Making a Splash in 2024!
2024 is off to a great start!
My first production of the year was the premiere of my short play Body Horror in B3 Theatre’s First Festival of Feminist Shorts. You can read an interview I did with artistic director (and the director of my piece) Ilana Lydia here.
Body Horror featured Monika Lydia as Rosemary and Spencer Wareing as Mary Rose.
The second production of the year was a gorgeous outing for my short After Aulis in a student-directed program in California.
Photo by Tony Nguyen Photography / @tonynguyenphoto
Later that weekend, Odd Songs for Odd Birds opened at Big Idea Theatre in Sacramento California. The piece was directed by Leah Daugherty and featured Ashley Rose as Maris, Stephanie Hodson as Emily, and Martha Kight as Gloria. It also received the “Best in Fest” award! I was lucky enough to stream the performance and I can say it was very well deserved! This team was fantastic!
Screenshot from streamed performance on 01/28/2024
In February, I began rehearsals for my full-length two-hander The Practice Room. I’ll be bringing it to the 2024 Clay & Water playwright’s retreat with Clamour! Theatre company in Northern Florida. I’m heading there in just under two weeks, and I’m already excited about how much I’ve improved the script with the help of my phenomenal dramaturg, Kae Milne Twitchell!
I’ve been having a blast writing for younger performers recently, so this whole process has been incredibly validating! I’m lucky enough to have two phenomenal young actors playing Giselle and Julissa, and it is SO MUCH FUN to see these characters come to life! I can’t wait to head to Clay County and engage with new works all week long!
In West Virginia, the cast of You Enter the Tavern at Roving Peregrine Theatre Company has begun their rehearsal process! I got to attend their first table read remotely, and I can’t express how excited I am to see what these innovative artists do with the piece!
Meanwhile, my Lysistrata Adaptation, blowhole, had been having a moment! It appeared at the top of the NPX featured list ‘Feminist Adaptations and Reimaginings’ and received a few generous new recommendations! It even got a shoutout from Brian James Pollock of American Theatre Magazine’s The Subtext podcast- it was “the play filling me up this month” for March 2024! You can listen to the episode (which is filling ME up this month) here.
Additionally, I am so excited to announce that blowhole will be closing the New Art City Theatre Festival in Ventura, CA this April! I’ll be going to Los Angeles for the first time for an Equity rehearsal process to prepare the piece, then heading to Ventura for the presentation! You can learn more in the press release on BroadwayWorld here.
In April, I’m looking ahead to Pandora’s Box of Donuts appearing in the A Light in Dark Places Festival in Dallas - the second time this fabulous organization will be presenting the piece! It will also have a showing at NYU Steinhardt.
Pandora’s Box of Donuts at the A Light and Dark Places Festival in LA in 2023.
Later in April, I’ll have a newer short piece appearing at the Sierra Vista Community theatre. I’m not sure why I have so many West Coast productions and opportunities this year, but I won’t question it!
In early May, I’ll finally have a few productions closer to home. TWO of my short plays will appear in The Long Beach Short Play Festival. They’ll be presenting both Tracks and Any Port in a Storm. My pieces will appear back to back, closing the festival, as part of Program B.
Finally, I’m pleased to have begun the month with work on ANOTHER NPX featured list: Scripts to Celebrate International Women's Day! I never imagined I’d have one play on the NPX homepage, let alone work on two consecutive lists!
She Got Better is a play I love but hasn’t seen any action, probably due to the subject matter. Essentially, the logline is “What if Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks met at an inpatient eating disorder clinic?” It’ll be nice to have some fresh eyes on this piece!
