Palm Beach Dramaworks Presents

the Perlberg Festival of New Plays

January 17-19, 2025

West Palm Beach, Fla. (Tueasday, January 6, 2025)-The start of a new year is all about looking ahead, and at Palm Beach Dramaworks that means looking toward and nurturing the future of theatre. The Perlberg Festival of New Plays ushers in 2025 with readings of five invigorating scripts still in development, written by five notable playwrights.  

 

The seventh annual festival, which runs from January 17-19, features Vineland Place by Steven Dietz (3pm Friday, January 17), Class C by Chaz T. Martin (7:30 pm Friday, January 17), The Mallard by Vincent Delaney (3pm Saturday, January 18), In Two by Chelsea Marcantel (7:30 pm Saturday, January 18), and Alba by Alejandro Rodriguez (3pm Sunday, January 19). Each reading is followed by a post-performance discussion.

"We're absolutely thrilled to be gathering such a phenomenal team of playwrights, directors, and actors for this year's Perlberg Festival of New Plays,” said Jenny Connell Davis, PBD’s resident playwright and literary manager, who runs the festival with Producing Artistic Director William Hayes. “We have exciting voices ready for their national spotlight, some of the most-produced playwrights in American theatre, and an incredible team of directors. This year's plays are funny, scary, suspenseful, and — above all — timely. We hope folks will come see these readings now, because these are plays that will be seen everywhere, soon!"


The directors are Mark Perlberg (Vineland Place), Jessica Holt (Class C), J. Barry Lewis (The Mallard), Hannah Wolf (In Two), and KJ Sanchez (Alba).

Tickets for the festival are on sale now, and can be purchased online at boxoffice@palmbeachdramaworks.org, or by calling the box office at 561.514.4042 x2. Tickets are $35 per play, or $100 for all five plays. 


Diane and Mark Perlberg are the executive producers of the Perlberg Festival of New Plays. The associate producers are Sandra and Bernie Meyer. The festival is sponsored in part by the Maurer Family Foundation. 

Diane and Mark Perlberg

THE 2025 PERLBERG FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS

Friday, January 17 at 3pm

VINELAND PLACE 

by Steven Dietz

Directed by Mark Perlberg

For young writer Henry Sanders, it seemed like the perfect job: finishing the long-awaited final book of the novelist who was his hero. Hired by the novelist’s widow, Henry finds himself instead in the midst of a rapidly developing mystery. Vineland Place is an intimate thriller, filled with dangerous surprises to the final page. 


Playwright

For the 2024-25 season, Steven Dietz was once again named one of the “20 Most Produced Playwrights in America” by American Theatre Magazine. His 40-plus plays and adaptations have been seen at over 100 regional theatres, as well as Off-Broadway and in 25 countries. Recent premieres include new adaptations of Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton and Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. His widely- produced play, Shooting Star, was adapted by Dietz, Kirk Lynn, and Meg Ryan into the movie What Happens Later, starring Ms. Ryan. Awards include the Steinberg New Play Citation for Bloomsday, the Kennedy Center New American Plays Award for Fiction, and the Edgar Award® for Best Mystery Play for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure



Director

Mark Perlberg has been on the board of PBD for more than 15 years and served as chairman for six years. He is the executive producer of the Perlberg Festival of New Plays, for which he last directed Oren Safdie’s Color Blind, and was the executive producer of the Master Playwright series and Dramalogue: Talking Theatre! For those two series, he prepared and delivered more than a dozen programs on playwrights including Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and Tennessee Williams. He also directed the first play produced in the Studio Theatre. Mark is currently a managing director at Nautic Partners, a private equity firm with offices in Providence, RI and Palm Beach Gardens.

Friday, January 17 at 7:30pm

CLASS C 

by Chaz T. Martin

Directed by Jessica Holt

In a future where American citizens have government-assigned classifications, identity politics and old party lines are set to ensnare a Homeland Security agent on the run. Set off the grid in the northern woods, Class C reimagines who can (or should) be trusted in a world built on blind loyalty. 

 

Playwright

Chaz T. Martin is a Philadelphia-based, first-generation, mixed-race, nonbinary playwright. A graduate of NYU-Tisch, they’re a proud member of The Foundry, recent writer-in-residence at the audio app Dipsea, and literary manager at Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company. Their short film, Chemistry, has won myriad writing awards at film festivals across the country. Their short screenplay, Melissa, was a finalist in Tribeca Film Institute's Through Her Lens program in 2019, and is currently in development as the full-length play I’ll Eat You Whole

 

Director

Jessica Holt (she/her) has developed and directed new and contemporary work at En Garde Arts, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), Alliance Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Clarence Brown Theatre, The Cape Playhouse, Oklahoma City Repertory Theater, Magic Theatre, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, San Francisco Playhouse, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Rivendell Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Barrington Stage Company, among others. Currently: Director of the Summer Training Congress at A.C.T. MFA in directing, Yale School of Drama. jessicalholt.org

Saturday, January 18 at 3pm

THE MALLARD 

by Vincent Delaney

Directed by J. Barry Lewis

Freya and Gillian are teachers who have offended their school board and lost their jobs. Davis and Reagan are yard sale fanatics in search of a priceless antique duck decoy. What follows is a fierce, funny, and escalating battle over a symbol that has wildly different meanings – intersecting the couples in a journey that far surpasses the quest for treasure. 




Playwright

Vincent Delaney is a Seattle-based playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been produced, commissioned, and developed at the Guthrie Theater, Florida Studio Theatre, Humana Festival, Premiere Stages, LAByrinth Theater Company, New Harmony Project, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, NNPN, InterAct, Children’s Theatre Company, ACT Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Magic Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare & Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, B Street Theatre, PlayLabs, Capital Repertory Theatre, and Orlando Shakes, among many others. Two of his features are currently in pre-production. Awards include McKnight and Bush Foundation Fellowships, the Reva Shiner Comedy Award from the Bloomington Playwrights Project, a Steinberg/ATCA nomination, and a Jerome Commission. 



Director

The journey of creativity has always been front and center in the work of PBD. I have been honored to be on that journey with extraordinary artists, both on- and offstage. My work began with No Exit and brings me to The Dresser, with some 40 shows in between. Highlights include Copenhagen, Jacques Brel…, The Chairs, Buried Child, All My Sons, Arcadia, Equus, The Pitmen Painters, Death of a Salesman, and so many others. Directing for the stage requires a great deal of trust; we artists open our souls to examination of our most private beliefs in the theatrical process. It creates a bond of community. And when we find the trust, we hopefully find the truth in every story that we tell. We are “a band of creative brothers!” – J. Barry Lewis

Saturday, January 18 at 7:30pm

IN TWO

by Chelsea Marcantel

Directed by Hannah Wolf

Old and new magic converge in a decrepit vaudeville theatre, in this sharp exploration of stagecraft, second chances, and the art of cutting a woman in half. 


Playwright

Chelsea Marcantel is an LA-based writer, director, and collaborator. Reared by Cajuns in Louisiana, Chelsea has also lived and worked among the people of the Midwest, Appalachia, and the Mid-Atlantic. She completed an American Playwrights Fellowship at Juilliard, and is the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre. Her plays, which have been produced worldwide, include Airness, The Upstairs Department,Everything is Wonderful, Tiny Houses, and Citizen Detective. Chelsea is an enthusiastic member of the Writer’s Guild of America and The Dramatists Guild, and runs with the activist collective The Kilroys. chelseamarcantel.com



Director

Hannah Wolf is an LA-based theatre director and producer originally from Juneau. She’s worked with Geffen Playhouse; B Street Theatre; La Jolla's WOW Festival; Playwrights’ Center; and Perseverance, IAMA, Echo, The Fountain, and The Vineyard theatres, among many others. Recent shows include Paula Vogel’s Indecent, Jane Chambers’ Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, Kirk Lynn’s Fixing King John, Katie Bender’s Instructions for a Séance, Chelsea Marcantel’s Airness, and Fun Home. Hannah is the senior artistic producer at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. She’s a National Directors Fellow (O'Neill, NNPN, SDC, Kennedy Center), a Fulbright Research Fellow (Bucharest), a member of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center Theater, and Soho Rep’s Writer Director Lab. MFA from UT Austin and member of SDC. hannahjwolf.com 

Sunday, January 19 at 3pm

ALBA 

by Alejandro Rodriguez

Directed by KJ Sanchez

Inspired by Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba, Alba follows a strong-willed Cuban matriarch trying to hold onto control of her house in the face of myriad encroaching forces, including newfangled technology, impatient debtors, and a young suitor with suspicious motives. Narrated by her grandchild and set in working-class Miami, the play seeks to make sense of the unspoken secrets that led to a tragic family event. 

 

Playwright

Alejandro Rodriguez is a Miami-based Cuban-American theatre artist and graduate of Juilliard. His dance-theatre work, Sorry, enjoyed two sold-out runs at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in New York. In My Body, a collaboration with the Canadian street dance company, Bboyizm, recently toured North and South America and won four Dora Awards, including Outstanding Production. He’s an O’Neill Center finalist and a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center. Residencies include Mesa Refuge, Artist in Residence in the Everglades (AIRIE), Miami Light Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Makehouse, and the Center for Innovation in the Arts at Juilliard. Formerly, Alejandro served as the associate artistic director for PlayMakers Repertory Company and as deputy executive director for Arts Ignite, a global nonprofit that delivers arts education to over 3000 children annually on four continents. 

 

Director

KJ Sanchez is the founder and CEO of American Records, dedicated to making theatre that chronicles our time. Sanchez has worked with playwrights such as Octavio Solis, Karen Zacarías, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Martin Zimmerman, and Kristoffer Diaz. Her productions have been seen at regional theatres throughout the country, including the Guthrie, Hartford Stage, the Huntington, Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Asolo Rep, and Round House; Off-Broadway at Urban Stages, HERE Arts Center, and the Gene Frankel Theatre. She is a former member of SITI Company, a Fox International Fellow at Yale University, a Douglass Wallop Fellow at Washington College, an associate artist with The Civilians, and a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. 

Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional, nonprofit theatre company founded in 2000 and located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach. Each season, the award-winning company produces five shows and offers a wide variety of programs for students at the theatre and in schools. Committed to fostering the future of theatre, PBD has become a hub for playwrights in Florida and around the country to nurture their work through the Perlberg Festival of New Plays. PBD is a member of Theatre Communications Group, Florida Professional Theatres Association, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, and NNPN. In 2024, PBD was honored as Non-Profit of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches. 


Diane and Mark Perlberg are the sponsors of PBD’s 25th Anniversary Season. The West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority and West Palm Beach Arts & Entertainment District are additional sponsors of PBD’s 25th Anniversary Season, and The Palm Beach Post is the media sponsor. 



The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at 561.514.4042 x2, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

 

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Jennifer Sardone-Shiner

Marketing Consultant

(561) 891-7278

jshiner@palmbeachdramaworks.org 

www.palmbeachdramaworks.org

Palm Beach Dramaworks - 201 Clematis Street West Palm Beach FL 33401 - 561.514.4042