Improbable Fiction New Works Series

In theatre, a "new work" is an original play that has been previously unpublished and unproduced - these plays are typically developed by an artistic team including actors, a director, a dramaturg, and, of course, the playwright to work toward the goal of a finished, polished product for audiences to enjoy. Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival's mission ties strongly to the power of the written word and individual perspectives, which led to the creation of the Improbable Fiction series; for us, it is much more about celebrating the craft than the man.

Our new works series allows writers and artists from across the region and the country to showcase their talents in the form of original theatrical works.  Playwrights are invited to submit one-act theatre works in one of three categories - Young Voices, Diverse Perspectives, or Shakes-pired - and their plays are evaluated by a panel of adjudicators. The playwrights' identities are initially obscured to allow for complete objectivity in the scoring process -- because it is, after all, all about the words and the story being told.

Once all plays have been evaluated, the winning submissions are workshopped by a team of actors, led by a director, and supported by a stage manager and dramaturg. The workshopped plays are then produced onstage as world premiere performances for an audience, either as fully-staged productions or staged readings, on our replica of Shakespeare's Globe in the Jamf Theatre!

Get involved - follow the links below to learn more about Improbable Fiction, submit your work, or register as a reader/adjudicator!

Performance

Improbable Fiction will return to the stage on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at 7:30 PM in the Jamf Theatre at Pablo Center.

Tickets cost $9 for adults and $3 for youth and students, plus fees, and are available online, in-person at the Pablo box office, or at the door.

Following the performance, the audience will be invited to a reception to discuss the works they just viewed, facilitated by our dramaturg.

Playwright Bios

Young Voices category – Anthony Roytman – “Filthy Animals”

Anthony Roytman is an emerging playwright and software developer based in Chicago, IL. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2021 with a BS in Theatre and Computer Science. He currently is a member of Worries If Not, an artistic events collaborative of which he is co-founder. 

His work has been featured by Vertigo Productions and Northwestern University, and his drama Bigger Than I Thought earned the Agnes Nixon Award for Playwriting. He served as a board member on Vertigo Productions, a Northwestern University student theatre board dedicated to supporting student-created new work; as their Co-Production Manager (2020-21), he advised production teams working with the board, and as Special Events Chair (2019-20) he produced new music and new comedy events. 

He writes about technology, the natural world, and human folly. His favorite album to listen to while writing is Wake Up Calls by Cosmo Sheldrake.

Synopsis for “Filthy Animals:”

Nature’s laws: 1) Tides go in and out. 2) There are no northern lights in Boston. 3) People don’t belong in Antarctica. Break them at your own risk. In Anthony Roytman’s anti-anthropocentric drama Filthy Animals, humanity breaks its last law. Nature finally loses patience with its peskiest species and unleashes a furious lesson on who really owns the planet.

Diverse Perspectives category – Carolyn Gage – “Female Nude Seated”

Carolyn Gage is a playwright, performer, director, and activist. The author of nine anthologies of plays and eighty-eight musicals, dramas, and one-woman shows, she specializes in non-traditional roles for women, especially reclaiming famous lesbians whose stories have been distorted or erased from history. Often her plays center on radical narratives for survivors of sexual violence. For twenty-two years, Gage toured in the US and Canada in her award-winning, one-woman play, The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, offering performances, workshops, and lectures on lesbian theatre. She currently lives on Mount Desert Island in Maine, where she continues to write and produce. Her catalog of work is online at  www.carolyngage.com

Synopsis for “Female Nude Seated:”

Two Irish art students meet in a student rooming house in London, late one night in 1917. Evie Hone, a survivor of polio, is severely mobility impaired with deep scarring on her legs. She is on the eve of joining a convent. Mainie Jellett is realizing that her increasingly revolutionary affinities are going to alienate her from her family as well as her art school peers. The meeting of the women is charged with sexual tension, and Evie challenges Mainie to do a portrait of her. The portrait is a radical turning point in both their personal and artistic lives. The two women will later introduce Modernism to Ireland.

Shakes-pired category – Mark Evan Chimsky – “The Secret Muse”

Mark Evan Chimsky’s short play, "Meeting Fingerman," winner of the Honegger Prize for Best Short Play, was produced by the Firehouse Center for the Arts 22^nd Annual New Works Festival in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and by the Barrington Stage Company’s 10x10 New Play Festival 2024 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Mark’s short play about gay intimate partner abuse, “The Agency,” was chosen for Stage Q’s inaugural CapitalQ New Play Festival in Madison, Wisconsin, and has recently been named a semi-finalist by the Maine Playwrights Festival 2024. Mark’s musical "The Pledge” received a staged reading as part of James Madison University’s Madison New Works Lab. His short musical "Albert" was presented by the Boston Conservatory at Berklee as part of the Boston Theater Marathon XXIII. The premiere of “Albert” as a play was produced by the Left Coast Theatre Co. in San Francisco as part of "Queerstory: Forgotten Figures from Queer History." His 10-minute play "The Death of Juliet" was broadcast as part of The Open Eye Theater Playtime series on WXIO radio. Mark’s new musical about Shakespeare is “Swagger” (swaggerthemusical.com). He’s thrilled to be part of the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival’s Improbable Fiction New Works series.

Synopsis for “The Secret Muse:”

In "The Secret Muse" three figures from history reveal their untold stories: Ned Shakespeare, who first originated the role of Juliet in 1595, Ned's brother, the playwright William Shakespeare, and the woman who unexpectedly changed both their lives. After more than 425 years, they set the record straight, and as they recollect their shared past, new and unexpected truths emerge.