MICHIGAN PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
July 25 - 29, 2018
Sex and Innocence by Emilio Rodriguez
Wednesday, July 25 at 8:00 pm
After hours, inside a fictional museum for 1950’s Hollywood plastic figurines, a statue of Rita Moreno comes to life and runs into a statue of Marlon Brando. When Rita’s statue discovers that she is tucked away in the basement of the museum and remembered as merely a sex symbol instead of an Oscar-winning actress, she attempts to re-brand herself while simultaneously confronting her tumultuous relationship with Marlon. Can she change how she is revered, or will her interactions reaffirm the very image she seeks to shatter? Directed by Emilio Rodriguez.
Hollywood Lies by Jackie Sue Salter
Thursday, July 26 at 8:00 pm
A story of friendship amidst the Hollywood blacklist, "Hollywood Lies" presents 1948 Hollywood where a just-past-her-prime actress attempts to revive her stalled career. Directed by Brian Cox.
Under Ceege by Jeffry Chastang
Friday, July 27 at 8:00 pm
Following the death of her father, a retired hospital worker finds herself not only at odds with her son, in the middle of a lottery lucky streak, but also at a financial disadvantage as she struggles to buy the home she’s lived in all of her life. Directed by Lynch Travis.
Dirt by Kristin Andrea Hanratty
Saturday, July 28 at 8:00 pm
All that Saundra wants to focus on during her sixth year of college is parties, avoiding school work and herself. But after she returns from a road trip to the Southwest, she finds herself plagued by the pains of others and the mysterious substance found in a hole of a New Mexican church. Directed by Aliyah Kiesler.
Dirty Glass by Micealaya Moses
Sunday, July 29 at 2:00 pm
Teenaged Meghan returns home a year after running away and has to find a way to fit herself into her old life. Meghan and her community grapple with their own responsibility concerning Meghan's choices in a world that often doesn't see young black girls as children and refuses to acknowledge when they have been victimized. Directed by Casaundra Freeman.
About the Festival
Theatre NOVA focuses on new plays and new playwrights and is dedicated to working with new and local playwrights to help them develop their craft and to offer brand new plays for audiences. We created the Michigan Playwrights Festival to nurture Michigan playwrights and to develop full-length plays for future seasons. One of our recently produced scripts, Clutter, by Michigan playwright Brian Cox, was given a staged reading at a previous MPF festival. Clutter was lauded by audiences and critics and earned two Wilde Award awards, including Best New Script. In the previous year, Irrational by R. MacKenzie Lewis and David Wells received a full production after appearing in Theatre NOVA’s first Michigan Playwrights Festival and also received a Wilde award for Best New Script. Other plays that began as staged readings at Theatre NOVA and have gone on to full productions are Katherine by Kim Carney, Spin by Emilio Rodriguez, and Bird by Kristin Hanratty.
Resisting by David Wells and Mrs. Fifty Bakes a Pie by Linda Ramsay-Detherage also benefited from readings at a Michigan Playwrights Festival and had their world premieres in our most recent Theatre NOVA season.