Emerging Artists Festival Begins This Friday!

Joe Lyons • January 11, 2023

The Emerging Artists Festival Equips Up and Coming Playwrights

You have the opportunity to see the next “Hamilton” or “Rent” with these never-before-seen plays workshopped right here at the Renaissance.

What is the Emerging Artists Festival?

The Emerging Artists Festival exists to guide, encourage, support, and advocate for artists.

Plays from all over the world are submitted and chosen to be workshopped for a week culminating in a final, public reading in front of audiences.

How does it work?

Over six consecutive days, actors will work with the director and playwright for five rehearsals to fine-tune and rehearse.

The rehearsals culminate in two public readings on Friday and Saturday evenings.

After the readings, a discussion takes place between the audience and the actors, director, and playwright to gather feedback that is useful in continuing to perfect each work.

The 2023 Emerging Artists Festival Lineup

Trollop: The Trials and Titillations of the Infamous Moll Flanders

A New Musical. Book and Lyrics by Shley Snider, Music by Darryl Pickett, Additional material by Jessica Ammel, Produced by Holly Marie Weber

Moll Flanders has two dreams: to be rich and important. But in 17th-century England, that’s easier said than done. This new musical, a mixture of rock and Baroque, is based on the classic novel by Daniel Defoe. Deemed scandalous at the time it was first written, the story explores women’s issues, sexuality, and censorship as we follow the irrepressible Moll from her birth in prison to the heights of society.

Readings: January 13–14, 2023 at 8:00 PM

Gloria Mundi

A New Play by Pamela Morgan

When Gloria is visited by an angel of God with news of the second Messiah, she’s convinced she has a second chance at motherhood. But Jody thinks she’s using again. As the truth slowly unravels, Gloria must wrestle with the demons of her past, Jody must reconcile the specters of his future, and both must confront the very real threat of Harold, Gloria’s recovery counselor.

Readings: January 20–21, 2023 at 8:00 PM

Funnie: Or, the Most Lamentable Comedie of Jane the Foole

A New Comedy by Jessica Moss

A hilarious and thought-provoking new play by Julliard-trained playwright Jessica Moss. Set in the court of King Henry the VIII, it tells the story of Jane the Foole, the first and only recorded female jester ever to serve the royalty. Is it possible to succeed when you live in a world where you’re not seen as a person?

Readings: January 27–28, 2023 at 8:00 PM

Women Most Wicked

A New Play by Alan Kilpatrick

Alan Kilpatrick wrote this dark comedy set in London’s Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors in 2016. When the exhibit is scheduled to close, Kate Webster and Amelia Dryer, now wax figures of notorious 19th-century murderesses, recount their lives and speculate about their futures before they are consigned to the junk heap.

Readings: February 3–4, 2023 at 8:00 PM

The Sweet Everlasting

A New Play by Frances Limoncelli, Based on the novel by Judson Mitcham

Based upon the prize-winning novel by Georgia poet laureate, this adaptation by Frances Limoncelli tells the story of a sharecropper’s son, mill worker, and ex-convict, Ellis Burt. For a brief and cherished time, there was a woman, and then a child, too, who had been a kind of salvation to him. Then they were gone, leaving Ellis to carry on with the burden of what he had done to them and the ruin he brought down upon them all.

Readings: May 5–6, 2023 at 8:00 PM