Artistic director: ‘This year’s winning plays share a common perspective, one of empathy and compassion’

By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news

The Ashland New Plays Festival (ANPF) has announced the winning playwrights for this year’s annual Fall Festival.

After reviewing 350 script submissions for the 2025 season, Haley Forsyth, ANPF managing director, said the four winners are:

• Kamila Boga for “In Case of Bruising”
• Vince Gatton for “Better”
• Naya James Sonnad for “Tipping Point”
• Emma Watkins for “Pretend It’s Pretend.”

“ANPF is excited to welcome the winning playwrights to Ashland, Oregon this fall for a week of play development, artist collaboration, and audience feedback,” ANFP Artistic Director Jackie Apodoca said in a news release.

The four winning plays will be presented at this year’s Fall Festival October 15-19, at Southern Oregon University’s Main Stage Theater, in the theatre building at 491 S. Mountain Ave. 

Boga is a Los Angeles and New York City-based director, playwright, and actor. Because she focuses on expressive, ensemble-driven work, Boga approaches projects with curiosity and the intention to “turn tension into art,” the ANFP website says. “In Case of Bruising” is described as “a lyrical exploration of childhood, danger, and the many faces of pain.”   

Vince Gatton is a New York-based playwright and Drama Desk-nominated actor. His work has appeared in the Samuel French OOB Festival and Motolla Theatre Project’s annual Cherry Picking at the Wild Project. His play “Better” is described as “a darkly comic drama about personal and systemic resistance.”

Naya James Sonnad writes plays and films and is also an actor and producer in New York City. Her work questions what it means to belong, to be other, and to be an American. “Tipping Point,” according to Apodoca, “explores changes – of the climate and the heart – and prompts audiences to consider the value of one human life.”

Emma Watkins has a background in theater. Her plays have been published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French and Routledge. “Pretend it’s Pretend,” which was named Runner-Up for the 2024 Princess Grace Award from New Dramatists, is described as “a play about learning, growing up, and how grown-ups might need to learn to play.”

The annual ANPF Fall Festival is described by Apodoca and Forsyth as “an opportunity for playwrights to workshop their scripts with professional actors and directors, often for the first time. It is also a chance to connect with audience members during talk-backs following each reading, where patrons can share their thoughts directly with the artists to help continue the growth of their work.”

The talk-backs will be led by ANPF’s Host Playwrights. This year, former winner E.M. Lewis – “Song of Extinction,” 2008 – returns as a Co-Host playwright. She will be joined by past winning playwright Victor Lesniewski – “The Hunt for Benedetto Montone,” 2022, and “Cold Spring,” 2018.

Lewis is an award-winning playwright who has twice received the Steinberg Award, the Primus Prize from the American Theater Critics Association, and the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.

Lesniewski has been a two-time semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award; a semi-finalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship and for the New Dramatists Residency; a finalist for the Heideman Award; and a two-time finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

Each year, Apodoca said the winning scripts are selected through ANPF’s “distinctive community-based reading process, which involves a passionate group of theatre lovers volunteering their time to read each script, without knowing the author’s identity.” Over the course of six months, all 350 plays are read, debated, and narrowed down based on the scripts’ content, originality, impact, and more. The four winners are then selected by Apodaca. 

“Our 2025 winners were chosen from an exceptional pool of submissions,” she explained of the selection process. “By the time a play becomes a finalist, it has been championed through our months-long reading process and deeply appreciated by all of our dedicated readers, making the choice of the four winners extremely challenging.”

“This year’s winning plays,” she added, “share a common perspective, one of empathy and compassion. From feuding meat factory coworkers to hungry children playing games in the woods, these stories blend the familiar with the existential. I am eager to welcome our four winning playwrights to Ashland this October and to see their compelling stories brought to life.”

In addition, ANPF also congratulated this year’s finalists, including: “The Alligator” by Calley N. Anderson; “Oklahoma Samovar” by Alice Eve Cohen; “Anonymous Skin” by Cris Eli Blak; “The Many Mysterious Deaths of Jose Robles” by Jack Karp; “Cancer is a Bitch” by Kerr Lockhart; “Cicero’s Lisp” by Richard Manley; “The Black Madonna” by Steve Romagnoli; and “Bone by Bone” by Sharifa Yazmeen.

“We hope you’ll join us Oct. 15 to 19 to see some of the best new plays in American theater,” Apodaca said.

For more information visit website at ashlandnewplays.org/fall-festival.

Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at 337lee337@charter.net.