In Brief
- The festival is modeled on professional theater development workshops.
- All plays are selected by “blind” submission.
- The readings are free and open to the public.
“It’s a pretty tight-knit team. You know how small towns can be.”
— Nina, from “The Winger”
Maxwell is a talented striker. But when he joins a soccer club in rural Maine, the Somali teenager endures escalating harassment. Nina, his coach, attempts to intervene but soon finds that the lessons of the pitch are no match for the lessons players absorb at home.
In “The Winger,” Frauke Thielecke, a doctoral candidate in the international writers track in comparative literature in WashU Arts & Sciences, examines how even the best of intentions founder in the face of social pressure. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, “The Winger” will receive its world premiere staged reading as part of the 2026 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival.
Sponsored by the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, the Hotchner Festival is modeled on professional theater development workshops. All plays are selected by “blind” submission. Each playwright then spends two weeks working with a director and dramaturg as well as cast and crew. The process culminates in a staged reading in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.
Also debuting Sept. 19 will be “Crooked,” a short play by Chinonso Anyanwu, who earned her master’s in performance studies last spring. Set in a St. Louis living room, the story explores how two Nigerian-American sisters, Oma and Zee, negotiate legacies of grief and violence through the meticulous ritual of hair-braiding.
Rounding out the festival, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, will be “What We Talk About or The Common Room Play” by junior Anna Schwartz. With high hopes and low expectations, five first-year students set out from their shared suite to find love and camaraderie amidst new social landscapes.
About the Hotchner Festival
The Hotchner Festival is named for alumnus A.E. Hotchner (1917-2020), the acclaimed author and screenwriter who famously bested Tennessee Williams in a WashU student playwriting competition.
The 2026 festival is coordinated by Zachariah Ezer, an assistant professor of performing arts, who also directs “Crooked.” The dramaturg is Jordan Ealey, an assistant professor of Black studies at the University of Rochester.
Mariah Richardson, an assistant professor at St. Louis Community College — Florissant Valley, directs “The Winger.” Deanna Jent, artistic director for Mustard Seed Theatre, directs “The Common Room Play.”
The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6465 Forsyth Blvd. All readings are free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-935-5858, visit pad.washu.edu or follow the department on Facebook and Instagram.
