New Work by Robert Schenkkan and More Set for TheatreWorks' New Works Festival

Hundreds of lovers of new theatre will gather this summer for an advance look at tomorrow’s hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 22nd Annual New Works Festival. Continuing the company’s legacy of fostering new theatre, this unique festival offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new plays and musicals in their early stages of development. Among the highlights: a new piece by the creators of Come From Away, a new work by The Kilbanes and Patricia Cotter, an a cappella musical about the real Alice (of Alice and Wonderland) and her surprising romance, and much more.
 
With multiple performances of each work and input from the audiences, playwrights and composers are able to revise and refine their shows during the festival, allowing audiences to view the exciting evolution of brand-new pieces of theatre. Featuring readings, special events, and food trucks on select days, the popular festival runs July 25 – August 17, 2025 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. Festival passes ($90 subscribers, $95 non-subscribers) and single event tickets ($40 for Old Cock, $25 other readings/events) can be purchased online or by calling 877-662-8978.
 
In July, the 2025 New Works Festival starts with a special event: Old c*ckby Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (All the Way, The Kentucky Cycle). Following a sold-out run at 59E59, this outrageous political satire about Portugal’s prized Rooster of Barcelos gone rogue is directed and performed by internationally-renowned artist Jorge Andrade, artistic director of Portugal’s premier theatre company mala voadora. Motion/Capture, a technologically imaginative take on Frankenstein written by Schenkkan and performed by Andrade, will also receive one-night-only reading in the festival. Old c*ckand Motion/Capture are presented in partnership with mala voadora and Peacedale Global Arts.
 
TheatreWorks will launch the August programming in the New Works Festival with a Kickoff Event, including a reception and presentation of excerpts of plays by the second cohort of TheatreWorks’ Susan Fairbrook Core Writers Group, a group of Bay Area writers ranging from new voices to seasoned veterans. Artists featured include Carlos Aguirre, Patricia Cotter, Margot Melcon, Lisa Ramirez, Lisa Marie Rollins, and Matthew Spangler.
 
This year’s August readings include Vienna, a new musical from Come From Away creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein; Alice, Formerly of Wonderland, Emmy Award winner Mark Saltzman’s a cappella musical about the real Alice (of Alice in Wonderland) and her college romance with a prince; The Bridge, The Kilbanes and Patricia Cotter’s new musical about a touching, true story behind the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge; malcreados, christopher oscar peña’s play about brothers reconnecting following their mother’s passing; and The Employee Dharma Handbook, Geetha Reddy’s workplace comedy that is a recipient of TheatreWorks’ Kurjan/Butler Commission.
 
The Festival lineup is as follows:
 
SPECIAL EVENTS:

Old Cock

Presented in Partnership with mala voadora and Peacedale Global Arts
Written by Robert Schenkkan
Directed and Performed by Jorge Andrade
 
7/25 @ 7:30pm • 7/26 @ 7:30pm • 7/27 @ 7pm • 7/29 @ 7:30pm

The Rooster of Barcelos is Portugal’s most popular souvenir. Legends say he miraculously came back to life at the dinner table to save a pilgrim wrongly accused of a crime, but the rooster himself has more than a few questions about his own story. He demands answers from Prime Minister Salazar, the fascist dictator who ruled Portugal for 40 years. The gloves are off and the feathers are flying as the Rooster and Salazar throw down over the petty lies and ugly fictions that crippled the people of Portugal for decades. From Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan in collaboration with Portugal’s mala voadora theatre company, comes Old Cock, an outrageous political satire that explores how easily stories can be corrupted and cautions to watch out for fowl play.
  

Motion/Capture

A Special One-Night-Only Event
Written by Robert Schenkkan
 
7/28 @ 7pm

J, an accomplished Actor struggling through an imploding career caused by bad choices, bad behaviors, and a worsening Ketamine addiction, has reluctantly agreed to do some Motion/Capture work on a new digital production of Frankenstein. In the studio as he wrestles with this new technology, alternately playing both the Doctor and his Creature, he also struggles with his own rapidly deteriorating mental state. Did he do something really bad this morning? Not just boorish but seriously bad? He can’t quite remember. And then there are these increasingly threatening text messages he is receiving from Sender Unknown. In the frozen arctic of the digital world, “Creator” and “Creation” prepare for their epic final battle while in J’s fracturing reality, he makes ready for his own last stand.

Robert Schenkkan (Playwright) is a Pulitzer Prize, Tony, WGA, and Humanitas Award winner, three-time Emmy nominated writer. Author of twenty plays including: All the Way, The Kentucky Cycle, Building the Wall, and Old Cock. Two World Premieres in the next year: Bob and Jean, A Love Story at Arizona Theater Co and ReCON$ruXion at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Films: Hacksaw Ridge, The Quiet American. TV: “All the Way,” “The Pacific,” “The Andromeda Strain,” “Crazy Horse,” “Spartacus.” He is a board member of the Orchard Project, a member of the Dramatists Guild National Council, National Theater Conference, and a New Dramatists Alumnus.

Jorge Andrade (Director/Performer – Artistic Director of mala voadora) is a Portuguese actor, director, and playwright. In 2003, he founded mala voadora with José Capela, with whom he shares the artistic direction of the company. In addition to being an actor, he directs shows and has written several of the respective texts. He coordinates the company’s programming in Porto and at the recently opened Campo Cultural de Campilhas (two venues that also host artistic residencies). He staged a show for Fundação Gulbenkian’s 50th anniversary; participated in Tryangle Laboratory #1 (Marseille); staged Companhia Maior in collaboration with Tim Etchells; and join the cast of the show Quizoola! by Forced Entertainment. As an actor, he worked in theatre, tv series, and cinema.
 
João Fonte (Technical Director of mala voadora) is an architect, stage technician, and producer, exploring the intersection of performance arts, space, and technology in theatre. Since 2019, he has been the technical director of mala voadora, overseeing performances, tours, and the company’s venue in Porto. He co-designed Centro Cultural de Campilhas, mala voadora’s new residency centre. João has worked as a lighting designer for mala voadora and other artists, and has experience in architectural practice, research, and scenography. He is especially interested in how technical, artistic, and spatial knowledge converge in contemporary creation.
 
Megan McClain (Dramaturg; Artistic Director of Peacedale Global Arts) is a collaborative theatre artist who co-founded Peacedale Global Arts to promote international and intercultural exchange through theatre. She leads Peacedale’s new play development initiatives in the U.S. and abroad. She previously served as Second Stage Theater’s Literary Manager, scouting plays for the organization’s Broadway and Off-Broadway venues. As the former R&D Program Director at The Civilians, she supported the work of over 80 writers, composers, and directors creating new plays and musicals. She worked for seven years at The Lark which nurtured visionary playwrights and provided transformative new play development opportunities.
 
John Clinton Eisner (Residency Director) is a director, producer and story consultant for theater and film. For 27 years he was artistic director of The Lark, a playwright center based in New York City. Currently he serves as president of Peacedale Global Arts, supporting international and intercultural artist exchange. He is also creative producer in residence at En Garde Arts, an innovator in site-specific, community-based theater. He is dedicated to reducing structural barriers to the arts and encouraging inclusive pathways into theatre and media careers through intercultural exchange, fellowships, increased artist compensation, and local artmaking. 

READINGS:
 

Vienna

Book, Music, and Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein
Directed by David Ivers
 
8/16 @ 7:30pm • 8/17 @ 3pm
 
Hans, Rachel, Dan and Drew all find themselves in Vienna at three different moments in time, all looking for the same answers: what makes them who they are, how they connect to one another, and how much can people really change?
 
Irene Sankoff and David Hein (Book, Music, and Lyrics) are the Olivier-award winning, Tony and Grammy nominated, Canadian writing team behind the worldwide award-winning hit Musical Come From Away, currently playing to over 100 countries on Apple TV+, and around the world. Their first show, My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, based on Hein’s mother’s true story, has won Best Musical awards across North America, with Sankoff and Hein performing in many productions. Together, they have written for Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., HBO, and the CW as well as Marvel Comics and the Canadian government. They are the recipients of the Four Freedoms Good Neighbor Award and the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada which recognizes Canadians’ exceptional accomplishments.
 
David Ivers (Director) is the artistic director of South Coast Repertory. He has also served as artistic director for Arizona Theatre Company and Utah Shakespeare Festival, associate artistic director of Portland Repertory Theatre, and a resident artist at Denver Center Theatre Company. Ivers has helmed productions at many of the nation’s leading regional theatres including the Guthrie Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. He appeared in productions at Portland Center Stage and the Oregon, Alabama, and Idaho Shakespeare festivals. He has served on numerous boards including the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, and the American Shakespeare Collective.
 

Alice, Formerly of Wonderland

Written by Mark Saltzman
Vocal Arrangements by Jack Lipson
Directed by Giovanna Sardelli
Music Direction by William Liberatore
 
8/9 @ 7:30pm • 8/13 @ 7:30pm • 8/16 @ 3pm
 
This enchanting new musical, written by seven-time Emmy Award-winning writer Mark Saltzman, tells the true story of the secret romance between the real-life Alice (Alice Liddell), and Prince Leopold, son of Queen Victoria and great-great-uncle of today’s Prince Harry. As a child, Alice was Lewis Carroll’s inspiration for that girl who fell down the rabbit hole and as a result, achieved global fame. But now Alice is falling in love and intends to stick with her prince, despite the furious reactions of the Queen.

Mark Saltzman (Playwright, he/him) began his career with Jim Henson, writing for the Muppets. His Sesame Street sketches and songs (including “Caribbean Amphibian”) earned him seven Emmy Awards. But behind Kermit’s back, Saltzman was writing cabaret shows and musicals that played at Soho Rep, 13th Street Theater, and the Village Gate, where he co-wrote the long-running revue A… My Name is Alice. For network television, Saltzman collaborated with Jerry Herman on the CBS TV movie Mrs. Santa Claus, starring Angela Lansbury. For the movies, he wrote The Adventures of Milo and Otis and Three Ninjas Kick Back and has written screenplays for SONY, Universal, and Disney. His TV movie, The Red Sneakers, directed by and starring Gregory Hines was nominated for a Writers Guild Award. Saltzman’s plays and musicals include The Tin Pan Alley Rag, Falling for Make Believe, Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood, and Romeo and Bernadette.

Giovanna Sardelli (Director) is TheatreWorks’ artistic director. Her many directing credits at TheatreWorks include the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Award-winning production of Rajiv Joseph’s King James and the World Premiere of Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical, performing through July 13, 2025 at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. At TheatreWorks, she has also directed Joseph’s Archduke, The Lake Effect (World Premiere), and The North Pool (World Premiere), as well as Mrs. Christie (West Coast Premiere), A Distinct Society (World Premiere), Nan and the Lower Body (World Premiere), They Promised Her the Moon, FINKS, Somewhere by Matthew Lopez, and many more. She has directed World Premieres around the country of plays by Rajiv Joseph, Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Rosen, Joe Gilford, Jeff Augustine, Lauren Yee, Zayd Dohrn, Melissa Ross, Lila Rose Kaplan, Matthew Lopez, and Zoe Kazan, among others. Sardelli directed “Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show!,” a podcast series by Marvel Entertainment and Sirius XM.
 
Jack Lipson (Vocal Arrangements) composed music for the docushort Paper Boats; the short musical May I Be Frank?; Miranda, Please!; and After Hours. He co-writes music, lyrics, and stars alongside his twin brother in revues that have played at the Birdland Theater, Club Cumming, and across the United States. Both Carnegie Hall and the Los Angles Philharmonic commissioned Lipson to curate and arrange cabarets for their respective Weimar Festivals. He has produced and arranged recordings by Pia Toscano, Bethany Joy Lenz, Nina Herzog and for Lifetime’s Snowed Inn Christmas. Lipson has collaborated with Saltzman on three of his pieces: Romeo & Bernadette; Alice, Formerly of Wonderland; and Another Roll of the Dice. Lipson has accompanied and sung supporting Josh Groban, Esperanza Spalding, Michael Feinstein, Steve Ross and many more at venues from The Hollywood Bowl to Disney Hall. He guest-starred in Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales.” He music directed Jonnie Reinhart’s A Queer Cabaret, collaborating with Darren Criss, Michael Arden, Dylan Mulvaney, Jackie Cox, and others in both NY and LA. He has toured the US with international chanteuse Meow Meow; Australia’s The TEN Tenors; Beehive, the 60s musical, and Broadway legend Barbara Dixon. Under Gerald Sternbach, Lipson associate music directed Sweet Charity starring Laura Bell Bundy, I Only Have Eyes For You, and An Evening of Wicked Fun: Celebrating Stephen Schwartz featuring Idina Menzel, Megan Hilty, Andrea Martin, Jordan Fisher, and more. Lipson co-founded For Good: A Monthly Night of Showtunes to Save the World, which donated over $25k to local LA charities.

William Liberatore (Music Director) is TheatreWorks’ Resident Musical Director and has worked as a Choir Director at Gunn High School for more than thirty years. Liberatore has music directed 50 shows at TheatreWorks, including the World Premieres of Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical, Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration, Pride and Prejudice, The Prince of Egypt, and The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, as well as hit productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, Sense and Sensibility, Tuck Everlasting, Fun Home, Rags, The Life of the Party, Sweeney Todd, Once on This Island (TBA Award), Crowns, Ragtime, and Pacific Overtures. He has been a frequent recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Direction.

The Bridge

Music & Lyrics by The Kilbanes
Book by Patricia Cotter and Kate Kilbane
Directed by Caitlin Sullivan
 
8/10 @ 3pm • 8/15 @ 7:30pm • 8/17 @ 7pm
 
It’s New York in 1867, and newlyweds Emily and Washington Roebling are not a typical couple. Washington, the Chief Engineer building the Brooklyn Bridge, isn’t bothered by Emily’s disinterest in domestic matters – in fact, he celebrates her intellect and ambition. Then tragedy strikes; Washington is badly injured at the worksite and then permanently bed-bound with a mysterious neurological condition. To fend off corrupt politicians who are threatening to fire him and compromise the bridge, Emily begins running his project for him – and succeeds. However, it turns out that wishing for an unconventional marriage is quite different than actually getting one: neither of them is sure their relationship will survive it.
 
Epic and intimate, brimming with joy, pain and longing, and set in a moment when America was reimagining itself, The Bridge is a love story about how impossible – and how vital – it is to build new things together.
 
The Kilbanes (Music & Lyrics) are Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses, a married composing and performing team and recipients of the 2023 Jonathan Larson Grant. Their rock musical Weightless (WP Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Public Theater’s Under the Radar) was nominated for Lucille Lortel (Best Musical), Drama Desk (Best Music), and Off-Broadway Alliance (Best New Musical) Awards.  Other works include The Code (American Conservatory Theater), My Antonia (Next Generation Commission, Theatre Latte Da in Minneapolis), As You Like It (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), and Eddie the Marvelous (American Music Theater Project, O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s New Works Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Ground Floor).
 
Patricia Cotter (Book) has written the book for musicals including Rocket Science and The Break-Up Notebook. Her play The Daughters was included in the Mondays at 3 reading series at New York Theatre Workshop and had its West Coast developmental premiere at San Francisco Playhouse. Other plays include 1980 (Or Why I’m Voting for John Anderson) and Rules of Comedy. She is an alumnus of TheatreWorks Susan Fairbrook Core Writers Group. Cotter has also written for Disney Theatricals and MTI, Audible, and Twentieth Century Fox Television. Awards include The American Academy of Arts Letters, the Richard Rodgers Award, and the Daytime Emmy Award.
 
Caitlin Sullivan’s (director) recent work includes Find Me Here (Clubbed Thumb), The Keep Going Songs (LCT3), The Good John Proctor (Bedlam),WORK HARD HAVE FUN MAKE HISTORY (Clubbed Thumb), Nova (Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), United States vs Gupta (JACK) and Sanctuary City (NYTW). She is currently developing new work with The Bengsons, Adrian Einspanier, and Martyna Majok. Sullivan co-founded Seattle's Satori Group, where she created and/or directed seven original works as artistic director. Caitlin spent several summers as the Artistic Director of the Williams College Summer Theatre Lab. Sullivan is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project and Next Stage Artist Residency, a member of the New Georges Jam and a New Georges Affiliate Artist.
 

malcreados

Written by christopher oscar peña
Directed by Jeffrey Lo
8/12 @ 7:30pm • 8/16 @ 12pm

Estranged brothers Julian and Erick are reunited when their mom passes away. As the brothers navigate being back in each other’s worlds, they wrestle with the different relationships they each had with their mother and who gets to decide where she’s laid to rest. Although their differences pushed them apart over the years, will this reunion, forced by the mother they each loved so much, teach them that the only way to mourn is together?
 
christopher oscar peña (Playwright) plays include the strangers, which was commissioned and had its World Premiere by the Clarence Brown Theatre. In NYC, the Flea Theatre produced the world premiere of his play a cautionary tail. He collaborated with actress Solea Pfeiffer on her solo show You Are Here, which was commissioned by Audible, and played to sold out acclaim at the Minetta Lane Theatre Off-Broadway, His play how to make an American Son was commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre and had its World Premiere at Arizona Theatre Company. In 2024, Profile Theatre produced a season of his work, which included how to make an American Son, awe/struck, and our orange sky. He’s currently writing his first musical with collaborators Josh Bergasse and Zoe Sarnick. peña has written for TV series including CW’s “Jane The Virgin,” HBO’s “Insecure” and ABC/Hulu’s “Promised Land.”
 
Jeffrey Lo (Director) is a Filipino American playwright and director. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley, and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theater Company, and Custom Made Theatre Company. Directing credits include Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Tiger Style!, Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive, and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley; The Glass Menagerie, Chinglish, Hold These Truths, and The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin at San Francisco Playhouse; Every Brilliant Thing and Red Bike at Center Repertory Company; Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage; Peter and the Starcatcher and Noises Off at Hillbarn Theatre; The Crucible, Yellow Face, and The Grapes of Wrath at Los Altos Stage Company; Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (SFBATCC award for Best Production); and A Doll’s House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction). Lo has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and San Francisco PlayGround. In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates, and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Associate Producer of Casting & Literary Management at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.
 

The Employee Dharma Handbook

Written by Geetha Reddy
A Kurjan/Butler Commission
8/14 @ 7:30pm • 8/17 @ 12pm

As an important rocket launch approaches, Val, an HR Executive at an aerospace company, suspects that Leela, a young engineer, was overlooked for a promotion. Leela, a first generation American, doesn’t really want to talk about it, but Val suspects sexism is the cause. What they don't expect to uncover are simmering tensions of ancient origins among the company’s Indian immigrant employees... sorry, Valued Team Members. Soon Val is navigating a funhouse of identity, nepotism, and desire as she tries to understand the culture and biases of Leela’s managers. When push comes to shove, Val will need to decide what her duty is to Leela, to the company, and to herself.
 
Geetha Reddy (Playwright) is a playwright and filmmaker working in the Bay Area. Her plays include Mahābhārata (Oakland Theatre Project) Far, Far Better Things (Shotgun Players/ TheatreFirst), Hela (with Lauren Gunderson, TheatreFirst), Safe House (San Francisco Playhouse), and Blastosphere (with Aaron Loeb, CentralWorks). Reddy’s plays Me Given You, Girl in a Box, and On a Wonderverse were part of the Playwright’s Foundation’s “In the Rough” reading series. Safe House and On a Wonderverse were featured in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has been commissioned by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, Oakland Theatre Project, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, the Gerbode Foundation, and PlayGround. Her plays have also appeared in the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the Santa Rosa Quickies festival, the Best of PlayGround Festival, the Just Theatre Lab series, the Crowded Fire Matchbox series, and TheatreWorks New Works Festival. Her short film Obit appeared at LA Shorts, NY Indie Fest, Bend Film Festival, the GI Film Festival, and many others. Reddy is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and alumna Resident Playwright at the Playwright’s Foundation.
 
EVENTS:
 

KICKOFF EVENT

8/8
6pm - Reception, 7:30pm Performance
Separate admission required: $99 for reception and presentation. The presentation is open to the public and presentation-only tickets are complimentary.
 
TheatreWorks celebrates the official opening of the Festival with heavy passed hors d'oeuvres and a host bar. Attendees can mingle with the playwrights, actors, staff, and all of the TheatreWorks family.
 
Featuring excerpts from the second cohort of the Susan Fairbrook Core Writers Group: Carlos Aguirre, Patricia Cotter, Margot Melcon, Lisa Ramirez, Lisa Marie Rollins, and Matthew Spangler.
 

FOOD TRUCKS