Ashland New Plays Festival will bring this year’s four winning playwrights to town for ANPF 2015, October 21 to 25. Winning playwrights Meridith Friedman of New York City for The Luckiest People; Beth Kander of Chicago for The Bottle Tree; Brian Mulholland of Cincinnati for The Return of Tartuffe; Skye Robinson Hillis of Chicago for And Vaster will spend a week in Ashland, rehearsing with their casts and seeing their plays performed as staged readings by actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the community. There are two readings of each winning play, at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Center at 87 4th Street in Ashland. Tickets and information at ashlandnewplays.org.
And Vaster by Skye Robinson Hillis, a playwright, director, and dramaturg in Chicago, examines the upheaval and self-examination that occur in response to sudden and unexpected life-altering information. Directed by OSF Dramaturg Lydia Garcia, it features Terri McMahon, David Kelly, Sara Bruner, Al Espinosa, Stephanie Neuerburg, and Kaitlin J. Henderson.
The Bottle Tree by Beth Kander, a writer originally from the South but currently living in Chicago, explores the topical issue of gun violence in America through the story of the lingering traumatic effect that a tragic shooting continues to have on the residents of a small Mississippi community. Emily Serdahl, Josiah Polhemus, Amy Prosser, Galen A. Molk, Liisa Ivary, Britney Simpson, Truett Felt, Dominique Francis, and Samuel L. Wick will perform under the direction of Jackie Apodaca, head of performance at Southern Oregon University.
The Luckiest People by Meridith Friedman, a multi-award-winning New York playwright, tells the story of an elderly father, his son, and their intense conflict when confronted by the realities, and suspicions, following the death of their wife and mother. The explosive drama is directed by ANPF Artistic Director Kyle Haden and features Rex Young, James Edmondson, Paul Michael Garcia, Kate Berry, and Erin O’Connor.
The Return of Tartuffe by Brian Mulholland, a native New Englander now living in Cincinnati and a former actor at OSF, is a clever and inventive sequel to Molière’s classic comedy—written, like the original, in rhyming couplets—in which Tartuffe finds himself exiled to the American colonies, where he targets the famous Boston minister Cotton Mather as the mark in his next big con game. Dawn Monique Williams, an artistic associate at OSF, directs the large cast, which includes Barret O’Brien, Bruce A. Young, Kimberly Scott, Savanna Padilla, Allison Buck, Cesar Peres Rosas, Rafael Untalan, and Robin Waisanen.
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