Palm Beach Dramaworks hosting newly renamed festival of new plays
WEST PALM BEACH — A donation of $500,000 has meant a new name and expanded mission for Palm Beach Dramaworks’ annual festival of new work.
The Perlberg Festival of New Plays takes the stage at the troupe’s Clematis Street home from Jan. 3-7. Formerly the New Year/New Plays Festival, the renamed event will feature readings of five works in progress by important contemporary playwrights.
The festival, now in its sixth year, has been renamed in recognition of a $500,000 gift from Mark and Diane Perlberg, executive producers of the festival.
“It’s a game-changer, assuring the festival’s future for years to come and enabling continued growth,” said William Hayes, Dramaworks’ producing artistic director, in a prepared statement.
The gift also allows the festival to host two talks with major theatrical figures next week. On Jan. 3, Hayes will interview Oscar-winning veteran actress Estelle Parsons, who appeared on the Dramaworks stage in 2014 in a production of Israel Horovitz’s “My Old Lady.”
On Jan. 4, Hayes interviews playwright Mark St. Germain, whose “Freud’s Last Session” was developed at Dramaworks and had its Southeastern premiere at the West Palm Beach company in 2011. The play, which concerns a probably fictional meeting between psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and professor and writer C.S. Lewis in England in 1939, was made into a movie that premiered Dec. 22, starring Anthony Hopkins as Freud and Matthew Goode as Lewis.
The five plays are:
“Proximity,” by Harrison David Rivers (3 p.m. Friday), about a divorced mother sheltering during the COVID-19 pandemic who meets someone interesting in a virtual PTA meeting.
“Stockade,” by Andrew Rosendorf (7:30 p.m. Friday), which concerns a group of gay soldiers who meet on Fire Island for a reunion five years after the end of World War II.
“Color Blind,” by Oren Safdie (3 p.m. Saturday), examines the jury that was tasked in 2009 with choosing an architect for National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“Everything Beautiful Happens at Night,” by Ted Malawer (7:30 p.m. Saturday). In 1980s Manhattan, the longtime relationship between a children’s book writer and his editor is tested by the intervention of someone new.
“Little Row Boat,” by Kirsten Greenidge (3 p.m. Sunday), puts Thomas Jefferson’s slave Sally Hemings center stage as a 14-year-old nursemaid who travels to Paris, where her brother, who is studying to be a chef in the French capital, forces her to think about the unusual circumstances of their lives.
All five of the plays, which are still in development, will be read on stage for the audience.
“The development and production of new works is the lifeblood of theater,” Mark Perlberg said in a prepared statement. “These unsettling times make it more difficult for playwrights to get their work out into the world. But (Dramaworks) is zealous about nurturing and producing new plays, and the festival has proved to be an invaluable experience for artists and audiences alike.
“Diane and I recognize its potential to have a great impact on theater throughout the country, and are delighted to assist in whatever way we can,” he said.
Tickets for the festival are $20, or $75 for all five plays by using the code FESTIVAL. The interviews with Parsons (7 p.m. Wednesday) and St. Germain (4 p.m. Thursday) are $10 each for holders of tickets to any of the plays, or $20 for the interview alone.
For more information, call the Dramaworks box office at 561-514-4042, extension 2, or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Donation of $500K bolsters new play festival at Palm Beach Dramaworks
