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New Play Lab

Celebrating emerging playwrights in the hometown of William Inge

The New Play Lab at the annual William Inge Theatre Festival is a partnership between the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College.

The selected New Play Lab playwrights receive:

  • A professional staged reading of their play with an audience
  • Feedback on their play facilitated by national theatre professionals.
  • Additional playwriting classes and seminars exclusive to New Play Lab participants, including a masterclass with William Inge Theatre Festival guest playwrights.
  • Opportunities to meet with theatre professionals from across the country.
  • VIP passes to all festival events.
  • Meal vouchers to enjoy local restaurants in William Inge’s Hometown of Independence.

Kansas proudly celebrates William Inge, the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winning playwright born and raised in Independence. The Festival was created to recognize William Inge and his accomplishments while also celebrating contemporary living playwrights. This year the festival is proud to continue our tradition of honoring playwrights in a playwright’s hometown. National playwrights and theatre professionals gather together for three days of play readings, workshops and panel discussions, celebrating the world of theatre.

Application Period

Applications for 2025 New Play Lab will open in the fall of 2024. Join the mailing list to receive updates!

2024 Selected Playwrights

Brett Crandall

Garden City, KS

Brett Crandall (he/him/his) is a Kansas-born actor, writer, producer, puppeteer and activist. An actor’s life has always appealed to Brett since obsessing over PINOCCHIO, wearing out the tape.

While studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Brett branched out to other creative mediums. His first full-length play, “FELT LEFT OUT”, is a LGBTQ+ history lesson parodying the Sesame Street characters that premiered in 2014, and has since been workshopped into a musical. While working in New York City touring public libraries and schools, Brett began building his own puppets and felt the lack of such enriching programming back in Kansas.

In 2018, Brett produced his first tour, presenting Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” for rural communities around Kansas, founding Brett Crandall Studios. His pride arts festival, Playchella, tours with pop-up puppet shows with voter-registration initiatives between acts, touring with queer-centric plays like “GOOD KING WENCESLAS” and “ONDINE: A QUEER FAIRY TALE” (R Creatives UK Queer Voices selection). Keeping the arts in Kansas, Brett has also scripted his first feature film, a horror/dance/comedy, beginning production December 2024 in western Kansas. Brett would like to thank his family for never doubting his dreams and his wonderful husband, Marc.

www.BrettCrandallStudios.com

Rebecca Kane

Astoria, NY

Rebecca Kane’s writing has appeared in numerous theatre festivals and readings in New York City and beyond, with credits including the Secret Theatre (NYC), Relative Theatrics (Laramie, Wyoming), the National Women’s Theatre Festival and more.

In 2019, her parody “ALMOST MAIMED” performed simultaneously in LadyFest at The Tank and in the inaugural season of Rogue Theatre Festival. One of her plays, “TIGHT (HAHA NICE)”, was filmed and streamed in summer 2021 in both Orlando Fringe’s DigiFringe and Rogue Theater Festival.

In 2021, she received a City Artist Corps Grant from the New York Foundation of the Arts. She is developing a solo show devoted to spreading knowledge on opioid overdose preventions. She’s a happy resident of Queens, New York.

Topher Kielbasa

Brooklyn, NY

Topher Kielbasa is a writer and actor from Chicago, where he was an ensemble member and Literary Manager of Cor Theatre. There, he served as dramaturg for CHRISTINA, THE GIRL KING and LATE COMPANY, as well as creative consultant for “THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN” and “WHAT OF THE NIGHT?”

Prior to joining Cor, he worked in the literary department at American Theater Company where he co-produced the 13th-annual Big Shoulders Festival and was script supervisor for The Project(s). His work has been seen at Chicago Dramatists and produced in the Actors Studio Drama School Repertory Season. He is a member of the Playwrights/Directors Workshop at The Actors Studio in New York. He holds a BFA from DePaul University and an MFA from Pace University.

John Mabey

Atlanta, GA

John Mabey’s plays and scholarly articles explore themes of sexual/gender identity and spirituality across the lifespan. Their work has been produced on stage across the United States and Europe, with their multi award-winning play “A COMPLICATED HOPE” published through Dramatic Publishing in 2024.

John has been the recipient of the Getchell New Play Award, the Essential Theatre New Play Award and the Panowski Playwriting Award, with work included in Smith & Kraus Best 10-Minute Plays, Best Women’s Monologues and Best Men’s Monologues for the last three years. Their work as a playwright is connected to a long career in psychology and mental health counseling, infusing everything they learn about behavior, emotion and relationships into their plays.

Susan Middaugh

Baltimore, MD

Susan Middaugh has had two of her full-length plays, “BLACK WIDOWS” and “A MODERN PAS DE DEUX”, produced by the Theatrical Mining Company for the Baltimore Playwrights festivals, with “BLACK WIDOWS” being published by Next Stage Press. In 2022, she received a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council for a staged reading of her full-length play “MASTER THEFT.”

18 of Susan’s short plays have had productions by 34 theaters in the U.S., including Barrington Stage, Source Theatre, Magnetic Theatre, Greenbrier Valley Arts Center, Dorset Players, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Davidson Community Players, Shandaken Theatre, Onstage Atlanta and The Strand Theater. Susan is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild, the New Play Exchange and the Playwrights Group of Baltimore.

Neil Ellis Orts

Houston, TX

Neil Ellis Orts is a writer in Houston. His work has been published in a number of small press journals and anthologies, most recently Synkroniciti, The Bad Day Book, Soul by Southwest and Unknotting the Line.

Though his BFA (Texas State University) was for acting, he has recently turned to writing for the stage and has had two 10 minute plays produced and is polishing up his first full length play. His novella, “Cary and John”, is available from Wipf & Stock Publishers.

Everett Robert

Hays, KS

Everett Robert is an author, playwright, actor, director, has been hailed as “one of our best new children’s authors,” by Heartland Play Publishers.

With over two decades of experience in the arts, Everett’s creative journey began where he currently resides: Kansas. An alumnus of Colby Community College, Emporia State University and Fort Hays State University, he is proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America. Everett’s theatrical works have garnered acclaim on both national and international stages, with performances reaching diverse locations including the Philippines, Spokane, WA, Hollywood, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Atlanta and New York City. 

Everett’s unique storytelling, rooted in the heartland and deeply connected to its essence, continues to captivate audiences. Everett looks forward to sharing his narrative craftsmanship with a broader audience.

Mindy R. Roll

Houston, TX

Mindy R. Roll (she/her), of Houston is an emerging playwright and essayist who writes at the intersections of relationships, gender, spirituality, mystery, friendship and religion.

She has been a member of the Dramatists Guild of America since January 2021 and holds degrees from Texas A&M, Yale Divinity School, United Lutheran Seminary and Brite Divinity School.

Her plays have been performed at Theatre Southwest, the Naples Players, Theatre Three, College of Brockport, Stageworks and appeared in several literary magazines. 

Lizzy Santana

New Orleans, LA

Lizzy Santana (she/they) is a writer and actor from Wellington. She is in her second year at The University of New Orleans, pursuing an MFA in playwriting.

As a writer, she gravitates towards mythology and horror, the fantastical and the macabre, but also has a love for hyper-realism. You can currently find her work in the second issue of The Hooghly Review.

Dakota Silvey

New York, NY

Dakota Silvey is a NYC-based playwright, EMT, wildland firefighter and United States Air Force veteran.

He recently won the 15 Minutes of Frame 1 Act Festival and, as a result, will be premiering his first full-length production at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan this Spring.

His full-length production “WILDFIRE” was selected as the Semi-Finalist in Adam Driver’s AITAF Bridge Award competition (head judge Paula Vogel).

He is pursuing an MFA in playwriting at the Actor’s Studio Drama School and is a member of the Cut Edge experimental theatre collective. Dakota is honored to be a participant in the William Inge Theatre Festival and thrilled to pay homage to the playwright’s hometown!

Erica Smith

Silver Spring, MD

Erica Smith is a Maryland-based playwright and actor who likes writing about love, friendship, ghosts, and, when the occasion calls for it, horror.

Awards include Best Play at the 2018 LiveArt in a Day Festival (UNION STATION) and Best One-Act at the 2023 Dominion Stage Playwriting Competition (ONLY THE GOOD). She is a founding member of The Coil Project, a Washington, D.C.-based theater collective, serving as co-artistic director from 2020-2022 and playwright in residence since its founding.

Her voice and writing can be heard every other Sunday on Takoma Park Radio at 6 p.m. on The Coil Project Variety Hour. 

Lainie Vansant

Sioux City, IA

Lainie Vansant (she/her) is the Assistant Professor of Directing at the University of South Dakota. She has worked on productions as an actor, stage manager, playwright, dramaturg and director.

She holds a Ph.D. in theatre and performance studies from the University of Missouri – Columbia, for which she translated and adapted a play by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

Her plays have been performed in community theatre and summer stock and have received multiple readings at venues like the Midwest Dramatists Conference, the University of Missouri, KCACTF Region V and Pot Luck Productions. In addition, she has directed and helped develop short plays for the Mizzou New Play Festival, the Starting Gate New Play Festival, Short Attention Span Theatre and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) – Region V.

Wendy Vogel

Fairfield Township, OH

Wendy Vogel is a veterinarian, author and boardgame designer. Her debut full length play “VIRTUAL REALITY” will premier next season at Falcon Productions in Kentucky.

Novels include the “Horizon Alpha” science fiction series, “The Forgotten King” and “The Risen” (as D.W. Vogel). She lives in Cincinnati with husband Andrew and a house full of special needs cats.

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Kate Van Steenhuyse, KCAIC Assistant Director

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