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NEW VENTURES PLAY FESTIVAL 2022 Honorary Producers Gayle & David Smith To celebrate the vitality of classical themes in new work, PAC is excited to announce our second annual - and first in-person - New Ventures Play Festival. Back in October, we invited playwrights to submit ten-minute plays, inspired by classics and contemplating our theme "The Illusion of Time." Finally, with over 130 plays submitted, and after months of reading, re-reading, analyzing and discussing, our panel of judges whittled it down to the final five. The winners for this year are:
“Janet’s A Lady” by Lauren Davenport “A Hole in the Map” by Madison Wetzell “Three Women” by Victoria Mack "Gilgamesh Yolo" by Meny Beriro " The Wings" by Lena Barnard Congratulations, and thank you to everybody who submitted! |
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Three Women
By Victoria Mack Directed by Ann Garner CAST: Woman A - Cassandra Alexander Woman B - Megan Bellwoar Woman C - Nancy Boykin |
Gilgamesh YOLO
By Meny Beriro Directed by Priyanka Shetty CAST: Host - Arthur Robinson Gilgamesh - Anthony Diaz Enkidu - Tyler Elliot Shamhat - Jacinta Yelland |
A Hole In The Map
By Madison Wetzell Directed by Victoria Goins CAST: Odysseus - Paul Herrod Calypso - Hanna Gaffney Stage Directions - Natajia Sconiers |
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The Wings
By Lena Barnard Directed by Victoria Goins CAST: Jo - Tai Verley Buddy - Donovan Lockett Babe - Damien J. Wallace Banana - Abdul Sesay |
Janet’s A Lady
By Lauren Davenport Directed by Priyanka Shetty CAST: Janet Stewart - Jenna Kuerzi |
The Playwrights
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Three Women - by Victoria Mack
Victoria Mack is a writer, actor, director, and teacher. She spends half her year teaching performing arts at the Savannah College of Arts and Design, and the other half making art in New York City. Her MFA is from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her BA is from Barnard College. She has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine, Literary Vegan, Oddball Magazine, The Field Guide, Kitchen Table, and The Jewish Literary Journal, and has upcoming pieces in Oyedrum and Papeachu Magazine. She has performed in film and television, on and off-Broadway, and all over the country, and has directed professionally in New York City, New Jersey and Georgia. |
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The Wings - by Lena Barnard
Lena Barnard is a queer playwright, dramaturg, and theater maker. Currently based in Chicago, she has also made work in Austin and Philadelphia. Her work has been presented in the SoLow Festival, Frontera Fest, Azuka Theatre, UT New Theater, the Cohen New Works Festival, and PlayPenn. She was a member of the second class of the Philadelphia playwright's lab, the Foundry @ PlayPenn. She has a BA from Bryn Mawr College and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. |
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Janet's A Lady - by Lauren Davenport
Lauren Davenport (she/her/hers) is a bisexual playwright living and working in the Philadelphia region. Her work has been produced and read in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego CA, Chestertown MD, West Chester PA, and Buffalo NY. Her plays include SANDCASTLES (2021 Semi-Finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival), her Mary Shelley solo show WAKING DREAMS (2016 co-production with Beacon Theatre Productions), a choose-your-own-adventure solo short PAY YOUR FERRYMAN (2021 Alleyway Theatre), and her ten-minute play A WEIGHT OF WORLDS (2020 ArtPride Diner Theatre Library Selection, 2020 DG Footlights Ten-Minute Play Fest, and 2019 Project Transcend) among others. She received her MA in Theatre from Villanova University and her BA in English Literature, Theatre, and Creative Writing from Washington College. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, new member to LMDA, and currently works as Co-Manager of Audience Services with Philadelphia Theatre Company. |
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Gilgamesh YOLO - Meny Beriro
Born in Gibraltar, Meny Beriro writes mainly about people who struggle on the margins of society to find acceptance. He taught Social Studies for twenty-six years to bilingual students in a NYC high school, where he developed a Global History Revue with his students covering topics from the Neolithic Revolution to the Renaissance. His productions include: Climbing the Unisphere (Queens Theatre in the Park), A Brief Encounter (The Player’s Theatre Short Play Festival), Aisle 2B (Lincoln Square Theatre), Final Bingo (Heartland Theatre Festival), Digital Divide (Theatre InspiraTO), Robot Beetle (GI 60 Brooklyn College), and Love Poems (Abingdon Theatre Company). He was part of a group of playwrights who wrote 167 Tongues, a series of vignettes portraying the multi-cultural life of Jackson Heights which was featured in the New York Times and American Theatre magazine. Meny’s play, Excellent Souls was a Yale Drama Series Runner-up. Besides working on two new plays, Neanderthal Poets and The Way, Meny jots down his musings as he meanders around Queens (www.wildsofqueens.blogspot.com). |
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Hole In The Map - Madison Wetzell
Madison Wetzell is a playwright based in the Bay Area. Her full-length work includes Mediocre Heterosexual Sex ( Z-Space Problematic Play Festival; Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival; Semi-Finalist, National Playwrights Conference), and The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor (Champagne Reading Series, Shotgun Players; Winner, Risk Theater Modern Tragedy Competition; Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival). Her short play, The Official Unicorn Hunters’ Guide, was the winner of the audience-judged ShortLived VIII at PianoFight. Her immersive show, Two Coins for the Ferryman, was twice included in 3Girls Theater’s Innovators Series and was produced at the Rathskeller in San Francisco in early 2020. Her past work includes a translation and adaptation of The Bacchae produced as a site-specific event in Tilden Park, Berkeley. She is a member of the PlayGround SF writers' pool and 3Girls Theatre's LezWritesBTQ 2022 cohort. She has developed new work with 3Girls Theatre, Shotgun Players, FaultLine Theater, Soundwave SF, The Bechdel Group, and The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep. Beginning Fall 2022, she will be pursuing an MFA at Brooklyn College. |
The Directors
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Victoria Aaliyah Goins is an emerging director who has a desire to utilize storytelling to reveal the depths of humanity. She is currently directing a devised piece at Arcadia University entitled, "Who Are You?" Recently she has directed virtual plays for the "Going Viral Festival" and Jouska Playworks. She is also a member of Director's Gathering and her work has been featured at the 2019 DG Wonder Womxn JAM. Victoria has also worked as an Assistant Director at The Arden alongside Terry Nolen and Amina Robinson as well as at InterAct Theatre alongside KC MacMillan. Victoria is also a Philadelphia based actor. Recent Credits Include: Nina (Sunset Baby), Squeak (The Color Purple), and Maria Marten (Maria Marten or The Murder in the Red Barn). For more info visit victoriaagoins.com .
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Ann Garner joined InterAct in 2017 after four seasons as managing director of Berkshire Playwrights Lab, a new play development company in Massachusetts. Under her leadership, the company expanded programming to include a local new play festival, playwriting classes and a full production. Prior to that, she worked on the artistic and administrative sides of several theater companies including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare & Company, Hampshire Shakespeare and Chester Theatre Company. She co-founded two theater companies: Plumline Productions, which performed small, intimate plays in unusual venues (galleries, bars, park pavillions) and the Renaissance Center Theater Company at UMass Amherst, which served as the performance wing of the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies and was dedicated to testing academic theory with practical performance. Ann is an award-winning teacher and writer. She holds a PhD in Renaissance Drama.
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Priyanka Shetty is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director based in Philadelphia. As a creator of original works, Priyanka is focused on making art that is a reflection of our times. With humor, insight, and raw energy, her plays pose critical questions about contemporary issues, engender dialogue, and call for solidarity and collective action. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM has been performed at numerous venues across the country including The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and will be staged at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Assembly Festival. Priyanka recently made her Off-Broadway debut with her second solo play #CHARLOTTESVILLE at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters. She is currently working on THE WALL, the final play in her Triptych of Solos. She was handpicked for the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive 2021 and is currently a semi-finalist for the 2022 Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama. www.priyankashetty.com
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