CHICAGO: American Blues Theater has announced the lineup of the 2017 Blue Ink Playwriting Festival, which will feature four staged readings of new plays May 22-25. The featured plays include the winning play and finalists for the 2017 National Blue Ink Playwriting Award.
The festival will feature Idris Goodwin’s winning play Hype Man (May 22), about a controversial police shooting that heightens tensions between an interracial hip hop trio. The cast will include Walter Briggs, Rashaad Hall, and Kimberly Vaughn. Jess McLeod will direct. The play was selected from a pool of 543 submissions for the 2017 National Blue Ink Playwriting Award. Goodwin received a cash prize of $1,000 and the opportunity to further develop his script with American Blues Theater.
Next up will be Flying (May 23), by Sheila Cowley, about a woman who flew military planes in World War II. The cast will feature Ian Paul Custer, Jazmin Corona, Lisa Herceg, John Mohrlein, and Patricia Patton. Heather Meyers will direct.
Following will be Rebecca Gorman O’Neill’s Mynx & Savage (May 24), about a comic book writer who conflates his reality with his superhero story when corporate powers start pushing him to produce his work. The cast will include Clara Byczkowski, Jennifer Cheung, Jesse Massaro, and Nelson Rodriguez. Elyse Dolan will direct.
The last reading will be Caridad Svich’s This Thing Of Ours (May 25), about how an act of violence affects people’s lives over time. The cast will include Debbie Banos, Andrew Goetten, Rashaad Hall, Priya Mohanty, and Avi Roque. Isaac Gomez will direct.
