Published January 13, 2024
Palm Beach Dramaworks renews its commitment to fresh art starting this week when it hosts its seventh annual festival devoted to new plays.
The Perlberg Festival of New Plays, named for sponsors Diane and Mark Perlberg, runs from Jan. 17 to 19 at Dramaworks’ Don and Ann Brown Theatre, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Five new works for the theater, still being developed, will be presented in script readings by professional actors.
“We have exciting voices ready for their national spotlight, some of the most-produced playwrights in American theater, and an incredible team of directors,” said Jenny Connell Davis, PBD’s resident playwright and literary manager, in a prepared statement. “This year’s plays are funny, scary, suspenseful, and — above all — timely. We hope folks will come see these readings now, because these are plays that will be seen everywhere, soon.”
The five plays are:
“Vineland Place,” by Steven Dietz (3 p.m. Jan. 17 ; directed by Mark Perlberg): Writer Henry Sanders has been hired to finish the last book of his literary hero. But he soon finds himself in the middle of a mystery, in a play billed as an “intimate thriller.” Dietz is a veteran playwright whose 40-plus plays and adaptations have been presented by more than 100 regional theaters. His play “Shooting Star” was adapted for the 2023 rom-com “What Happens Later,” starring Meg Ryan and David Duchovny.
“Class C,” by Chaz T. Martin (7:30 p.m. Jan. 17 ; directed by Jessica Holt): Set in a future United States where each citizen is assigned to a classification by the federal government, a Homeland Security agent is on the run in the north woods. It’s a play about “who can (or should) be trusted in a world built on blind loyalty.” Martin is literary manager at Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company whose short film, “Chemistry,” has been widely honored with writing awards at film festivals nationwide.
“The Mallard,” by Vincent Delaney (3 p.m. Jan. 18; directed by J. Barry Lewis): Two teachers who have lost their jobs after offending the school board, Freya and Gillian, intersect with another couple, Davis and Reagan, yard-sale zealots on the hunt for an antique duck decoy. The battle over a symbol that follows brings the four on “a journey that far surpasses the search for treasure.” Playwright Delaney’s works have been staged at dozens of regional theater companies across the country.
“In Two,” by Chelsea Marcantel (7:30 p.m. Jan. 18; directed by Hannah Wolf): The play is set in a rundown vaudeville theater and concerns magic and magicians. It’s described as “a sharp exploration of stagecraft, second chances and the art of cutting a woman in half.” Marcantel completed a playwrights fellowship at The Juilliard School and was part of a creative team that won the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre in 2021. Her plays have been produced worldwide.
“Alba,” by Alejandro Rodriguez (3 p.m. Jan. 19; directed by KJ Sanchez): A Cuban grandmother in working-class Miami fights to save her house amid a number of different pressures, in this play based on the Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba.” Based in Miami, playwright Rodriguez is a Juilliard graduate whose dance-theater piece “Sorry” had two sold-out runs at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in New York.
Tickets for each play are $35; all five plays can be seen for $100. Contact the Palm Beach Dramaworks box office at 561-514-4042, ext. 2, or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.
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