A writer can be inspired by many things. Inspiration can strike in the form of personal experiences, favorite stories, history, and current events. This latest crop of new plays being featured at PlayFest involves several of those inspirations. Family is the most notable connection between the scripts we’ve chosen this year. How far will one go to protect, to shape, to groom, to shelter, and even to shame the ones we love?

We are happy to return to the story of David and Richard, a couple with an adopted son who are (finally!) planning their wedding. We watched Richard lose his father in Your Best One in PlayFest 2017, and The Luckiest People was our first introduction to this modern family. I CAN GO is the final part of the trilogy by Meridith Friedman and we are excited to be visiting these lovable characters again as they grow through life together.

The Great Beyond is a play exploring our deep desires for reconciliation with family. Family can challenge us in ways no one else can, and when loss interrupts our progress we have to make amends somehow. Two sisters come together after their father has passed and they must learn to forgive him and each other. Not only is there a delicious hint at supernatural intervention, but the deliriously complex nature of sisterhood is also at play. Master writer Steven Dietz focuses his artful storytelling on one broken family, on a dark and scary night.

And speaking of complex female relationships, Jane Burgoyne watches as a grandmother packs up the family home alongside her highly motivated daughter and drifting young granddaughter. While closing down this chapter of their lives, each generation shares their views on love, dating, eating disorders, aging, voting, language, independence and female identity. Robert Moulthrop has woven a tapestry of women pulled apart at the seams and we watch as they work to keep from unraveling.

Photo by Megan Pridemore features Trenell Mooring in PlayFest 2017’s Well-Intentioned White People.

72 miles to go… takes a hard look at a family up against the immigration laws that separate them by a border. How can they possibly stay together when their paperwork is keeping them apart? A mother misses milestone after milestone, a father struggles to do the right thing, a daughter takes care of everyone, and sons live in constant fear of ICE. Against a desert landscape, Hilary Bettis writes a deeply moving portrayal of just how personal the political can become.

Another play looks at the role of social media and how it can change opinions. #GodHatesYou follows the up-and-coming leader of a far right Christian church as they protest anyone living against their doctrine. Laurel, a young woman brought up in an extremist church begins to feel her faith erode as she realizes she does not, indeed, want the world to end. Her beliefs are challenged by a Rabbi and student writing a paper on the church. How does she begin to extricate herself from the deep seeded believes that her mother and church family have so meticulously implanted in her? Emily Dendinger has written a very messy, very dirty script filled with tough rhetoric. She doesn’t shy away from embracing the offensive or the highly challenging. Current issues inform this topical play about institutional religious beliefs and how one woman begins to see them with fresh eyes.

My Lord, What a Night considers two historical figures, a scientist and an entertainer, in the same room at the same time being battered by the paparazzi. It looks at a personal exchange between Albert Einstein and Marion Anderson, two people experiencing religious and racial discrimination respectively. When we examine the treatment of black citizens and Jewish immigrants in the 1930s, it makes me wonder if we have made any progress at all. Grace is under fire in this beautifully crafted script about an evening when Anderson was denied a room at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey. It was, essentially, the precursor to making the Lincoln Memorial the seat of civil protest. American discourse may never be the same because of it.

On the lighter side of the 1930s, Mark Brown’s ensemble of six actors play all the parts in this throwback to the screwball comedies of that era. Love, The Cracksman is a farcical look at the crooks who cracked safes and the things we love about them. A charming “cracksman” named Jimmy, gentlemen thief, pretends he is clueless in the art of stealthy stealing, but he is ready to embark on his biggest heist yet. Through a bet and a break-in gone bad, he meets Spike, Detective McEachern and his alluring daughter Molly. They all end up at the Dreever Estate where a valuable diamond necklace is at stake, as well as the blossoming love between Jimmy and Molly. Identity is hidden, lies are told, butlers are scorned and hilarity ensues!

We look forward to seeing you at the readings this November. Come join our PlayFest family of writers, directors and actors as we embark on these brand new journeys together!

P.S. Will I see you at the PlayFest Parties on November 3 and November 10? Come chow down and talk about the plays with us!

About Kristin Clippard

Kristin Clippard is proud to be the Associate Artistic Director/Producer in Residence for Orlando Shakes. Selected directing credits include The Luckiest People by Meridith Friedman, God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Loyalty and Betrayal (a community collaboration based on Julius Caesar), and Champagne Gods by Emily Dendinger. Favorite classic play projects include Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Imaginary Invalid, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, Pericles, Dr. Faustus and She Stoops to Conquer. Kristin has taught, produced, administered, acted, assisted or directed with many theatre companies, non-profit organizations, universities, and schools across the country. She enjoys developing new works with writers and is a playwright herself. Kristin holds a BFA in Acting from Wright State University and an MFA in Directing from the University of Iowa. www.kristinclippard.com