New Works Now 2021

New Works Now: Nurturing New Plays for the American Stage: An annual festival of workshops that culminate in free public readings, New Works Now is designed to enrich the theater experience of our audiences and artists who are hungry for daring and impactful stories. Post-show responses are valuable to the play development process and have shown that our unique audiences are willing to engage with new work in a collaborative environment. The festival, held each January, has served as a guiding light for our company and has helped rebrand Northern Stage as a bold and visionary theater.

Saturday, January 16, 7:30 PM: Drive by Deborah Yarchun 

Saturday, January 23, 7:30 PM: Enough by Celeste Jennings

Saturday, January 30, 7:30 PM: Shook by Zoe Sarnak and Alexis Scheer

All readings will be streamed live. A post-show conversation will follow each reading.

Admission is free (with a $10 Suggested Donation).

Call (802) 296-7000 or click below to reserve.

Drive

by Deborah Yarchun

January 16th @ 7:30 PM

A community of truckers in a small town in Iowa are forced to shift gears when they lose their jobs to self-driving vehicles. When Gloria becomes the only trucker in town still employed, resentments surface and tensions escalate. Set in a time not far down the road, Drive explores our collective fears for the future, and what happens when individuals who are fiercely defined by their work are forced to reevaluate what drives them. Drive is the winner of the 2020 Dartmouth College Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting.

Deborah Yarchun’s honors include two Jerome Fellowships, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, an EST/Sloan Commission, Dartmouth’s 2020 Neukom Literary Arts Award for Playwriting, The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, the Kernodle New Play Award, the Richard Maibaum Playwriting Award, and Women in the Arts & Media Coalition’s 2019 Collaboration Award. Her play Great White was an Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award. She was recently a playwright-in-residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts and a member of the Civilians’ R&D Group. Deborah earned her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow.

Enough

By Celeste Jennings

Saturday, January 23, 7:30 PM

How do you define yourself if you don’t know your history? In this piece, a family discovers beauty and strength in things not remembered. They realize that some things are meant to be forgotten, and that the relics of resilience occupy their veins and teach them that what they have has always been enough. A brand new work by Celeste Jennings, writer of Citrus (New Works Now 2019, Mainstage premiere 2020).

Celeste Jennings is a playwright and costume designer who is passionate about creating art that challenges social norms and accurately represents minority characters and their stories. Most recently, her choreopoem, Citrus, was produced at Northern Stage. She’s very proud to be working with Northern Stage again! Design credits include: Assistant design credits include Mlima’s Tale (Public Theater) as well as Cardinal (2nd Stage Theatre). Recent design credits include Jonkonnu (Howard University) Twelfth Night (National Black Theatre Festival), It’s Fine, I’m Fine (Dartmouth College), Citrus (Northern Stage), The Ties that Bind (Catholic University).

Shook

Music and Lyrics by Zoe Sarnak

Book by Alexis Sheer

Directed by Maggie Burrows

Saturday, January 30, 7:30 PM

Join us for a sneak peek into the original songs and artistic process behind Northern Stage’s first-ever commissioned musical work: Shook. High school thespians have been preparing for the highly anticipated National Shakespeare Competition for months, and Mia, always second fiddle, is ready to take first place by storm. Shook takes us on a rollercoaster ride through song and sonnet, foes turned friends, kingdoms lost and won…and at least one good showmance. Don’t miss our first look into the deeply human world of Shook, and a chance to meet its award-winning creative team: Zoe Sarnak, Alexis Scheer, and Maggie Burrows (director of The Sound of Music).

Zoe Sarnak is a New York City-based composer, lyricist, and writer. She is a recipient of the 2018 Jonathan Larson Award, and a finalist for the Ebb Award, Kleban Award, and Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award. Her work has been developed with and presented by Second Stage, New York Stage & Film, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geffen Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, WP Theatre, MCC, and many others. Upcoming productions include: A Crossing (with Josh Bergasse and Mark St. Germain, Barrington Stage Company), Afterwords (with Emily Kaczmarek, 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle). Projects in development include: Galileo (with Danny Strong, Michael Weiner and dir. Michael Mayer), The Lonely Few (with Rachel Bonds, Geffen Playhouse commission, New York Stage & Film 2021), Empire Records (with original screenwriter Carol Heikkinen), Secret Soldiers (with Marsha Norman and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins), Afloat (with Emily Kaczmarek, WP Theater commission), Split (with Michele Lowe, Transport Group Theatre Company), as well as consulting and co-writing music for Band Aid (with Zoe Lister-Jones, dir. Leigh Silverman) and projects for 20th Century Fox and Netflix. Her music has been featured by the NY Times Live, The Shannara Chronicles (Spike), Silent Witness (BBC) and in benefit concerts and albums for Everytown. https://www.zoesarnak.com

Alexis Scheer‘s plays include Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater/Second Stage, NYT Critic’s Pick, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Kilroy’s List, LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work, Relentless Award semifinalist); Laughs in Spanish (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Kennedy Center’s Harold & Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award, NNPN Showcase), Christina (Roe Green Award), The Sensational (Actors’ Theatre of Louisville), and A Very Herrera Holiday (New Rep). Her work has been developed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre Center, Cleveland Playhouse, San Diego REP, and others. Currently commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club and Second Stage. BFA: The Boston Conservatory. MFA: Boston University. www.alexisscheer.com she/her