Renowned playwright Naomi Iizuka will host the University’s A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival Nov. 5-15.
Sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, the Hotchner Festival is held in conjunction with the annual A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition. Each spring, four student plays — two full-length works and two shorts — are selected by blind jury and workshopped the following fall.
This years full-length winners — which will be eligible, along with the 2006 winners, for full production as part of the PAD’s 2006-07 season — were Highness by senior Carolyn Kras and Shades of Light Blue by senior Yuan Ji.
Highness tells the story of a brave queen who lost her mind but kept her head in the court of Henry VIII, while Shades of Light Blue juxtaposes different times and different relationships to track the journey of a young Asian woman, who may or may not be in love.
In addition, Flick, by sophomore Nicholas A. Loyal, and Chosen Family, by sophomore Nick Rogers, won for short plays.
While on campus, Iizuka will work intensively with the winning playwrights and host staged readings of the four works. Readings of Highness and Chosen Family will begin at 7 p.m. Nov. 14, while readings of Shades of Light Blue and Flick will start at 7 p.m. Nov. 15.
All readings will take place in Hurst Lounge in Dunker Hall.
Iizuka’s plays have been produced and developed throughout the United States. Born in Tokyo, she was raised in Japan, Indonesia, Holland and Washington, D.C., and studied at Yale University and the University of California, San Diego.
Major plays include War of the Worlds (2000), Language of Angels (1999), 36 Views (1998), Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls (1998), Polaroid Stories (1996), Skin (1995) and Tattoo Girl (1994).
Her numerous honors include a Whiting Award, a McKnight Fellowship, an NEA/TCG Artist-in-Residence Fellowship and a PEN Center USA West Award for Drama.
“Naomi is one of the country’s most esteemed and cherished playwrights,” said Carter W. Lewis, playwright-in-residence in the PAD. “She has generously shared her personal exploration of myth and language with our country’s most proficient artists, in front of our most progressive audiences, on our most provocative stages.
“And from personal experience, she’s a lovely and generous colleague.”
In addition to the Hotchner Festival, Iizuka will host an intensive playwriting workshop for PAD students from 1-2:15 p.m. Nov. 11. The results will then be presented in a public reading at 3 p.m. in Hurst Lounge.
For more information, call 935-5858 or go online to artsci.wustl.edu/~pad.