The FINISH LINE: A Bill and Judy Garrett Commission
New Play Series 2023
Join us for our annual new play reading series The Finish Line: A Bill and Judy Garrett Commission. This multi-day event includes a reception, staged readings, and talk-backs that are all free to the public. In partnership with the UCSD MFA Playwriting Program, the commission supports Cygnet’s commitment to new theatrical works, written by groundbreaking local playwrights as well as nationally recognized playwrights.
Playwrights awarded The Finish Line Commission will be given a week-long workshop culminating in a public reading, a financial reward, and an assurance that the play will have an opportunity for a world premiere production at Cygnet.
Public readings of all three plays will take place September 17 – 19, 2023 at Cygnet Theatre. Attendance is free but reservations are required.
Cygnet Theatre’s current season included two world premieres that were past Finish Line commissions. Sharon by Keiko Green premiered in June of 2023 and The Little Fellow (or – The Queen of Tarts Tells All) by Kate Hamill will receive it’s world premiere at Cygnet Oct. 25 – Nov. 19, 2023.
- Plays
- Playwrights
- Schedule
CHURCH PLAY
By Agyeiwaa Asante
Directed by Kandace Crystal
September 17 at 7:00 PM
In the basement of In the Guiding Light Charismatic Church of Silver Spring, Maryland, the young women of the Agape Drama Ministry shine at their brightest, performing biblical skits every week to edify their congregation. But when one of their own returns after a long time away with new ideas their delicate ecosystem and relationships begin to crack. A story about a crisis of faith, arrested development and how to come to term with not having all the answers.
Business ideas
By Milo Cramer
Directed by Ludmila de Brito
September 18 at 7:00 PM
Vegetables: for men. So it’s still kale but rebranded to seem tough. Or or or – hear me out – what if you could have a gun… on your phone. A gun app? If we don’t make it, someone else will. This play is about my mom, the cafe where I used to work, and trying to get rich. Or just pay for college. Or just survive.
We are the forgotten beasts
By Christian St. Croix
Directed by Jaeonnie Davis Crawford
September 19 at 7:00 PM
On a scorching summer night at a Riverside, California motel, Archie, a gay Black man reaching the ends of several ropes, upends his life (yet again) to save his half-brother Nick from the rock bottom of a cross-county bender. As the heat rises and painful memories of their shared past begin to surface, the brothers recall an imaginary world they’d created together as children, and meet other motel residents with troubled pasts and imaginary worlds of their own. Drama and comedy blend with pirate tales, alien adventures and fantasy creatures in “We Are the Forgotten Beasts”, a fantastical tale about fathers and brothers, childhood and the imagination.
Agyeiwaa Asante
Agyeiwaa Asante is a Ghanaian-American playwright from Maryland. Her plays include, Swirl (Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival 2017, Watermelon One-Act Festival-Best Production 2019), Help Wanted (Silver Spring One Act Festival, Elemental Women Productions), Wildest Dreams (Fire This Time Festival), By Grace Pt. 2 (2021 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival), Promithes, Promithes (Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival) and Dainty (BOLD NYC’s 2020 Festival, Mosaic Theatre, Playwrights Realms Scratchpad series). She has been commissioned by University of Maryland’s NextNow Festival and Round House Theatre. Agyeiwaa is the 2020 recipient of The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation’s Ollie Award. She has a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Maryland, College Park and is a 2nd-year Playwriting MFA candidate at UC San Diego. Representation: Scott Halle, Gramercy Entertainment.
Milo Cramer
Milo Cramer is a second-year MFA student.A lot of his work is trying to process human connection and misunderstanding on a very basic level! His solo musical School Pictures is upcoming at Playwrights Horizons in NY, after premiering last year at The Wilma in Philadelphia (“charming from start to finish … beautifully heartbreaking” – Talkin’ Broadway). Other works include Cute Activist (“a brilliant match of material and theater… a fable for our times” – New York Times), and Minor Character: 6 Translations of Uncle Vanya at the Same Time (“delightful… a spring green forum on youth’s discontents” – The Village Voice), created with New Saloon and presented at The Public Theater’s Under The Radar Festival. Milo is a 2nd-year MFA candidate at UCSD and under commission from Clubbed Thumb. Representation: Emma Feiwel, WME.
Christian St. Croix
Christian St. Croix is a playwright based in San Diego, CA. The San Diego Union-Tribune has called him “one of the nation’s fastest-rising playwrights, thanks to his ability to write multidimensional characters with wry humor and truth, as well as unique stories told from his perspective as a queer Black writer.” His plays include “Monsters of the American Cinema”, winner of Italy’s Carlo Annoni International Drama Award, “We Are the Forgotten Beasts”, a 2022 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist, and “ZACH”, winner of the 2021 Young-Howze Theatre Award for Best Comedic Writing. His plays have been developed and produced by Blindspot Collective in association with the La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego, CA), ArtsWest Playhouse (Seattle, WA), Third Culture Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), Prologue Theatre (Washington, DC), Know Theatre of Cincinnati (OH), and HIT International Theatre Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark, amongst others. www.saintscrossing.com / IG: @saintscrossing.
Tickets can be reserved online. Use the link below.
