“It’s the play, baby!”

The Tennessee Repertory’s Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival brings us new plays by Nashville playwrights.

It’s your big night out at the theater. The actors are on stage, the lights are bright, the props, the sets, all award-winning pyrotechnic cool. Nice, but something’s strange on 42nd Street. Everything is still, just sitting there, quietly staring back at you, the actors with nothing to do, nothing to say. Oh man, did somebody forget the play?

Enter Claudia Barnett, Ross Brooks, Matthew Carlton, Diane DiIanni, Nate Eppler, McAdoo Greer, and Valerie S. Hart—Nashville playwrights in residence at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s Martha R. Ingram New Works Lab. Talented writers all, who together and alone will embark on a perilous journey to save us from the silence. David Auburn, the Martha R. Ingram New Works Fellow, a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner and winner of the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play for Proof, will be their expert guide.

“I’m thrilled to be coming to Tennessee Rep,” says Auburn. I’m deeply excited to play a role in that process and to work with and get to know a new and talented group of writers—not to mention to return to a part of the country I love and miss. I spent my high school years in Arkansas.”

Martha R. Ingram, Nashville’s most enduring champion of the arts, is their greatest supporter.

“As Tennessee Repertory Theatre continues to be a leading regional theatre, it is thrilling to see the company collaborate with nationally-recognized playwrights such as David Auburn as well as foster the development of local playwrights through the New Works Lab that culminates with the New Works Festival. I am confident that this collaboration will not only make positive contributions to the Nashville theatre community, but also the American theatre landscape as a whole.”

Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s producing artistic director René D. Copeland will provide the encouragement.

“It has been such a pleasure to have David Auburn as our New Works Fellow this year. He is clearly committed to contributing to efforts to foster new work, and his mentoring of our seven local playwright members of the New Works Lab has been so generous and beneficial to their work. They have all been thrilled to have his thoughtful and insightful feedback on their own plays, and of course we are very excited to get to present the play he’s writing now for our New Works Festival.”

And don’t forget Lauren Shouse, artistic associate, offering the inspiration and direction every artist needs to succeed. Let’s support these brave new playwrights by attending the Tennessee Repertory’s Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival, April 28 through May 8 at the Nashville Children’s Theatre. They live by their wits, endure criticism from all sides, and spend countless, thankless hours looking out the window. They sacrifice much in search of new characters, new stories, and bold new works for the American Stage, all for us.

by Jim Reyland

Jim Reyland is producing artistic director of Writer’s Stage Theatre. His new play, A Terrible Lie, will receive a staged reading, directed by Barry Scott, on May 21 and May 22 and a fully staged workshop October 11 through November 21. Get more information at www.writersstage.com.   jreyland@audioproductions.com  www.tennesseerep.org