Selections Announced for Bay Street’s 2023 New Works Festival

Bay Street Theater has announced the schedule of plays for the upcoming 9th annual “Title Wave: 2023 New Works Festival,” scheduled to take place Friday, May 5, through Sunday, May 7, at the theater.

This year, the festival will introduce four new plays to the Bay Street stage over the course of the weekend. The new plays are currently in development and all four are written by female playwrights. The weekend is a unique showcase of cutting-edge theater, complete with staged readings, talkbacks and critical discussion, providing a rare opportunity for directors and actors to work on their play in-person. Selected from 300 submissions, the four plays selected are “Another Lovely Day” by Leslie Ayvazian on Friday, May 5, at 8 p.m. starring John Slattery (“Mad Men,” “Marvel Cinematic Universe,” “Spotlight”) and Talia Balsam (“Mad Men,” “Homeland,” “Divorce”); “Come Again” by Lisa Feriend on Saturday, May 6, at 2 p.m.; “What I Know, Now” by and starring Julia Motyka on Saturday, May 6, at 8 p.m.; and “You Have To Promise” by Audrey Lang on Sunday, May 7, at 2 p.m.

“What a great lineup of new plays we have this year for Title Wave,” says Bay Street Artistic Director Scott Schwartz. "As always, they will showcase the broad spectrum of what American theater can be. I’m particularly excited that this festival will feature all plays written by women. We’ve always made it a priority to support female-identifying writers at Bay Street, and this year continues that commitment in a robust way.”

In addition to the schedule of staged readings, the presentation of winners of the 2023 “Writing the Wave Creative Writing Competition” will be held Saturday, May 7, at 7 p.m. Tickets for each reading are $10 with proceeds supporting New Works initiatives at Bay Street (a festival pass with tickets to all performances is $25). To purchase, visit baystreet.org or call 631-725-9500. Bay Street Theater is on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor.

In “Another Lovely Day” by Leslie Ayvazian, a couple’s marriage is challenged by a change in politics and the aftershock has a troubling impact on their teenage son. The play asks: “What happens when quiet ideas are revealed for the first time?” “What makes us decide to test the foundation of what we thought we trusted and shared?” One family. Three members. One day.

Lisa Feriend’s play “Come Again” tells the story of Miami hospice nurse, Marina Johnson, who wakes one day to find a stranger in her apartment claiming to be Jesus Christ and telling her that she has been tapped to be God’s climate change prophet. Despite her protestations, Marina finds herself pulled farther and farther into the mission she’s been assigned, as she and Jesus set out to try and save humanity from itself.

In Julia Motyka’s play “What I Know, Now,” as she awaits the answer to one of life’s big questions, a woman explores the nature of faith and her own complicated family history. The play asks: “Does the answer lie in faith and prayer? Probabilities and numbers? Or is it something else entirely?”

In Audrey Lang’s play “You Have To Promise,” 17-year-olds Maeve and Nessa have been best friends their entire lives. But three months ago, they discovered what they had was more than a friendship. When they decide to come out to their families together, Nessa’s father kicks her out and the girls scramble to come up with a solution, all the while lying to Maeve’s stepmother and trying to dream their way to being grown-up.