At the Br!nk New Play Festival, local theatergoers play the role of a good editor.
The program, run by Renaissance Theaterworks, is an annual opportunity for Midwestern women playwrights to workshop their plays with insight from directors, actors and dramaturges, followed by a public reading with a talkback.
But unlike a traditional talkback where the audience asks questions, this one is about having the playwright’s questions answered by the audience.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
“A playwright can ask the audience, ‘What worked about this scene?’” says Suzan Fete, Renaissance’s artistic director. “Then, the playwrights have a concrete direction they can use when they do rewrites.”
Plays workshopped during Br!nk have gone on to national and international stages. One 2017 finalist, Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven, was premiered at Renaissance Theaterworks in 2019 and later staged in Austin and Washington, D.C.
“It was so fun,” says Fete of the Renaissance production. “There were audience members that had been at the reading and gave feedback. They got to see the full production and realized their feedback was used.”
This year, both Br!nk residents are Milwaukeeans: theater maker Cara Johnston with her drama Great White Throne, and Renaissance’s marketing manager Maria Pretzl with her drama Naked Tuesdays.
Pretzl is particularly excited to bring her story in front of an audience to get feedback on characters and a possible live nude scene.
“To be selected as a resident playwright is really exciting, really validating,” Pretzl says. “It makes me feel like I’m on the right path toward getting more opportunities for playwriting, especially with a play that a lot of people would be scared to touch.”
While there are playwright accelerator programs for writers on the coasts and in Chicago, there were none focused on Midwestern women talent prior to Br!nk. In 2014, Renaissance Theaterworks’ former artistic associate Mallory Metoxen spearheaded the program, which was made available to women in nine Midwestern states. In 2017, they added Br!nk Br!efs, a workshop for 10-minute plays running concurrently to the feature plays.
“I think it’s a bit unique,” Fete says. “I’ve heard from playwrights that it’s really helpful because we do whatever the playwright needs. If the playwright only wants to spend that time just working on the relationship between the protagonist and another character, that’s what we do.”
By focusing on women playwrights, the Br!nk program aims to combat the disproportionate number of produced plays written by men.
“It’s not like women aren’t out there and they’re not writing plays,” Fete says. “But you need this kind of incubator to get work to the level where it can be produced.”
General admission tickets and festival packages can be reserved or purchased on the Renaissance Theaterworks’ website, rtwmke.org
