In January, major national attention is being paid to the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, the umbrella program that, among many other things, manages the National Endowment for the Arts’ New Play Development Program. From now until Jan. 30, Arena Stage is presenting the #NewPlay Festival, the culmination of the program. The festival consists of full-length performances and readings of six plays and a seventh is in production at the Studio Theatre.
In June 2007, Arena Stage was selected by a diverse panel of experts from the field to be the administrator of an innovative initiative for new play development. The objective was to advance the American nonprofit theater’s ability to provide support for new work through financial resources to theater institutions and playwrights.
In October 2008, Arena Stage and the NEA announced two outstanding New American Play selections: the Center Theatre Group production of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, by Rajiv Joseph and the McCarter Theatre productions of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s trilogy, “The Brother/Sister Plays.”
#NewPlay Festival
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| » Info: arenastage.org; studiotheatre.org |
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo gathers together two homesick soldiers, a tormented Iraqi and a brooding tiger, creating a situation that is both funny and macabre. McCraney’s trilogy deals with multigenerational family relations; they are set in an American landscape but informed by Yoruba myth.
Five NEA Distinguished New Play Development Projects also received money to support the development of new plays. “Pastures of Heaven” is an adaptation by Octavio Solis of John Steinbeck’s original. It depicts comic and heartbreaking characters in search of happiness in Steinbeck’s Salinas Valley.
“Happy End of the World” by Lloyd Suh is a play for children and adults that takes place in outer space. “The Provenance of Beauty” by Melanie Joseph and Claudia Rankine, was originally performed on a tour bus traveling through the South Bronx. The text points out places that prompt one to consider what creates a neighborhood.
“Agnes Under the Big Top, by Aditi Brennan Kapil is a humorous adventure story that views intersecting lives of immigrants in a U.S. city. An itinerant subway busker, a Liberian home care worker, a former Bulgarian couple and an Indian call center escapee redefine themselves in today’s America.
The performances at Arena Stage will be in the Kogod Cradle, 1101 Sixth St. SW. The production of “Marcus;” or the “Secret of Sweet,” the third of McCraney’s “Brother/Sister Plays,” is playing at the Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. See Arena Stage and Studio Theatre Web sites for dates and times.
