Pittsburgh New Works Festival to premiere 14 new plays

The Pittsburgh New Works Festival will bring together 14 brand new one-act plays from around the world with local Pittsburgh theater talent, all starting on Aug. 21.

This festival season will encompass four weekends, with performances on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Genesius Theater at Duquesne University. A new “program” — or set of three to four plays — will be performed each weekend. Each play is between about 20 and 45 minutes long.

The annual event presents new plays through the use of local theater companies, and works are submitted from everywhere — festival board member and playwright Michael Buzzelli said that they received more than 250 submissions this year.

As in many years past, one of those submissions was his own. This year — for the first time — it was chosen as part of the festival. Buzzelli’s play “The Bowl,” which is being produced by Riverfront Theatre Company, will be performed in Program C from Sept. 4-7.

“It’s very exciting because I’ve entered for 10 years,” Buzzelli said. Submissions are received blind — without the playrights’ names on them — so there was no way for judges to know which play was his.

“It’s based on the quality of the work. So I must’ve finally submitted something that was good,” he joked.

That initial pool of plays is narrowed down, and then each theater company meets and gets the opportunity to choose the play they would like to perform. Companies that are performing in this year’s festival also include Pittsburgh Savoyards, Stray Cat Theatre, Prime Stage Theatre and Iron Horse Theater Company.

The festival was established in 1990 by Donna Rae, who was once “Terminal Stare” on the local Saturday night horror program “Chiller Theater.”

“She wanted the local theater companies to get together and have something to … cooperate on,” Buzzelli said.

“It’s so important for community theaters to come together and become a community,” stressed fellow board member Heather Ruppert, who is also acting in this year’s festival. “We always work on these islands and we’re always separated.”

She emphasized that, especially after the covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to foster a sense of camaraderie amongst local theater companies and their audiences.

Ruppert added that it’s beneficial for the playwrights to see a full production of their work. “If they wanted to improve it or they wanted to expand it, this gives them a wonderful opportunity to do so and to see what’s really going on there.”

This year, the works of three Pittsburgh-area playwrights were selected, but attendees will also see plays by writers from Clearwater, Fla.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and even Greater Manchester, U.K.

The variety doesn’t end with geography — the plays themselves are varied, and any theatergoer could find something to like in the four weekly programs.

“We have plays about all kinds of different things. There’s a vampire story, there’s a lot of comedy — mine is a comedy. … We have one that takes place in the afterlife,” Buzzelli said.

His play, “The Bowl,” is about “a schoolteacher who confiscates a bag of marijuana gummies from a student and they end up in a bowl at a party when her parents come to her house.”

This festival features plays that take place in the mid-20th century, science fiction plays, plays about marriage and plays about Irish bar bets.

That last description is of “The Head of Seamus Delaney” by Ben Scranton, which will be produced by R-ACT Theatre Productions during Program D from Sept. 11-14. Ruppert will be one of its actors.

“As a secret reader, I actually read that play and really, really loved it. It ended up getting picked and then I ended up auditioning and getting cast. I’m so excited about that,” Ruppert said.

She encouraged fans to come out and see all four weeks of plays — and there’s an incentive to do so. “If you do go to all four weeks, you’re able to vote for Audience Favorite.”

To see more about all 14 plays in this year’s Pittsburgh New Works Festival, visit pittsburghnewworks.org.