The New Deal Creative Arts Center is proud to announce our lineup for the 2025 festival!
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!!!!
The Appliance Department By Bella Poynton
Directed by Kevin Barnes
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At Boynton’s department store, Robotic Companions (RCs) Ruby and Charlie want nothing more than to be purchased by a human family and brought to a loving home. But as RC appliances, they have no control over when this will happen. Ruby and Charlie wait patiently, anxiously, eagerly, imagining the day when they might be bought… until a brand-new 6th generation RC, Violet, arrives at the appliance store. Violet seems to feel and understand things that Ruby and Charlie do not, fueling deep uncertainty in their otherwise ordinary lives. Then, when Charlie is finally purchased and taken away, Violet desperately tries to sway Ruby towards escape, rebellion, and the dream of revolution. Even as she is moved into the clearance section, Ruby still wishes for a family, while Violet risks everything for a taste of freedom.
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The Assignment By Drew Carnwath
Directed by Emily DePew
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THE ASSIGNMENT is an explosive 2-hander about power, class and gender divisions; sex and betrayal; and finally compromise and redemption. Jordan is a successful female attorney with a secret. Katherine is a high-end escort with a past. When Jordan hires Katherine for an unusual ‘trick’ – to set a honey trap for her cheating husband – it turns out Katherine has some tricks of her own. Set against a backdrop of sex trafficking and hate-based racial violence, The Assignment is a bold blend of power, politics and persuasion as Jordan and Katherine dig deep into their high-stakes game: exactly who is working for whom? Why does Katherine seem to know more about lawyer Jordan than a hired escort should? And if Jordan simply wants to catch her husband in the act of infidelity – why doesn’t she simply do it herself? With exciting twists, the game of cat-and-mouse between Katherine and Jordan escalates to a surprising conclusion. Along the way, the chinks in both women’s armour break open in rare moments of honesty and deliverance – proving again that our vulnerabilities can not only define us, but occasionally save us. “In betraying what we love, we betray what is truest about ourselves.”
Estbay Iendsfray By Emmy Kuperschmid
Directed by Dylan Parkin
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“Did you ever have an intense homoerotic years-long friendship in your early to mid teens that culminated in a dramatic friend breakup or are you straight?” Hannah is terrified of change. Iris wants things to be better. They’re estbay iendsfray oreverfray–they have been since they sat next to each other in circle at preschool, and nothing is ever going to change that. Right? Sometimes friendships make you better. Sometimes love makes you feel like you’re drowning.
The Heiress Of Hawtrey Hall By Ellen Dean Price
Directed by Champ Knecht
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Regency heiress Grace Coventry wants to protect Hawtrey Hall and her financial independence now that she’s come of age. When unexpected guests arrive, Miss Coventry’s new outspoken steward becomes an unlikely ally in fending off probing questions from meddling relations and insistent suitors. Will she find her desired independence, or will her escapades trap her in an unwelcome match?
Letters To Angels By Charles Karol Brestman
Directed by Alison MacAvery
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A young couple embarks on a new chapter of their lives, starting a family, only to be confronted by the extraordinary challenges of infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss. Their determination to endure and overcome leads only to unanswered questions and unimaginable heartbreak, while their solitary struggle takes a devastating toll on their mentality and relationship.
The Locke Inn By Brent Alles
Directed by Michael Juzwak
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MATT LOCKE lives a great life. He has a funny, beautiful wife – ABBY – and two smart, rambunctious kids – JIMMY and SAMANTHA. He’s trying to run his own bed and breakfast, a lifelong dream of his. He even puts up with the well meaning but annoying next door neighbor TOBY whenever he barges in. However, all is not as it seems, as we learn the secret behind MATT LOCKE’s life and what might bring the Locke Inn crashing down around him.
Mr. Thrushby’s Adventure By Esme Waters
Directed by Joe Gasparini
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In this comedy-thriller, set in early World War II, Mr Thrushby, a retiree, is looking back on a wasted life; one in which he has accomplished little, experienced nothing, loved nobody, or been loved. He yearns for adventure but fears now it is too late. In the midst of his despair, Sam Carlton, a young criminal on the run after an audacious burglary, bursts into his life. Mr Thrushby finds himself living with a criminal and starts a highly comedic and exciting adventure.
Ocean View Odyssey By Robert Alexander Wray
Directed by Robert Cogliati
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Riffing on Homer’s “The Odyssey,” the story follows Henry Byers, a young New York lawyer who, in a state of crisis, travels back to his home in Ocean View, Virginia in order to find his long-estranged father and heal wounds from the past.
Or Die Trying By Liggera Edmonds-Allen
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CHAT-GPT has a knife. Their roommate, Thalia, (the Greek Muse of Comedic Poetry), tries to show them how fun humanity is: we have dirty limericks, cold pizza, and Con O’Neill. Thalia must convince them that humanity is worth a damn – or die trying.
Presto! By Dana Schwartz
Directed by Thom Webb
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Richard has always dreamed of being a Magician, and with the assistance of his magical mentors Leeza and Gary, finally has a real shot at performing at the Magic Castle. Meanwhile, his wife of 30 years, Arlene, is going through some magical transformations of her own. When Gary and Leeza discover Arlene’s new powers, a struggle begins that could rend the very fabric of the universe! Or at the very least, ruin Richard’s big audition. And his dinner. Presto! is a comedy about handling “change-o” with grace. Or not.
Vigorish By Allan Staples
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The Las Vegas-set VIGORISH is split between the back office of a casino’s sportsbook, a rooftop and a Rabbi’s office and the bima of a synagogue. The action takes place on Yom Kippur and the NFL opening Sunday as well as a series of three flashbacks. The first moment of the play – a flash forward – is Casey, alone, on a rooftop watching a neighboring casino be imploded. He watches and then steps off the building and plummets to his death. Caught between these two wildly differing worlds is Ben, an intelligent, thirty-something Jewish bookmaker; great at his job but spiritually unfulfilled. Spurred by a recent tragic occurrence at the sportsbook, Ben begins studying with Rabbi Sim and, eventually, makes the shocking decision to move to Israel to become a Rabbi. However, leaving would mean ending his sort-of relationship with his sort-of girlfriend, the acerbic cocktail waitress Zoe. Leaving would also mean abandoning his mentor and father-figure, Casey, whose dedicated his life to his career at the casino with diminishing results. Staying in Vegas would crush Ben’s tenuous dreams of becoming a Rabbi and would likely seal his future. Ben decides to stay. Our final scene is a repeat of the first scene save one key difference. As Casey is about to jump, Ben arrives, unknowingly, saving his life. The two watch the other casino fall as Rabbi Sim begins the concluding service of Yom Kippur.
Wire Walker By Emilio Iasiello
Directed by Krista Libertino
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1970s. FLORENCE, A new flyer joins one of the last of the struggling outdoor circuses, which have been folding one by one. Billed as the new star, she develops a strange relationship with one of the hired jack-of-all-trades workers, JOHNNY, a sarcastic, withdrawn man. Despite his antagonism for all things circus, she spies on him teaching wire walking to the owner’s nephew, TOMMY, only to learn that JOHNNY is a famed wire walker himself who had disappeared from the circus scene a decade earlier after an accident. As FLORENCE tries to figure out why JOHNNY quit, a scout from one of the big circuses is making a deal for FLORENCE’s rights. As the owner fights to keep his circus running without having his star stolen and the rest of his circus broken and sold by parts, TOMMY’s impudence leads him to do something rash. There is only one person that has a chance of saving TOMMY – and that’s JOHNNY, a man trying to live down his reputation at every and all cost.
HUDSON VALLEY THEATRE FESTIVAL: MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of The Hudson Valley Theatre Festival (HVTF) is to celebrate and support new theatrical works by providing opportunity and accessibility to established and emerging local, national, and international playwrights. HVTF will also promote tourism to the Hudson Valley area by attracting visitors for this annual event and supporting local businesses in the process. Under The New Deal Creative Arts Center, HVTF is an inclusive program that welcomes playwrights, theater artists, volunteers, audience members, and affiliates of all ages, races, genders, sexualities, abilities and backgrounds.
HUDSON VALLEY THEATRE FESTIVAL:
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submissions for new plays will be accepted beginning August 1, 2024 with the following guidelines:
- This festival is open to local, national, and international playwrights.
- A 2025 Hudson Valley Theatre Festival application must be completed in full online (the cap for our submissions for 2025 has been reached).
- Only unpublished plays will be accepted – we are not accepting any musicals at this time.
- We are looking for full length plays. Running time of the piece should not exceed 2 hours.
- Only one play submission per playwright.
- There are no cast size restrictions for this festival.
- The play must be written in English.
- The submitted work should be intended as a stage play (not a radio play or a play meant for a virtual platform)
- We ardently support diversity and inclusion.
- All plays will be under jury review by a hand-selected and diverse reading panel made up of theatre professionals.
- There is no fee to submit your play to the Hudson Valley Theatre Festival.
- Scripts must be PDF format. (Dramatists Guild Formatting Guidelines)
- Play’s cover sheet should include author’s information (name, address, telephone, email).
- Inquiries can be sent to [email protected]
- Selected plays will receive a reading of their work during the 2025 Hudson Valley Theatre Festival slated for May 2-4, 2025.
- There is a cap of 100 submissions. A total of twelve (12) plays will be selected for the reading festival.
QUESTIONS CAN BE DIRECTED TO [email protected]