What’s your love language as a playwright? Perhaps it’s having your words read, heard, and digested by actors and audiences. Get to know the ANPF 2022 New Voices Emerging Playwrights Mikki Gillette, Lindsay Partain, Lorenz Qatava, Leslie Slape, and Ken Yoshikawa as they share their thoughts about this and more in their recorded conversation at the end of their retreat weekend in Ashland. The playwrights flow through topics like the kind of stories they gravitate toward telling, their retreat takeaways, as well as explorations of intersectionality, challenging dogmas, opening dialogue, and what they’re excited about in the writing process. Enjoy meeting the wonderful Mikki Gillette, Lindsay Partain, Lorenz Qatava, Leslie Slape, and Ken Yoshikawa! “I love how much care was taken in choosing our cohort,” Leslie shared. “We come from different backgrounds, but we blended easily and naturally.” ANPF’s 2022 New Voices Emerging Playwrights Retreat centered Oregon playwrights this year – with voices hailing from Ashland, Portland, Rainier, and Banks – and focused on connection and community building. The goal was celebration and encouragement, giving the playwrights opportunities to develop their creative work, meet with industry professionals, and draw inspiration from being with fellow artists in Ashland. Learn more about the playwrights here: https://ashlandnewplays.org/new-voices-retreat/

Emerging playwrights Kathryn de la Rosa, Ty Greenwood, Heesun Hwang, Jasmine Sharma, and Carlos-Zenen Trujillo cover a lot of ground as they dish on their experiences taking part in Ashland New Plays Festival’s first New Voices virtual retreat, August 1 – 7, where they worked directly with mentors and met with other theatre professionals as they developed a new play. The vibrancy and camaraderie of this group of fantastic playwrights is felt throughout their talk. They introduce you to the plays they’re working on–with topics ranging from mental health, racial reckoning, art and diaspora, and LGBTQI+ experiences. They then delve into reflections on theatre today, the classics, Taylor Swift, Bertholdt Brecht, and also reveal their north stars–the advice that guides them through their work–and some surprising facts, like Carlos being an ordained minister! All of the playwrights share their appreciation for the retreat bringing them together, having a space to work with fellow young playwrights. “We all get the vibe,” says Heesun, “Unspoken truths among us that we don’t have to explain. The safety in that is really really incredible.” We are grateful to have had a chance to welcome these rising artists into the ANPF community, and as Jasmine says, this isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later! Big big love to these five. Support our playwrights with their upcoming events: Ty Greenwood: DEATH DREAM, a choreopoem, will be presented at Kelly-Strayhorn Theater on October 1 and 2, 2021. Link: https://kelly-strayhorn.org/events/freshworks-death-dream/ Kathryn de la Rosa: NON SO PIÙ COSA SON, which they developed during the New Voices retreat, is having a live-streamed reading with Artists at Play on October 9, 2021. Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artists-at-play-readings-2021-registration-169688026455?fbclid=IwAR1jKEgnRbOFRZcEPJa85WG7rohs0WTTfRKuYek85JI6UxBE1kwCK_LhKcE Jasmine Sharma: RADIAL GRADIENT will be presented as part of The Avalanche New Play Summit in Chicago from October 29 to November 6, 2021. Link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35386/production/1078215 Carlos-Zenen Trujillo: World-premiere of CHRISTMAS, CONTIGO at Oregon Cabaret Theatre from November 18 to December 31, 2021. Link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35080/production/1033921?_ga=2.255914051.933869179.1631321906-271560353.1631321906

Grab your favorite potato chips and get in on the conversation with playwright Inda Craig-Galván and director Kyle Haden as they talk about Inda’s new play BERTH BREACH/BREECH BIRTH, which ANPF is presenting on April 24 and 25. We learn about the poetic influence that inspired the play, the African-American farming community in Illinois that sparked the roots of the play’s setting, what they’re both looking forward to this week as all the artists come together to start the workshop and rehearsal process, and so much more. These two bring the laughter and the serious in equal measure, taking listeners on a journey of inspiration and insight. Ashland New Plays Festival will be presenting BERTH BREACH/BREECH BIRTH for TWO DAYS ONLY Saturday and Sunday, April 24 at 7 pm PT and April 25 at 2 pm PT. Tickets are available on a sliding scale. We look forward to welcoming you to the show! Get your tickets and learn more at: https://ashlandnewplays.org/season/ You can also watch the conversation on our YouTube page or the embed below: https://youtu.be/PnAb1DEQDTk  

Barret O'Brien | Three men are caught in a crisis of torrential proportions, trapped in a taproom in a city that has been decimated by flooding. Featuring: Rodney Gardiner, Barret O’Brien, and Daisuke Tsuji, with stage directions read by Annie Paul. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/water-made-to-rise/

Bob Clyman | Mark, a respected moral philosopher, is convinced that people are fundamentally good. Ben, who investigates intellectual property theft, is equally convinced that every seeming act of kindness is simply a more indirect route toward self-gratification. They have maintained an unlikely friendship since childhood; however, the effort Mark has always put into helping Ben has been matched by Ben’s resentment toward him for the lack of respect these efforts imply. When Ben decides to stop fighting white collar crimes and achieves immediate success by seducing disgruntled employees into committing them instead, he becomes convinced that unrestrained self-interest is the truth of human nature. He believes he is liberating people from the doomed quest to lead more morally exemplary lives espoused by Mark. When Mark derides this “realization,” Ben proposes a bet to prove it by tempting an unarguably ethical, socially conscious scientist into betraying the people who desperately depend on him. As it soon becomes clear, Ben is really out to prove that he can get Mark himself to do anything–however unconscionable–simply by making the cost of maintaining his humanity too high. Featuring: John Stadelman, Jackie Apodaca, and Nolan Sanchez, with stage directions by Kaitlin J Henderson. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/the-good-bet/

Bob Clyman | For the past five years, a team of highly regarded scientists has been studying the development of “exceptional” children. To create these children, the team selected a small group of mothers with “superior genetic scans” who agreed to be artificially inseminated by sperm donors with IQs over 180. The team has also been developing a special, cutting-edge school, which is finally ready to open. Despite the impressive abilities and skills shown by almost every five-year-old in the program, the school will only be accepting the most exceptional for the few available slots. As the play begins, Gwen and Allie, mothers of Ethan and Michael respectively, are waiting to meet with Claire, the program director. Genetic scans aside, neither Allie nor Gwen has ever shown much in the way of promise, let alone actual accomplishments. Nor have their personalities won them many fans on the team. So they are surprised to hear that Michael and Ethan are both on the short list of finalists. However, as Claire explains, both Gwen and Allie will need to address particular, serious concerns about their own personal conduct and attitudes, or their sons will be disqualified. THE EXCEPTIONALS asks the questions, “Where do we draw the line between the desire of every parent to give his or her child the best possible start, and the cultivation of an ‘uber-child’ class? And are children to be the sociopolitical pawns of the future?” Featuring: Rachel Crowl, Tamra Mathias, Erica Sullivan, and Román Zaragoza, with stage directions read by Grant Luecke. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/the-exceptionals/

Gabriel Neustadt | Eric is a recent college graduate working as an SAT tutor to pay the bills. Tonight he arrives at the Tarzana home of one of his wealthy students but finds that her mother, Michelle, is waiting for him instead. Her daughter Jessica isn’t there yet, she explains, but she’ll be arriving soon. However as the conversation between them carries on, it becomes clear that Jessica is not coming at all, and that Michelle has brought Eric here for different reasons. His relationship with Jessica has become close, she explains, perhaps too close. And despite Eric’s denials and explanations, Michelle trots out more and more evidence suggesting that something abnormal has been going on between tutor and student. Featuring: Terri McMahon and Grant Luecke, with stage directions read by Tamra Mathias. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/tail-of-the-bell/

Stephanie Neuerburg | While serving detention for something she may or may not have done, Lauren and her science teacher realize they might be more similar than they think. Featuring: Stephanie Neuerburg and Armando McClain, with stage directions read by Kyle Sanderson. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/science-night/

Jeannine Grizzard | British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst championed the fight for women’s right to vote as the most important of all causes, declaring: “We are on the greatest mission the world has ever known: to free half the human race, the women, and through that freedom to save the rest.” The women of Britain claimed the vote in 1918, with the United States Congress granting it the next year. Using Pankhurst’s own words to explore her personal battles and her fierce commitment to the women’s “suffrage army in the field,” this one-woman play probes the deeper issues behind women’s militancy against a world of governance by and for men. The challenges the suffragettes faced a century ago hold a mirror up to women’s continuing struggles to claim their full measure of human rights. Featuring: Jeannine Grizzard and James Edmondson, with stage directions read by James Pagliasotti. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/pankhurst-freedom-or-death/

Marin Gazzaniga | When Millicent needs a time-out from her life, she ends up subletting Sparky’s grunge-infested apartment while he’s out on the road. She organizes his home and puts his life under a microscope as a distraction from her own demons. When he returns, she won’t leave. Her constant probing makes the mild-mannered roadie snap, and he unleashes some observations of his own. As the two strangers reach a détente, they help each other in unexpected ways. Featuring: Erica Sullivan and Michael Gabriel Goodfriend, with stage directions read by Grant Luecke. Learn more at ashlandnewplays.org/play/in-ways-both-frivolous-and-deep/