Kayenta New Play Lab
NEVER ASK
by Debora Threedy (Dammeron Valley, UT)
Saturday, August 24th 7:30pm & Sunday, August 25th 4:00pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
We are thrilled to announce the return of the Kayenta New Play Lab, a unique opportunity for theater artists and audiences to converge to create and witness the development of new work. Six playwrights have been selected to participate by a panel of local and nationally-recognized experts. Following a 10-day development residency, each play will be presented as a staged reading for our summer audiences, followed by engaging discussions and opportunities to meet the artists. This dynamic New Play Lab fosters creativity, connection, and an unforgettable artistic journey. Join us in celebrating new, original work, full of inspiration and camaraderie!
About the Play:
Due to unexplained circumstances, old friends Sandra, Jess, and Lance find themselves unexpectedly together again. The friends revisit old memories (and old feelings) and try to figure out why they have been able to reunite.
About the Playwright:
Debora Threedy recently retired after many years of teaching law at the University of Utah to spend more time writing plays. After a lifetime doing theatre primarily as an actor and director, about twenty years ago she turned to playwriting. Since then, she has had a number of full-length plays produced by various theatres in Utah, as well as a number of shorter plays. Most recently, in February 2024, her play Balthazar (a modern riff on Shakespeare’s Portia) was produced by Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City. She has been invited three times to workshop her plays at the Utah Shakespeare Festival (the only playwright to have been so honored): Nemo 1934 in 2006 (later produced as The End of the Horizon by Plan-B Theatre in 2008 and by Man of Two Worlds Productions at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta in 2021); One Big Union in 2016; and Balthazar in 2022. In 2010, she won a national playwriting contest, the Fratti-Newman New Political Play Contest in New York City, for her play The Third Crossing. Her play for children K-3, Alli and #3, toured the state in the 2021-2022 school year with a grant from the NEA and was seen by more than 15,000 students in person or virtually. Last year her play Postcards from Mecca (written in collaboration with Teresa Sanderson) was workshopped in the inaugural New Play Lab at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta. She lives in Dammeron Valley UT with her sister, their dogs and their horses.
About the Team:
This reading of NEVER ASK is directed by Douglas Caputo, and is performed by:
Mimi Knell
Grace Powers
Jesse Saler
Douglas Caputo studied at the University of Utah. He is a student of Eric Morris for over 25 years. His work includes projects like Yellowstone and the Steven Soderbergh/HBO Mosaic. As co-founder of The Space Between Theatre Company, he has produced and directed various contemporary dramas. Besides acting, Doug is also a small business owner and Associate Broker with Equity Real Estate, and he values the arts’ role in building a vibrant community.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Kayenta New Play Lab is sponsored by Douglas Caputo / Desert Dweller at Equity Real Estate
