Posted: Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 11:08am

The Curtain Players Playwrights Festival has been placed on hiatus – there will be no event in July 2011 – but the Curtain Players Board of Directors is committed to revisit the project and to bring it back in a future season.

The festival, created during the 2002-2003 season, is designed to give new plays their first voice in levels of presentation from simple readings to fully-staged productions.

The board cited several reasons for this action. There has been diminished participation and audience attendance since the festival was moved from a January to a July time period, and a lack of forthcoming leadership to produce a 2011 festival. There has been a proliferation of similar new works programs by other Central Ohio theatre groups. Also acknowledging a pressing need to address maintenance and improvement issues at the playhouse next summer, board members said the decision was a responsible one.

Board members noted the prestige, the appeal, the education value, and the enjoyment of the festival to Curtain Players and to those who participate in and support it. However it is time, they unanimously agreed, to study the event and to redesign it for new success in line with the company's overall goals and its resources.

Curtain Players was among the first area theatre companies to dedicate itself to presenting new works with its festival. New scripts were produced for little or no expense and provided opportunities for the Players rank and file to test their talents, and for audiences to provide feedback to playwrights about their nascent works. Several festival plays have been performed by other companies, published, or in the case of 2008 entry SEPARATION ANXIETY, adapted into a motion picture that was screened in Columbus on November 12.

Festival History

The history of the Curtain Players Playwrights Festival covers the origins of this event, as well as past productions.

[Pictured (l-r): Dawn Farrell, Bronwynn Hopton and Mark C. Miller in Jaclyn Villano's No Worse for the Wear (2008 Playwrights Festival)]

Questions?

All questions about the Playwrights Festival should be sent to playfest@curtainplayers.org.