The 2022 Proteus New Plays Festival features four new works written in our American Dreamwrights Workshop. Get a sneak peek of the shows on September 16 and 23. Join us for performances in repertory during Proteus and vote for your favorite show. The winner of the Audience Favorite will get an extended run in November.

2022 Selected Plays are: “A Cut Above” by Zachary and Christen Davis, “The Blood Cycle” by Benita Alane, “Likker Outta Control, Busting Arlena Cartwright” Story by Clyde Santana, Stage Play By Clyde Santana and Buddy White, and “No One Knows Her Song” by P.A. Wray ”

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The Proteus New Plays Festival Audience has voted…and your votes are in! Your winner for the Proteus Audience Favorite Award is back for an extended 2-week run! The highest-rated play from the 2022 Festival returns in a full-scale production in our intimate Studio Theater, as part of the Curtain Up! New Plays Series. #TheaterStartsHere

“Likker Outta Control, Busting Arlena Cartwright” Story by Clyde Santana, Stage Play By Clyde Santana and Buddy White

Directed by Jason Kypros

A Harvard-educated, moonshine-selling Mayor of a small, rural southern township clashes with a recently reassigned ABC Agent Supervisor, a Northerner from the big city, while her crew plans a 100-year birthday party for Aunt Baby Sis Cartwright, the town’s matriarch who is an American Hero and known to make the best illegal Moonshine in the state, and the Agent’s hell-bent on busting her.

by P.A.Wray
directed by Sharon Cook

When Frances, wife of General George Henry Thomas, a strategic winning general in the Civil War, finds out her now ailing and harassed husband has agreed to meet with a journalist with unknown motives, her protective instincts and suspicions go into overdrive, putting undue stress on her husband, and a bill at risk for passing. A bill that would protect the right to vote for Black Freedmen in the South – something her husband had fought hard to protect but failed.
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The Proteus New Plays Festival showcases community-driven staged readings of 4 scripts that have been developed in the Z Playwrights Lab or by Z Artist Members. The staged readings give the playwrights an opportunity to work with a director and a volunteer cast to see their script “on its feet” for the first time, and add the most crucial element to developing a play, The Audience!

Each reading is presented twice during the 2 weeks of Proteus Festival. Audiences are given the opportunity to rate the plays via a survey focused on the elements writing an engaging script and story. Ratings are averaged to select the PNPF Audience Favorite. The Audience Favorite receives a workshop production 2-week run in November, as the second Curtain Up! New Plays Series play of the 23-24 season.

by Clyde Santana

Directed by Leila Stephanie and Patrick Mullins

On the eve of his retirement, a frustrated undercover officer, reflecting on some of his past experiences, questions his decision to retire and return to his family and his artistic life or continue to work undercover for his former bigoted supervisor.
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The Proteus New Plays Festival showcases community-driven staged readings of 4 scripts that have been developed in the Z Playwrights Lab or by Z Artist Members. The staged readings give the playwrights an opportunity to work with a director and a volunteer cast to see their script “on its feet” for the first time, and add the most crucial element to developing a play, The Audience!

Each reading is presented twice during the 2 weeks of Proteus Festival. Audiences are given the opportunity to rate the plays via a survey focused on the elements writing an engaging script and story. Ratings are averaged to select the PNPF Audience Favorite. The Audience Favorite receives a workshop production 2-week run in November, as the second Curtain Up! New Plays Series play of the 23-24 season.

VIEW THE FULL PROTEUS LINEUP

 

NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY

David R. Goode Charitable Lead Annuity Trust
The Shubert Foundation
Clyde Santana and Valli Meeks
City of Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission

 

PROTEUS FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY

Meet me at The Z for the FREE Proteus Block Party! Showcases of music, comedy, theater, kid’s entertainment, open mics, and interactive art projects take over Town Center this October in the don’t-miss free event of the season! Come see what The Z is all about-there’s no arts fest like Proteus!

FEATURING:

On the Terrace & Plaza: Join in our community art project and outdoor performances, plus an open mic sampler featuring a preview of our spring musical, Rathskeller: A Musical Elixir!

Studio: Rotation of performances by the Children’s Theater of Hampton Roads, Plan B Comedy, and more!

Main Stage: Relive some of our favorite performance highlights and see what our main stage is all about!

Main Lobby: Interactive art projects, a vendor fair, and family fun area!

VIEW THE FULL PROTEUS LINEUP

Be a part of the process of new play development! Hear excerpts from 3 new plays read aloud and offer constructive feedback through a guided masterclass led by our mentor artist.