Thank you to all who participated in our 2022 Virtual New Works Festival!
Produced by
Braedon Hatt '22, Stephi Howard '22 and Laural Meade
For more than 20 years, the Occidental New Works Festival has paired student playwrights and actors with professional guest directors and performers. Focused on writer-centric rehearsal and performance, the festival provides a real-world experience of new play development as it is practiced in major theaters around the country. For the 2022 festival, all performances will take place on zoom - allowing both artists and audiences the chance to experience the plays from the comfort of their homes.
The Plays & Schedule | Playwrights | Producers
The Plays & Schedule
All performances are virtual and admission is free
Saturday, February 26, 2022
2:00pm
ABCD by Lily Abha Cratsley '23
a one-act play
Directed by
As they prepare dinner, three generations of Indian women clash and comfort one another, exploring what it means to be an "American Born Confused Desi." Willow, a young academic, is eager to learn all that her Nani can teach her. Willow’s mother, Aditi finds herself stuck between her own overbearing mother and a critical daughter. What will happen when loss, love, and longing are shared across the dinner table?
6:15pm
Casual by Sophie Steinberg '23
a full-length play
Directed by
The roof of the library, the dorm showers, a frat party - college student Margo looks for love (or is it just sex) where she can find it. The guys she connects with along the way seem nice enough - but why is what they have to offer never what she really needs? With sexpert podcaster Angelica “Sexy” Stevens acting as both the angel and devil on Margo’s shoulder, it’s no wonder that she can’t find the answers, let alone ask the right questions.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
2:00pm
Disconnected by Mint Zekoll '22
a full-length play, in partial fulfillment of Mint’s senior comprehensive project
Directed by
Deanna and Cassie broke up months ago. Yet they now find themselves stuck in Cassie’s mess of an apartment, locked in from the outside. The situation forces them to explore the delicate nuances and comedic contradictions of why they came together, and why they fell apart. And all the while, an inexplicable force terrorizes them - does it come from within or without?
6:15pm
A double-bill of short performance pieces
Grass Crown by Julia Carrigan '25
Directed by
Part meditation, part performance art, part theatrical exploration of life in quarantine, this short piece focuses on Sara With and H. Loneliness and longing power their gentle, but insistent attempts to make sense of a life on hold. Of how we can be so still when the world around us does nothing but move. Or vice-versa.
AND
Drown With Me by Jaiyenan English '24
Directed by
When Laila is young, she falls in love. Love is easy but loving isn't, and loss is harder still. Now she waits on the beach for the tide to bring love back to her. An ode to water and generational lessons.