By Jenna Renaud

Villanova Theatre is hosting the public reading of two 2021 Sue Winge Award-winning plays on Thursday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m., in the Smith Performance Lab at the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts. The reading includes The Invisible Ones by Aly Gonzalez and Laundry by Megan Schumacher, directed by Kimberly S. Fairbanks, Schumacher ’18 MA and Gonzalez ’21 MA.

The readings, directed by Kimberly S. Fairbanks ’11, are connected by themes of retaining individual identity and personal humanity while weathering unjust systems.  

“We’re really delighted to be able to confer this year’s Award on two playwrights with very different, yet equally engaging, theatrical visions,” Villanova Theatre Artistic Director Michael Hollinger says. “Aly’s The Invisible Ones is a beautiful snapshot of two unhoused teens living beneath an underpass, one of whom hopefully pursues a college education despite her strained circumstances. Megan’s powerful Laundry reveals another kind of ‘underworld,’ where five women, stripped of individual identity, labor under a dehumanizing system while struggling to retain their essential humanity.”  

Production dramaturg Paul Goraczko provided insight on the qualities both plays have in common: “In Laundry and The Invisible Ones we have two utterly compelling pieces of theatre about people who are marginalized, forgotten, and yearning to be seen. Seeing these plays back-to-back will surely be a thought-provoking experience that audiences won’t want to miss.” 

The Sue Winge Playwriting Award was established in memory of beloved Villanova University employee Sue Winge, who served the University for many years in the Theatre Department and the President’s Office. The award annually supports the creation and development of new plays at Villanova University, including the recent Bakkhai Variations commissions and workshop of Julia Izumi’s Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea.

You can register for your free tickets on the Villanova Theatre website: http://villanovatheatre.org/sue-winge-2021/  

Source: Villanova Theatre (2021, November 29). Villanova Theatre Presents the 2021 Sue Winge Playwriting Award Winners: The Invisible Ones by Aly Gonzalez and Laundry by Megan Schumacher [Press release]. 

Jenna Renaud is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.