Bay Street Theater Announces 3rd Annual New Works Festival

[caption id="attachment_49347" align="alignnone" width="800"] The New Works Festival at Bay Street Theater in 2015. Michael Heller photo.[/caption]

Bay Street Theater and Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced its 3^rd Annual New Works Festival will take place April 29 through May 1. The readings are free and open to the public.

The three-day festival will include readings of plays and musicals in development by some of New York’s most exciting writers. The mission of the festival is to give playwrights a chance to hear their works in development in front of an audience and to give the audience at Bay Street and the East End Community a chance to experience cutting edge voices in the theater. Each play will be read by professional actors in its entirety, accompanied by minimal staging. Each reading will be followed by a talkback during which the playwrights and the audience will have to opportunity to ask questions of each other and share their reactions to the play. The plays included in the festival are “The Roommate” by Jen Silverman, “Community” by Stephen Kaplan, “From Ship to Shape” by Walker Vreeland, and the new musical “The Man in the Ceiling” by Jules Feiffer and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.

The Bay Street New Works Festival is curated by Scott Schwartz, Artistic Director at Bay Street Theater, and Will Pomerantz, Associate Artistic Director at Bay Street Theater. The New Works Festival is sponsored in part by The Sag Harbor Inn.

“I think it is fitting that we will launch our 25th Anniversary Season at Bay Street with the third year of this exciting festival of new works, since the development and production of new plays and musicals is a central part of the mission of this theater,” says Mr. Schwartz. “Over the past quarter century we have produced over 20 world premieres, and as we look to the future, we are excited to help give life to the classics of tomorrow with this Festival. We have a diverse lineup of funny and fascinating plays and musicals this year.  Each one will give the audience the opportunity to experience fresh and original voices in the theater and will bring inspiring artists to the East End.”

Readings will be held at Bay Street Theater, 1 Bay Street in Sag Harbor. For reservations, or more information, please visit baystreet.org or call the box office at (631) 725-9500.