'That's what keeps me up at night,' he said. Jackson's Broadway hit A Strange Loop, saying it was 'just as poetically resonant and ambitious,' as Jackson's Tony Award-winning play.Įven so, a new play by an unknown writer is not an easy sell to audiences, The Alleyway's Handley said. Eric Watkins was the production's lighting designer.Ĭhris Jones, theater critic for The Chicago Tribune and The Daily News, compared a Chicago production of The Magnolia Ballet, which starred Guest himself, to Michael R. Playwright and actor Terry Guest in a production of his play, The Magnolia Ballet, from About Face at the Den Theatre in Chicago. Playwrights also receive funding to travel to those premieres so they can experience their work, 'in the hands of different directors, on the bodies of different actors and as reflected through the audiences and critics of all these different communities.'

If three theaters that are members of the Network agree to produce the same new play they're eligible for $7,500 each, 'regardless of their budget size,' explained Nan Barnett, executive director of the network. The Williamston Theatre in Michigan also liked it and - bingo! - they had enough theaters involved to get money for a 'rolling world premiere,' from the National New Play Network. 'I read it and thought 'Oh my god this is fantastic,'' said Handley.

He liked it and gave it to Chris Handley at The Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo. One of the directors in that reading gave the script to Bill Simmons at The Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis. Playwright Terry Guest poses with Carlos Jones who directed a production of The Magnolia Ballet at Alleyway Theater in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept.

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