William Inge Theatre Festival 2018
The Living Room collaborated with Kokopelli Theatre Company and The William Inge Foundation to produce and participate in several events at the 2018 William Inge Theatre Festival, which took place in Independence, Kansas May 9th-12th.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos on this page are credited to The Inge Foundation.
Down in Mississippi
This year’s festival honoree was celebrated playwright Carlyle Brown, whom we were proud to have in the audience as we presented a full production of his civil rights piece Down in Mississippi.
We had a limited run of the show in Kansas City before bringing it to the festival for this special engagement. You can read more about the run here.
Directed by Rusty Sneary
Musical Director Ben Byard
Deangelo Davis…………………………………Jimmy
Enjoli Gavin………Vocalist/Fannie Lou Hamer
Elise Poehling…………………………………..…Ellen
Mike Ott………………………………………………John
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…
We also co-produced a staged reading of Mr. Brown’s play Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…, which was performed once in KC and once at the festival.
Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been is a fictional account of the demons and dilemmas faced by legendary writer Langston Hughes as he attempts to compose a piece on the night before his appearance before the Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations on Un-American Activities led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Directed by Missy Koonce
Damron Armstrong…………Langston Hughes
Elroy Hawkins………...……………Frank Reeves
David Fritz…………Senator Joseph McCarthy
Gary Neal Johnso…Seantor Everett Dirksen
Coleman Crenshaw………………..……Roy Chon
Kyle Dyck…………………………….…David Schine
New Play Lab
We were proud to once again provide a company of top-notch local actors to the festival’s New Play Lab, which showcases new works through staged readings and feedback sessions.
The lab also featured a reading of Rank by Emma Carter, a frequent Living Room collaborator.
From the Inge Festival’s website:
”Each year, the Inge New Play Lab connects emerging playwrights with the national theater community. The playwrights receive feedback of their selected submitted play from a panel of theater experts, meet with fine arts professionals across the country, attend intensive playwriting seminars and a masterclass from the Inge Festival Honoree to help them refine their craft, and enjoy the small-town hospitality of William Inge’s hometown of Independence Kansas.
The New Play Lab writers were selected through a blind reading by a panel of nationwide theater practitioners.”
2018 High School Competition
Our own Director of Education Bob Linebarger was part of the respondent panel for the festival’s annual theatre competition for high school students.
Bob is an actor, teaching artist, and co-founder of the KC theatre company Rising Tide Productions, which staged their premiere production of Elephant by Lewis Morrow on The Living Room stage in September 2018.
Thank you!
We’d like to thank all of our partners and collaborators at the Inge Foundation and Kokopelli Theatre for another wonderful year celebrating the arts!
You can read more about the annual festival via their official website.
