Barter Theatre’s submissions window is open for the 2013 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights. This annual festival of new plays presents fully staged readings of new work by Appalachian playwrights, or new plays dealing with Appalachian themes.
I sat down with playwright Chelsea Marcantel, whose play Even Longer and Farther Away was featured in the 2012 AFPP, to find out what makes this event so unique and important.
BarterBlogger: You’ve had plays in festivals all over the country. What makes the AFPP different?
Chelsea: Well, the biggest difference is that readings at the AFPP have a fighting chance of going on to become Barter productions. A lot of theatres pay lip service to new play development, but the new plays they’re interested in are new plays by famous playwrights. A play can get into a festival at one of those places and then kind of stop dead in its tracks. But in the 2013 season at Barter, there are four productions that started out as AFPP readings. Catherine Bush’s Walking Across Egypt was developed by Barter over three years. To me, that demonstrates an honest commitment to new work.
BarterBlogger: Did you learn anything about the region by participating in the AFPP?
Chelsea: I learned a great deal! I was the only playwright living in Abingdon with a play in 2012 festival, but I’d been in the area less than a year at the time. I learned so much about this place and its history and the voice of its people. I think that’s another amazing facet of this festival — the creation of new pieces of art that tell and preserve the history of this part of the country. It’s a cultural responsibility that Barter has taken on and it’s important work. I don’t think anybody who sees this year’s mini-production of Matthew Carlton’s Hanging Mary, which had a reading in the 2012 festival, could doubt how crucial it is to encourage the telling of these stories.
AFPP 2012 Playwrights: (left to right) Don Narkevic, Evan Guilford-Blake , Chelsea Marcantel, Ramona L. Morris , Matthew Carlton , and Douglas M. Parker
BarterBlogger: What was the AFPP experience like?
Chelsea: Well, once the festival lineup was chosen, all the playwrights were notified and we found out the dates of our readings. It was very exciting! The Barter Resident Acting Company started rehearsing, and it was so exciting to hear them talking about their readings. They were scheduled two a day, with a panel discussion and talkback planned after each one. Once the festival started in July, the rest of the playwrights arrived in Abingdon and we all met each other and had the chance to attend each others’ readings and talkbacks. We were all invited to a big dinner party at [Executive Producing] Artistic Director’s Rick Rose’s house, we all went to a BBQ together and went to dinner and had some great conversations. It was a really special experience for me. As a playwright, I don’t often get the chance to connect with other playwrights — actors work with other actors, designers work with other designers, but the opportunities for playwrights to bond like this are rare, and I really appreciated having their feedback and their support after my own reading. I also really appreciated the community feedback during the panel discussion and talkback; this system provides a rare opportunity for a playwright to hear right away the thoughts of the audience that will hopefully invest in and grow with the play as it develops.
BarterBlogger: Do you plan to participate in the AFPP again?
Chelsea: I certainly hope so! It was a really enriching experience as a writer, and a whole lot of fun. I’ll definitely be submitting again in the future, and we’ll see what happens!
