Frostic Reading Series teams with Theatre Kalamazoo for play festival

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The Western Michigan University Gwen Frostic Reading Series is partnering with Theatre Kalamazoo to bring in a highly regarded guest author for the fifth annual New Play Festival.

The festival runs Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30-31, and will be enhanced by a guest appearance by esteemed writer Dipika Guha. The free festival also will feature new plays by 11 local playwrights, performed and directed as staged readings by local actors and directors.

Guha will open the festival at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, with a new piece of her work. A reception for the public will follow the reading of her play. She also will conduct a free workshop for local playwrights being featured in the festival Saturday morning. All events are held at the Epic Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo.

Dipika Guha

Guha was born in Calcutta and raised in India, Russia and the United Kingdom. She studied English literature at University College London, was a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard University and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale University School of Drama under Paula Vogel.

Her plays include "The Betrothed," "Passing," "The Rules" and "Herculine and Lola," and have been staged at numerous theatres both in the United States and abroad. She lives in New York.

Due to the success of the New Play Festival, the event has grown to include new works by Kalamazoo County playwrights, as well as those by WMU and Kalamazoo College playwrights. Dr. Steve Feffer, WMU associate professor of English, will conduct post-show conversations to assist playwrights in further developing their work with input from the audience. Guha will contribute to these conversations as well. In addition, WMU theatre students will participate in play readings.

For more information, including a schedule of events, play titles and authors, go to theatrekalamazoo.com/play-festival.

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