Twelfth Annual
Big Muddy New Play Festival
Produced by SIU Associate Professor Jacob Juntunen
Five New Plays by SIU Playwriting Students
Premiering April 18 - 21, 2024
All staged readings are free of charge
Guest Artist: Ben Izzo!
This year’s annual new play festival includes five full-length plays by SIU playwriting students and involves dozens of artists.
Soon there will be an interactive map of the artists involved like the one pictured below!
PRODUCTIONS
Philoten: And Her Pattern of Painful Adventures
By e.k. doolin (3rd Year MFA Playwriting Student)
Directed by Angela Schultz
4/18 - 4/21
Sixteen-year-old Philoten knows exactly who she is not: she is not a leader, she is not a lover, she is not a healer, but she is afraid of who she might be: a destroyer, a traitor, a murderer. After everything she thought she understood burns to the ground, she seeks refuge in her mother's holy shrine and discovers it holds secrets even she could not imagine.
The Black Paradox
By Cameron Noel (3rd Year MFA Playwriting Student)
Directed by Darryl Clark
4/18 - 4/21
Late for a field trip, Shemar, a high school student is trapped in forbidden museum hall known as, The Black Paradox where Black experiences collides.
STAGED READINGS
The Plastic Knife
By Aleksei J. Ellis (2nd Year MFA Playwriting Student)
4/20 - Saturday
Super slammer slumber party cut short by plastic! The murders within the dollhouse walls, but which doll is to blame?
Before They Fall
By Mikayla Delos-Santos (1st Year MFA Playwriting Student)
Directed by Tricia Matthews, Barter Theatre (Abingdon, VA)
4/20 - Saturday
Four fragile relationships… and a park bench
Dinner at Asphodel
by M Kamara (1st Year MFA Playwriting Student)
4/20
Unable to process the grief of her mother's death, Mo Lewis travels to the Underworld to find her mom and bring her back.
The Banana Slip
by AJ Rice (Undergraduate Playwriting Student)
4/21
Synopsis coming soon!
A [Conventional] Found Family
by Alicia Utecht (PhD Candidate, Communication Studies)
4/19
When your favorite author in the world meets the biggest fan convention in the world, it’s guaranteed to be the best weekend of your life!