company, and Fiasco Theater
Recommending Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern (which I frequently usher for work) for a delightfully entertaining interactive experience and Suffs (which I recently saw in its new Broadway production, significantly revised from the iteration at the Public a few years back) for a compelling and powerful musical that transcends the suffrage movement to speak to activism then and now