Hollins 2024 Events
Summer 2024 New Works Events through our partnership with the Hollins Playwright’s Lab
For more than four decades, Mill Mountain Theatre has had the development of new plays as part of our core mission. We have been home to a prominent national playwriting contest, premieres of new plays on both the Trinkle and Waldron stages, the Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works, CenterPieces and our ongoing partnership with the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University has helped Roanoke gain an international reputation as an artistic home for new work since that program launched in 2007. Each year, Hollins brings dozens of professional theatre artists from all over the globe to our city as faculty, guest speakers and visiting artists mounting productions.
We are proud to provide our theatre spaces and resources so that Playwright’s Lab events can be off-campus, downtown, and open to the general public. We invite you to take advantage of this unique opportunity to share in these events. A complete listing can be found on the Playwright’s Lab Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/hollinsplaywrights/events.
A brief description of the free Playwright’s Lab events hosted at Mill Mountain Theatre follows. All events take place at MMT’s Waldron Stage (20 Church Avenue SE) unless otherwise noted.
July 19-21 | Hollins Playwrights Festival of New Works
Each summer at the end of July, we present a three-day event showcasing readings of student work from the Playwright’s Lab. Normally, these eight readings are minimally staged at Mill Mountain Theatre’s Waldron Stage for the general public and close to a dozen guest professional responders from all over the globe. On Sunday at 8 pm (Eastern) there will be a panel discussion when our guest respondents will introduce themselves, talk briefly about their own background, and then give a moderated response to the festival as a whole. Get acquainted with these plays and playwrights before they are famous, and engage in a conversation about theatre with our students, faculty, and some established theatre professionals. This event is always free, but due to limited seating, advance tickets are required. Tickets available by emailing Gwyneth Strope (stropegm1@nullhollins.edu).
Friday, July 19
8 pm The Greenhouse by J. Harvey Stone
Saturday, July 20
11 am Astroturf by Kolin Lawler
2 pm Lil’ Troopers by Richie Cannaday
4 pm The Caregiver by Stephanie Goldman
8 pm The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the [GUILTY] by Ami Trowell
Sunday, July 21
11 am Hamlet’s Ghost by Emily Fleischhauer
2 pm Frieda by ArLynn Parker
4 pm Nuptial Mass by Ben Abbott
8 pm Festival Guest Respondent Panel
Monday Night Guest Speaker Series-The Waldron Stage
Each Monday night at 7:30 p.m. the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University and Mill Mountain Theatre present a talk by a prominent working professional theatre artist or artists.
Cheryl Graeff | June 24
Cheryl Graeff is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and SAG-AFTRA has toured throughout the UK and performed at acclaimed theaters including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, Court Theatre, Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Kansas City Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory, and The Kennedy Center.
Cheryl, a three-time Irene Ryan Regional winner, received her MFA from the University of Iowa where she began teaching actors and continues working with talent of all ages and abilities both privately and at schools including Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Washington State University, Vagabond School of the Arts, Governors State University, Theater of Western Springs, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Chicago Public Schools. Cheryl is commited to new play development has been in premier productions including Appropriate by Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Speech and Debate by Stephen Karam, The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter, and I Put the Fear of Mexico in ‘em by Matthew Paul Olmos. Producing work includes the international award winning tv pilot, The Resentful Angel, as the principal role which now streams on AMAZON PRIME, internationally recognized web series, It’s You, which she wrote and stars in streaming on Twisted Mirror TV, and featured podcast on SiriusXM Radio: Friends I’m No Longer Friends With.
Nicholas Piper | July 1
Nicholas Piper is the Associate Artistic Director of Barter Theatre in charge of New Play Development as well as a director and founding member of Barter’s Resident Acting Company. As the director of Barter’s Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, he has helped develop dozens of new Appalachian plays that have gone on to full production at Barter as well as theatres across the country. He was recently awarded the AAME award for outstanding contribution to arts in the region.
Ruth Margraff | July 8
Ruth Margraff has been called a leader in the American avant garde for her “audaciously original” (Moscow Times) use of language that provides “layer after layer of richly textured emotion…and imminent danger” (Dallas Morning News). Critically acclaimed for writing martial arts operas DEADLY SHE-WOLF… and a VOICE OF THE DRAGON trilogy with the late composer Fred Ho for the Apollo, Guggenheim Museum, LaMama, Brooklyn Academy of Music and a commercially successful tour with Columbia Arts Management, Inc. to 33 cities in 2003 with support from ICM Artists and the World Music Institute. Ruth’s “Night Wind from Afghanistan” for the play SEVEN, began touring the world in 2008 introduced by designer Diane von Furstenberg, and in 2010 by Hillary Clinton with Meryl Streep at the Broadway Hudson Theater. SEVEN has been translated into more than 20 languages and performed in 32 countries. Ruth has received awards from Rockefeller, McKnight, Jerome, NEA, TCG, TMUNY, NYSCA, IAC, Fulbright foundations, and is also published by Innova Records, Dramatists Play Service, American Theatre, Theater Forum, Performing Arts Journal, Playscripts, Inc., Backstage Books, Autonomedia, New Village Press, NoPassport Press, Lexington Books/Roman & Littlefield. She is a member of Theater Without Borders, League of Professional Theater Women, Red Tape Theater, a New Dramatist and Playwrights’ Center alumna, a Chicago Dramatist playwright emeritus, and Professor of Playwriting/Writing as Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, represented by the Samara Harris Literary Agency (NYC).
Bonnie Metzgar | July 15
Bonnie Metzgar is a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and core visiting faculty with The Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University. In January 2020, her play You Lost Me had its world premiere at Denver Center Theater and was the recipient of an Edgerton New Play Award. Recently, she served as staff writer for Genius: Aretha, a limited television series with showrunner Suzan-Lori Parks. A fighter for artists from marginalized communities, Metzgar is passionate about making systemic change in the nonprofit theatre, and served as artistic director of About Face Theatre, one of the largest theatres in the US dedicated to producing queer artists and advancing the cultural dialogue on sexuality and gender identity. Previously, Metzgar served as associate producer at the Public Theater where she founded Joe’s Pub.
Addae Moon | July 22
Addae Moon is an Atlanta based playwright, dramaturg, director and cultural worker. He is the Associate Artistic Director at Theatrical Outfit and the co-founder of the play development and performance collective Hush Harbor Lab. Addae has served as a resident dramaturg with Working Title Playwright’s Ethel Woolson Lab. He was the recipient of the 2015 International Ibsen Award for his dramaturgical work on the project Master Comic and the 2014 John Lipsky Award from the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTAL) for his immersive play Four Days of Fury: Atlanta 1906. Addae was also a member of Alliance Theatre’s 2015-2016 Reiser Artists’ Lab as co-writer on the immersive project Third Council of Lyons with Found Stages. As the former literary manager at Horizon Theatre Company, he served as the development dramaturg on the early projects of many nationally renowned playwrights including Marcus Gardley, Lauren Gunderson, Tanya Barfield and Janece Shaffer. His recent immersive co-collaborations include Frankenstein’s Ball (2019/2020,) Frankenstein’s Funeral (2019) and Cassie’s Ballad (2022) with Found Stages. Addae received his BA in Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University and an MFA in Playwriting from the Professional Playwright’s Program at Ohio University. He is also a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America (LMDA,) Dramatist Guild and The Fence Network.
And don’t miss one of Roanoke’s favorite summer events, this year being performed on Hollins University’s Main Stage Theatre:
July 6 | Overnight Sensations | 8 pm.
Since 2006, the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University has partnered with Mill Mountain Theatre to present a micro-brewed theatre festival. On Friday night six playwrights are randomly paired with six directors, who then randomly draw from a hat a variety of writing prompts and a pre-selected cast of local actors. Before 9 a.m. the next morning, they have to write a 10-minute play. They meet with their directors over a continental breakfast on Saturday morning and make any last minute changes before the actors arrive and the plays begin rehearsal. When 8 p.m. rolls around, and the audience are in their seats, the show begins! Tickets are free and open to the public. Doors open at 7:30pm, no need to reserve in advance!
Hollins/Mill Mountain Theatre Partnership
A Dynamic Academic/Professional Partnership
Mill Mountain Theatre has a longstanding relationship with Hollins University, and the Hollins Theatre Institute. Among the exciting collaborations currently on the boards are:
Hollins-Mill Mountain Winter Festival of New Works. Each year new works from HTI are given world-premiere and workshop productions on MMT’s professional stages, fulfilling Roanoke’s long-standing enthusiasm and support for the development of new works.
M.F.A. Playwright’s Lab summer residency at MMT. For six weeks every summer, the M.F.A. program in playwriting (also known as Playwright’s Lab) splits its time between the Hollins campus and MMT’s various stages, hosting guest speakers of national renown, the annual Summer Festival of Play Readings, and Overnight Sensations, a micro-brewed new play festival of freshly baked plays.
Faculty and guest artists. Working professional artists from MMT serve as adjunct faculty and guest artists at the Hollins Theatre Institute throughout the year.
Musical Theatre training at Hollins is directly connected to the excellent artistic staff at MMT, with professional artists providing classroom instruction at Hollins and at MMT. Audition and performance opportunities are available, and performance internships give Hollins students the chance to work with professional performers while earning academic credit.
Undergraduate Internships. Hollins students have the opportunity to complete internships throughout the year, while obtaining academic credit.
Post-graduate apprenticeships. Upon graduation, Hollins students can apply for a paid professional apprenticeship at MMT, allowing them to begin their careers in the city where they trained.
The CenterPieces Reading Series is a showcase for minimally produced staged readings that happen over the lunch hour on the Waldron Stage of Mill Mountain Theatre on the 2nd Wednesday of every month. Grab some friends, bring a lunch, see a play!
