Portland Stage Announces The 31st Annual LITTLE FESTIVAL OF THE UNEXPECTED Will Be Streamed

The Portland Stage's New Works Program, the 31st Annual Little Festival of the Unexpected, will be presented free in livestream format on Facebook as series of digital readings and discussions of the following plays: Perseverance by Callie Kimball on Friday, May 29 at 7 pm; Marianas Trench by Scott C. Sickles on June 5 at 7 pm, and What Comes Next by Jonathan Spector on Thursday June 11 at 7 pm.

Since its debut in 1990, the Little Festival of the Unexpected (LFU) has established a tradition of nurturing artists, invigorating audiences, and exploring new voices, visions, and forms of theater. The festival furnishes a supportive environment for playwrights to develop their work, as well as a unique opportunity for audiences to catch a firsthand look at the creative process that brings scripts to the stage. LFU readings are performed by a company of professional actors and are followed by an open discussion with the audience, director, and playwright.

Past LFU scripts have successfully moved on to full productions at Portland Stage and at other professional theaters around the country. Both Almost, Maine (LFU 2003) and Papermaker (LFU 2014) went on to become the most commercially successful Mainstage productions in Portland Stage's history. Many other LFU works have gone on to productions across the country, including successful Off-Broadway, Film, and TV.

Perseverance by Callie Kimball

Friday, May 29 at 7pm

Directed by Jade King Carroll

An excerpt of the play will be read live by actors followed by a discussion with playwright Callie Kimball and its upcoming Portland Stage 2020-21 Mainstage production Director Jade King Carroll.

ABOUT Perseverance: In the fictional town of Hillcroft, Maine, a 19th-century African American schoolteacher is determined to elevate her students. One hundred years later, in the same place, a white teacher is running for office. As the two stories intertwine, ownership of history takes center stage.

Marianas Trench by Scott C. Sickles

Friday June 5 at 7 pm

Directed by Kevin R. Free

Read live by professional actors, and followed by a discussion with the playwright and director, moderated by Portland Stage Literary Manager Todd Brian Backus.

ABOUT Marianas Trench: Teddy is an unathletic, half-Asian nerd living in a liberal US made up of the Blue States. Anzor is the child of Muslim refugees trapped in a militant right-wing Christian theocracy that used to be the Red States. The boys send secret messages to one another about the Marianas Trench under the government's watchful eye and find the person they need the most, is someone they've never met.

What Comes Next by Jonathan Spector

Thursday, June 11 at 7 pm

Directed by Cait Robinson and read live by professional actors, followed by a discussion with the playwright and director, moderated by Literary Manager Todd Brian Backus.

ABOUT What Comes Next: Set in the Sea Ranch community on the Sonoma Coast, What Comes Next is about the distance between who we are and who we were, the sneaky, creeping influence of technology on our lives... and it's about Jews.