Playfest 2023
PlayFest 2023 will consist of six new play readings presented over two weekends, October 27-29 and November 3-4, 2023. During each reading, patrons will experience groundbreaking new works while participating in the creative process by sharing their reactions directly with the playwright and creative team at a post-show talkback.
“The Facts are as Follows:”
BY CHRISTOPHER WASHINGTON
Performance: October 27, 2023
With a perfect memory and perfect LSAT score, James Ezekial Williams has just arrived on the East coast for his very first day of law school. Navigating a seductive, insidious curriculum designed by the genius Professor, James attempts to juggle microaggressions, critical race theory, and love. The Facts are as Follows: is about the consumption of whiteness, the folly of exceptionalism, and the creation of one’s own personal apocalypse.
“Who Hurt You?”
BY KATIE DO
Performance: October 28, 2023
Ellie and Kira are two Vietnamese-American actors who always find themselves in the same audition rooms. As their lives become more intertwined with the same lovers, friends, and opportunities, Ellie’s jealousy spirals into a battle with insecurity, mental health and an epic heartbreak. When fear and coincidence bring Ellie to a life and death situation, her loved ones come together to ask, who hurt you?; how have we hurt ourselves?; and, most importantly, who hurt Ellie?
“Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars”
BY SANDRA DELGADO
Performance: October 29, 2023
Like millions of Americans, Clara’s days are consumed with juggling work and family. Recently divorced, she’s taking care of her tween-age daughter, her aging father – and paying alimony to her under-employed ex-husband. But in the midst of all that stress, she’s got something to look forward to: a long planned for trip to Europe with her daughter Stella. In preparation, Clara, who immigrated to the US with her family as a child, decides to apply for full citizenship. She wants to be able to stand in the same customs line as Stella. But when her citizenship application is flagged, it sets off an unfathomable series of events that threaten to force her out of the only home she’s ever known. Timely and provocative, Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars asks challenging questions about our country’s most fundamental values.
“Only Some of God’s Children or Mississippi Magnolias”
BY PARIS CRAYTON III
Performance: November 3, 2023
Set two days after the 1963 March on Washington, John Malachi Curtis, and his best friend, William Cochise Brown, return home to Mississippi to unpack all of the emotions left over from the March, only to find, John’s son, Ezekiel, has been attacked during a sit-in protest. Betty, John’s wife, wants to leave Mississippi for good but the promise of land and remnants of love makes John unwilling to do so. Only Some of God’s Children or Mississippi Magnolias is a story of five different flowers just waiting to bloom.
“Agathe”
BY ANGELA J. DAVIS
Performance: November 4, 2023
In the spring of 1994, a plane crash will take the life of an African president and ignite a raging killing spree that the world will later recognize as the Rwandan genocide. The person who is next in line for the presidency is a university professor by training and an advocate for women and girls’ education. Agathe is inspired by the overlooked story of Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who served as Rwanda’s president for just fourteen hours and whose bravery and foresight are a beacon for all time. Fusing poetry and elements of magic realism with gripping docudrama, Agathe is a full-length play.
“Beheading Columbus”
BY DIANA BURBANO
Performance: November 4, 2023
Beheading Columbus follows two sisters down a trail of DNA deception and makes them face race and colorism in the Latinx community and in their own family. Lana looks white, Susi doesn’t and that’s been a point of conflict their whole life. Through DNA testing they discover that Lana has a white father. The DNA test also reveals that Susi, who is mixed race, has genes for the Alzheimers that are destroying their mother. Add to that, they discover that the previously unknown other father is a fertility doctor who has sired at least 40 mixed race children. Through love and a massive sense of humor, the sisters work at decolonizing themselves from the inside out.
PlayFest 2023 will consist of six new play readings presented over two weekends, October 27-29 and November 3-4, 2023. During each reading, patrons will experience groundbreaking new works while participating in the creative process by sharing their reactions directly with the playwright and creative team at a post-show talkback.
“The Facts are as Follows:”
BY CHRISTOPHER WASHINGTON
Performance: October 27, 2023
With a perfect memory and perfect LSAT score, James Ezekial Williams has just arrived on the East coast for his very first day of law school. Navigating a seductive, insidious curriculum designed by the genius Professor, James attempts to juggle microaggressions, critical race theory, and love. The Facts are as Follows: is about the consumption of whiteness, the folly of exceptionalism, and the creation of one’s own personal apocalypse.
“Who Hurt You?”
BY KATIE DO
Performance: October 28, 2023
Ellie and Kira are two Vietnamese-American actors who always find themselves in the same audition rooms. As their lives become more intertwined with the same lovers, friends, and opportunities, Ellie’s jealousy spirals into a battle with insecurity, mental health and an epic heartbreak. When fear and coincidence bring Ellie to a life and death situation, her loved ones come together to ask, who hurt you?; how have we hurt ourselves?; and, most importantly, who hurt Ellie?
“Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars”
BY SANDRA DELGADO
Performance: October 29, 2023
Like millions of Americans, Clara’s days are consumed with juggling work and family. Recently divorced, she’s taking care of her tween-age daughter, her aging father – and paying alimony to her under-employed ex-husband. But in the midst of all that stress, she’s got something to look forward to: a long planned for trip to Europe with her daughter Stella. In preparation, Clara, who immigrated to the US with her family as a child, decides to apply for full citizenship. She wants to be able to stand in the same customs line as Stella. But when her citizenship application is flagged, it sets off an unfathomable series of events that threaten to force her out of the only home she’s ever known. Timely and provocative, Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars asks challenging questions about our country’s most fundamental values.
“Only Some of God’s Children or Mississippi Magnolias”
BY PARIS CRAYTON III
Performance: November 3, 2023
Set two days after the 1963 March on Washington, John Malachi Curtis, and his best friend, William Cochise Brown, return home to Mississippi to unpack all of the emotions left over from the March, only to find, John’s son, Ezekiel, has been attacked during a sit-in protest. Betty, John’s wife, wants to leave Mississippi for good but the promise of land and remnants of love makes John unwilling to do so. Only Some of God’s Children or Mississippi Magnolias is a story of five different flowers just waiting to bloom.
“Agathe”
BY ANGELA J. DAVIS
Performance: November 4, 2023
In the spring of 1994, a plane crash will take the life of an African president and ignite a raging killing spree that the world will later recognize as the Rwandan genocide. The person who is next in line for the presidency is a university professor by training and an advocate for women and girls’ education. Agathe is inspired by the overlooked story of Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who served as Rwanda’s president for just fourteen hours and whose bravery and foresight are a beacon for all time. Fusing poetry and elements of magic realism with gripping docudrama, Agathe is a full-length play.
“Beheading Columbus”
BY DIANA BURBANO
Performance: November 4, 2023
Beheading Columbus follows two sisters down a trail of DNA deception and makes them face race and colorism in the Latinx community and in their own family. Lana looks white, Susi doesn’t and that’s been a point of conflict their whole life. Through DNA testing they discover that Lana has a white father. The DNA test also reveals that Susi, who is mixed race, has genes for the Alzheimers that are destroying their mother. Add to that, they discover that the previously unknown other father is a fertility doctor who has sired at least 40 mixed race children. Through love and a massive sense of humor, the sisters work at decolonizing themselves from the inside out.
