PlayFest is a reading festival highlighting the work of 4 student playwrights whose work was selected from multiple submissions. Selected playwrights have worked the entire semester developing their work with student directors and dramaturgs. Guest artists from the professional theatre world have been invited and they will adjudicate for the festival and give creative teams critical feedback, not only of the performances, but also the development of the scripts.

PlayFest runs from Thursday, April 23 through Saturday, April 25. Each play will be performed a single time across the three days; please see below for the complete schedule.

Thursday, April 23, 8pm
Venus
Written by Jocelyn Fradette
Directed by Maya Elowe


Friday, April 24, 8pm
The Shot
Written by Simon Nigam
Directed by Naomi Parr


Saturday, April 25, 4pm
BIT, or How to Break Things Off With a Hundred-Year Lover
Written by Charles Cole
Directed by Jeffrey Wagner


Saturday, April 25, 8pm
Flies in the Maafe
Written by Oummu Kabba
Directed by Gonzalo Delgado


Special Guests:


Sigrid Gilmer is a nationally recognized playwright. Her plays have been produced across the United States: Titles include Harry and the Thief, Frilly, The Great White Way, and Glory Chicken which is set to premiere in May. She has written for a number of television shows, including, Claw, Gossip Girl, and Genius: MLK/X, just to name a few.


Andrew Morton is a Lead Facilitator at Telling It. Originally from the UK, Morton is a queer immigrant, playwright, and theatre-maker currently based in Detroit. As the founding producing artistic collaborator at Every Soul Arts, he leads healing-centered arts projects amplifying the voices of young people impacted by homelessness, including the award-winning Sofa Stories project.