New Works Festival at CHC is a Hit Around the World!

Publish Date: June 22, 2021

The Crafton Hills College Theatre Department presented the second annual New Works Festival “Never Tell Me the Odds” May 5-9. Over the course of the weekend, 60 ten-minute and one-act plays were presented. Over half of these plays were directed by Crafton students or faculty, and most of the actors were Crafton students.

The top-ranked plays were Bodkin, by Hollywood screenwriter and UCR Professor Robin Russin, PayDayus ex Machina, by Chuck Smith, and In Farce, by Steve Bucko. One hundred play submissions were received and were then blind scored by a reading committee.The 60 plays that were chosen were written by playwrights from 16 states, three Canadian provinces, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, China and the United Kingdom.
Due to COVID-19 protocols that were still in place, all plays were presented either over Zoom or as recordings. Interactive sessions with the playwrights and the audience were held after every session, with over half of the writers participating.