New works by Wis­con­sin play­wrights who placed in the first three spots of the Wis­con­sin Wrights New Play Devel­op­ment Project will be read and staged next week on campus.

Sarah Marty of UW Con­tin­u­ing Stud­ies Theatre

Kristin Ham­mar­gren, Sam White, and Kim­berly Yarnall are the three play­wrights awarded a res­i­dency which includes work­shops of his/her play with a direc­tor, cast, and dra­maturge and a staged reading.

The Wis­con­sin Wrights New Play Devel­op­ment Project was cre­ated to encour­age devel­op­ment of new works by state play­wrights. Project part­ners include UW-Madison Con­tin­u­ing Stud­ies in The­atre and UW-Madison Dept. of The­atre and Drama/University The­atre. Join­ing them for 2013 are Mil­wau­kee Cham­ber The­atre and For­ward The­ater Company.

“Read­ings of the win­ning new works will take place at Hem­s­ley The­atre on UW-Madison’s cam­pus May 28–30 at 7:30 p.m.,” says Sarah Marty, Con­tin­u­ing Stud­ies the­atre pro­gram direc­tor who is on the project’s advi­sory board. The three win­ning works are:

Dis­cov­er­ing Austen  by Kristin Ham­mar­gren; directed by Jes­sica Lanius
Tues­day, May 28, 7:30 p.m.

The plot: Visit a theater’s dress­ing room about a play that cen­ters on the author, Jane Austen. Still search­ing for the essence of her char­ac­ter only hours from open­ing, the actress explores Austen’s writ­ing in an attempt to find the author in her nov­els and letters.

Kristin Ham­mar­gren is a play­wright and actor based in the Mid­west. Orig­i­nally from Min­nesota, she recently received her MFA in act­ing from UW-Madison. Kristin’s pro­fes­sional work includes For­ward The­ater Com­pany, Amer­i­can Play­ers’ The­atre, Door Shake­speare, and Guthrie The­ater. She is also a found­ing mem­ber of Madison’s The­atre in All the Wrong Places and will appear this sum­mer as Ros­alind in Opti­mist Theatre’s As You Like It in Mil­wau­kee.

Coy­ote Moon  by Sam White; directed by David Pausch
Wednes­day, May 29, 7:30 p.m.

The plot: Life can be hard for a young man just start­ing out. Espe­cially if you just lost your job, your girl­friend is hav­ing your baby and mar­ry­ing another guy, and, on the next full moon, you’re pretty sure you’re going to turn into a were-coyote. Maybe the best thing to do is go out back at your mom’s coun­try­side tav­ern, lock a tow chain around your neck, and hope for the best… but then again, maybe not.

Sam White is a Madi­son area actor/director and has been play­writ­ing for many years. His play Oates­land was a 2011 Wis­con­sin Wrights final­ist and has had pub­lic read­ings at both For­ward The­ater and The Bricks The­atre. Bricks The­atre is sched­uled to pro­duce the play this win­ter. In 2012, White’s piece, Beer is Good, was a part of For­ward Theater’s Soul Food Mono­logue Fes­ti­val. Sam is a found­ing mem­ber of For­ward The­ater Com­pany and serves on its advi­sory committee.

Wait­ing by Kim­berly Yarnall; directed by Jen­nifer Uphoff Gray
Thurs­day, May 30, 7:30 p.m.

The plot: Crys­tal and John are mar­ried pro­fes­sion­als who shop at REI, and eat canned soup some­times because it’s eas­ier. They also can’t get preg­nant. The audi­ence fol­lows Crys­tal and John’s quest for a baby, while meet­ing other char­ac­ters such as fer­til­ity doc­tors, nosy col­leagues, and overly-friendly den­tists. It’s a story about want­ing some­thing and hav­ing to wait for it, and how to nego­ti­ate life in the interim.

Kim­berly Yarnall’s plays have been per­formed from New York City to Anchor­age. Two-time final­ist for the National Ten-Minute-Play Hei­d­man Award, she’s also been pub­lished by Smith & Krause. Kim­berly worked on the Tony-nominated A Class Act. She holds a BA from Uni­ver­sity of Notre Dame, and is artis­tic asso­ciate with For­ward The­ater Com­pany.
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Tick­ets are $10 for each read­ing and are on sale through the Cam­pus Arts Box Office (608) 265-ARTS. Call for box office hours, to place a phone order, or for loca­tion information.

For more about the project visit its web­site.

Which play will you go see? Why does it inter­est you?