Though Shakespeare said “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” we have to disagree. Some men and women aren’t players but playwrights. (Jeez, Shakes, woulda thought you’d get that one right.) And in Charleston their legion is swelling. In the next few weeks four regional writers are taking their works to the stage.
There’s Judy and Thomas Heath, a therapist and a life coach by day, writers by night, who are about to premiere their latest work Bedroom Secrets at the New York International Fringe Festival in August.
There’s one-man show machine, David Lee Nelson, who on Friday opens at PURE with his first ensemble work, Folly Beach.
And then there’s Brian Burke Jones, the up-and-comer whose Accepting Applications for a Muse opens Thursday after being selected by What If? Production’s second annual Playwrights Festival.
Of course, these aren’t the first folks to try their hand at writing. PURE Theater founder Rodney Lee Rogers has dabbled with a series of plays and one-acts. And then of course there’s arguably Charleston’s most prolific local playwright, Julian Wiles, who started with Seize the Street! in 1979 (which, fun family fact, both my parents performed in). With this latest rush of new works, one day, Charleston may even be known for more than Porgy & Bess. Dreams of a Tony Award one day calling Charleston home just got that much more feasible.
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