announcements
We have a new partner organization: Fresh Ink Theatre in Boston! Check out their website and their insta @freshinktheatre Fresh Ink cultivates artistic growth and introduces rising talent to the greater Boston theatre community through new play development, bridging the gap between the pre-professional and professional industry. The company is dedicated to the development of new work on the Boston small theatre scene in a collaborative, playwright-centered manner and envisions an artist-forward approach to developing plays applied broadly, with audience members invited in as collaborators.
We also have a little teaser for you… we are soooo close to being able to announce our new catalogue acquisitions!!! So be on the lookout for those coming soon! 👀
upcoming events
Kira Rockwell’s Holy Chicken Sandwich is receiving its world premiere in Atlanta, GA with Horizon Theatre. The play opens August 28th and runs until September 19th. Lisa Adler directs the “comedic mystery of celestial proportions exploring identity, consumerism, and division.” (Also featured in Lauren Halvorsen’s Nothing for the Group newsletter! If you don’t already subscribe to her substack on all the happenings in the world of new work, you absolutely should.) You can also pre-order Kira’s play oh to be pure again at our online bookstore!
Kate McMorran’s new play RECYCLE, BABY! was recently accepted into Eight Ball Theatre’s Writer’s Cohort, a development process that will culminate in a staged reading in Los Angeles in September! If you want to find out more about Eight Ball Theatre, or check out their insta: @eightballtheatre
Our partner organization The Lemonade Stand will present Bog Man.
One thousand years ago, a man fell into a bog. Two decades ago, his body was pulled from that bog, still intact. Three months ago, someone made an exact replica of him for a play. The Bog Man is just a torso with arms and hands and no eyes. The Bog Man is not real. The Bog Man is a puppet. He’s not staring at you. Promise. He’s not. At least, that’s what the woman in the play keeps telling herself. She’s not getting haunted by the Bog Man. You’re not getting haunted by the Bog Man. No one is getting haunted by the Bog Man. So what if she’s been feeling a presence? So what if sometimes she hears him whisper to her? So what if she’s been advised to get an exorcism? It’s fine. It’s all fine. Seriously. It’s fine.
Written by Lindsey Walko, directed by Ava Kepple, and performed by Eliza Waterman, the play will run on select dates Sept 9th - 20th at Plays & Players in Philadelphia. Get your tickets here.
new titles
Holla at our July releases: Riverwood by Andrew Lee Creech, Yland by Jake Alexander, The Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival Collection. OSF’s New Play Festival is a brand-new tradition dedicated to fostering original voices and fresh storytelling. For their premier year, OSF is proud to showcase the work of five visionary playwrights as they develop tomorrow’s stage classics right here in Oklahoma. Vol. 1 features short plays written by Elizabeth Addison, Sarah Groustra, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, Sandy Rustin, and Tracy Wells. From compelling dramas to sharp comedies, you can now read these vibrant new works in this anthology. This is our FIRST anthology collab!!! Can I get a woot woot?!
All of these plays are now available to purchase on our online bookstore.
deals
It’s back to school for all our bookish baddies. 📚DM us on instagram if you are a student and we will send you a discount code for a new play to go with your bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. ✏️
author spotlight
This month, we are spotlighting playwright Kira Rockwell! Kira is an Atlanta-based playwright and educator, originally from the heart of Texas. Her plays include oh to be pure again (world premiere: Actor’s Express); Holy Chicken Sandwich (world premiere: Horizon Theatre); Wicked Bitter Beast(s) (development: Alabama Shakespeare Festival); The Penelopes (development: Theatrical Outfit) and more. Her writing awards include the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, Gene Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, Second Place Recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Fellowship with the Mass Cultural Council, two-time finalist for the O’Neill NPC, Runner-Up for the Princess Grace Award, among others. New play commissions with Ensemble Studio Theatre, Actor’s Express, and Theatrical Outfit. Rockwell’s work has also been developed with The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Boston Playwrights Theatre, and beyond. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University, and an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. Currently, she teaches dramatic writing for the stage and screen at Kennesaw State University. www.kirarockwell.com
Tell us a little bit about your connection to 1319 Press. How did you find out about us?
I’ve been following 1319 Press and its spectacular Founder, Sarah Groustra, since she took a playwriting class of mine years ago. She’s writing some really cool, emotional resonant pieces and I just knew she was going to be one to follow. It’s been such a thrill to watch her and 1319 Press grow! I was so honored when she asked for my play, oh to be pure again, to call 1319 Press home. Beyond honored to be a part of this rising ship.
Your play Holy Chicken Sandwich is premiering in Atlanta this month. How are you feeling about the production?
Holy Chicken Sandwich is my absurd comedy set in the parking lot of a fictional fast food chicken restaurant, not so dissimilar from a certain controversial waffle fry palace. The play is highly theatrical with a lot of bite and heart at the center that explores consumerism, brand devotion, and staying too long in the service industry. A play that asks audiences to consider, what’s really in the secret sauce? It’s having its world premiere this month at Horizon Theatre here in Atlanta, Georgia and will run until September 19th. The process has been such an evograting creative stretch for me as this is my first comedy. I’ve got some of Atlanta’s very best actors, a wicked smart director, and imaginative designers who are helping me fully realize this world in all of its peanut oil glory.
Tell us about your style, why you write, and who you write for? Are you working on anything new?
A couple years ago I finally wrote a cover letter that I felt actually sounds like me and in it, I categorize my writing as wholeheartedly character driven, kinesthetic, imaginative, and inherently folksy. The worlds I build diverge from naturalism as they hang in the delicate balance between the otherworldly and the dirt of the Earth. My earliest theatrical experiences were inside the Pentecostal Church, which if you aren’t familiar, is a very expressive form of Christianity. Today, I see the theatre as much my church, like others, and I’m always looking to craft a night (or matinee) of theatre that builds to a catharsis. To me, it’s the most akin to the altar calls I so loved in my faith community. Where you could cry, or dance with a streamer in your hand. Anything goes when the Holy Spirit is moving through you. This summer I got to develop my brand-new two-hander, The Penelopes, about an estranged grandmother and granddaughter who spend the summer solstice together. The play was born from a deep yearning for elder kinship and to make sense of my only family estrangement. It puts a light on the generation of young women before accessible birth control and Roe V. Wade, who were pressured into surrendering their babies for adoption.
What’s a play you love? Or a playwright that inspires you?
One of my favorite plays in the last few years continues to be Wolf Play by Hansol Jung. God it’s so good. I love the theatrical conventions in it, and how using those to explore a sensitive topic, a young boy is unadopted and readopted by a queer couple and they work really hard to become a family. Jung executes it in such a way that doesn’t feel emotionally manipulative, nor does it evoke pity in the end. Rather it uses theatricality, like puppets and many others, to craft a narrative that lands so viscerally. I just won’t ever forget it and I loveee teaching it.
Tell us something weird about you… a quirky fact perhaps...
Okay, so while I was pursuing my MFA in Playwriting at Boston University, I worked at an indie donut shop in Brookline for some extra cash. The job title was Donut Slinger, so like I had to do it for the plot. Well, one day I got to serve THE TONI COLLETTE. I wish I could say I was totally cool and charming but alas, I was not chill and actually quite awkward. Endearingly? I mean I had just watched Hereditary, how could I not totally lose my sh*t?
As a reminder, Kira’s play Holy Chicken Sandwich is running at Horizon Theatre in Atlanta until September 18th. Get your tickets here.
That’s all for today. See you next time.