Theatre Kalamazoo Announces 2018 New Play Festival

For the past seven years, Theatre Kalamazoo (TK) has been providing a platform for local playwrights to develop and share new plays with the community. Theatre Kalamazoo is proud to announce that the eighth annual Theatre Kalamazoo New Play Festival will be held February 9-10, 2018 at the Judy K. Jolliffe Theatre (formerly the Epic Theatre) in downtown Kalamazoo. The free event will feature new plays by seven local playwrights, performed and directed as staged readings by local actors and directors representing the member theatres of Theatre Kalamazoo.

Plays were submitted from across the Kalamazoo area and were selected by a committee this past summer. Selected playwrights being featured in the festival are Gordon Bolar, Robert Davis, Kendra Flournoy, Emma Franzel, Dan Lafferty, Tucker Rafferty and Darcy Sturges.

Due to the success of the event over the past seven years and the recognition of the diversity and enormity of local playwriting talent, the New Play Festival has grown to include new work by Kalamazoo County playwrights, as well as that of Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College student playwrights to provide a unique, free and useful platform for our local playwrights to develop their work and further their writing skills. Steve Feffer (Professor of Playwriting at WMU) will conduct post-show conversations to assist the playwrights in further developing their work with input from the audience.

An addition to the New Play Festival this year is a special production for young audiences of The Velveteen Rabbit, as adapted by Darcy Sturges. This free, family friendly play runs 30 minutes and will be featured on Friday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 10 at 1 p.m.

This is a free event. No reservations are necessary. All shows are at the Judy K. Jolliffe Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo. For more information, please call any participating theatre or visit theatrekalamazoo.com.

2018 selected plays:

The Alleyway by Emma Franzel, produced by Center Stage Theatre

Bloody Waters by Kendra Flournoy, produced by Face Off Theatre Company/Black Arts & Cultural Center

Homemakers, 1967 by Gordon Bolar, produced by the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre

If Henry Didn't Kill His Wives by Darcy Sturges, produced by Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts

Just Suppose by Tucker Rafferty, produced by the Kindleberger Arts Commission

Sacrament by Dan Lafferty, produced by Center Stage Theatre

spells for gay black suns, signed by the heart by Robert Davis, produced by WMU Theatre and Queer Theatre Kalamazoo

The Velveteen Rabbit by Darcy Sturges, produced by Farmers Alley Theatre

The schedule for the festival is as follows:

Friday, February 9, 2018

7 p.m. The Velveteen Rabbit, followed by a talkback (family-friendly event)

8 p.m. Homemakers, 1967, If Henry Didn't Kill His Wives and Sacrament

Saturday, February 10, 2018

1 p.m. The Velveteen Rabbit, followed by a talkback (family-friendly event)

2 p.m. The Alleyway, Bloody Waters, Just Suppose and spells for gay black suns, signed by the heart

4 p.m. Homemakers, 1967, If Henry Didn't Kill His Wives and Sacrament, followed by a talkback

8 p.m. The Alleyway, Bloody Waters, Just Suppose and spells for gay black suns, signed by the heart, followed by a talkback

Unless otherwise noted-as for The Velveteen Rabbit-plays contain mature content and are not intended for younger audiences.

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