Lucas Hnath, Kate Hamill, and More to Present New Work at Colorado New Play Festival

The Colorado New Play Festival (CNPF) (Artistic Director Andrew Leynse) (formerly the Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival) is proud to announce the full lineup of plays and playwrights for the 2018 season. The 21st Annual Festival, to be held on June 10-16, 2018 in Steamboat Springs, CO, will develop five new works in partnership with The Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alley Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, Primary Stages, and Victory Gardens Theater.

"This year's Festival brings the most anticipated line-up of playwrights and projects in our history and we are very excited to host such a diverse group of playwrights and see what the week brings," said Executive Producer, Jim Steinberg. "We are equally as eager to be able to offer such an interesting and varied selection of new plays to our audiences."

Now in its 21st season, each summer the Colorado New Play Festival brings together five playwrights who work with a major theatrical institution to create a new play, which is presented with professional actors in a reading at the end of the week. The readings will take place June 15-16 at the Chief Theater (813 Lincoln Ave, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487). Full casting for all readings will be announced at a later date.

THE THIN PLACE

By Lucas Hnath

Presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville (Louisville, KY)

Directed by Les Waters

It's a place where the line between this world and some other world is very thin. It's like if you were to imagine an octopus pressed up against glass, except there's no glass... and no octopus.

TENDER MERCIES

By Daisy Foote

Presented by The Alley Theatre (Houston, TX)

Directed by Michael Wilson

Daisy Foote adapts Horton Foote's Oscar-winning screenplay Tender Mercies for the stage. Mac Sledge was the King of Country married to the Queen, Dixie Scott, but the bottle and jealousy tore their family apart. Rosa Lee Wadsworth lost her young husband in Vietnam and now she and her boy Sonny live quietly alone. By the time Mac turns up drunk at Rosa Lee's three-cabin Texas roadside motel, he is a divorced has-been who hasn't seen his daughter in years. Rosa Lee's and Mac's dare for a second chance together tests their faith and love in this powerful story of human endurance and forgiveness.

SANCTIONS

By Bruce Graham

Presented by Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO)

Directed by Chip Walton

In the world of Division 1 football, there is no room for scandal and no tolerance for losing. As the Cats come off sanctions, the racially-divided staff battle out how far they are willing to bend the rules to ensure a win. It's academics vs. football. It's money vs. integrity. It's a collision of cover-ups in this aggressive new play diving into a world where players are pawns and the world stands still every Saturday afternoon.

LITTLE WOMEN

By Kate Hamill

Presented by Primary Stages (New York, NY)

Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott

Directed by Kate Hamill

?A fresh new take on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel of love and duty. Jo March doesn't want to be like other girls; in fact, she's not even sure that she wants to be a girl. Jo is ambitious, rough around the edges, headstrong, and yearns for a future she can't yet articulate. As the nation is torn apart by civil war, Jo and her sisters struggle with what it means to grow up. Gender roles, political beliefs, poverty, and even love itself threaten to break family ties, as the March sisters try to reconcile their identities with society's demands. How do you stay true to yourself when the world wants you to become a perfect little woman?

MIRIAM FOR PRESIDENT

By Madhuri Shekar

Presented by Victory Gardens Theater (Chicago, IL)

Directed by Chay Yew

Miriam hates to be known as "that girl who got kidnapped then escaped that sex trafficking ring." She wants to be known as Miriam, your top candidate for student council president at Roosevelt High School. But her parents, counselor, and best friend keep insisting that she's not ready. But what do they know? What do they really know about what happened to Miriam? From Madhuri Shekar, the author of Queen, comes a powerful play about survival, rebirth, and the silent crime of human trafficking in Chicago.

Reading Schedule

Friday, June 15th @ 4:00pm

Sanctions by Bruce Graham

Friday, June 15th @ 8:00pm

Little Women by Kate Hamill

Saturday, June 16th @ 11:00am

The Thin Place by Lucas Hnath

Saturday, June 16th@ 3:00pm

Miriam for President by Madhuri Shekar

Saturday, June 16th @ 7:00pm

Tender Mercies by Daisy Foote

Single tickets for each reading are $15 in advance. Festival Passes start at $70 for all 5 readings. Tickets are available at cnpfsteamboat.org/schedule-tickets. For other information, please call 970-879-4335. For lodging and area information please contact the CNPF office for discounted hotel rooms at the official partner hotel or visit the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort online.

ABOUT THE COLORADO NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

The Colorado New Play Festival, now in its 21st year, brings theatre together professionals in the beautiful Rocky Mountains around Steamboat Springs to develop exciting new work for the American stage. Presented under Executive Producers, Jim and Lori Steinberg (The Public Theater) (Lark Play Company), Artistic Director, Andrew Leynse, (Primary Stages, NYC) and Grady Soapes (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Associate Producer with sponsorship from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The New Works program was founded in 1997 at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp to provide a collaborative festival for diverse voices in the arts.

Past festival works include Appoggiatura by James Still (Denver Center Theatre Company and LAUNCH PAD, Indian Rep); The Whistleblower by Itamar Moses (Pacific Playwrights Festival, The Denver Center Theatre Company); The Few by Samuel D. Hunter (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Bronx Bombers by Eric Simonson (Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre and Primary Stages); The Receptionist by Adam Bock (received critical acclaim at Manhattan Theatre Club); Lydia by Octavio Solis (Denver Center Theatre Company, Yale Rep); The Blue Flower by Jim Bauer & Ruth Bauer (Prospect Theatre, Second Stage Theatre); Plainsong by Eric Schmiedl (Denver Center Theatre Company); The Morini Strad by Willy Holtzman (Primary Stages, City Theatre); Maple and Vine by Jordan Harrison (Humana ATL, Playwrights Horizons); Eat Your Heart Out by Courtney Baron (Humana ATL); What's That Smell by David Pittu (Atlantic Theatre, New World Stages); The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown with books & lyrics by Kait Kerrigan and music by Brian Lowdermilk (Goodspeed, Prospect Theatre); Orange by Aditi Kapil (South Coast Repertory, Mixed Blood Theatre); Madwoman in the Volvoby Sandra Tsing Loh (South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Rep); Dance Nation by Clare Baron (Playwrights Horizons); and Glory of the World by Chuck Mee (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Brooklyn Academy Of Music.

For further information visit: www.cnpfsteamboat.org

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos