Nashville Rep to Host Festival of New Plays

Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Festival will feature staged readings of five new plays, including the debut of a new work from Pulitzer Prize-nominee and Ingram New Works Fellow Rebecca Gilman. The Festival runs May 4-14, 2016. This Festival is the public component of the Ingram New Works Project.

Established in 2009, the Ingram New Works Project is vitally relevant, nationally recognized, and locally valued new play development program designed to cultivate and amplify new voices in the American theatre.

The Ingram New Works Project gives playwrights an opportunity to develop new theatre works during a yearlong residency at Nashville Rep. Each year, the Project selects a Playwriting Fellow and four Lab Playwrights who develop new plays for the stage under the guidance of Nashville Rep's Playwright-in-Residence, Nate Eppler. For Nashville Rep's 2015-16 season, the Ingram New Works Fellow is Pulitzer Prize-nominee Rebecca Gilman, the Lab playwrights are Jonathan Alexandratos, Helen Banner, Edith Freni, and Kyle John Schmidt.

Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwhzisgy3nzz8aa/group-final.jpg?dl=0

(L to R) Helen Banner, Jonathan Alexandratos, Kyle John Schmidt, Edith Freni

Image by Shane Burkeen

Readings of the new works will be held May 4 - 14, 2016, at 7 PM each evening. One script is read each evening, and a talkback with cast, playwright, and director will immediately follow. The complete Festival schedule is listed below.

Each reading is $10 per person, or a Festival Pass to see one reading of each play is available for $35. Reservations can be made online at nashvillerep.org.

Media sponsors for the Ingram New Works Festival include Nashville Arts Magazine and NowPlayingNashville.com.

The Ingram New Works Festival will be held in Nashville Rep's rehearsal hall: Studio A at Nashville Public Television, located at 161 Rains Avenue in Nashville.

About the plays

Thrill Day by Helen Banner

Readings: May 4 & 14

A staged train wreck as the spectacular conclusion of a State Fair serves as the backdrop of this bold new play. A Victorian couple seeks increasing thrills to regain their bohemian marriage, but their reckless actions soon put an entire town at risk. Thrill Day is a collision of steel, sex, race, gender, class and the pursuit of explosive pleasures.*This play contains adult themes and sexual situations

See What Happen by Jonathan Alexandratos

Readings: May 5 & 12

Jonathan Alexandratos wrote a beautiful solo play about his grandmother's immigration to the United States. But you won't be seeing that play. Instead, Jonathan's grandmother is here to tell you how it really happened. Armed with the action figures Jonathan left behind in Granny's basement and enough spanakopita to go around, Granny is going to set the record straight.*This play contains adult themes and language

The Secretary by Kyle John Schmidt

Readings: May 9 & 11

Ruby runs a small-town gun company that aims to protect women by helping them protect themselves. But as production begins on the company's newest model, guns start going off- and no one's pulling the trigger. This exciting new play is a quirky, offbeat comedy for a world that's up in arms.*This play contains adult themes and language

This is About You by Edith Freni

Readings: May 10 & 13

YOU works with dolphins at a run-down facility in Key Largo, Florida. She's just moved into her best friend's apartment. He thinks of her as a roommate, but she wants more. And she's willing to do just about anything to get it. This electric new play explores the depths of denial and what happens when you finally realize that the thing you so desperately want is not the thing that you need.*This play contains adult themes and language

Rocket Science by Rebecca Gilman

Readings: May 6 & 7

It's 1967 in Madison, Alabama, and twelve-year-old Jack lives with his family in the worst house on the wrong side of town. His world is turned upside down when Jack's older brother becomes the only suspect in the disappearance of the town's golden boy. And Jack might be the only person who knows the truth of what really happened that night. *This play contains adult themes