PORTLAND, ORE.: Portland Center Stage (PCS) has selected three playwrights for the theatre’s 18th annual JAW Playwrights Festival, which will take place July 29-31. Playwright Kevin Artigue will develop The Forcings, a magical realism-infused play that explores a family in crisis and a civilization barreling towards environmental extinction. Mia Chung will develop Catch as Catch Can, a story about the shifting roles we play in the presence of family. Nathan Dame will develop The Saints, a comedy that follows the journey of a young woman attempting to get her wayward life back on track.
Short for “Just Add Water,” JAW will offer the three playwrights, whose plays were selected from more than 175 submissions, two weeks of script development at PCS with directors, actors, and dramaturgs. The event will conclude with free public readings of the scripts.
Kevin Artigue is a playwright and filmmaker born and raised in Southern California and based in New York City. He’s a member of the 2016 Interstate 73 Writers Group, and was part of the Public Theater’s 2014-2015 Emerging Writers Group.
Mia Chung is the author of You for Me for You, This Exquisite Corpse, and Skin in the Game. You for Me for You had its U.K. premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in London in December 2015.
Nathan Dame has had original plays and musicals developed by Roundabout Theatre Company, the New Group, Barrow Street Theatre, Woodshed Collective, In Absentia Productions, and New York Theatre Experiment.
JAW will also feature two world premiere workshops from PCS’s upcoming 2016-17 season: Wild and Reckless, a musical event from local folk rock group Blitzen Tapper, and Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a play with music by Lauren Weeman about heartbreak, tight jeans, and country music. The workshop performances of these two plays will be presented in advance of full productions in 2017.
