7th Annual Carlotta New Play Festival Set at Yale

Yale School of Drama has announced its seventh annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays, May 4 to 12 at the Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street, New Haven). The Festival is comprised of three fully-produced plays by graduating playwrights performed in repertory with 12 performances over nine days. 

The Festival will include a Professionals Weekend, May 11-12, specifically tailored to theatre industry professionals.  The Professionals Weekend package includes tickets to all three Carlotta Festival shows; a Friday afternoon happy hour; and Saturday morning breakfast and panel discussion featuring the Carlotta playwrights, Paula Vogel, and Dan LeFranc (author of the plays Sixty Miles to Silver Lake and The Big Meal) moderated by Amy Boratko, Yale Repertory Theatre literary manager. 

The panel discussion on Saturday is also open to the public.
ABOUT THE PLAYS AND THE PLAYWRIGHTS
Fox Play
By Jake Jeppson
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz

Set design by Kristen Robinson
Costume design by Jennifer Salim
Lighting design by Solomon Weisbard
Sound design by Matt Otto
Projections Designer Michael F Bergmann
Dramaturgy by Whitney Dibo
Stage Management by Geoff Boronda

Cast: Mamoudou Athie, Jabari Brisport, Winston Duke, Michelle McGregor, Elia Monte-Brown, Mariko Nakasone, Paul Pryce, Sophie von Haselberg, Carly Zien

"The real myth is the myth of order."—James Prosek
Meet Franklin, a Sears shoe salesman committed to a life of solitude in the wake of his wife's death. Meet Sean, a brokenhearted fool and aspiring YouTube sensation. Franklin and Sean see no reason to engage with, well, anyone—that is, until inexplicable forces guide them to the haunted woods of Washington, DC, and reveal a world teeming with wonder. Told as a modern myth, Fox Play examines the cost of holding on to the past and the terror of moving forward.
Jake Jeppson is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. His plays includeMiss Heimlich, Cover Me in Humanness, It’s Not Easy Being,and The Clearing, which is currently running at Axial Theater in Pleasantville, New York. Upcoming projects include a commission from the Eudora Welty Foundation to adapt Welty’s work for the stage and a project with designers at MIT that mixes quantum mechanics and the roots of tragedy. Jake has taught playwriting at Wesleyan University, the National Theater Institute, and the Orchard Project, where he also created and ran the nationally-sourced apprentice program Core Company. He is an Associate Artist at both eXchange and Door Ten. Jake’s non-fiction writing has appeared in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine and on Newsweek.com. He earned his BA from Middlebury College and studied at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

Petty Harbour
By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tea Alagić
Set design by Portia Elmer
Costume design by Maria Hooper
Lighting design by Masha Tsimring
Sound design by Keri A. Klick
Projections Designer Michael F Bergmann
Dramaturgy by Jessica Rizzo
Stage Management by Kirstin Hodges
Cast: Josiah Bania, Chris Bannow, Prema Cruz, Ceci Fernandez, Merlin Huff, Gabriel Levey, Dan O’Brien
"Why's all ye li'l flies got to prove ye've some meanin to the world by breakin a part of it?"
On the rocky shores of Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, a house stands against a storm. Outside, the boats cling to their anchors and the sea churns, waiting. One by one, three banished sons return home and discover their fisherman father has turned the house that they grew up in into a church. Soon the roads will be flooded and the men will be sealed in as the wars, stories, sermons, songs, and drinking party begin. The King Lear of Petty Harbour, it seems, is not quite done with his throne.
Martyna Majokis a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in North Jersey and Chicago. Her play,Mouse in a Jar, has been produced at Red Tape Theatre in Chicago and The LIDA Project in Denver.the friendship of her thighs appeared at The Tank in NYC, in Russia (in Russian) at the Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, and at The Kennedy Center. She has been awarded the Merage Fellowship for the American Dream, The Olga and Paul Menn Award in Playwriting, the Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, and a Ragdale residency. Her short play,After Hours Stan, has been produced in Boston and Chicago and published by Smith & Kraus. Martyna studied at The University of Chicago and has taught playwriting at Wesleyan, Yale, and The New Haven Co-Op High School. Martyna is working on her first musical and developing a play, reWilding, (seen this spring at Yale Cabaret) in Seattle with The Satori Group.
The Bachelors
By Caroline V. McGraw
Directed by Alexandru Mihail
Set design by Edward T. Morris
Costume design by Martin T. Schnellinger
Lighting design by Solomon Weisbard
Sound design by Junghoon Pi
Dramaturgy by Sarah Krasnow
Stage Management by Maria Cantin
Cast: Jack Moran, Mickey Theis, Mitchell Winter

"I love it when girls don't move. They don't know how good they look."
Inside a house, a house in a series on fraternity row, a house in which DVDs serve as coasters and drool stains the sofa, live three roommates far past their college days. A thousand girlfriends come and gone, a thousand parties attended, a thousand drinks downed—every night the same, until now. Tonight is pledge night on fraternity row, but it is not the blaring music that makes sleep impossible. Tonight, these bachelors will understand what their relationships have really gotten them.
Caroline V. Mcgraw is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Her plays includeThe Vaults, Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys, Debut Track One Chord One Verse One (or, The Shed), Thriftcrawl, Lovely Assistant, The King Is Dead, andTrade. Her writing has been produced and developed around the country, including at the Cherry Lane Theatre by Young Playwrights Inc., the Abingdon by Highwire Theatre, Yale Cabaret, New York Theatre Experiment, American University’s New Works Series, Cleveland Play House Next Stage Festival, F*It Club/Interborough Rep, WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, AracaWorks, Theatre 4, and Washington Ensemble Theatre/One Coast Collaboration. She is the winner of the AracaWorks Graduate Playwriting Award forThe Vaults. She has been a Visiting Instructor in Theater at Wesleyan University. Caroline is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. carolinevmcgraw.com
SPECIAL PANEL DISCUSSION: SATURDAY, MAY 12, 10:30AM
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
University Theatre, 222 York Street
Featuring playwrights Jake Jeppson, Martyna Majok, Caroline V. McGraw, Paula Vogel, andDan LeFranc (author of Sixty Miles to Silver Lake andThe Big Meal) and moderated by Amy Boratko, Yale Repertory Theatre Literary Manager.
Ticket and performance information: www.drama.yale.edu, 203-432-1234, 1120 Chapel Street (at York Street). 

The Professionals Weekend package is $50. For reservations and information about Professionals Weekend, visit the Professionals Weekend website, www.drama.yale.edu/Carlotta/professionals
or contact Kay Perdue Meadows at kay.perdue@yale.edu or 203-432-6647.