2022 INAUGURAL AMERICAN DREAMING NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

2022 American Dreaming New Play Festival
August 17-20
The Swift House Tent

New Play Festival Program

2022 WINNERS

Griswold
by Angela J. Davis
Inspired by the forgotten history behind the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established a right to sexual privacy, and fusing magic realism, docudrama, and comedic truth, "Griswold" mines the spirit and drive of the overlooked 65-year-old woman whose actions set the Griswold case in motion, the extraordinary events leading to establishment of the right of sexual privacy, and the essential link between sexual privacy and personal dignity. 

PLAYWRIGHT BIO: Angela J. Davis is the author of The Spanish Prayer Book (World Premiere: The Road Theatre Company 2019-20 season; L.A. Times Best Bet), AGATHE (New American Voices Award - The Landing Theatre, SETC Getchell Award for Outstanding Full-Length Play); Clara and Serra and The Talking Bear (commissioned and produced for radio in 2020 by Antaeus Theatre Company) and Griswold (2021-22 A is For Playwriting Prize - First Place Winner; 2022 National Women’s Theatre Festival Official Selection), among other plays. Additional playwriting honors include: Playhouse Creatures (NYC) J.R. Rodriguez Award (twice; 2020 and 2022); Jane Chambers Award Top-4 Finalist and Honoree, Marsha A. Croyle Award for Achievement in Playwriting, Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist, Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist (three times), FutureFest Official Selection (twice) HRC Showcase Official Selection (twice). Recent / forthcoming work at The Road Theatre Company, Fractured Atlas, The Landing Theatre, Playhouse on the Square, Playwrights Round Table, The Blank Theatre, Antaeus Theatre Company, Sohaya Visions (London), The HRC Showcase, Playhouse Creatures (NYC), and elsewhere. Degrees from Stanford and UCLA. More at AngelaJDavis.com

Natchetoches
by Seth McNeill
Preparing to share Easter dinner, the Turpin family discusses the day’s mass shooting in nearby Natchetoches, Mississippi. After it becomes clear that one of their own might be caught up in the momentous events in town, the family is confronted with questions of how well they know themselves and each other, what it means to be “one of us,” and how to handle history that they’d prefer to be myth.

PLAYWRIGHT BIO: Seth McNeill is a playwright and theatre artist more or less from Mississippi. His plays deal with isolation and social alienation, repressed generational trauma, and whiteness through a darkly comic lens. As a playwright, dramaturg and educator, he has worked with Gingold Theatrical Group, Barrington Stage, Fresh Ground Pepper, Dixon Place, Fault Line Theatre, Amios NYC, and the Hambidge Center. He has been named a semi-finalist for the O’Neill, the Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries Prize, and Primary Stages ESPA Drills. Education: MA, Hunter College. Seth lives with his wife Lori in a very old house in the Hudson Valley, and is re-learning all of that carpentry stuff his dad taught him.

American Deal
by Donna Hoke
Clive Jenkins. A husband. A father. A writer with an MFA. An addict. A man who, sixteen years ago, gunned down a stranger, and still can't say why. Clive’s most successful attempts to examine his life come when he puts pen to paper, pouring out his demons in stories. Now, he’s got a chance at parole, and a six-figure book deal that might help him get it—if he can prove he’s a changed man. This play asks: what do we owe those we purport to rehabilitate and what do we owe their victims?

PLAYWRIGHT BIO: Donna Hoke's work has been seen in 47 states and on five continents, including at Barrington Stage, Barrow Group, Celebration Theatre, Gulfshore Theatre, Lake Dillon Theatre Company, Theatre Aspen, Phoenix Theatre, Atlantic Stage, Purple Rose, New Jersey Rep, Galway Fringe Festival, and Actors Repertory Theatre of Luxembourg. Plays include BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART (Kilroys List), ELEVATOR GIRL (O’Neill, Princess Grace, and Austin Film Festival finalist), SAFE (winner of the Todd McNerney, Naatak, and Great Gay Play and Musical Contests), and TEACH (Gulfshore New Works, O'Neill semifinalist). She has been nominated for the Primus, Blackburn, and Laura Pels prizes, and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (SEEDS, SONS & LOVERS, ONCE IN MY LIFETIME). She has also received an Individual Artist Award from the New York State Council on the Arts to develop HEARTS OF STONE, and, in its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo's Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation. Donna also been serving the Dramatists Guild in various capacities since 2012, is an ensemble playwright at Road Less Traveled Productions, advocate, blogger, New York Times-published crossword puzzle constructor; and children's and trivia book author.  donnahoke.com.

Gina Stevensen, Festival Director, Angela J. Davis, Donna Hoke, Melissa Lourie, Festival Producer & Seth McNeill