Press Room - 2024 New Works Festival

2024 New Works Festival: New Voices, New Narratives

Original Plays written and directed by the 2023-2024 Incubator/Mentor Cohort

The Plays

The Uterine Files: Episode One, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow

written by Jourdan Imani Keith | directed by Rebecca O’Neil

Note from the Playwright

Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s play, For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf and the paranormal government conspiracy of The X-Files. In September 2001, I spent 5 weeks at Hedgebrook writing residency on Whidbey Island using my research on slave narratives from the collection at the Schomburg library in New York in the development of this play. I originally conceived this work as a one woman play, or choreopoem, with this stated purpose: To explore the connections between the stories our bodies tell through us and our histories as women.

The desire to create The Uterine Files Trilogy grew from my experience of being diagnosed with uterine fibroid, the subsequent recommendation for surgery and my journey to Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Africa two years later. I found out that fibroid tumors are present in 40% of American women and that 40% of women in America are sexual abuse survivors. “Fibroids are the number one reason for hysterectomy in this country. Fibroids are three to nine times more common in Black women than Caucasians,” according to Christine Northrop, MD, the author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom. The mathematics of these facts and the disproportionate effect of hysterectomies is staggering.

Episode One celebrates our lives as poetry even in the midst of harm. This is part one of an Afrofuturistic trilogy beginning in 1863.

Note from the Director

The Uterine Files: Episode 1, Voices Spitting Out the Rainbow brings to the stage a generational conversation about love, language, and the embodiment of centuries, days and minutes of trauma. It is a play about the silencing of Black women, about the silencing of their tongues, and the theft of their bodily autonomy, especially their agency and choices about when and why and with whom they have children and build lives and relationships. It represents the sharing of stories in both safe and dangerous spaces, with the people who love us and with people who are either indifferent, ignorant, or both.

Directing this play has been a joyous and challenging experience. As a white woman I have had the privilege and opportunity to learn about the relationships that Black women have with their ancestors, their families, and the world around them. The Uterine Files, Episode 1 is filled with the trauma enacted on Black women by the people who oppress them, but it is also filled with joy, humor, healing and exquisitely lyrical poetry. Working together with two fabulous and talented Black women theatre artists, actor Ziara Greathouse and playwright Jourdan Imani Keith, we have found love in heartbreak and have overcome all obstacles to bring this version of The Uterine Files to the stage. I am immensely grateful to both of them for sharing their wisdom and lived experience with me.

Publicity Photos

Cast & Creative Team

  • Jourdan Keith (she/her)

    Playwright

    Jourdan Imani Keith, Seattle’s 2019- 2022 Civic Poet, is a Pushcart nominated author. Her play, an Afro-futurist trilogy was awarded support for “The Uterine Files: Episode One” by office of ARTS and Artist Trust. Featured in Forbes and on NPR, her Orion Magazine essays, Desegregating Wilderness and At Risk appear in the Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology, as well as text books. The founder of Urban Wilderness Project she leads its R U An Endangered Species™ Women and Whales First: Poetry in a Climate of Change campaign. A recipient of the 2022 US Water Alliance Outstanding Artist prize and a 2018 Americans for the Arts award, her TEDx Talk, Your Body of Water became the theme for King County's 2016-2018 Poetry on Buses program. Her essays and poems are in Prairie Schooner, Terrain, Cosmonaut, YES magazine and Seismic.

  • Rebecca O'Neil (she/her)

    Director

    Rebecca is excited to collaborate with Jourdan and this fabulous cast to bring The Uterine Files: Episode 1 to the New Works Festival. An emerging director herself, Rebecca is the founding artistic director of The Shattered Glass Project and is grateful to the entire 2024 Incubator/Mentor Cohort for their talent and willingness to explore creative collaboration.

  • Ziara Greathouse (she/her)

    Virginia Mary | The Uterine Files: Episode 1

    Ziara Greathouse is a mezzo- soprano, originally from Atlanta GA. She studied choral music education at Kennesaw State University and opera performance at the University of British Columbia. Her notable roles include Dido in “Dido and Aeneas” and Bronka in the Russian opera “The Passenger.”

Carmilla

written by Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones | directed by Aidyn Stevens

Note from the Playwrights

Our first encounter with the vampire Carmilla was in a small bookshop on an October morning; S.W. went in to find something sufficiently chilling to read for the time of year, and there she was. A shimmering crimson cover of a girl, next to a handwritten sign proclaiming it a vampire novella 25 years older than Brahm Stoker’s Dracula.

Vampire tales penetrate throughout our culture- Dracula, Nosferatu, Sesame Street, the list goes on, but we were surprised not to have previously encountered Carmilla. Here is a queer coming-of-age story, funny and frightening in turns, that still seems alive even now that the book is as old as Carmilla herself at 150 years since publication.

This play is not the novella- too much of a departure to call an “adaptation,” yet too close to be “inspired by,” so we offer what you experience today as a story “based on” the Victorian romance. It has taken on a life of its own now that the subtext between Carmilla and Laura is allowed to thrive. We have loved workshopping this campy, sapphic horror play with The Shattered Glass Project, and cannot wait to find a home for the full, 90-minute script. Laugh, scream, and enjoy this phantasmagoria of fear.

Note from the Director

Horror as a genre has often been used to explore stories of queerness. Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla is no exception to this. The Gothic novel from 1872 was an epistolary account from a young girl named Laura filled with metacommentary about her world. In Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones’ play inspired by Le Fanu’s story they turn the metacommentary fully queer through camp comedy. 

For you watching, Laura’s and Carmilla’s relationship will refuse to be veiled. Their discovery of each other is deeply queer and yet the world around them finds every excuse to ignore it. Not only is the truth of their relationship overlooked but a complex and sinister monster goes unseen. All the while, with each colorful character, joy and horror are revealed. 

Thank you audience for letting Carmilla into your world. While you watch, I invite you to consider what happens when obsession turns into love?

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Cast & Creative Team

  • Aidyn Trinity Stevens (she/her)

    Director

    Aidyn Trinity is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist whose study has focused on applied and community-based theatre. She graduated from Western Washington University in 2022 where she performed classical voice and theatre, practiced costume design, and led workshops inspired by Theatre of the Oppressed. Aidyn is excited to work in Seattle again as she grew up here and has a profound love for the Seattle performing arts scene.

  • Mariah Lee Squires (she/they) and S.W. Jones (they/them)

    Playwright Team

    Mariah Lee Squires and S.W. Jones met at Cornish College of the Arts where they both graduated Magna Cum Laude. They began their artistic partnership shortly after graduation, particularly interested in developing new works focused on femme and nonbinary identities. They have a keen interest in storytelling that explores the theatre of questions and use their writing to, as Cesar A. Cruz said, “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

  • Mia McGlinn (she/her)

    Carmilla | Carmilla

    Mia McGlinn is an actress and filmmaker. Her recent credits include Babe (Crimes of the Heart), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet, PGT), Natashya (Three Sisters, BCT), and Joy (Cinderella, PGT). She would like to thank Aidyn for the opportunity to play the charming Carmilla, Mariah Lee Squires and S.W Jones for trusting her with their words and her family for always supporting her creative endeavors

  • Jessica Marvin-Romero (she/her)

    Laura | Carmilla

    Jessica Marvin-Romero (she/her) is a Mexican-American actress and poet thrilled to be making her debut in the Seattle theatre scene after graduating from Temple University. Some past works include Fátima in Pase lo que Pase with PlayPenn in Philadelphia and Cindy in Fefu and Her Friends (Temple University).

  • Meghan Ames (she/they)

    Madame Perrodon | Carmilla

    Meghan [she/they] moved to Seattle 5 years ago and began working with theatres around the Puget Sound including Vashon Repertory Theatre, Centerstage, and Take a Stand. After studying with clown and physical theater teachers including Chris Bayes, Giovanni Fusetti, and Philippe Gaulier, Meghan became a member of UMO Ensemble - a physical theatre group out of Vashon Island."

  • Bradley Goodwill (he/him)

    Father | Carmilla

    Bradley is thrilled to be a part of the New Works Festival. Locally he has been seen at Intiman, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Theatre Anonymous, and 14/48 Projects. He has appeared on the TV shows Grimm, Z Nation, and The Librarians. Film work includes Warmuffin, The Architect, and Burn It All.

  • Riley Gene (they/them)

    The Girl/The Gentleman/Doctor | Carmilla

    Riley Gene (they/them) is a proud trans-fem/non-binary, autistic actor, director, and playwright based in Seattle. Riley Gene has appeared on stage with Seattle Rep, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Freehold's Engaged Theatre Tour, the 1448 Projects, Strawberry Workshop Theatre, Dacha Theatre, and more. Currently serving as the General Manager of Sound Theatre Company, Riley holds a BFA in Original Works Theatre from Cornish College of the Arts. Next up, they will be seen in Seattle Shakespeare Company's Two Gentleman of Verona.

  • Michael Ramquist (he/him)

    Housekeeper/Art Conservator/General Spielsdorf | Carmilla

    Michael (He/Him) has been fortunate enough to have performed with many theater companies in the Seattle area. He couldn't be more delighted than to be included in "Carmilla." The brave and talented people making this theater happen inspire him and teach him every day. Fangs for your support!

On the Train

written by Lisa A. Price | directed by Christie Zhao

Note from the Playwright

On June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of precedent, overruling Roe v. Wade.

The results of these restrictions will disproportionately affect low-income people of color, immigrants, and non-English speakers, and have the potential to exacerbate already existing racial inequities in maternal and neonatal outcomes. The United States is facing a Black maternal health crisis where Black birthing people are more than twice to three times as likely to experience maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity compared to White birthing people. Historical legacies of institutionalized racism and bias in medicine compound this problem.

According to the CDC, Black women are over three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related complication than white women are. And in some parts of the country, this disparity is frighteningly worse. A report by the District of Columbia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, for instance, found that Black people accounted for 90% of pregnancy-related deaths in DC, despite constituting only half of all births there. On top of this Black women are also at higher risk for pregnancy complications and postpartum issues, such as pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. These disparities are race based and not affected by class.

The Trump campaign ushered in what is called ‘The Trump Effect: rhetoric encouraging open prejudice and bias particularly by political elite. The effect resulted in a decrease of constraint by the general public to express prejudice. Thus those holding those prejudices were emboldened to not only express them but also to act upon them.

This is unacceptable.

Publicity Photos

Note from the Director

When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, I found myself bewildered. As a Chinese immigrant who has lived in Seattle for six years, I initially couldn't grasp how unelected judges, appointed for life, could profoundly alter the lives of so many across the United States. The image of America broadcast to the world has always been one of elections, democracy, and freedom. Honestly, that’s what I genuinely believed before coming here.

The first play that truly transformed my perspective was Line in the Dust by Nikkole Salter. It was relatable yet revealed depths of systemic racism I had never fully understood. Although outside my own lived experiences, I found myself deeply emotionally connected to the story, and it fundamentally altered my worldview. This profound impact is essentially why I am driven to make theatre.

I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to direct On the Train. When I first read the script, it elicited a strong emotional response and sparked my curiosity to explore the themes it touched upon. It reminded me of how the Chinese government is also concerned about the “population problem” and is implementing policies to control women’s bodies. It educated me that abortion is not a homogenous issue, and highlighted the disparities targeting Black and Brown women.

Directing this play is both a challenging and enlightening experience for me. It requires an understanding of areas foreign to me—American media, journalism, American internal politics. It involves confronting the realities of the country we live in today. It compels us to step out of our isolated bubbles and engage in dialogue. It challenges us with the question: What will work? How can we actually make a change? Thanks to our open, dedicated and supportive cast, designers, and our playwright Lisa, we are able to collectively present to you our version of On the Train.

Cast & Creative Team

  • Christie Zhao (she/her)

    Director

    Christie Zhao is a theatre director, interdisciplinary artist, and art leader. As the artistic director at Yun Theatre in Seattle, Christie's work tackles complex social issues, explores identity and culture, and challenges conventional narratives. She is passionate about documentary theatre and new work development. Past directing credit: "Caught" by Christopher Chen, “Good Enemy” by Yilong Liu, “Two Goldfish (Who Become Heroes) by Olivia Xing and Gefei Liu and "Monologues of n Women" with Yun Theatre.

  • Lisa A. Price (she/they)

    Playwright

    I am a scientist and physician, who minored in musical theater dance as an undergraduate. That has lent to being a trained observer with a lyrical lens. I write to foster my life, and to affect others so that they may foster their own in a positive way.

    In 2011, I had just finished a postdoctoral fellowship, and as a single mother, was raising two fabulous daughters. That year, I was 'let go' from a job that I had been at for two months. I was overqualified, they said. It was unexpected and traumatic. My blood pressure elevated and my heart would not stop racing. I turned to creating a world that I could control, dressed in my concerns, plus all the elements I love, including the natural world, order, deep relationships, magic, food and family.

    My overall goal as a writer is focused on the deconstruction of calamities as well as joy, through examination of the paths which lead to them. In this way, the stories can be used as tools, as we discover ways of interjecting means to enhance joy, or interrupting dysfunction before calamities happen.

  • Alba Davenport (she/her)

    Nia Anderson | On the Train

    Alba is excited to work with The Shattered Glass Project and playwright Lisa Price on this new piece. She believes art is capable of many things and the ability to humanize is its greatest power.

  • Audrey Herold (she/her)

    Melinda Kramer | On the Train

    Audrey’s favorite previous roles include: Susan/Witch (Always Winter, TTC), Mary Magdalene (Judas Iscariot, TAL), and Ascendant (The Veil, Dacha). She regularly tours with TTC’s Improv Team and is a proud company member & artistic producer with Dacha Theatre. BFA from TWU & MFA from Seattle U. More at audreyherold.com

  • James Lyle (he/him)

    Senator Chad Fox | On the Train

    James is a Seattle actor and playwright. Recent roles include Calendar Girls (Phoenix Theatre) and The Flight Before Xmas (Macha). His plays Red Planet Blue and Ghost Girl have been featured in Edmonds Driftwood Players new works series.

  • José Amador (he/him)

    Daniel Stevens | On the Train

    José Amador couldn’t be more thrilled to be working on his first Shattered Glass Project production! Pre-pandemic, you may have seen his work as an actor in Cafe Nordo’s ONĒRUS; this is his first time as an actor since that entire rigamarole began. You might be more familiar with his work as a director, most recently with Theater Anonymous’ IT’S A WONDERFUL LIVESTREAM 2020, Theater Schmeater’s TWO SISTERS AND A PIANO, or amador/stokes’ world premiere of DUELS. Finally, as a playwright, his solo shows, EL HIJO PRODIGO and AGUE: A BODY HORROR, have been produced a number of times in Seattle, with another showing of both shows in repertory at 18th & Union in late October.

  • Chloe Monroe (she/her)

    Rebecca Levin | On the Train

    Chloe is thrilled to be part of The Shattered Glass Project's 2024 New Works Festival production of playwright Dr. Lisa Price's captivating new piece, "On the Train." With a passion for storytelling and a commitment to bringing diverse voices to the stage, Chloe hopes to brings depth and authenticity to this role.

    Having previously collaborated with The Shattered Glass Project, Chloe is no stranger to presenting new works that challenge, inspire, and provoke thought. Her performance in the innovative "Perseus & Anemone", where Chloe last appeared with TSGP, showcased her versatility and dedication to exploring complex narratives.

Out of Time

Written by Rachel Atkins | Directed by Divya Rajan

Note from the Director

What would matter the most to us, if death were to stare right into our eyes and opting to live wasn’t a choice?

Out of Time is a thriller about six women whose destinies are intertwined through their trysts with loss, grief & death.

Just like so many of us, except these women are running out of time. Working on this play; and engaging with these six women has compelled me to ask questions of myself – of baggage I carry, of things that matter, of fragility of life, of its impermanence, of what I have gained and of what I have lost. In a very surreal way, how I ended up directing this play itself is a story of intertwined destinies.

Out of Time is a reminder that the only time we have is right here, right now.

What would you do if your destiny is intertwined in ways you don’t know with strangers in this room, just like the six women you are about to meet?

Note from the Playwright

Ironically, Out of Time has been a slow burn of a play. It began as a 10-minute script in an all-female weekend for 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival, a response to the question “How will I survive?” That play, called This Is Not September 11, is now Part 3 of the show you’ll see here. (Thanks to Wesley Frugé of Forward Flux Productions for the current title.) I’m grateful to the many other, mostly all-female companies, directors and performers who have helped shepherd that original piece through readings, workshops, and development over the years into a full-length one-act (and this shortened festival version), including this artistic team.

Who are we when situations strip us bare of everything but the essentials of what makes each of us, uniquely, ourselves? How do we connect with other people in those moments? What are the threads tying us to those who come before and after? How will we survive? In today’s world, maybe more than ever, those questions still resonate for me.

Publicity Photos

Cast & Creative Team

  • Divya Rajan (she/her)

    Director

    Divya is a creative practitioner/warrior and a performance artiste. She loves creating site-specific, immersive, experimental, and devised works. She holds an MFA in theatre arts, is a trained cinematographer, a Scuba diver and a Reiki healer. She practices the Margolis Method. Divya designs & facilitates creative rituals through Epiphany Sutra – a world of re-imagined rituals. She also works with youth. Her cultural roots, immigrant life, & self-learned artistic pursuits significantly shape her artistic identity.

  • Rachel Atkins (she/her)

    Playwright

    Rachel Atkins (she/her) is the scriptwriter for the multimedia educational theatre company Living Voices, with 12 shows on history and social justice in ongoing touring repertory, seen by over 4 million audience members throughout the US and Canada. Her play Black Like Us (Original Works Publishing) received the TPS Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play, two Seattle Times Footlight Awards, and was an American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award nominee. A 3-time Gregory Award nominee for Outstanding Playwright/New Play, her work has been produced extensively in Seattle and around the US, Canada, and Brazil. Rachel is a Dramatists Guild member and holds her Master’s in Educational Theatre from New York University.

  • Azadeh Zanjani (she/her)

    Sera/Sarah | Out of Time

    Azadeh Zanjani is a Meisner trained actor and multidisciplinary artist based in Seattle. Recent credits include The Forgotten History of Mastaneh with Seattle Public Theatre/Seda Theatre, TheTitle, a short film by Naghmeh Samini, Hijab with Island Theatre and Play of Life and Death with Seda Theatre/MachaTheatre Works. When not acting, Azadeh practices architecture, paints, and sings classical arias.

  • Natalie Schmidt (she/her)

    Trish/Miranda | Out of Time

    Natalie Schmidt (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, and Co-Artistic Director of General Gabler’s Theatre. Credits include: Hedda Gabler (Hedda; General Gabler’s Theatre), Ghost Party: Remastered (Ursula; Dacha), When Love Speaks (Thalia Dionysus; Thalia’s Umbrella), and In the Next Room (Mrs. Daldry; BAT). More at thenatalieschmidt.com!

  • Tessa “Cricket” James (they/them)

    Angie/Angelina | Out of Time

    Tessa “Cricket” James is an actor local to the Seattle area and is honored to be able to help tell the story of the struggle of the women who have come before us. They would like to dedicate this performance to their mom, the strongest woman they know.