New Harmony Project brings together 8 theater companies for PlayFest Indy

Playwright A.K. Payne will contribute “Noa” to PlayFest Indy during a Sept. 14 reading hosted by Naptown African American Theatre Collective. (Photo provided by New Harmony Project)

New works by eight national playwrights will be previewed during PlayFest Indy, a first-time event presented by arts organization the New Harmony Project.

Scheduled Sept. 9-15, PlayFest Indy will bring together eight professional theater companies as “hosts” when the plays are presented as free readings open to the public.

The New Harmony Project, based at downtown’s Athenaeum, will begin the week with a two-day retreat in which playwrights and directors will refine scripts and discuss revisions.

Workshops with actors will follow, and PlayFest Indy will culminate with three days of readings at multiple venues.

“I am thrilled to bring these eight innovative playwrights to Indianapolis to collaborate with our vibrant local theater companies,” said Jenni Werner, executive artistic director of New Harmony Project, in a written statement. “Plays start out as the spark of an idea in the mind of a writer, and audiences aren’t usually invited into the process of developing those ideas into what you see produced onstage. But that’s our invitation to you—join us to see a story no one’s ever seen before, and help the writers bring their plays to life.”

Scheduled readings

• 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13: “Port Isabel, Texas,” by New York-based playwright Lucy Thurber. Hosted by American Lives Theatre at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center, 705 N. Illinois St., this story features a tropical setting.
• 11 a.m. Sept. 14: “Audubon,” by New Orleans-based playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza. Hosted by Indianapolis Shakespeare Co. at the Phoenix venue, this story revisits the final hours of civil rights activist Malcolm X.
• 2 p.m. Sept. 14: “Noa,” by Pittsburgh-based playwright A.K. Payne. Hosted by Naptown African American Theatre Collective at the Phoenix venue, this story is set during the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 5 p.m. Sept. 14: “Sick Girl, Or Don’t Hate Me ’Cuz I’m Pretty,” by Los Angeles-based playwright Lina Patel. Hosted by Summit Performance Indianapolis at the Phoenix venue, this story examines a medical misdiagnosis.
• 8 p.m. Sept. 14: “Wet,” by Chicago-based playwright Aurora Real de Asua. Hosted by Phoenix Theatre at the Phoenix, this story depicts a sex scandal in an academic setting.
• 11 a.m. Sept. 15: “The Birth of the Pill,” by New York-based playwright Jessica Huang. Hosted by Indianapolis Repertory Theatre, 140 W. Washington St., this story examines the origins of the birth control pill.
• 2 p.m. Sept. 15: “Wad,” by Seattle-based playwright Keiko Green. Hosted by Storefront Theatre, 2416 E. 55th Place, this story features a true-crime fan and a prisoner on death row.
• 8 p.m. Sept. 15: “Huelga,” by San Francisco-based playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett. Hosted by Fonseca Theatre, 2508 W. Michigan St., this is a 1920s story set in a Mexican citrus worker camp in Southern California.

For more information, visit newharmonyproject.org.