Readings, community gatherings set for October

By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news

The Ashland New Plays Festival has announced the four winners whose works will be featured in the 2023 Fall Festival.

The winning plays are “Ashland,” by Isabel Estelle; “A Long Time Coming” by Weston Gaylord, “love you long time (already”) by Katie Đỗ, and “Lyons Pride” by Bleu Beckford Burrell.

The four winning playwrights will be invited to Ashland this fall for a week of play readings, development, and community gatherings. Readings of the winning plays will be held at the Main Stage Theater at Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, Oct. 18-22.

In a statement, the festival explained, “The winning plays were chosen through ANPF’s unique system that brings together theater lovers from Southern Oregon and beyond for a months-long process during which hundreds of plays are read and discussed — without authorship being revealed — leading to the selection of the finalists.”

According to the statement, “This year, ANPF’s passionate and hardworking readers designated 13 plays — about 4% of entries — as finalists, moving them forward to the artistic director for consideration. In consultation with ANPF’s associate artists, Artistic Director Jackie Apodaca then chose the four winning plays, which were revealed to ANPF’s readers at an appreciation event held at ScienceWorks Museum on Sunday, July 9. 

“All 13 of the finalists are wonderful, worthy new plays, so the decision was not easy,” Apodaca said. “All four of our winning plays are universal stories told on a human level, and they resonate deeply.”

In addition, ANPF “heartily” congratulate this year’s finalists, which included: “Buried Phoenix by Laura Leininger-Campbell, “Come Again” by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend, “Dead Skin” by Maria Giron, “Killer” bySteve Apostolina, “Piles of Dirt,” by Louise Schwarz, “The Rest of Us” by Amy Tofte, “Room 1214” by Michelle Kholos Brooks, “Seven Stage Circle” by Zharia O’Neal, and “Viola” by Amy Jo Jackson.

Apodaca said people can obtain more information about the winning playwrights and the 2023 Fall Festival by joining the festival’s mailing list at ashlandnewplays.org.

Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at [email protected].