Powers New Voices Festival 2023

The Old Globe to present
the 10th annual Powers New Voices Festival
January 12–15, 2023

The FREE festival features
a series of five new American play readings,
including festival opener The Janeiad by Anna Ziegler;
the Globe-commissioned play The Black Beans Project
by Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez;
Wipeout by Aurora Real de Asua;
Unf*ckwithable by Eliana Pipes; and
Uncle Remus, His Life and Times, as Told to Aaron Coleman
by Aaron Coleman

The Globe’s Celebrating Community Voices presentation features
readings of seven 10-minute plays created by San Diegans
Casj, Michaela Subido, Rudi Fate, Melanie Taing, Farah Dinga,
Gingerlily Lowe, and Daryl “Scooter” Davis

PHOTO EDITORS: Photos for the Globe’s 10th annual Powers New Voices Festivalcan be found here.

SAN DIEGO (December 20, 2022) — The Old Globe announced it will present the 10th annual Powers New Voices Festival, a four-day event of readings of 11 new American plays by some of the most exciting playwrights writing for the American theatre today, including new works by San Diegans. The free festival opens on January 12, 2023 and closes on January 15 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

The Powers New Voices Festival kicks off with the first of five of the new American play reading series on January 12 with The Janeiad by Anna Ziegler, followed by the Globe-commissioned play The Black Beans Project by Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez, Wipeout by Aurora Real de Asua; Unf*ckwithable by Eliana Pipes, and Uncle Remus, His Life and Times, as Told to Aaron Coleman by Aaron Coleman.

Celebrating Community Voices, an evening of short works created by San Diego playwrights through the Globe’s arts engagement programs CommunityVoices and coLAB, is scheduled on January 13. The evening will feature readings of 10-minute plays by Casj, Michaela Subido, Rudi Fate, Melanie Taing, Farah Dinga, Gingerlily Lowe, and Daryl “Scooter” Davis.

“I’m so happy to mark the 10th year of this remarkable series and to see it thriving with such a powerful lineup of plays,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “For the past decade the Globe has deepened its investment in new work for the American stage, and through commissions, workshops, and productions, we’ve made major contributions to the repertoire. The writers with us this year promise to invigorate our art form with new energy, new stories, and new forms. They are using their art to distill the American experience in theatrical form, and their work delights, provokes, and transports. I am delighted to bring this year’s festival to our audiences, even as I am grateful once again to acknowledge the generosity of the philanthropists who give it its name, Paula and Brian Powers.”

Danielle Mages Amato, Director of New Plays and Dramaturgy added, “As one of the curators of the Powers New Voices Festival, I’m always driven by the idea of ‘new voices,’ by writers whose unique perspectives and distinctive use of craft grab our attention from the first moments of a play and won’t let go. All of the playwrights in this year’s festival are telling stories only they can tell, as only they can tell them. It’s a thrill to be celebrating the 10th year of the festival, which has become such a central artistic event in the life of The Old Globe, and I can’t imagine a better group of writers to mark this milestone with us.”


POWERS NEW VOICES FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:

FESTIVAL SERIES OF NEW AMERICAN PLAY READINGS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12
7:30 p.m.
The Janeiad
By Anna Ziegler
In The Odyssey, Penelope’s long wait is eventually rewarded when Odysseus returns 20 years after leaving to fight the Trojan War. Will the same be true for Jane in Brooklyn in 2021, 20 years after her husband left for work one fateful September morning? A play about longing and hope as well as the myths we tell ourselves in order to get through the day, The Janeiad is a wry contemplation of the power, and slipperiness, of storytelling.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14
4:00 p.m.
The Black Beans Project
By Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez
A Globe-commissioned play
Mariana and Henry meet to share a secret family recipe that forces them to reveal secrets of their own. The siblings transform pandemic panic into renewal in this tender comedy about family, food, and finding the strength to move on. The Black Beans Project invites audiences to open a bottle of wine, chop some garlic, and savor the possibility of connecting with family after a long time apart.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14
7:30 p.m.
Wipeout
By Aurora Real de Asua
It’s Gary’s 77th birthday and all she wants to do is surf. The only problem? She’s never stepped foot on a board before. But with the help of a hot-rod teenage surf instructor and the company of her two best friends, Gary is about to go on the ride of her life. As the three women navigate the currents of the Pacific, they must confront seven decades of secrets and sacrifices, not to mention the odd jellyfish or two. Aurora Real de Asua’s Wipeout is a septuagenarian surf comedy about what it really takes to hang 10.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15
4:00 p.m.
Unf*ckwithable
By Eliana Pipes
In Unf*ckwithable, a disaffected millennial who’s recently been laid off decides to take control of her own destiny. She moves into a van, vlogging her #vanlife adventures by day and shooting down delivery drones to plunder the contents by night. She’s ready to become a modern-day Robin Hood, until one day she shoots down a box she shouldn’t have.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15
7:30 p.m.
Uncle Remus, His Life and Times, as Told to Aaron Coleman
By Aaron Coleman
There’s more to the tale than zip-a-dee-doo-dah. Uncle Remus’s famous Brer Rabbit folktales have enchanted Americans for over a century—no one more than Aaron Coleman, a contemporary writer struggling to find his own story in today’s world. Seeking inspiration, Aaron finds himself transported to a plantation cabin in the late 1800s, face to face with the legendary Remus. As the withered man starts spinning his wild stories, conjuring up a fantastical world of rabbits and foxes, he cracks open his own unspoken life. But can he help Aaron discover his own truth? Uncle Remus, His Life and Times, as Told to Aaron Coleman is a new play about reclaiming the past to understand the present—and reveals the galvanizing truths about being a Black storyteller in America, then and now.

CELEBRATING COMMUNITY VOICES

FRIDAY JANUARY 13, 2022
7:30 p.m.
An evening of seven 10-minute plays

Under the Guise of Love
By Casj
Adamma, a young singer and legacy space child of the Pulchritude settlement on Zozinada, finds herself caught in a war of two hearts and three species.

To Tessa, from Dad
By Michaela Subido
Tessa, a young Filipina filmmaker, captures her last conversations with her father as they explore the past, their present relationship, and the uncertainty of the future.

Everyone Loves Raiin for the Day
By Rudi Fate
Raiin, a dedicated therapist, will do anything to “save” her clients.

Between the Seams
By Melanie Taing
Actuary by day and metalhead by night, Robynn deliberates her grandmother over her marital status.

Two Gay Desis
By Farah Dinga
Rida, a queer Pakistani person, has decided to get an arranged marriage. When sharing the news to their older queer cousin Nabila at this year’s Eid celebration, Nabila questions Rida about their impending wedding.

Bound
By Gingerlily Lowe
Three generations confront their own legacy of female feet binding and subjugation.

If These Walls Could Talk, and the Floor, and the Ceiling
By Daryl “Scooter” Davis
An exterminator dealing with bipolar disorder tries to convince his wife that he is ready to come home to rejoin the family—once he has made a few repairs.

The10th annual Powers New Voices Festival will take place in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets to all festival readings require reservations and are free. Reservations for Globe subscribers and donors are available now through January 4, 2023. Subject to availability, reservations for the general public will be available beginning January 5 at 12:00 noon. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Ticket Services Department at (619) 234-5623. A line for standby seating will form 30 minutes before each performance of the Powers New Voices Festival. Based on ticket-holder attendance, those standing in the standby line may be seated. Seating is based on seat availability and is not guaranteed. Latecomers with tickets are also not guaranteed admittance. For more information visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.

In alignment with the State of California, which has removed mask and vaccine requirements for indoor events, The Old Globe will not require patrons to provide proof of vaccination or to wear masks while attending shows or events. However, the theatre still strongly recommends mask-wearing while at the Globe, and patrons should feel comfortable wearing a mask anywhere on our campus if they choose.

Major funding for the Powers New Voices Festival is provided by the Powers New Works Fund. The Old Globe’s Community Voices Program is supported by the Ann Davies Fund for Teaching Artists. Financial support of The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego. The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities.

Bios and photos of all participants can be found at www.TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 88th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and the Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! —have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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