Goodman Theatre
New Stages Festival runs from October 23 to November 10
Now in its 16th year, Goodman Theatre presents its New Stages Festival–an annual celebration and discovery of new work by some of the country’s finest established and emerging playwrights.
Since New Stages Festival’s 2004 inception, more than 80 plays have been produced as a developmental production or staged reading. Join us for a first look at these exciting new works, which include the following.
Incendiary
BY DAVE HARRIS, DIRECTED BY MONTY COLE
October 23 – November 9
Tanya is determined to break her son out of death row—or die trying. She’ll need guns. She’ll need to get her hair done. She’ll need to save her son; but at what cost? This explosive tragicomedy challenges notions of motherhood, justice and generational trauma. Recommended for mature audiences.
In the Sick Bay of the Santa Maria
BY RAJIV JOSEPH, DIRECTED BY ROBERT O’HARA
October 26 – November 10
It’s 1492, and the Santa Maria sets sail toward a dangerous New World. In the ship’s dank and diseased belly, a young man with visions of sea monsters and the voice of an angel seeks counsel from a grotesque old physician. But nothing can prepare them for the freedom and salvation—and the prison and damnation—that lies dead ahead. Recommended for mature audiences.
The Garden
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY CHARLAYNE WOODARD
Saturday, November 9 at 10:30 a.m.
Claire Rose spends her days in upstate New York, quietly tending her vegetable garden as lovingly as she would nurture a child. When her newlywed daughter, Cassandra, arrives from Seattle hoping to know why mother missed her wedding, she uproots the grief Claire Rose thought was long buried—and now must confront. Recommended for mature audiences.
Engines and Instruments of Flight: A Fantasia in Three Acts by Calamity West
BY CALAMITY WEST, DIRECTED BY KIMBERLY SENIOR
Saturday, November 9 at 2 p.m.
Calamity West is thinking about writing a new play. A fantasia. She imagines that it is set in 1986, and in it, The Playwright is writing his next play. Or, rather, struggling to write it. After an ugly breakup with his boyfriend, The Playwright is left to face his own creative inertia. Caught inside a maelstrom of secrets, lies, and ghostly premonitions, he begins to find inspiration for his new work … but his own “gay fantasia on national themes” starts to look a little too familiar for his friends’ tastes. In writing a play that might just make it big, The Playwright must untangle the conflicting responsibilities that come with being an artist and being a friend. Recommended for mature audiences.
Fannie
BY CHERYL L. WEST, DIRECTED BY HENRY GODINEZ
Sunday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m.
A passionate and immersive call to action inspired by the life of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, whose courage and grit challenge us with the simple question, how ‘woke to the vote’ are we nearly sixty years later? Performed and sung by E. Faye Butler, this electrifying rally defines what it means to be a true revolutionary.
Free tickets are available now. For tickets and full line-up, visit https://www.goodmanTheatre.org/newstagesfestival
