9th Annual International Playwrights Festival Virtual Edition

Warner Theatre’s 9th Annual INTERNATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL VIRTUAL EDITION

Torrington, CT – The Warner Theatre will present its 9th Annual International Playwrights Festival – “The Ties That Bind” – from the Warner’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre beginning on Friday, November 6, 2020 at 7:00 pm. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, this will be a virtual event – each production will be recorded in the Warner’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre over a period of several weeks and then streamed via YouTube and Facebook every other Friday from November to April.

The mission of the International Playwrights Festival is to recognize the work of emerging and established playwrights and to build a link between the playwrights, the theatre community and our audiences. The festival is a celebration of new works by playwrights from across the country and around the globe. For the ninth year, 150 plays were accepted for consideration from across the United States and as far away as China and New Zealand.

Each production will be available to view online for a period of two weeks before being taken down. There is no fee to watch but donations are always accepted. This virtual festival is made possible with a generous donation from The Marine Family.

Streaming begins Friday, November 6 at 7:00 pm with FINAL REST by Victoria Z. Daly from Connecticut and stars the Warner's very own Isabel Carrington and Emily Creighton from the Warner Theatre Center for Arts Education! The production will remain available for viewing online until November 19 at 11:59 pm.

ABOUT FINAL REST by Victoria Z. Daly (Connecticut)
Directed by Sharon W. Houk

Chris returns to her empty childhood home to help resentful sister Beth sprinkle Mom’s ashes in the backyard garden. Time’s up: the house will be sold tomorrow. But Chris, unprepared to let go, proposes a plan that threatens to ruin everything.

ABOUT VICTORIA Z. DALY: plays developed/presented at the Actors Studio, Last Frontier, ATHE, Supersound Scotland Radio, Edinburgh Festival, etc. Faculty Member, Dramatists Guild Institute. Founder/Director, 9th Floor writers/actors collaborative, NYC. MFA, NYU/Tisch; A.B./M.B.A., Harvard; Certificat d’Etudes, L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq. www.victoriazdaly.com

INSPIRATION FOR FINAL REST: I often write comedies about both the absurd and serious ways in which humans grieve. For Final Rest I thought about how two very different family members, raised in the same house, might grieve separately (and selfishly,) but perhaps in the process also find what connects them.

The remaining streaming schedule for the winning playwrights:

DIRECTIONS by Penny Jackson, NY (11/20-12/3)
AN INVITATION TO MY CIRCUS by Charlene Donaghy, CT (12/4-12/17)
ANALOG by George Kelly, NH (12/4-12/17)
PUT ON A GRUMPY FACE by Reed Halvorson, SC (1/1-1/14)
GOOD MORNING by Anne Lucas, MA (1/15-1/28)
PERMANENT INK by Charlene Donaghy, CT (1/29-2/11)
FOLDED by Bara Swain, NY (2/12-2/25)
EXTENDED PLAY by Ben Marshall, NJ (2/26-3/11)
RELATIVITY AND ME by Len Cuthburt, Ontario, Canada (3/12-3/25)
MOTHERHOOD by Lawrence Aronovitch, Ontario, Canada (3/26-4/8)
SAUL by Colleen O'Doherty, NE (4/9-4/22)

This virtual festival is made possible with a generous donation from The Marine Family