Kennedy Center Announces 2019 Page-to-Stage Festival

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts its 18th annual Page-to-Stage New Play Festival from Saturday, August 30, 2019 through Monday, September 2, 2019. The festival is a free three-day celebration of local playwrights featuring more than 65 theater companies from the D.C. metropolitan area. Theaters and artists participating in Page-to-Stage present open rehearsals, concert readings, and workshops of new plays that are still in the development phase.

Page-to-Stage reflects the dynamic theater landscape of the D.C.-area, through free performances and participatory interactions with audience members, such as a post-presentation book discussion with author Bassey Ikpi and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Participating theaters include the historic Ford's Theatre, whose seasonal programming highlights the diversity of the American landscape; Mosaic Theater Company of DC, a company dedicated to producing socially relevant art; The Welders, a playwrights' collective, currently transitioning into its third generation of theater-makers; African-American Collective Theater, dedicated to increasing visibility for the Black LGBTQ community; and many others.

This year, many of the participating theaters share the compelling stories of artists, social justice icons, innovators, and historical figures. Highlights include Monumental Theatre Company's Montgomery, following the life of Claudette Colvin, the first African American woman to refuse to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama; and Huemanati Artist Collective's Day Dream, a work about jazz artist Billy Strayhorn; among others.

Additional presentation spotlights include:

• Brave Soul Collective's #BlackGayRage, An evening of performances which celebrate black gay existence and many of the challenges faced by Black LGBTQ people
• Company Lambe-Lambe's Son Titere, a fusion of street puppetry and Mexican folk music
• Project 2020's The Last Battle of the American Revolution, a medley of scenes from stage works that celebrate and relate events from the struggle for Women's Voting Rights in the United States
• Voices Unbarred's Dear America: A Disconnect Between Perception & Truth, exploring the perception of inmates versus the reality, engage with real stories of our participants, and help brainstorm potential solutions to the issues raised

Below is the full roster of participating theaters. All family friendly shows take place Saturday morning and afternoon. For the schedule, please visit the festival website.

• 4615 Theatre
• Adventure Theatre MTC
• African-American Collective Theater (ACT)
• Arts on the Horizon
• ArtStream, Inc.
• Baltimore Playwrights Festival
• Best Medicine Rep
• Bowie State University and Kent State University
• Brave Soul Collective
• Briar Road Productions
• Catholic University of America
• Company Lambe-Lambe
• Conscience Drama Directive
• Crash of Rhinos
• D.R. Creative Collab
• Dance and Bmore
• Factory 449
• Federal Theatre Project
• Ford's Theatre
• FRESHH Inc.
• Georgetown University
• Guillotine Theatre Company
• Happy Theater
• Huemanati Artist Collective
• InterAct Story Theatre
• Liberated Muse Arts Group
• MetroStage
• Monumental Theatre Company
• Mosaic Theater Company
• Naked Theatre Company
• Nu Sass Productions
• One Off Productions
• Pinky Swear Productions
• Pipeline Playwrights
• Playwrights Collaborative
• Playwrights Group of Baltimore
• Project 2020
• Radiator Productions
• Rainbow Theatre Project
• Reliant Theatre
• Rep Stage
• Safe Streets Arts Foundation
• Scena Theatre
• Seventh Street Playhouse
• Sir Harvey Fitz Productions
• Spooky Action Theater
• Synetic Theater
• The Highwood Theatre
• The In Series
• The Indian Ocean Theatre Company
• The Interrobang Theatre Company
• The Law Theater Project
• The Rose Theatre Co.
• The Washington Rogues
• The Welders
• Theatre Prometheus
• Theatre51
• Three Princes Theatre
• Tonic Theater Company
• Too Much Damn (TMD) Theater
• Transformation Theatre, Inc.
• Unexpected Stage Company
• Unknown Penguin
• Venus Theatre Company
• Voices Unbarred
• Washington Improv Theater
• Washington Stage Guild
• Washington Women in Theatre
• Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT)

For the most up-to-date schedule, please visit the Festival website.