Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga is the site for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 19th annual New Works Festival Nov. 6-13.
Giovanna Sardelli, TheatreWorks’ artistic associate, is the director of the New Works program, which was offered only in a digital streamed format in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the 2022 program, TheatreWorks will partner with Montalvo and its Lucas Artists Residency Program. Both writers and performers will be housed for several weeks this month and next as they workshop three productions, one of which is a new musical. All of them will then premiere in Montalvo’s indoor Carriage House Theatre.
The festival features several play readings, beginning with “The Motion” by Christopher Chen. The play is a collective examination of such questions as “How do we value a meaningful life?” and “What does it mean to be human?” Chen, a San Francisco native, has written a number of other plays including “Caught” and “The Headlands.” Directed by Sardelli, “The Motion” will be read Sundays, Nov. 6 and 13, at 3 p.m.
“Hart Island,” by Danny Haengil Larsen and Michelle Elliott, seems an unlikely topic for a musical, as it focuses on the more than one million bodies buried on Hart Island in New York’s East River—the poor, the unclaimed and the unknown.
But co-directors Tim Bond and Marcela Lorca, artistic directors of TheatreWorks and Ten Thousand Things Theatre Company in Minnesota, respectively, say the play tells the story with hope and compassion. Readings are set for Nov. 6, 10 and 13, all at 7 p.m.
The third play reading is “Words We Believe” by Rehana Lew Mirza. Taking place in Orange County in 2022, it features the mysterious disappearance of a 17-year-old girl. Her best friend searches for the truth about how and why she disappeared. “Words We Believe” will be directed by actress Aidaa Peerzada.
Mirza’s other plays including “Hatefuck,” “Soldier X” and “Neighborhood Watch.” Readings of “Words We Believe” will be staged on Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. and on Nov. 13 at noon.
Champagne toasts will follow the Nov. 6 reading of “Hart Island,” and the Nov. 9 reading of “Words We Believe,” when audiences will be invited to join the cast and crew to learn more about these new plays.
A “Coffee and Mingle” event will be held on Nov. 13 at 10:30 a.m. It’s an opportunity for veteran arts leader and TheatreWorks’ new executive director Debbie Chinn to host an informal gathering with artists and the audience before the noon reading of “Words We Believe.”
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s New Works Festival makes a concerted effort to seek out new material and act as a matchmaker for writers and composers, according to Sardelli. The annual festival has launched many new works, some of which eventually make their way onto TheatreWorks’ main stage.
Likely the most famous production to have its genesis at the festival is “Memphis,” written by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan, which went from TheatreWorks to Broadway, where it won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2010.
Over the years, the New Works Festival has also given playgoers their first look at new works by Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lippa, Paul Gordon and Beth Henley.
“Developing new works is in TheatreWorks’ DNA,” says Bond. “It’s an integral part of our mission to foster and build community around artists as they create works for future audiences.”
TheatreWorks and Montalvo previously partnered to present a developmental reading of the musical “Alice Bliss,” which will have its world premiere at TheatreWorks next July.
Sardelli says TheatreWorks is excited to join forces again with the Montalvo Arts Center. “Our ‘Alice Bliss’ partnership was so fruitful that we knew we wanted to team up with them again,” she adds.
The partnership supports festival artists, who are provided both housing and space to create their new works. “It also allows both organizations to connect with new audiences by exposing more art lovers to exciting new theater,” Sardelli says.
Montalvo Arts Center is located at 15400 Montalvo Road in Saratoga. Festival passes are $48 for all three plays, with special event tickets priced at $20. For tickets, visit www.theatreworks.org or call 877-662-8978.
Source: www.mercurynews.com