Frostic Series teams up with Theatre Kalamazoo to present playwright

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The Western Michigan University Gwen Frostic Reading Series is again collaborating with Theatre Kalamazoo in early February to present a new work by an award-winning playwright.

Adam Szymkowicz will help to launch Theatre Kalamazoo's sixth annual New Play Festival at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5, in the Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. A reception for the public will follow the reading of his play. He also will conduct a free workshop for local playwrights at the festival, which runs Feb. 5-6. The free event will feature new plays by nine local playwrights, performed and directed as staged readings by local actors and directors representing the member theatres of Theatre Kalamazoo.

Dr. Steve Feffer, associate professor of English and head of the department's playwriting program, will conduct a post-show conversation to assist the playwrights in further developing their work with input from the audience.

Adam Szymkowicz

Szymkowicz's plays have been produced throughout the United States and in Canada, England, The Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. His plays include "Deflowering Waldo," "Pretty Theft," "Food for Fish," "Hearts Like Fists," "My Base and Scurvy Heart," "Nerve" and many more.

Szymkowicz earned a degree from The Julliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and a Master's in Fine Arts from Columbia University, where he was a dean's fellow. He is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner and was a founding member of the Ars Nova Play Group.

Symkowicz teaches at the Einhorn School of the Performing Arts and is the literary manager at Julliard. He was the premiere resident playwright at The Chance Theater in Anaheim, Calif., and the first playwright to participate in the Bloomington Playwrights Project's Square One Series. He served twice as playwright in residence at the William Inge Center, received a grant from the CT Commission on Culture and Tourism and was commission by South Coast Repertory.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/english/events/frostic.

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