The Rep announces the lineup for its 2018 Ignite! Festival of New Plays

Three nationally renowned playwrights will present public readings of their newest scripts at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis' Ignite! Festival of New Plays, running March 28 – April 7, 2018.

Launched in 2012, the festival offers St. Louis theatre lovers the chance to see in-development scripts performed by professional actors, and then offer their feedback directly to the playwrights in post-performance talkbacks.

This year's festival features:

Hurricane Colleen by Tammy Ryan
7:30 p.m. March 28 & 29*

Six months after their sister Colleen has died of cancer, two women rent a beach house in Melbourne, Florida to scatter her ashes. But when a tropical depression suddenly turns into a hurricane and strange encounters with wildlife occur, the sisters struggle to ride out the storms both outside and inside. 

Wind-Up Girl, book and lyrics by Sarah Hammond, music by Will Aronson
7:30 p.m. April 3

Based on a true story, this imaginative new musical has Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, attempting a very unusual project after being left bereft by the death of his daughter. A moving historical fantasy about the irrational machinations of the human heart.

Nonsense & Beauty by Scott C. Sickles
7:30 p.m. April 7

In 1930, the writer E.M. Forster met and fell in love with a policeman 23 years his junior. Their relationship, very risky for its time, evolved into a 40-year love triangle that was both turbulent and unique. Based on a true story, Nonsense and Beauty captures the wit and wisdom of one of the last century’s great writers.

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All performances will take place at The Rep's Emerson Studio Theatre (130 Edgar Road), except for the March 29* reading of Hurricane Colleen, which will happen at UMSL at Grand Center (3651 Olive Street).

Tickets go on sale January 15 and will cost $10 for single performances or $25 to see all three readings.

Notable Ignite! alumni include Dael Orlandersmith's Until the Flood, which world premiered at The Rep in 2016 and is playing at theatres throughout the nation in 2018, The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar, Gidion's Knot by Johnna Adams and Soups, Stews and Casseroles: 1976 by Rebecca Gilman.