Rockford New Play Festival 2015

Aug 20, 2015

FESTIVAL DIRECTOR Nathan Alan Davis
READING DIRECTED BY Mike Werckle

In it's second year, The Rockford New Play Festival received an overwhelming response from playwrights. Last year we received about 150 submissions– this year we received over 500 plays from around the world! It took an army of 35 volunteers to carefully evaluate each play. From the top 20, six were selected and presented in a staged reading to a capacity crowd at Conveyer in downtown Rockford, Illinois.  Two of the plays were from Rockford area playwrights, and four from playwrights nationwide.

In May 2015, we put out the call for playwrights to submit their plays under the following criteria: The play must be under ten pages, it must be unproduced, it must be written in the English language, and most importantly we asked playwrights to submit the play that “speaks to where their hearts and minds are right now– a play that is bold, passionate, humorous, and which is expresses their own individuality.”

While the Rockford New Play Festival is still in its early stages, it has begun to fulfill its purpose of galvanizing the local theater and arts community around new plays. 
 

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

THIN AIR by Tom Coash (New Haven, CT)
A tightrope walker confronts her fears and tries to regain her balance on the wire after a tragic accident.

DIVIDING ADAM’S ASHES by A.K. Forbes (Fort Thomas, KY)
Three men debate the fate of a friend’s ashes, sparking conversation and confrontation over marriage, mistakes and Moses.

THE MEGAPHONE by Michael Long (Burke, VA)
A profoundly impaired child, incapable of speech, encounters a profoundly bitter department-store Santa.

THE GROVE by Paula Hendrickson (Rockford, IL)
Members of a card club at Liberty Fields Assisted Living Center may be old, but they all fight aging in their own ways, possibly at their own risk. Whether by action or attitude, these seniors prove even the most aged among us still have much to offer – whether they like it or not.

FOR A MOMENT, REHATCHED by Susan Goodell (Weston, CT)
A man receives a flying lesson from a seagull

HYDRANGEA JOURNAL by Derick Edgren (Rockford, IL)
When Carla begs her mother for the funds and support she needs to start her own all-black news source in New York City, she is met with the same stubbornness she has dealt with all her life. But as Carla picks at her mother’s hesitations, she comes to truly understand them after all these years.

CAST & CREW

ARTWORK