2024 Festival Shows
Three new Musicals. Two new Plays. One outdoor Variety Stage.
The future of American Theater starts in Greenville.
FREE RESERVED TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
for VIPS and Festival Patrons
Excerpts from THE JOSH WHITE PROJECT followed by a Town Hall
by Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Directed by Tamilla Woodward
at Centre Stage on Thursday, August 08, at 7pm
The Josh White Project was commissioned by the SC New Play Festival and the presentation of excerpts will precede a public town hall on the impact of Greenville, SC on Josh White’s life and legacy. Josh White was a prominent blues and folk musician who rose to fame in the 1930s and 1940s performing with legends such as Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly, and on Broadway and in Hollywood. He was a key figure in the civil rights movement before his career was negatively impacted by the House Un-American Activities Commission. Donnetta Lavinia Grays is an award-winning playwright and actor, whose work has been seen on Broadway and at theaters across the country.
SPONSORED BY SC Humanities Foundation
SCNPF commission sponsored by Bunny and Bob Hughes.
All the World’s a Stage
by Adam Gwon
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
at the Gunter Theatre at the Peace Center on Friday, August 09 at 7pm
All the World’s a Stage tells the story of closeted Math teacher Ricky Alleman and the high school senior who cajoles him into coaching her for the 1996 State Thespian Competition with a monologue from "Angels in America". Soon, Ricky has trouble navigating his carefully compartmentalized life, between his outspoken new boyfriend and the conservative Principal of the High School where he teaches. All the World’s a Stage is a funny and heart-wrenching new musical about being true to yourself in a polarized world. Adam Gwon made his off-Broadway debut in 2009 with Ordinary Days at Roundabout Theatre Company; a 2018 revival by the Keen Company was nominated for a Drama League Award for Best Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical.
All The World’s a Stage is a commission by the KEEN Company.
SPONSORED BY THE PEACE CENTER
by Jake Brasch
Directed by Shelley Butler
at The Warehouse Theatre on Saturday, August 10 at 2pm
Trip Around the Sun is a dark comedy about a couple of Parrotheads in Florida planning the remaining time they have left on Earth. Jake Brasch (he/they) is a queer sober clown from Colorado and a graduating playwriting fellow at The Juilliard School. The World Premiere of his play The Reservoir, also directed by Shelley Butler, will be presented in 2025 as a co-production between the Denver Center, Alliance Theatre, and Geffen Playhouse.
SPONSORED BY BILL PELHAM
Trip around the Sun
The Dark Lady
by Sophie Boyce and Veronica Mansour
Music Direction by Anessa Marie
Greenville Theatre on Saturday, August 10 at 7pm
The Dark Lady is an electrifying synth-pop spectacle that uplifts the story of Emilia Bassano: a woman theorized by some to be the true, uncredited author of Shakespeare's works. Audacious and joyful with an effervescent wit, The Dark Lady brings this "what if" scenario to life in a gleefully subversive celebration of theatre. Sophie Boyce is the winner of the Eugene O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference, a finalist for the Kleban Prize, Write Out Loud and the Stiles & Drewe Song Prize. Veronica Mansour is a 2024 Richard Rodgers Award Winner and Jonathan Larson Grant winner, was recently nominated for a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award and was selected as one of four writers for DreamWorks Theatricals, MTI & NBCUniversal Emerging Writers Program.
SPONSORED BY LILLIAN AND HENRY PARR
Stuntboy
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Melvin Tunstall III and Greg Borowsky
Based on the book Stunt Boy in the Meantime © Jason Reynolds and Raúl the Third, 202. Used with permission of Pippin Properties, Inc.
Directed by Banji Aborisade
Music Direction by Nick Wilders
at the South Carolina Children's Theatre on Sunday, August 11 at 3pm
Stuntboy follows the middle-schooler, Portico Reeves, whose superpower is making sure his parents and two best friends stay safe from bullies. He lives in the biggest apartment building on the block, a building with fifty doors, all of which would be swell except for the secret that Portico’s parents are about to divorce. All this stress gives Portico “the frets”, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all. Melvin Tunstall’s show Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Show in 2018. Greg Borowsky is a songwriter and producer from South Africa behind some of South Africa’s biggest SAMA (SA Grammy) winning artists and is the co-writer and producer of the official “20 Years of Freedom” song for the South African Government.
Stuntboy is a commission by TheatreworksUSA
SPONSORED BY THE DANIEL-MICKEL FOUNDATION