Lovers of new theatre will gather August 2018 for an advance look at tomorrow’s hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 2018 New Works Festival. This year’s festival will feature two plays and two musicals as well as special events. The plays include They Promised Her the Moon by Laurel Ollstein and Born in East Berlin by Rogelio Martinez. Musicals include an adaptation of Jane Austen‘s Pride and Prejudice by Tony Award nominee Paul Gordon (the composer and lyricist of Daddy Long Legs and Emma), and Once Upon a Rhyme: A Musical Tale (formerly iLLA! A Hip Hop Musical), with book, music, and lyrics by Ronvé O’Daniel and music, orchestrations, and arrangement by Jevares C. Myrick.
Among the roster of acclaimed playwrights, composers, and directors who have participated in past New Works Festivals are: Jeffrey Seller, Andrew Lippa, Stephen Schwartz, Wendy Wasserstein, Marsha Norman, Rachel Sheinkin, David Hein and Irene Sankoff, Henry Krieger, Duncan Sheik, Joe DiPietro, and many more. Past festivals have launched many new works onto TheatreWorks’ stage and to national productions including Broadway’s Tony Award-winning Best Musical Memphis.