February 24-27, 2017
Exploring Race & Heritage in
Festival of FREE Staged Readings & Lectures
Woodstock, VT
An annual festival that showcases and celebrates new plays by emerging playwrights of color. The weekend-long festival of play readings and lectures presented at various locations in Woodstock & Pomfret, VT celebrates and explores diverse, new voices in American theater. All lectures are Saturday, February 25 at Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, VT. JAGFest will include four staged readings, each featuring a post-show conversation with the playwrights, actors, and directors.
Admission is FREE, but reservations are required. Contact the box office to secure your reservation at 802.332.3270 or info@jagproductionsvt.com
SWEET by Harrison David Rivers: Friday, February 24, 7:30PM
Directed by Taylor Reynolds
ArtisTree Community Arts Center
2095 Pomfret Road, South Pomfret, VT 05067
Retha and Nina Baker have always been close—folding laundry together, chasing fireflies together, and enduring the summer heat together. But when their mother dies unexpectedly and their neighbor, George, returns home from college, the sisters’ relationship begins to fray and long-held desires threaten to tear them apart. Set on the outskirts of an all-black town in rural Kansas, Sweet is a coming of age story about the sacrifices we make to hold on to the ones we love. Playwright Harrison David Rivers is the winner of a GLAAD Media Award, a McKnight Fellowship for Playwrights, a Many Voices Jerome Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellowship, an Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship and the New York Stage & Film’s Founders Award. He is the 2016 Playwright-in-Residence at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. His plays include Sweet (World Premier National Black Theatre), And She Would Stand Like This (The Movement Theatre Company), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown) and When Last We Flew (Sundance). Harrison is an alumnus of the Emerging Writers’ Group at the Public Theater. MFA: Columbia University.
Lecture #1: Andrew Shade, Editor & Founder of Broadway Black
Saturday, February 25, 10:00AM
Norman William Public Library
10 The Green, Woodstock, VT 05091
About: Broadway Black is dedicated to highlighting the achievements and successes of African-American theatre artists on and off the Broadway stage.
Lecture #2: Taylor Reynolds, Producing Artistic Leader of The Movement Theatre Company
Saturday, February 25, 11:00AM
Norman William Public Library
10 The Green, Woodstock, VT 05091
About: The Movement Theatre Company creates an artistic social movement by developing and producing new work by artists of color. Our work engages audiences in a rich theatrical dialogue, enlightens communities to the important issues affecting our world, and empowers artists to celebrate the many sides of their unique voice.
Fundraiser: Lunch with the Artists of JAGFest
Saturday, February 25, 12:00PM
St. James Episcopal Church
2 St James Place, Woodstock, VT 05091
About: $50 per person, cash or check at the door. All proceeds go towards JAGFest 2018!
Panel Discussion: Featuring the cast of SWEET & SMART PEOPLE
Saturday, February 25, 2:00PM
Norman William Public Library
10 The Green, Woodstock, VT 05091
About: The cast of SWEET & SMART PEOPLE discuss diversity in the American theater.
SMART PEOPLE by Lydia Diamond
Saturday, February 25, 7:30PM
Directed by Andrew Garret Karl
Norman William Public Library
10 The Green, Woodstock, VT 05091
On the eve of Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Election, four hyper-intelligent Cambridge residents find that -- despite their best intentions upon broaching the subject -- the topic of race is a treacherous one, full of stumbles and wrong turns. Through bright, funny dialogue and fast-paced vignettes, playwright Lydia Diamond (Broadway’s Stick Fly) sets brings her quartet of complicated characters to vibrant life. As they each bull-headedly pursue their professional and personal goals, they find that issues of self-awareness, identity, and race are stumbling blocks that even “smart people” can’t seem to avoid. Playwright Lydia R. Diamond most recent play, Smart People, was commissioned by the McCarter Theatre and had its world premiere at the Huntington in 2014. The Huntington’s 2010 hit production of her play Stick Fly produced in association with Arena Stage inspired the 2011 Tony Award-nominated Broadway production.
Awards for Stick Fly include a 2012 Outer Circle Critics Award nomination for Best Play (Broadway), 2010 IRNE Award for Best Play, 2010 LA Critics Circle Award for Playwriting, 2010 LA Garland Award for Playwriting, 2009 LA Weekly Theatre Award for Playwriting, 2008 Susan S. Blackburn Finalist, 2006 Black Theatre Alliance Award, and 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination for Best New Work. Her other plays include Voyeurs de Venus (2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, 2006 BTAA for Best Writing); The Bluest Eye (2006 Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play, 2008 American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award); The Gift Horse (2005 Theodore Ward Prize, Kesselring Prize – 2nd Place); Harriet Jacobs; and Stage Black. She was a 2005-2006 Harvard WEB Du Bois Institute non-resident Fellow, a 2007 TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, a 2012-2013 Radcliffe Institute Fellow, a 2012 Sallie B. Goodman McCarter Fellow, and a 2012 Sundance Institute Playwright Lab Creative Advisor. She is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and a playwright in residence at Arena Stage. Ms. Diamond is a graduate of Northwestern University where she majored in performance studies. She has an honorary doctorate of arts from Pine Manor College and was on faculty at Boston University.
THE LILLIAS WHITE EFFECT
Sunday, February 26, 5:00PM
ArtisTree Community Arts Center
2095 Pomfret Road, South Pomfret, VT 05067
Emmy & Tony Award winner LILLIAS WHITE will pull back the show curtain to tell humorous, poignant and inspiring stories from both her personal and show business life. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Lillias White has been active on Broadway, since her debut in 1981, and on television, where she won an Emmy® for her recurring appearances on Sesame Street. She first appeared as a replacement for Joice Heth in the Coleman/Stewart musical comedy, Barnum, and later appeared as a replacement for Effie Melody White in the original production of Dreamgirls and Grizabella in Cats.
After appearing as the replacement for Asaka in Once on this Island, White earned her first starring role as Miss Jones in the 1995 revival of Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In 1997, Lillias White won both a Tony® and a Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of Sonja in Cy Coleman and Ira Gasman’s musical, The Life. She was nominated for a 2010 Tony® for her starring role as the mother in Fela!. In addition to benefit Broadway concert appearances, Lillias White has provided voices for such soundtracks as Anastasia and Hercules and sang in the 2005 Carnegie Hall concert recording of South Pacific.
POLKADOTS: THE COOL KIDS MUSICAL
Book: Melvin Tunstall III,
Music: Greg Borowsky & Douglas Lyons, Lyrics: Douglas Lyons
Monday February 27, 10:00AM
Directed by Nate Bertone
Woodstock Town Hall Theater
31 The Green, Woodstock, VT 05091
Polkadots: the Cool Kids Musical follows 8-year-old Lily Polkadot who just moved to the “Squares Only” small town of Rockaway. As the first polkadot in an all-Square school, Lily faces an almost impossible task of gaining acceptance from her peers. From daily bullying, to segregated drinking fountains, Lily’s quest seems hopeless until she meets Sky, a shy Square boy whose curiosity for her unique polka dot skin blooms into an unexpected pal-ship. Inspired by the events of The Little Rock 9, Polkadots: the Cool Kids Musical serves as a colorful history lesson for children, reminding them that our individual differences make us awesome, not outcasts." After one professional reading in August of 2015, Polkadots has had two successful developmental runs at Carnegie Mellon University and The Ivoryton Playhouse. The show was​ awarded the Bully Free Communities Spotlight Award for the production at Ivoryton Playhouse. The World Premiere Album of Polkadots released by Sony Masterworks features Alex Newell (Glee), Shanice Williams (NBC's The Wiz), Lilli Cooper (SpongeBob the Musical), Alysha Deslorieux (Hamilton) and many more.
JAGFest is sponsored by:
​
