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2023 Confluence New Play Festival

Apr 14 — Apr 16, 2023
3333 Washington

The third annual Confluence New Play Festival took place on April 14, 15 and 16 at the Festival rehearsal studio in Grand Center. In addition to the new works commissioned by the Festival by Novid Parsi,  e.k. doolin and Hanna Kime we hosted a reading in partnership with Southern Illinois University-Carbondale of a new play by MFA student Pearl Moore.

Festival Schedule

Friday, April 14 at 7 p.m.

The Life You Gave Me by Novid Parsi (St. Louis, MO)

Synopsis: A son tries to save his mother. She has other ideas, however. So do two mysterious strangers who watch the play—and ask the son to tell the story again and again until he gets it right, whatever right might be. Directed by Adam Flores, Dramaturgy by Robert Maesaka.

Saturday, April 15 at 7 p.m.

Dogs by Hanna Kime (Chicago, IL)

Synopsis: On a Fourth of July sometime in the future, five women take the stage to compete in the annual Hot Dog Eating Contest, each one hoping to make history, to conquer nature and to shatter our perception of what the human body is capable of. DOGS is a dizzying and high-intensity exploration of capitalism, competition, and consumption that poses the question: how long can we keep all this up? Directed & Dramaturgy by Nancy Bell.

Sunday, April 16 at 7 p.m.

Titania & Oberon’s Road Trip by e.k. doolin (Edwardsville, IL)

Synopsis: The fairies Titania and Oberon are at a point in their eternal relationship where things are no longer working, and each of them thinks they know how to fix it, even though they are both hiding some major truths from each other. This is a play in deep conversation with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream that focuses on love, relationships, the open road and, of course, fairies.
Directed by Miranda Jagels Félix Dramaturgy by Susie Lawrence.

Additional SIUC Reading (Free) 

Sunday, April 16 at 2:00 p.m.  

Murphy’s Law of Pretenders by Pearl Moore (SIUC – MFA Playwriting Candidate)

Synopsis: Murphy, Gia, Sophie, and Riley who were once BFFs go to their school reunion and get sucked into their childhood dress-up chest. Chaos ensues. Directed by Segun Ojewuyi.

2022 Playwrights

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e.k. doolin (Edwardsville, IL)

e.k. doolin, she/her, is a theatre artist living in the MetroEast area of St. Louis. She has had her work produced regionally by the Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble, Prison Performing… Read More

e.k. doolin, she/her, is a theatre artist living in the MetroEast area of St. Louis. She has had her work produced regionally by the Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble, Prison Performing Arts, The Center for Creative Arts, The Heartland Theatre, York College of Pennsylvania, Geneva Theatre Guild of New York and Slackline Productions of London, England. Recent productions include a reading of her play Running Uphill to Smooth Criminal at the 2022 Region 3 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and an on-line production of her play Waiting for Hecate, which was produced by Prison Performing Arts Alumni Theatre Company. e.k. is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

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Hanna Kime (Chicago, IL)

Hanna Kime is a Chicago-based playwright and screenwriter originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Kime is currently a member of the 22/23 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Her full-length work has been presented… Read More

Hanna Kime is a Chicago-based playwright and screenwriter originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Kime is currently a member of the 22/23 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Her full-length work has been presented or developed with Berkeley Rep (Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab), Steep Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, the New Coordinates, UP Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, where she was an ensemble member, and First Floor Theater, where she previously served as Literary Manager. Kime is a two-time O’Neill Finalist, a BAPF semifinalist. and was the winner of OKC Rep’s New Voices Contest. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago in English and Gender and Sexuality Studies. Outside of her own writing, Kime works as a freelance dramaturg and teaching artist. She is represented by UTA.

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Novid Parsi (St. Louis, MO)

Novid Parsi [NOHV-eed PAHR-see, he/him] is a playwright whose recent work includes Remains and Returns, a winner of the Ashland New Plays Festival, and Through the Elevated Line, Jeff Award nominee for… Read More

Novid Parsi [NOHV-eed PAHR-see, he/him] is a playwright whose recent work includes Remains and Returns, a winner of the Ashland New Plays Festival, and Through the Elevated Line, Jeff Award nominee for best new work. His plays have been produced or developed by Golden Thread Productions (San Francisco), The New Group (New York), Paines Plough (London), Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco), Queens Theatre (New York), and Silk Road Rising (Chicago), among others. A two-time finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Novid also has been named a finalist or semifinalist for Amphibian Stage’s SparkFest; Broad Horizons Theatre Company’s New Voices, New Plays; Landing Theatre Company’s New American Voices Playwriting Festival; and the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. A son of Iranian immigrants, Novid grew up in East Texas, earned degrees in literature from Swarthmore College and Duke University, and then lived in England and Chicago. Novid and his husband live in St. Louis.