Photo: Courtesy, TheatreSquared
TheatreSquared officials this week announced their annual New Play Festival will take place beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 26.
A staged, streamed reading performance of the new play Love Be Like… by playwright Clinnesha D. Sibley will show Friday night via livestream at playarkansas.com.
The company has been workshopping the new play since June 15. According to the synopsis, it tells the story of a young Black couple that moves into their first home in Charleston, SC, in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 Emanuel AME Church massacre.
The new show will be available to stream nationwide, free of charge, but a suggested donation is also possible to help support the new show.
After the livestream event, the reading will be available to view through June 30.
“It’s amazing how we were able to find a story and build community virtually,” Sibley said in a press release issued this week. “This was meaningful, innovative, and brave collaborative work that I needed in my life as a writer/creative.”
TheatreSquared Artistic Director Robert Ford said the process of workshopping new plays over video conferencing has been better than he expected.
“It’s actually been incredible to have this kind of artistic collaboration take place entirely digitally,” said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. “While it will never fully replace an in-person workshop or performance, the energy was still remarkable and led to meaningful development on this brilliant and deeply relevant play.”
Instead of working on several new plays over a weekend or two, this year’s year’s New Play Festival is unfolding one at a time over several weeks in a “rolling” development model as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Specific dates are still to be determined, but future new plays to be workshopped as part of the festival include Weightless, by the Kilbanes, directed by Tamilla Woodard, The Interrogator, by Russell Leigh Sharman and Heroes & Monsters, by the LatinX Theatre Project.
Love Be Like is available for free or on a donation basis, but future New Play Festival events will be ticketed. New Play Passes, granting entry to all events, are on sale now for $45. Reserve your passes online or call the TheatreSquared box office at 479-777-7477.
TheatreSquared is also leading a special fundraising effort during this unique time of need. If you’d like to chip in for the cause to help support professional theatre in Fayetteville, you can do so at theatre2.org.
