KERA Arts Story Search



Looking for events? Click here for the Go See DFW events calendar.

Kitchen Dog’s New Works Festival: From Script to Stage


by Zayd Dohrn 19 Jun 2009 11:55 AM

Guest blogger Zayd Dohrn is a playwright and screenwriter living in New York. His play Sick headlined Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival last year, and his new play, Long Way Go Down, will be read as part of the festival on Saturday at 2 p.m. It’s rare these days to find a theater in […]

CTA TBD

Guest blogger Zayd Dohrn is a playwright and screenwriter living in New York. His play Sick headlined Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival last year, and his new play, Long Way Go Down, will be read as part of the festival on Saturday at 2 p.m.

It’s rare these days to find a theater in America interested in doing new plays. Rarer still to find one interested in edgy, provocative scripts by young American playwrights. And to find a theater that does those difficult plays well – with courage and style and brilliance – is a writer’s dream.

I got involved with Kitchen Dog Theater last year, when it produced the world premiere of my play Sick as part of the New Works Festival. I’ve never felt so spoiled as a writer – an inspiring group of collaborators, a generous and welcoming theater community and a knock-out production.

It’s no surprise that Dallas has lately become a destination of choice for playwrights  – Kitchen Dog alone has recently premiered plays by fearless, inventive writers such as Allison Moore and Yussef El Guindi, whose work is now being produced  in New York and around the world.

All this is to say, if you’ve never been to a new play reading before, or if you’re at all interested in seeing how a play moves from the page to the stage in the hands of brilliant actors and directors, go check out the New Works Festival. Tickets are pay-what-you can, and there’s no better place in the country to check out the next generation of American playwrights at work.

SHARE
  • Lee Trull

    Thanks Zayd!

    I am appearing in the reading of Long Way Go Down and had the pleasure of acting in Zayd’s last play at KDT,Sick. His work is fierce, funny, and unsettling, as well as a dream to act.

    We are lucky to have him.

  • Christie Vela

    I had the great pleasure of directing the staged reading for Long Way Go Down for the New Works Festival last Saturday at Kitchen Dog.
    The house was packed with our NNPN friends from all over the country,friends and loyal patrons.
    The energy in the room was electric. I don’t think I’ve been that excited to see a new play on it’s feet in a long while. It’s quite a feeling to be at least peripherally involved in the process of a great work being born.

    Zayd, your words are beautiful and I fell in love with the play. I am glad to say that it provoked a gamut of feelings and opinions in the audience (you’ll get to hear all of those) that the audience stayed quite a long time to talk about it, and could have stayed longer.

    Thank you for your work, and I hope you get to see the full production of LONG WAY GO DOWN next season at Kitchen Dog!