“The Play’s the Thing” Teaches Playwriting to Door County Students

In coordination with the Peninsula Players, The Play’s the Thing is providing playwriting instruction to high school students from Gibraltar and Sevastopol schools. Those students will write plays for a contest to be judged by Players company members. The winner will receive $100 and have their play read publicly. The students will also receive free admission to professional play readings on Jan. 30, Feb. 27, and April 2 and 30. All will be performed at 7 pm at Björklunden in Baileys Harbor, except the February reading, which will be at Scandia in Sister Bay.

Nationally acclaimed playwright James Sherman (Beau Jest and Romance in D from Players seasons past) will teach Gibraltar and Sevastopol students playwriting. He is a former Second City writer and performer and a member of Tony-Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater’s Playwrights Ensemble. He teaches playwriting at Columbia College and DePaul University.

Play Readings will cost $8 to members of the public. Readings will include The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Rebecca Gilman on Jan. 30 as part of “Door County Reads” program. Kristine Thatcher’s Niedecker will be read on Feb. 27; the program will explore Wisconsin poet Lorine Niedecker’s later years. All readings will be followed by discussions with the actors.

The Play’s the Thing is funded in part by a grant from the Peninsula Arts Association and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, as well as generous grants from Ministry Door County Medical Center, Door County Community Foundation Arts Fund and the Raibrook Foundation.