2024 season features four plays highlighting ‘the best new voices in American theater’
By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news
Four plays picked from among 350 submitted to the Ashland New Plays Festival will be performed during the group’s 2024 Fall Festival this October.
“ANPF’s readers did a wonderful job this year, narrowing 350 submissions down to 13 finalists,” said ANPF Artistic Director Jackie Apodaca. “Every one of those finalists was worthy of presentation, and I had the pleasure and challenge of choosing just four winning plays amongst them. The winners stood out for their humor and compassion, each one probing fundamental questions of love, freedom, and loss.”
Apodaca said the winning plays will be featured during the week-long festival.
“Join us at our Fall Festival and get to know some of the best new voices in American theater,” she said, noting, “We’ve got family dramas, satire, a love story set in the time of artificial intelligence, and a play about life and death — featuring a flying Greta Thunberg.”
The playwrights will be in Ashland for a week of readings, development and collaboration. The four plays will be presented Oct. 16 to 20 at the Southern Oregon University’s Main Stage Theater, 491 Mountain Ave. The festival will be co-hosted by award-winning playwrights E.M. Lewis and Clarence Coo.
The selected plays are “Sync” by Shanna Allman, “Nerve” by Minita Gandhi, “You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World” by Keiko Green, and “The Life You Gave Me” by Novid Parsi. Parsi was also among the four winning playwrights in 2022 for his play “Remains and Return.”
The four plays were chosen through ANPF’s “distinctive community-based reading process, which engages theater enthusiasts from Southern Oregon and beyond,” according to an ANPF news release. “Over several months, hundreds of plays are reviewed and debated, without authorship being revealed, progressing towards the finalists.”
The winners are then selected by Apodaca. “I have to trust my guts,” she said about picking the four, noting part of the process involves “what voices need to be heard.”
Apodaca noted the reading process involves 60 to 70 readers. While most are local, others are from Texas, Los Angeles and other cities and states, and participate via Zoom. “All are strong theater goers.”
Over several months, the 350 plays are narrowed down to around 15 which Apodaca described as an intensive process.
The Ashland New Plays Festival has existed for more than 30 years, although the performances were not always an annual event. Some years, up to 500 plays were allowed to be submitted, but the number was reduced because of the time involved in selecting winners. Apodaca said costs for flying winners to Ashland, along with housing and other expenses, are provided by the group’s board of directors, ticket sales and grants.
Submissions for 2025 will be accepted this fall. The 350 submission limit is generally reached within a few weeks because, “We’re really known nationally.”
The winning plays, and a brief description of their story lines as provided by ANPF:
“Sync,” by Shanna Allman: After her divorce, Allison employs the latest technology from the Institute for Enhanced Connections in an effort to help her cope. As the technology proves extremely effective, her best friend, Sadie, grows more and more concerned about its impact and repercussions.
“The Life You Gave Me,” by Novid Parsi: A son tries to save his mother. She has other ideas. So do two mysterious strangers who watch the play — and ask the son to tell the story again and again until he gets it right, whatever right might be.
“Nerve,” by Minta Gandhi: Jyoti, a recent widow with ailing health, finds the future of her well-being in her daughters’ hands. A multi-generational and multicultural journey that explores the love language of food, “Nerve” asks what our legacy is and that we truly leave behind. What is our value in the world when we are no longer of service to people? And what are the benefits and consequences of living in a society that praises the idea of a nuclear family versus a joint family? This dark comedy is meant to be an aromatic and visceral experience. In a fully staged production, recipes would be shared and cooked on stage, as well as served to the audience.
“You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World,” by Keiko Green: M has always had a complicated relationship with their parents. But when Greg gets a terminal diagnosis, their small family feels the pressure of time running out. Greg wants to expand his world, as he commits the rest of his life to fighting climate change, while his wife Viv wants nothing more than to keep Greg confined to their home. In this theatrical spectacle, M uses metatheatricality and the joy of dance and theater to explore themes of grief, dying, and our connection to the Earth.
In addition, ANPF also congratulated this year’s finalists: “Safronia’s Daughter“ by India Nicole Burton, “Lobster Man” by Jonathan Cook, “The Frisco Flash” by Julius Galacki, “Water Pipes — A Love Story” by Amy Hanson, “The Docent” by Donna Kaz, “The Re-education of Fernando Morales” by Justin P. Lopez, “Mildred Whiskey” by David MacGregor, “I is for Invisible,” by DeLanna Studi, and “Listen, a Black Woman is Speaking” by Marlow Wyatt.
Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at 337lee337@charter.net.
