Johnny G. Lloyd ‘20 Named as a Winner of the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival
Theatre alumnus Johnny G. Lloyd ‘20 was named as one of the five winners of the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival for his play, The Problem with Magic, Is.
Lloyd’s play follows Jodie, who, after the death of her mother, goes back home to help her brother, Clarence, run the family magic shop. As the pressure to keep the business alive grows, the two find themselves dealing not only with loss and new responsibility but also the forces of gentrification—and—a snake deity conjured from a spell gone wrong.
As a winner, Lloyd will have his play included in a series of public readings and workshops as part of this year’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival, which is scheduled to stream online from Friday, July 16, 2021 through Sunday, July 25, 2021. Tickets for the festival will become available starting June 15, 2021 on the Playwrights Foundation website.
“This dynamic cohort is telling stories of family, spirituality, self discovery, healing, and legacy,” Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza said in a press release from the Playwrights Foundation. “We can’t wait to uplift them into the American Theatre canon on a national scale.”
Watch the complete virtual launch party and the announcement of the winners here.
Original Article: May 17, 2021
Theatre Program alumni Johnny G. Lloyd ’20 and Gina Stevensen ’18 were among the playwrights selected by the Playwrights Foundation for their 44th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival.
Founded in 1976, Playwrights Foundation is among the top organizations in the US dedicated to the creative development and career acceleration of contemporary playwrights, with over 80% of the plays that have gone through their mentorship program going onto successful productions. Central to the foundation’s programming is the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, which has given over 500 emerging writers the opportunity to showcase and workshop their work. The festival’s esteemed alumni include Pulitzer Prize winners Nilo Cruz, Annie Baker and Sam Shepard, as well as MacArthur Award winners Sam Hunter and Marcus Gardley, and Lauren Gunderson.
The foundation reviewed more than 750 applications for this year’s festival. From the 130 semi-finalists, 35 finalists were selected. These selections represent “an exciting array of diverse narratives, voices, forms, and experience levels,” the foundation said. The winners of the festival will have the opportunity to participate in workshops and public readings, giving them the opportunity to further explore and refine their projects.
“Each of these plays has tremendous merit, and offer an exciting and forward-looking perspective on the future of playwriting. These writers are the future of the American theater and we are proud to help uplift their work,” said Playwrights Foundation Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza in a press release.
Lloyd, a graduate of the Playwriting program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, was named a finalist for his play, The Problem with Magic, Is:. He is a New York-based writer, producer, and theatre artist whose recent plays include alexander moments before with Theater In Quarantine, Or, An Astronaut Play at The Tank, Round at the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, Patience at The Corkscrew Festival and Columbia University, among many others. He is currently a member of the Clubbed Thumb Emerging Writers Group and was previously the 2017-2018 Shubert Fellow for Playwriting for Columbia University. Lloyd is also Director of Artistic Development at The Tank and Producing Director for InVersion Theatre based in NYC.
Stevenson was selected as a festival semi-finalist for her play Tell Me What I Want. She received her MFA in Playwriting from Columbia, and her BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch. Her plays have been developed in NYC and regionally with Roundabout Theatre Company, Urban Stages, Hartford Stage, American Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New Light, The Tank, and more. In her work as a playwright, Stevenson investigates themes such as “shame in order to demystify, reclaim, and celebrate women’s bodies and power.” In addition to writing, Stevenson is also a dramaturg, writing instructor, and performer.
Playwrights Foundation will host a virtual launch party to announce the five works selected for workshops and public readings for the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival on Sunday, May 16 at 5:00 ET.