Student Blog: My Week at the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival

The Lanford Wilson New Play Festival is an annual event that has taken place for the past three summers at my college, The Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance, and I’m so excited to have been participating in it this year! It is such a fun experience and it is so cool to get to learn about new work. “The festival will feature staged readings of five Official Selection full-length plays and ten Official Selection short plays, as well as workshops and seminars on playwriting and new play development. At the conclusion of the festival, one full-length play will be selected for the festival’s top prize and will receive its world premiere in the 2023-2024 Dobbins Conservatory Mainstage Season and will be considered for publication by Concord Theatricals” (pulled from the festival website).

So, I wanted to take you through my week at the festival!

Day 1: Sunday, May 28th

Yay! Festival day! Today is the day, the sun is shining and the tank is clean! I could not be more excited about making my trek back to Cape Girardeau! I had the pleasure of picking up one of our guest artists/playwrights, Lindsay Partain, at the airport and giving her a ride to the festival, so it was a lot of fun getting to chat with her. Once we arrived in Cape, we both checked in and then went to a pizza social with all of our guest artists and the participants. It was so good to see some of my friends from school! After that we headed to our first session of short play staged readings! After that, some of my friends and I headed out to the grocery store to stock up on some things for the week, then I headed back to the dorms and went to sleep. Overall, this was a great first day. I missed everyone a lot.

Day 2: Monday, May 29th

Day 2 baby! I’m really excited for today. However, waking up this morning, my anxiety started to rear its ugly head my way. I was just overall super anxious and nervy. I woke up a lot earlier than I needed to and couldn’t seem to make my brain stop. I showered, and got ready and then walked over to the official opening session which definitely helped me to calm down a bit and get settled in. The official opening session was great. We were given a run down of what the week would look like and how things would go. After that, we had lunch. I ate with some of my friends and then headed off to our first workshop session, the twenty minute playwriting challenge. 6 writers were selected and given 20 minutes to write a short play. It could only have two characters and had to begin with an entrance. I was one of the chosen writers which was super cool-however I was very scared. Only having 20 minutes to write a play is terrifying. To be honest, I blacked out a bit and don’t fully remember everything that I wrote. We were given an object for our main conflict to be centered around and a photograph for one of our characters to be inspired by.

Those 20 minutes flew by incredibly fast, the next thing I knew, we were done and we were off to go share our plays. We got to select actors to read our plays in front of everyone and we were then given feedback. I’m actually really proud of my play. I also got some great feedback and questions from my peers about it which was wonderful. I’m proud of myself for doing it.

After that, we headed to a lecture session, led by Kitt Lavoie, artistic director of the festival, about writing human characters for human audiences. Kitt talked to us about how to make characters more human. Something that really stuck out to me from the session was how as playwrights, and frankly as actors, we have to focus on making the characters truthful and not natural. Because if we write characters naturally, it isn’t interesting. We don’t write plays about everyday life, we write plays about the interesting parts and we never act naturally during the chaos. I really enjoyed this session and got a lot from it.

Next we had our dinner break, and then it was time for our first full length staged reading! The play read was Insignificant Bugs by Keiko Green and wow. Oh my goodness, it was incredible. The subject matter was one you don’t normally see on stage and it was so refreshing. Green also handled the topics with such respect and it made the play so much more realistic. If you have the chance, I totally recommend checking it out. It can be found on the New Play Exchange very soon. Afterwards, we had a little talk back with the playwright, which was cool to get the chance to talk to Keiko and ask her certain questions about the show.

If I was to take away anything from today, it would be that stepping out of your comfort zone is the only way to grow. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Day 3: Tuesday, May 30th

Today was Light Keeper Day! I was blessed to have been cast in one of the staged readings and today was the day we got to rehearse it and perform it! I got the privilege of playing DeeDee in The Light Keepers by Lindsay Partain. We rehearsed all day from 9am-5pm, with breaks of course, and then performed in the festival at 7pm that night! Our day started off with a table read of the show and then we chatted with Lindsay about our thoughts on the play and any questions we had. It was wonderful to get to interact with the playwright and it was especially helpful when building the story. After that, we chatted with our director about her vision for the reading. After that we ran through our blocking in the space with the music stands then we were ready to go! It is a very short process, but it was so much fun. After our little dinner break, we did the reading!

It went really well, the audience was so receptive and engaged, which is always fantastic. After the reading, we had the talk back with the playwright then headed over to the informal reception! The informal reception is for the cast of the reading along with other participants and all of the playwrights and guest artists at the festival. It gives us a chance to talk to the artists one on one and get to know them

This was truly one of the most interesting and inspiring things in my career so far. Getting to participate in new work is something that I am so passionate about and I love it so much. The character I was portraying was very similar to me as a person so getting to make DeeDee my own and incorporate bits of myself into her was wonderful. Doing this reminded me of why I am here. And why I do what I do. One of my favorite people in the world, Olivia Wheeler, who was also in the reading, came up to me after the reading and said “Grace, we get to do this. This is what we get to do for the rest of our lives” and that just hit me like a freight train. I am so blessed to be able to come to this festival and learn and experience so many things and I’m blessed to be in the career that I’m in. It is so so hard, but moments and opportunities like this make it all worth it. And that was just Tuesday.

Day 4: Wednesday, May 31st

Today was my first day having a full four session day! Today we started off with a seminar about originating a role in a piece of new work and how to be a collaborative and helpful spirit in the room with a playwright. This was helpful to know and I took a lot away from this session as an actor. After that we moved on to a seminar from one of the writers of our short plays in the festival about writing short plays. I loved this session! We were given some advice about writing short plays and the power they have and then we were given props and pictures for inspiration to write our own plays.

I was really drawn to this idea about hands. People holding each other and reaching out for one another. So I took that and ran with it. I really liked having an open space to just sit down and write. I haven't done that in a while, and I almost forgot what that was like and the joy it brought me.

After lunch, we had a session about Power Plays by the truly incredible Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage.  Just getting to listen to her tell us about her life and the things she’s seen and learned is incredible. She started out by creating her own theatre in Alaska and now she’s soon-to-be retired from her position at Arena Theatre. What we are all trying to do. After that, we got to chat and learn from Lindsay Partain, playwright of the show I was in, The Light Keepers. She talked to us about incorporating Sci-Fi in theater. I had never thought about adding that aspect to theatre until now, so it was so cool to see how we can put sci-fi onstage.

Then that evening, we got to watch a staged reading of Power Play by Rachel Greene which focused around themes of fatphobia and feeling unsafe in a rehearsal room. I thought this play was beautifully written and handled very well. I finished my day by watching some tv with my roommates, then it was bedtime!

Day 5: Thursday, June 1st

Day four started strong with a lecture from Josh Harvey, one of our professors at Dobbins Conservatory, about underscoring a play and the different thought processes that go into that. It was interesting to see the amount of research that goes into underscoring and creating new music for a show and the different parameters that can be created. Next, we had a session about writing theatrical ghost stories with playwright C Meaker. I’m not normally one to write spooky stories, so this session was a bit of a step out of my comfort zone but I ended up really loving it. We talked about what really scares us and how we can turn those anxieties and present them onstage. After that session, we had a lunch break, then we had a fun little session of new play jeopardy where there were two teams playing, with some help from the audience if needed, and all the questions involved new work or plays in some way, which was a blast to experience. Following that we had a session with Rachel Greene about creating empowered spaces for fat artists and all artists. This session was great and really enlightening. Rachel really gave an open space for everyone to talk to her and ask questions which was wonderful.

This evening's play reading was Our Play by Jessica Moss. Our Play was beautiful and followed a group of high school students through one of their last rehearsals for their production of Our Town when other things ensue. It was very beautifully written and it was only Jessica’s third draft which is incredible. I finished my day by chatting with a few of my friends in my room and then heading off to bed to prepare for the final full day of the festival.

Day 6: Friday, June 2nd

Our first half of the day, we gathered to share work for the 50-word play challenge for Molecule Literary Magazine. We were given the opportunity to write a play that could only be 50 words or less, including everything except the playwright's name. This was incredibly hard but also incredibly fascinating. It was interesting to see the different concepts that people came up with and how they used the limited amount of words they were given. I loved this. After that it was lunchtime!

After lunch, it was time to reconvene for a session from playwright Jessica Moss about writing that isn’t actually writing. She talked to us and told us that as writers, our favorite thing to do is come up with excuses not to write. After that, she had us all think of true stories that happened to us, and then volunteers acted them out. From those stories came truth and ideas that got rid of some of our excuses not to write. The session was very unique and got us to move around a bit and have fun. Our final session was with playwright and actor, Keiko Green. Keiko is wonderful. Her session was all about the creative itch and how to start a career in writing and how to be inspired to write. We did a few writing exercises which I’m always down for. The session came to a close and then my friend Lydia and I went and got Culvers!

Our final staged full length play reading was Lost Girls by C Meaker. This play was a horror which was really refreshing to see onstage because we never really see horror stories told onstage, so that was a cool one to see.

After tonight's reading, I got ice cream and then played DnD with some pals! It was so good to play in person with each other again. After a grueling session, it was time for sleep.

Day 7: Saturday, June 3rd

Final day of the festival:( Today we all got to sleep in a bit, we didn’t have anything until the staged readings of the final selection of short plays at 2pm. Following that, we had the final awards ceremony where the winner was announced and is…Our Play by Jessica Moss! I can’t wait to see it produced onstage for the first time ever in the spring. It is going to be wonderful to see and take in.

After the awards, my evening consisted of DnD, dinner, and spending time with friends before we departed the next day.

Day 7: Sunday, June 4th

Today began bright and early so I could pack and then take one of our playwrights, Lindsay Partain to the airport. It was wonderful to get to chat and get to know her as well. I love Lindsay and it was a joy to get to drive her. Then I headed home!

That’s the festival! I don’t think I’ve ever left an event feeling quite so inspired to work on my writing and wanting to work on new work. This festival was truly inspiring and I left having learned so much from all of these wonderful people. It was so cool to connect with everyone and see them all shine and grow. I cannot wait for next years festival and to see what else ensues. At the end of Molly Smith’s session, she told us to go be radical. And as artists, I think that is something we all have to do. So please, go be radical and as always, go do great things.

 If you are interested in the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival and want more info on how you can attend or get involved, follow the link here. Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival | SEMO

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