Experience the 3rd Annual
Virtual New Works Festival
The New Works Festival is designed to allow the playwright finalists to join forces with professional directors and actors in their development process.
We are honored to welcome an array of esteemed directors and Los Angeles-based actors who have come together to build art and community, and to do so in a virtual manner.
The New Works Festival is designed to give the five selected plays and playwrights a platform to explore the next stage in their development, and is intended for an adult audience. These plays are exciting and provoking. These plays may contain adult language and situations.
After an extensive review process of over 300 submissions, the five finalists that we are privileged to present via YouTube are:
From Out Beyond My Shame
By: Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors
Directed By: Carolyn Ratteray
From Out Beyond My Shame takes place at two different pivotal points in the life of our protagonist, Shepherd Stanley. Not long after prom night, he experiences a traumatic event that shifts the trajectory of his life, personally and eventually, professionally. We find him ten years later, a journalist who has suppressed his inner turmoils, but quickly finds them all rushing to the surface when a famous and well-regarded ghost from his past re-enters his life experience. Shepherd faces a career-defining moment. How scary is it to speak your truth? What does it cost you and at whose expense? How does writing liberate one from their trauma? Whose story is a journalist supposed to tell? Those of others or their own? And if the latter...will he be able to?
O-Dogg: An Angeleno Take on Othello
By: Alex Alpharaoh
Directed By: Brisa Areli Muñoz
Performance Artist Alex Alpharaoh’s bold reimagining of Shakespeare’s Othello is set in Los Angeles’ Koreatown during the 92’ Uprising. O-Dogg, the Afro-Latino leader of LOKs Crew is preparing to leave the street life behind with his new bride, Desireé Park. When the riots begin, his Father-In-Law’s liquor store becomes threatened. Jay, the owner of Jay’s Liquor refuses to spray "Black Owned" on his boarded windows in spite of O-Dogg’s pleading. When Eye-G discovers that O-Dogg is handing LOK to Cash-O, Eye-G sets a deadly plan into motion to ensure that O-Dogg doesn’t leave, and Cash-O doesn’t live.
Twenty-Two
By: Erin Considine
Directed By: Fran de Leon
We lose 22 soldiers a day to suicide. 22 men and women who have fought and survived only to return home broken and abandoned. Twenty-Two is an exploration of one woman and one man, both struggling with the aftermath of this unspeakable choice, and the hope they find in each other.
Crabs In A Bucket
By: Bernardo Cubría
Directed By: Anita Dashiell-Sparks
Amargo and Pootz are two bitter crabs living in a shucking bucket. They spend their days gossiping about the crabs that got out, the ones who couldn't take it, and the losers who still live among them. When a new crab arrives filled with hope and change, they are faced with who they once were, and their incessant dream of getting the shuck out.
Thoughts and Prayers
By: Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich
Directed By: Nancy Cheryll Davis-Bellamy
Darkly comic, non-linear and sometimes surreal, Thoughts and Prayers is an intense tale about the toll of gun violence in our schools and on our psyches. In the wake of a deadly school shooting, Sandra is haunted by her four student victims, and challenged by the sole survivor, Annie, who wants Sandra to join her crusade to end gun violence. While Sandra is emotionally paralyzed in her grief, Annie is energized — desperate to use her outrage to overcome survivor’s guilt. As Annie’s facade crumbles, Sandra struggles to break through her sadness. But can she do it in time to save Annie?
SCHEDULE*
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
4pm
From Out Beyond My Shame
By: Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors
Directed By: Carolyn Ratteray
7pm
O-Dogg: An Angeleno Take on Othello
By: Alex Alpharaoh
Directed By: Brisa Areli Muñoz
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
1pm
Crabs In A Bucket
By: Bernardo Cubría
Directed By: Anita Dashiell-Sparks
4pm
Twenty-Two
By: Erin Considine
Directed By: Fran de Leon
7pm
Thoughts and Prayers
By: Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich
Directed By: Nancy Cheryll Davis-Bellamy
*Times subject to change. The New Works Festival is designed to give the five selected plays and playwrights a platform to explore the next stage in their development, and is intended for an adult audience. These plays are exciting and provoking. These plays may contain adult language and situations.
FAQ
How can I watch?
Easy. From the comfort of your own home (where there is no suggested dress code and you have your favorite drinks and concessions), go to Youtube and type in Garry Marshall Theatre at the start time of the play reading. Each presentation will promptly start after a very brief introduction.
Will there be a Q & A of sorts?
Yes. Following each play reading, there will be an opportunity to chat virtually with the actors, director and playwright. Please note that to participate, you will have to set up a Youtube account (Google/Gmail account) and subscribe to our channel. This is easy. Simply go to Youtube, and in the top right, click 'Sign in'. Then click create and account and follow the prompts. If you already have a Google/Gmail account, you will be able to sign in automatically. Comments and questions will be sent in via chat and then prompted to the panelists to offer insight and answers.
Is there another time to view the plays?
We will have an encore presentation. These encores will not include the post-reading Q&A.