Jackalope Theatre Reveals Playwrights for the 16th ANNUAL LIVING NEWSPAPER FESTIVAL
The festival will run from August 21 - 25.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jul. 28, 2025
Jackalope Theatre Company has revealed the playwrights for the 16th Annual Living Newspaper Festival, August 21 - 25, at the Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway. The Living Newspaper Festival is inspired by the 1930s Living Newspapers of the Federal Theatre Project that created stories based on recent events. This year’s Festival includes five one-act plays inspired from recent news headlines. The running time is 75 minutes with no intermission.
The 16th Annual Living Newspaper Festival includes plays from Ike Holter,
Jesse Jae Hoon, Nora Leahy, Paloma Nozicka and Jasmine Sharma. Plays and casts will be announced in August.
"We're thrilled to assemble this acclaimed line-up of playwrights to pen artistic responses to the nation's current events,” said Artistic Director Kaiser Ahmed. “At a time when the speed of the news stream can dull the senses, the 16th Annual Living Newspaper Festival slows down and explores the human stories beyond the articles."
ABOUT THE LIVING NEWSPAPER FESTIVAL
With a history in the USSR and Germany in the early part of the century, the Living Newspaper was initiated in the United States in 1935 as part of the Federal Theatre Project. Its founders believed in the value of drama as an instrument of social change and the Living Newspapers became a highly effective new form, boldly producing plays that often brought to light social injustices, challenged ideals, and criticized the government.
In response to the Great Depression, Congress appropriated $4.8 billion for work relief and created agencies to administer the funds, including the Works Progress Administration. Despite being allocated less than one percent of WPA funding, the Federal Theatre Project employed approximately eight thousand Theatre professionals a year during its four-year run.
In an attempt to create new plays, the Federal Theatre Project often recruited new writers. One of the goals of the short-lived FTP was to create plays and provide training for aspiring writers, and the Living Newspapers fostered this on a grand scale. Even though insiders acknowledged that it is much easier to build a dam or teach a trade than it is to develop a playwright, the legacy of the FTP laid the groundwork for using theatre to invoke conversation on national themes.
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