The Sound Inside playwright Adam Rapp and Paul Park (novelist and Senior Lecturer in English at Williams College) discuss their dual careers of writing and teaching writers.

July 8 – THE SERIOUS BUSINESS OF WRITING A COMEDY

July 15 – ARTNEY JACKSON

In Artney Jackson, the employees of a cable company grapple with how market discrimination and income inequality affect them as members of the working-class. Artney Jackson director Laura Savia and playwright James Anthony Tyler discuss the implications of these factors in the world at large with Sara LaLumia, a professor of economics at Williams College.

July 22 – CHOREOGRAPHY IN THE THEATRE 

What does it take to create choreography for a world premiere piece of theatre?  Choreographers Raja Feather Kelly (Lempicka) and Jenn Rapp (Taiga in the Berkshires) discuss their processes in a conversation moderated by Diana Oh, WTF’s 2018 Playwright-in-Residence.

July 29 – LEMPICKA

WTF’s Associate Artistic Director Laura Savia sits down with Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning playwright Carson Kreitzer (Book and Lyrics, Lempicka), to discuss the inspiration behind this world premiere musical and the process that brought it to life.

August 5 – JEN SILVERMAN AND THE ISLAND DWELLERS

Jen Silverman (WTF’s The Roommate in 2017 and Dangerous House in 2018) is a prolific playwright and author. Her time living abroad inspired not only Dangerous House, but also The Island Dwellers, a book of short stories about expat bars, train stations, and more in the United States and abroad. Join us for a conversation between Artistic Assistant Aileen Lambert and Jen Silverman about the author’s work. Signed copies of The Island Dwellers will be available for purchase.

August 12 – REINVIGORATED REVIVALS

Longtime Festival friend and writer Steve Lawson, co-author of WTF’s 60th-anniversary book Many Stages, discusses the Festival’s rich history of producing notable revivals. In a talk moderated by Associate Artistic Director Laura Savia, Steve Lawson discusses how revivals have shaped the Festival, WTF’s reinvigorated approach to The Member of the Wedding, and why it still resonates today.

August 1 – EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION IN THE THEATRE

The WTF 2018 season features stories from many different perspectives and highlights artists of many different identities. In this discussion moderated by Associate Artistic Director Laura Savia, actor/playwright Ryan Haddad, playwright Basil Kreimendahl, and casting director Destiny Lilly break down what representation, opportunity, and inclusion mean in the theatre.

FREE; NO RESERVATIONS REQUIRED