Every spring the department presents a week-long festival of new work written by MFA and undergraduate playwrights. Five full productions and seven staged readings are presented to an audience that includes six visiting professional writers, dramaturgs, directors and producers. All students involved in the Festival have an opportunity to speak with the guests about their work. Several plays have gone on from the Festival to professional productions.

2008 New Play Festival

Productions

Monday May 5

2:00 P.M. Reading: Bajo Augua by Tony Meneses (Catalano Studio, Rm. 172)

5:30 P.M. & 9:00 P.M.
Production: The Toymaker’s War by Jennifer Fawcett (Thayer)
Directed by Brandon Bruce

Tuesday May 6

 2:00 P.M. Reading: Why Love Doesn’t Even Know Its Name by Lisa Leaverton (Catalano)
Guest discussion to follow

5:30 P.M. & 9:00 P.M.
Production: Seven Dreams of Her by Sarah Sander (Mabie)
Directed by Sarah Ballema

 Wednesday May 7

 5:30 P.M. & 9:00 P.M
Production: A History of Bad Ideas by Greg Machlin (Theatre B)
Directed by Joe Luis Cedillo  

Thursday May 8

2:00 P.M. Reading: The House of Grateful by Sheela Kangal (Catalano)
Guest discussion to follow

5:30 P.M. Reading: Selections from the Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop (Catalano) Meet the Guests to follow

Friday May 9

2:00 P.M. Mourning Aletheia by Joshua Casteel Reading: (Catalano)
Guest discussion to follow

5:30 P.M. & 9:00 P.M.
Production: We Threeby Mary Hamilton (Thayer)
Directed by John Kaufmann

Saturday May 10

1:30 P.M. Reading: Painted Skin by Joe Luis Cedillo (Catalano)
Guest discussion to follow.

5:30 P.M. & 9:00 P.M.
Dust Town by Morgan Sheehan-Bubla (Mabie)
Directed by Anthony Nelson

Tickets

Tickets for the New Play Festival are available each year in early May. Contact the Theatre Arts Department Office for more information.

History

For more than two decades, the Theatre Arts Department has presented an annual festival centered around producing, reading and discussing new scripts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. The Workshop was formally organized in the fall of 1971, although a strong tradition of playwriting has existed at Iowa since the 1920s when the department was under the leadership of E.C. Mabie. From 1923 until his death in 1956, Mabie was strongly dedicated to the writing and production of original plays. The Workshop was one of the first programs established to concentrate solely on playwriting and is one of the most production oriented playwriting programs in the country.

The New Play Festival is presented during the last week of spring term classes. Five plays by MFA playwrights are selected for full productions, most of them directed by MFA directing students and faculty members. Readings of full plays written by the other MFA writers are also presented during the week, as is a selection of work by undergraduate playwrights. Classes in the department are cancelled for the week so everyone may participate.  Professional playwrights, directors and producers from around the country are in residence to see and discuss all aspects of the work.

Many of the plays premiered during the Festival have gone on to win prestigious awards and have productions at professional theatres throughout this country and abroad. Preparing five new plays and presenting them in a single week is a monumental undertaking that is only possible by the utilization of the department’s wide ranging resources in acting, directing, design, dramaturgy, stage management and technical support. The development of new work through production continues to be a fundamental emphasis of the entire department.