NNPN SELECT PARTICIPANTS FOR THE
KENNEDY CENTER NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

National New Play Network’s Executive Committee, in conjunction with Gregg Henry, Artistic Director of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, are pleased to announce the selection of two plays to be workshopped during the week-long playwriting intensive at the Kennedy Center in July 2008.

The selected plays are:

THE RANT, written by Andrew Case, submitted by New Jersey Repertory Company, and a likely participant in a Continued Life of New Plays Fund project featuring New Jersey Rep (Long Branch), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia) and New Theatre (Boston). THE RANT tells the story of a boy has been shot in Brooklyn, a police officer in the hospital and a neighborhood that is inflamed. At the center of this crisis is a white civilian investigator, a black officer, a tabloid reporter and a grieving mother, with each character bringing their own failings and prejudices to the forefront in this modern Rashomon - we never know what truly happened or who to trust. As the play says, “The truth itself is a kind of bias.”

REVIVAL, written by Brett William and submitted by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. Brett is currently an Emerging Playwright in Residence at PTNJ. In REVIVAL, Eric - a Harvard-educated pastor whose star is rising within the Southern Baptist Church - has been electrifying his ever-expanding flock, drawing the attention of movement leaders. When June, Eric’s devoted but long-suffering wife, exposes his clandestine homosexual love affair to Trevor, the church’s strong man, his bright future and his young lover’s safety are put in grave danger. Faith and power collide head on with love and sexuality, as Eric’s choices lead to murder in the deep south.