The New Play Festival offers a breadth of entertainment through a collection of short plays ranging from 10–30 minutes in length. Audience members will gain a first look at emerging playwrights while laughing, crying and having a lot of fun.
Running during the end of May, the New Play Festival takes the work of several students primarily from the Department of Performance, Play & Design (PPD), although all are welcome, and gives them the resources to craft a first look into their writing.
“The public will get an inside look at early playwrights who are going to be working out in the world in just a few years,” says Lisa Marie Rollins, an assistant professor of theater arts who specializes in playwriting and new play development in American theater, who hand selected each play for the festival. “They’ll be able to say, ‘Oh, I know that playwright. I saw that playwright.’”
The selected plays are staged readings with minimal technical embellishment so the focus reveals the depth of the kinds of topics, themes and movement the writers are exploring. Plays and playwrights include: Hostile Takeover by Grace Viggiano; Universal Paperclips by Adrian Warren; Crimson Burns by Rae Williams; meet me in the belly of the whale by Gillian O’leary, who recently won the Chancellor’s Award for her play, GIRL BLOOD; Silar School by Zane Speiser and Great White Bite by Tieran Harvey.
Though Rollins selected the plays this year, she plans to create a student literary council in the future who will decide for themselves what the festival produces. Her future goals also include moving away from traditional forms of theater. She notes that given the merging of PPD with more technical programs, such as Art & Design Games + Playable Media, there is a world of possibilities for experimentation on stage.
Formerly called the Chautauqua Festival after a 19th century educational and cultural movement that began in New York, the New Play Festival was started by James H. Bierman, a professor emeritus for PPD. When Bierman retired in 2019, the festival went away until it was reinvigorated by Rollins, who started in 2023.
Some of the performances will be full plays with a beginning, middle and end, while others will be clips of longer productions. With six productions on display there is something for everyone, and endless opportunities to discover something new. Each performance will feature three plays each. Tickets are free and the event is open to the public so anyone can come and enjoy.
May 23, 24, 30 & 31 – 7:30 PM
May 25 & June 1 3:00 PM
Theater Arts Center, B100 Studio Theater
UC Santa Cruz
453 Kerr Road
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Tickets available on Eventbrite
Free and open to the public (ages 14 and older)