What’s your love language as a playwright? Perhaps it’s having your words read, heard, and digested by actors and audiences. Get to know the ANPF 2022 New Voices Emerging Playwrights Mikki Gillette, Lindsay Partain, Lorenz Qatava, Leslie Slape, and Ken Yoshikawa as they share their thoughts about this and more in their recorded conversation at the end of their retreat weekend in Ashland.

The playwrights flow through topics like the kind of stories they gravitate toward telling, their retreat takeaways, as well as explorations of intersectionality, challenging dogmas, opening dialogue, and what they’re excited about in the writing process.

Enjoy meeting the wonderful Mikki Gillette, Lindsay Partain, Lorenz Qatava, Leslie Slape, and Ken Yoshikawa!

“I love how much care was taken in choosing our cohort,” Leslie shared. “We come from different backgrounds, but we blended easily and naturally.”

ANPF’s 2022 New Voices Emerging Playwrights Retreat centered Oregon playwrights this year – with voices hailing from Ashland, Portland, Rainier, and Banks – and focused on connection and community building. The goal was celebration and encouragement, giving the playwrights opportunities to develop their creative work, meet with industry professionals, and draw inspiration from being with fellow artists in Ashland.

Learn more about the playwrights here: https://ashlandnewplays.org/new-voices-retreat/

The vibrancy and camaraderie of this group of fantastic playwrights is felt throughout their talk. They introduce you to the plays they’re working on–with topics ranging from mental health, racial reckoning, art and diaspora, and LGBTQI+ experiences. They then delve into reflections on theatre today, the classics, Taylor Swift, Bertholdt Brecht, and also reveal their north stars–the advice that guides them through their work–and some surprising facts, like Carlos being an ordained minister! All of the playwrights share their appreciation for the retreat bringing them together, having a space to work with fellow young playwrights.

“We all get the vibe,” says Heesun, “Unspoken truths among us that we don’t have to explain. The safety in that is really really incredible.”

We are grateful to have had a chance to welcome these rising artists into the ANPF community, and as Jasmine says, this isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later! Big big love to these five.

Support our playwrights with their upcoming events:

Ty Greenwood: DEATH DREAM, a choreopoem, will be presented at Kelly-Strayhorn Theater on October 1 and 2, 2021.

Kathryn de la Rosa: NON SO PIÙ COSA SON, which they developed during the New Voices retreat, is having a live-streamed reading with Artists at Play on October 9, 2021.

Jasmine Sharma: RADIAL GRADIENT will be presented as part of The Avalanche New Play Summit in Chicago from October 29 to November 6, 2021.

Carlos-Zenen Trujillo: World-premiere of CHRISTMAS, CONTIGO at Oregon Cabaret Theatre from November 18 to December 31, 2021.

Grab your favorite potato chips and get in on the conversation with playwright Inda Craig-Galván and director Kyle Haden as they talk about Inda’s new play BERTH BREACH/BREECH BIRTH, which ANPF is presenting on April 24 and 25. We learn about the poetic influence that inspired the play, the African-American farming community in Illinois that sparked the roots of the play’s setting, what they’re both looking forward to this week as all the artists come together to start the workshop and rehearsal process, and so much more. These two bring the laughter and the serious in equal measure, taking listeners on a journey of inspiration and insight.

Ashland New Plays Festival will be presenting BERTH BREACH/BREECH BIRTH for TWO DAYS ONLY Saturday and Sunday, April 24 at 7 pm PT and April 25 at 2 pm PT. Tickets are available on a sliding scale. We look forward to welcoming you to the show!

Get your tickets and learn more at: https://ashlandnewplays.org/season/

You can also watch the conversation on our YouTube page or the embed below: https://youtu.be/PnAb1DEQDTk

View the play’s playbill page here:

Water Made to Rise

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The Good Bet

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The Exceptionals

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Tail of the Bell

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Science Night

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Pankhurst: Freedom or Death

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In Ways Both Frivolous and Deep