Keegan's Boiler Room Series Announces 2023 Featured Works

The Keegan Theatre has announced the new works and writers to be featured in the 2023 Boiler Room Series. The initiative invites audiences to experience theater development in action while supporting playwrights and their works in progress, which lie somewhere on the path from "playwright's first spark" to "mainstage production." 2023 events include half-day workshops of the featured pieces, culminating in live public table readings with audience talkbacks immediately afterward - which all helps to fuel the featured writers' work as they continue to develop these promising pieces for the stage.

As a way of celebrating and lifting the mission of the Boiler Room Series, this year's events are sharing the spotlight with a pair of World Premieres which were commissioned and developed as part of the 2022 Boiler Room Series.

"For the 2023 Boiler Room Series," shares BRS artistic director Josh Sticklin, "we're scheduling our workshops around our World Premiere productions of PUSH THE BUTTON and THE WILTING POINT - marrying the development work the Boiler Room Series does with the final products of commissioned, fully produced new works on the mainstage."

PUSH THE BUTTON, a new hip-hop musical by Drew Anderson & Dwayne Lawson-Brown and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, plays on the Keegan mainstage March 25-April 7, 2023. THE WILTING POINT, the opening entry of the four-part ELEMENTS play cycle by Keegan's 2022-2023 Playwright in Residence Graziella Jackson, then plays April 13-30, 2023. The three other plays of the ELEMENTS cycle will kick off the Boiler Room Series events, which include:

Monday, April 10, 7:00 pm @ The Keegan Theatre

AIR (part of the ELEMENTS play cycle)

by Graziella Jackson

directed by Momo Nakamura

stage managed by Amina Dunn

featuring Beverlix Jean-Baptiste, Cheryl Campo, Wilmer Juarez, Jennifer Osborn, Josh Sticklin, and Sophia Colón Roosevelt

Monday, April 17, 7:00 pm @ The Keegan Theatre

EARTH (part of the ELEMENTS play cycle)

by Graziella Jackson
directed by Josh Sticklin

stage managed by Kristen Davis

featuring Beverlix Jean-Baptiste, Sophia Colón Roosevelt, Sally Flores, Momo Nakamura, Karina Hilleard, James Finley, and Rocheny Princien

Monday, April 24, 7:00 pm @ The Keegan Theatre

FIRE (part of the ELEMENTS play cycle)

by Graziella Jackson

directed by Paige Washington

stage managed by Philippos Sourvinos

featuring Bayron Celis, Bianca Lipford, Judy Lewis, Axandre Oge, Sam Lunay, Beverlix Jean-Baptiste, Sophia Colón Roosevelt, and Seth Rosenke

Monday, May 1, 7:00 pm @ Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

ENTER GRETTA

by Kate Black-Spence

directed by Momo Nakamura

stage managed by Philippos Sourvinos

featuring Bianca Lipford, Nick Depinto, Maryanne Henderson, and Vishwas

Monday, May 8, 7:00 pm @ Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY

by Alyssa Haddad-Chin

directed by Paige Washington

stage managed by Philippos Sourvinos

featuring Mary Yee and Yihong Chen

Sunday, May 14, 3:30 pm @ Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

WAITING FOR MANILOW

by Stephen Mills

directed by Oscar Ceville

stage managed by Jillian Riti

featuring Shannon Rodgers, Keith Burkland, Byron Escobar, Melissa Robinson, and Kellan Oelkers

Monday, May 15, 7:00 pm @ Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

THE OREOS

by Angelle Whavers

directed by Josh Sticklin

stage managed by Kristen Davis

featuring Abel Haddish, Bowen Fox, Tatenda Rameau, Nina Brewton, Stan Shulman, and Ariana Caldwell

All events take place at either The Keegan Theatre, located at 1742 Church Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, or at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, located at 1901 Fort Place SE, Washington, DC 20020. Tickets for all of the 2023 Boiler Room Series events are available Pay What You Can, but online reservations are strongly encouraged. Details about all of the events - as well as online reservations and donations to support the Boiler Room Series - are available online at www.keegantheatre.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.