New Plays By Lucas Hnath, Daisy Foote, and More Set For Colorado New Play Festival

The Colorado New Play Festival (formerly the Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival) has announced the full lineup of plays and playwrights for the 2018 season. The 21st annual festival, to be held from June 15-16 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, will develop five new works in partnership with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alley Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, Primary Stages, and Victory Gardens Theater.

The lineup of plays is as follows:

The Thin Place (June 16, 11am) by Tony nominee Lucas Hnath, presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville and directed by Les Waters: "It's a place where the line between this world and some other world is very thin. It's like if you were to imagine an octopus pressed up against glass, except there's no glass…and no octopus."

Tender Mercies (June 16, 7pm) by Daisy Foote (an adaptation of Horton Foote's Oscar-winning screenplay), presented by the Alley Theatre and directed by Michael Wilson: "Mac Sledge was the King of Country married to the Queen, Dixie Scott, but the bottle and jealousy tore their family apart. Rosa Lee Wadsworth lost her young husband in Vietnam and now she and her boy Sonny live quietly alone. By the time Mac turns up drunk at Rosa Lee's three-cabin Texas roadside motel, he is a divorced has-been who hasn't seen his daughter in years. Rosa Lee's and Mac's dare for a second chance together tests their faith and love in this powerful story of human endurance and forgiveness."

Sanctions (June 15, 4pm) by Bruce Graham, presented by Curious Theatre Company and directed by Chip Walton: "In the world of Division 1 football, there is no room for scandal and no tolerance for losing. As the Cats come off sanctions, the racially-divided staff battle out how far they are willing to bend the rules to ensure a win. It's academics vs. football. It's money vs. integrity. It's a collision of cover-ups in this aggressive new play diving into a world where players are pawns and the world stands still every Saturday afternoon."

Little Women (June 15, 8pm) by Kate Hamill (based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott), presented by Primary Stages and directed by Kate Hamill: "Jo March doesn't want to be like other girls; in fact, she's not even sure that she wants to be a girl. Jo is ambitious, rough around the edges, headstrong, and yearns for a future she can't yet articulate. As the nation is torn apart by civil war, Jo and her sisters struggle with what it means to grow up. Gender roles, political beliefs, poverty, and even love itself threaten to break family ties, as the March sisters try to reconcile their identities with society's demands. How do you stay true to yourself when the world wants you to become a perfect little woman?"

Miriam for President (June 16, 3pm) by Madhuri Shekar, presented by Victory Gardens Theater and directed by Chay Yew: "Miriam hates to be known as 'that girl who got kidnapped then escaped that sex trafficking ring.' She wants to be known as Miriam, your top candidate for student council president at Roosevelt High School. But her parents, counselor, and best friend keep insisting that she's not ready. But what do they know? What do they really know about what happened to Miriam? From Madhuri Shekar, the author of Queen, comes a powerful play about survival, rebirth, and the silent crime of human trafficking in Chicago."

All readings will be held at the Chief Theater, with full casting to be announced at a later date.