NEXT ACT! New Play Summit
NEXT ACT!
NEXT ACT! Is an expansion of Capital Repertory Theatre’s (theREP) commitment to the development of new work and directly reflects the theatre’s mission, “to create meaningful theatre generated from an authentic link to the community.” At the same time, the weekend-long summit is designed to complement the Upper Hudson Valley’s rich diverse populations, and has been doing that for the past 10-years!
NEXT ACT! New Play Summit, a joint venture between Capital Repertory Theatre and Proctors, is an annual showcase of new plays designed to shed light on new play development.
The summit brings playwrights, directors, actors, and audience members together for a series of workshops and readings, where multiple new full-length plays are given readings.
The Summit was founded on the goal to find a play that theREP wants to produce – furthering the theatre’s commitment to the development of new work. To date, theREP has selected one play to produce as a World Premiere from every single Next Act! New play Summit.
The public is invited to attend and provide feedback during all events.
Officially formed in the fall of 2012, the NEXT ACT! New Play Summit is made possible by a generous legacy gift from Samson O.A. Ullmann – a professor of English at Union College (from 1957-92).
Among a variety of additional events are:
theREP’s New Voices: Young Playwright Contest Reading, that features readings of six or more ten-minute plays by Capital Region Playwrights aged 13-19.
The NextGen Reading, an event that includes two or more short (15-30minute plays) by writers aged 19-25. theREP works in collaboration with UAlbany and their Fresh Acts Festival for this event.
The First 15: Be a Literary Manager, a popular event where the audience acts as literary manager to assess a submission using the same criteria theREP’s actual reading committee uses.
A Synopsis Clinic, hosted by Dramatist Guild Member, Aoise Stratford, this clinic aims to provide playwrights with the most effective way to write a synopsis of their play so that Literary Manager, Artistic Directors and Agents WANT to read the play.
Stage2Screen, an event curate with two Capital Region Film Companies, Poorductions and Frosted Lens, Stage2Screen shows how some plays progress – or have another life – by becoming screenplays.
The submission process for Capital Repertory Theatre’s Fourteenth Annual NEXT ACT! NEW PLAY SUMMIT is closed. Check back for the next submission session in 2025.
NEXT ACT! New Play Summit 14 Schedule
Get your tickets now for our NEXT ACT! festival events. Full schedule details and playwrights will be announced in the coming weeks.
Monday, March 31
—NY State Writers Institute’s 27th Annual Burian Lecture with Lynn Nottage
—Free to attend at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 31 at University of Albany’s Studio Theatre, UAlbany Performing Arts Center (1400 Washington Ave. Albany, NY 12222)
Wednesday, April 2
—7 p.m. MainStage Reading-“The Last American Newspaper” by Ken Tingley
Adapted from Tingley’s memoir. Commissioned by Adirondack Theatre Festival with the support of the John E. Herlihy Literary Fellowship. Directed by Marcus Kyd. This is story about Glens Falls itself! Revisit unforgettable moments, from the triumphant 2009 Pulitzer Prize win, to dramatic exposés about environmental disasters and the opioid epidemic. The feisty members of a small-town newsroom discover the power of the press to make a difference… and to change their own lives.
Friday, April 4
—8 p.m. Poetry Slam emceed by D. Colin
Surround yourself with the powerful artistry of guest slam poets including dynamic performer D. Colin. A Capital Region local since 2007, D. Colin has performed for The Moth, PBS, Write About Now, NPR and has toured both nationally and abroad. As a competing poet, she is currently ranked 12th from the Womxn of the World Poetry Slam 2023. Participating poets to be announced soon!
Saturday, April 5
—1 p.m. First 15 Reading
Featuring Jill Twiss’ “Good Vibes Only” – Emmy, WGA and Peaboy Award-winning comedy writer and author of “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” a New York Times #1 bestseller, and several other children’s books.
—4 p.m. Event TBD
Monday, April 7
—7 p.m. Second Look MainStage Reading – “Castling” by Anthony T. Goss
“Castling” was in the 2024 Summit’s First 15 Event and is getting a Second Look (full) reading this year. The play explores the lives of workers at a tire shop in Newark who incorporate chess into their morning routine. As their familiar workplace faces a business takeover, the employees must navigate the challenges that threaten their livelihoods.
Playwrights of the Winning Submission of Next Act! New Play Summit 14
List of playwrights will be continuously updated.
Main Reading
“The Last American Newspaper” by Ken Tingley and directed by Marcus Kyd
Ken Tingley was editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y. from 1999 to 2020. During his tenure, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing in 2009, was recognized by the New York State Associated Press Association with its “Newspaper of Distinction” award nine times while winning more than a dozen national awards for its journalism.
During his tenure Tingley wrote an award-winning local news column that was regularly honored by the New York State News Publishers Association and the New York State Associated Press Association. When Tingley retired in July 2020, his column had been named a finalist by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 8 of the past 10 years. It was honored with a first-place award in 2016.
Since retiring, Tingley has published two collections of his newspaper columns – “The Last American Editor” – and “The Last American Editor, Vol. 2.”
His second book – “The Last American Newspaper” – is a memoir about the importance of newspapers in their community and all the great work The Post-Star contributed to the Glens Falls community. He adapted the book into a play in 2023.
He currently writes a Substack column – The Front Page – kentingley.substack.com – three times a week to help fill the void left by the lack of commentary in the Capital District.
Tingley grew up in Seymour, Conn. and graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 1979. He married his late wife, Gillian, in 1982 and they have a 29-year-old son, Joseph, who currently works as an engagement specialist at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, La.
First 15 Reading
“Good Vibes Only” by Jill Twiss
Jill Twiss is a comedy writer who won multiple Emmys, WGA Awards, and Peabody Awards for her work as a senior writer on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” She is the author of “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” a New York Times #1 bestseller, and several other children’s books. Her most recent book, “I Will Always Be Me” was written to help ALS patients describe their experiences with the disease, and when it’s read aloud it can be used to electronically bank patient’s voices. And in what may be her favorite jobs, Jill has written for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (The Jimmy Awards) and the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Second Look Reading
“Castling” by Anthony T. Goss
Anthony T. Goss is a New York City based Actor and Playwright from Boston, Massachusetts. He is a 2024-2026 playwright in residence with the National Black Theatre in New York. His play “Out of Bounds” was a 2023 semi-finalist with the Eugene O’neill Playwrights Conference. His play “Castlng” was a finalist for the 2024 Premiere Stages New Play Series and theREP’s Next Act Play Summit, among others. As an actor, he was recently seen in August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” at the Actor Shakespeare Project, “The Effect” at the Gamm Theatre and “Toni Stone’”at the Huntington Theatre. He is excited and honored to be working with theREP and further develop his play “Castling.”
NEXT ACT! 2025 Cast List TBD
Check back later for the full summit cast list.
Stay tuned for the 14th annual NEXT ACT! SUMMIT IN APRIL 2025.
Stay in the know
Playwrights of NEXT ACT! New Play Summit 13
Main Reading
Ian August’s plays include: “All the Emilies in All the Universes” (Runner Up, Judith Royer Award; Selection, PlayPenn 2022), Zero (Winner, 2020 Ashland New Plays Festival; Semi-Finalist 2020 BAPF), Everything You Can Do (to Make the World a Better Place) (Selection, Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank 2020; Semi-Finalist Blue Ink Prize), The Excavation of Mary Anning (Selection, 2019 Powerhouse Theater; 2018 Ashland New Plays Festival; 2018 DVRF New Playwright Program), Brisé (Selection, 2019 Great Plains Theatre Conference; Finalist, 2019 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; Finalist, 2020 Lark Playwrights Week), Donna Orbits the Moon (Scripps Ranch Theatre; Tiny Dynamite Productions; NJ Repertory Company; Utah Contemporary Theatre), Interviewese (Winner, Garry Marshall Theatre New Works; Finalist, B Street Theatre New Comedy Fest), The Goldilocks Zone, (Passage Theatre Company; Semi-Finalist, 2015 O’Neill Conference), and Missing Celia Rose (NYC Summer Play Festival; Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s “Playfest 2009″; Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society). Mr. August’s newest YA play, Stay Safe!, premiered at the 75th Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, 2022. He is a founding member of the American Theatre Group’s Playwrights Lab, and a graduated member of PlayPenn’s playwriting lab, The Foundry. Several of Mr. August’s plays have been published by Sam French Inc., Smith and Kraus, and Pipeline / Applause Books. He was a 2019 Playwright in Residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts in Independence, Kansas, and a recipient of a 2021 Independent Artist Fellowship from the NJ Council for the Arts. Mr. August lives at a boarding school with one husband and four cats. ianaugustplaywright.com
“All the Emilies in All the Universes” has received two staged readings as part of PlayPenn’s 2022 New Play Development Conference. It was also the runner-up for the 2023 Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, and a semi-finalist for the 2023 Orlando Shakespeare Theatre PlayFest conference, as well as the 2024 Blue Ink Playwriting Award.
New Voices: Young Playwright Contest
“Morning Ritual” by Frederick Durocher, Jr.
Frederick is a senior at Schenectady high school. He has been acting since 4th grade and started screenwriting in high school. He wrote two short plays for the 2023 Schenectady high school student written plays, “Tying the knot” and “One and a half stars.” He has also written several short films for school. He was also nominated for best supporting actor last year at the Proctors high school theater awards for the role of Orin in “Little Shop of Horrors.” Currently he is writing, directing and acting in the 2024 Schenectady high school student written plays which are premiering at the end of May. He is also co running a student run Sketch comedy night with fellow amazing screenwriter Ashley Zeissler which will have a one night showing on May 3rd. He is also part of the SCSD musical theater at Proctors and a part of the theater company “Blue Roses.” Finally, he is going to SUNY Purchase for screenwriting. He would like to thank everyone who’s supported him, from his family to fellow Blue Roses members. He would like to give special shoutouts to his older sister Mary for helping him get into writing and his screenwriting teacher Mr. Muste who has always helped him push himself beyond what he thought he could do.
“The Sampling Party”by Dorian Harding
“Day Nine” by Eleonora Catalano
Eleonora is an avid story teller and has known she wanted to be a writer ever since she had a crazy dream one night and thought, that would make a really good book . She’s written several short stories, though not nearly as many as she wants. She currently attends Augustine Classical Academy as a junior, and is now very grateful for the grammar classes that were once the bane of her existence. Other than writing stories, her hobbies include reading stories, acting out stories, and telling her animals she loves them very much.
“Gotham Isekai” by Haley Jones & Eren Slatcher-Burby
Haley Jones Is a 16 year old, in their Junior Year at Guilderland High School. Their hope is to be a dramatic writer and novelist upon graduating from college.
“The Secrets Within” by Claire Hubert, Danielle Deering and Payton Slater
“Tackled” by Georgia O’Dell, Alexia Strom-Warren, and Angeleena VanSlyke
NextGen
“Turn to the Bean” by Peter Chansky
Peter Chansky is a Philadelphia-based playwright currently enrolled in the MFA in Playwriting program at Temple University. His work explores the existential foundations of identity and performance through heightened realism bordering on the absurd. His short film “We’re All Fine” was awarded at Couch Film Festival, Mindfield Film Festival, and NYLIFF. His play “The Baby Shower” has been performed at 61 Local and Wild East Brewing Co. in Brooklyn, NY. His short play Camouflage premiered at the 48th Annual Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival. He received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Theater from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.
The First 15
Jenny Stafford (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, bookwriter and lyricist whose works have been heard on Broadway and beyond. Her works include “The Homefront” (Village Theatre Originals, Beta Series), “Secret Hour” (Capital Repertory Theatre, The Public Theatre), “Extended Stay” (Florida Festival of New Musicals, Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat), “Prodigy” (CCU, CDP, Two Rivers, Indiana University), “The Artist and the Scientist” (CAP21), “Awakening,” “Beating a Dead Horse” (Bloomington Playwrights Project), “The Goree All-Girl String Band” and “Eleanor and Dolly.” Her work has been featured at Lincoln Center, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Joe’s Pub, Ars Nova, 54 Below, Prospect Theatre, Barrington Stage, and elsewhere. Awards include the 2017 Reva Shiner Comedy Award, the Paulette Goddard Award, and multiple ASCAP Plus Awards. Three-time finalist status for the Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre, and a finalist for the McKnight Fellowship, the PEN Writing for Justice Fellowship, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference, and the Ronald M. Ruble New Play Competition. Nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Artist in Residence at the Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat, Goodspeed Musicals, Johnny Mercer Writers Colony. Dramatists Guild member; MFA NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. www.jennystafford.net
“The Steel Man” by Cary Gitter
Cary Gitter is the playwright-in-residence at Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, New York. His plays include “Gene & Gilda” (upcoming, George Street Playhouse; Penguin Rep); “The Virtuous Life of Joseph Andrews” (Penguin Rep), adapted from the Henry Fielding novel; and “The Sabbath Girl” (off-Broadway, 59E59 Theaters; Penguin Rep; Invisible Theatre; Theatre Ariel; published by Stage Rights). His musicals include “The Sabbath Girl” (upcoming, 59E59; Penguin Rep) and “How My Grandparents Fell in Love” (upcoming, New Jersey Repertory Company), both written with composer/co-lyricist Neil Berg. He is a three-time O’Neill semifinalist, a two-time Jewish Plays Project finalist, and a finalist for the Arts Council of Rockland’s Literary Artist Award, and he was an artist-in-residence at the James Stevenson Lost and Found Lab. Two of his short plays have been recorded for the acclaimed podcast Playing on Air, and his work is published in anthologies from Applause Books and Smith & Kraus. BFA, MA: NYU. carygitter.com
“The Mallard” by Vincent Delaney
Vincent Delaney’s plays have been produced, commissioned and developed at the Guthrie, Humana Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, LAByrinth, New Harmony Project, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Florida Stage, the Children’s Theatre Company, the Magic, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare and Company, Pittsburgh Public, the Lark, PlayLabs, Capital Rep and Orlando Shakes, among many others. “Las Cruces” won the New Play Festival from Premiere Stages. “Foreclosure” and “The Ansel Intimacy” were featured in the same festival. “The War Party” was developed through the National New Play Network, and had simultaneous world premieres at Seattle Public Theatre and Philadelphia’s InterAct. It was selected to the New York International Fringe Festival. “Fire Station 7” was commissioned by Seattle Children’s Theatre, where it had its world premiere. “99 Layoffs” premiered at ACT Theatre and Radial Theatre Project, and was produced at Orange Theatre in Amsterdam; the script was a nominee for the ATCA Steinberg Award. “The Sequencwe,” commissioned by the Guthrie, has been produced around the country and in Japan, Canada, Australia and the UK. “Ampersand” won the Reva Shiner Comedy Award from the Bloomington Playwrights Project. Other awards include McKnight and Bush Fellowships, Core Membership at the Playwrights Center, the Heideman from Actors Theatre of Louisville, and a Jerome Commission. Publications: Applause Books, Smith and Kraus, Samuel French, Heineman, Dramatics Magazine, Theatre Forum, and Playscripts.com. Vince is a proud alum of the Seattle Rep Writers Group and a two-time Gregory nominee.
“Castling” by Anthony Goss
Anthony Goss is a former “hooper” turned actor and writer based in New York City. He most recently appeared in the Gamm theatres production of “TopDog/UnderDog” and the Actors Shakespeare Projects Seven Guitars, for which he won the Elliot Norton Award for best lead actor. He next can be seen at the Huntington Theatre Company in the play “Toni Stone,” directed by Lydia Diamond. His play “Out of Bounds” is a current semi-finalist with the Eugene O’neill playwrights conference. He is a current resident writer with Liberation theatre company for which he continues to develop the play “Castling.”
“Barb Goldfarb Didn’t Make It” by David Gregory
Hailing from Fairbanks, Alaska, David is an actor and writer currently based out of New York. He wrote the scripted podcast “Powder Burns” which starred John Wesley Shipp, Robert Vaughn, and Edward Asner, winning a Voice Arts Award and a nomination at Austin Film Festival for their inaugural Fiction Podcast prize. His plays have been performed and supported by The Bechdel Group, Urban Stages, Last Frontier Theater Conference, Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré, Shawnee Playhouse, Manhattan Rep, and Bobby Moresco’s The Actor’s Gym in New York. He’s played recurring characters on “The Good Fight,” “Insatiable,” “Constantine” and “Deception;” and was a series regular on ABC’s “One Life to Live.”
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Page to Stage
“Consider the Sparrow” by Suzanne Bradbeer (Playwright and Screenwriter)
Produced plays include: “The God Game” (Pulitzer nomination and over a dozen productions including the co-premiere at theREP and Gulfshore Playhouse); “Confederates” (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley–seven Bay Area Critics Circle nominations including Best Production); “Naked Influence” (Capital Repertory Theatre); “Shakespeare in Vegas” (TheatreWorks–Silicon Valley Play Festival starring Patrick Page and Karen Ziemba; Houston’s 4th Wall Theatre, Dreamcatcher Rep/PTNJ); “Full Bloom” (Barrington Stage – Elizabeth Osborn New Play nomination from the American Theatre Critics Association; Hudson Stage, etc.). Honors include: NYFA Fellow, Lark Fellow (and featured writer), the Ashland New Plays Festival, the Berrilla Kerr Foundation Grant, the Coe College Playwriting Prize, a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council, and the BMI Foundation’s Harrington Award. Suzanne was twice the winner of the NEXT ACT! New Play Summit at theREP, twice an Honorable Mention for the Kilroy’s List and was the silver prize winner for the Hart New Play Initiative. Publications: Playscripts, Samuel French, Applause Books, the Connotation Press, HowlRound, multiple Smith & Kraus anthologies.
Panel discussion following the film with: Suzanne Bradbeer, Jeremy Folmer, Ann Hamilton, Laurence Lau and Eliza Foss
Panel Discussion moderated by Ben Katagiri
New Play Development – Workshop Performance
“UNRECONCILED” by Jay Sefton and Mark Basquill
Jay Sefton (Playwright/Performer) is an actor and licensed mental health counselor, originally from Philadelphia, and currently based in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Selected theatre credits include: “Unreconciled” (Writer/Performer, Chester Theatre Company), “What the Constitution Means to Me” (WAM Theatre/Berkshire Theatre Group and theREP, Albany), “Honor Killing,” “Paradise” (WAM Theatre, Fresh Takes Reading Series), “The Lady Slipper,” “Million Dollar Quartet,” “Outside Mullingar” (The Majestic Theater), “Two Rooms” (Silverthorne Theatre Company), “The Most Mediocre Story Never Told” (Writer/Performer), “A Life in the Theatre,” “Dark Rapture” (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre), “King Lear” (Theatricum Botanicum, Los Angeles). Jay is the recipient of the LA WEEKLY Award for Best Solo Performance for “The Most Mediocre Story Never Told.” Film/TV: “The Wire,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Shield,” “Summerland,” “Providence.” He is a member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.
Mark Basquill (Playwright) was raised in South Philadelphia and practices clinical psychology in Wilmington, NC, where he helps veterans recover from the wounds of war, often using writing to promote healing. Recent essays, stories, and poems can be found in “Cirque: A Literary Journal for the North Pacific Rim;” “Consequence Forum;” and “Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing.” Mark has also written two full-length dramas about his own family’s unfinished struggles to heal from impact of childhood clergy abuse. Each play was produced locally and well-received.
Stage Managed by Kate Kern*
Technician: Wynn MacKenzie
Poetry Slam hosted by D. Colin
D. Colin is a multidisciplinary artist in poetry, visual and theater. Her poems have appeared in Trolley Literary Journal, Jaded Ibis Press, Porter Gulch Review, and forthcoming in Eco Theo Collective. She is the author of two poetry collections, Dreaming in Kreyol and Said the Swing to the Hoop. She is a NYS Writers Institute Fellow and Cave Canem alumna and has performed for The Moth, PBS, NPR among others both nationally and abroad. She has competed at the National Poetry Slam and the Womxn of the World Poetry Slam among others. She is currently working on a forthcoming body of work including poetry and visual art to be released in 2025.
