New Works Festival - Director
As a guest director for the University of Redlands I directed 4 new plays written by students. Through a collaborative rehearsal process the actors and playwrights evolved each of the scripts. The final performance was a combination staged reading with critical design elements that allowed the playwright to get a fuller sense of the world they had written.
The workshop production of these plays give little glimmers of young writers who are striving to go to the messy places of love. These stories took us to places where we don't know what to say, where we blurt out the unimaginable, and where the ghosts of our past rattle the windows of the present. Love is a process and so is playwriting. These dynamically different plays explored finding the truth and finding the story. Following each performance I facilitated a conversation with the audience about the play and their own relationship to love and heartbreak.
October 23-25, 2015
University of Redlands – Loewe Theatre
1200 E. Colton Ave
Redlands, CA
Stalled written by Jessica Ackerson
First Time written by Lillian Mitrev
Semicolons written by Amanda Speidel
The House written by Mariah Kennedy
Directed by Ashley Sparks
Production Design by Mariana Cassia
Sound Design by Mark Caspary
Performed by University of Redlands students