ANPF 2023 FF Logo With Dates

The ANPF 2023 Fall Festival took place on Thursday Oct. 19th, and featured a play with deep local roots. Playwright Isabel Estelle’s Ashland takes place during summertime in Ashland. Centered on a family in crisis, Ashland grapples with the absurdity and hilarity of death, what it means to be family, and what it takes to let go. Readings were 10/19 @7:30 pm & 10/21 @1:30 pm. Next up was Bleu Beckford-Burrell’s Lyons Pride. Audiences met the Lyons family, Jamaican and proud, and discovered the similarities we have in our families as immigrants in America. Readings were 10/20 @1:30 pm & 10/21 @7:30 pm. Rounding out this year’s presented plays was Weston Gaylord’s A Long Time Coming, which takes place in two different eras separated by 90 years. This haunting play examines the voices we choose to preserve and those that are lost forever. Readings were 10/20 @7:30 pm & 10/22 @1:30 pm. All performances took place at SOU’s Main Stage Theater, 491 S. Mountain Ave. Ashland, OR 97520

ANPF 2023 Banner Graphic Play Posters2

The Playwrights

Isabel Estelle 4by6
BleuBeckfordBurrell 191 4by6 (1)
Weston Gaylord Headshot – 4by6 (1)

Isabel Estelle

Bleu Beckford-Burrell

Weston Gaylord

The Plays

Ashland

Lyons Pride

A Long Time Coming

Ashland Poster For Playbill Page Ashland
Lyons Pride Poster For Playbill Page2
A Long Time Coming Poster For Playbill Page

After a young woman is unexpectedly diagnosed with a terminal illness and chooses to pursue Death with Dignity, she and her new partner must navigate the beginning and end of their relationship simultaneously. As the young woman's health rapidly declines, her partner and her two siblings grapple with the absurdity and hilarity of death, what it means to be family, and what it takes to let go.

The Lyons household struggling to stay afloat doesn’t find itself lacking in pride. A family play, about living, love, identity and overcoming life challenges the Lyons take you on a journey of what it means not only to be Jamaican and proud but the similarities we have in our families as immigrants in America.

A forest is growing in Norway, planted to provide paper for a set of texts that will be printed in the year 2114. Each year between 2014-2114, an author is selected to write a text for this Future Library which will be preserved, unread, until the printing. The play tells two intertwining stories of one family: a novelist in 2024 who puts his mother’s life story into words, his great-granddaughter and her son in 2114 who journey from a California farm to a Norwegian forest for the opening of the Library, and a secret that has waited a century to come to light. Examining the voices we choose to preserve and those that are lost forever, A Long Time Coming looks toward a future that holds both disaster and hope.

The Host Playwright

Beth Kander

Beth Kander is an award-winning author and playwright with tangled roots in the Midwest and Deep South. The granddaughter of immigrants, she loves exploring how worlds old and new intertwine—or collide. Beth earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women.

Playwriting honors include the T. Jefferson Carey Memorial Playwriting Award (2022); Henry Award for Best New Play or Musical (2019-2020); Headwaters New Play Award (2018); Equity Library Theatre-Chicago Award (2017); Ashland New Plays Festival (2015, 2016); Eudora Welty New Play Awards (2008, 2010, 2012); and the Charles M. Getchell New Play Award (2012), among others.

Current projects include a commissioned play for Creede Repertory Theatre, a children's picture-and-recipes book called DO NOT EAT THIS BOOK (Sleeping Bear Press, 2023), and a dark and twisty novel.

A proud parent-artist, her favorite characters are her two brave, hilarious kids, and she cheers for parent-artists everywhere.

Beth is represented by Allison Hellegers at Stimola Literary Studio.

The Directors

4X6 HEAD SHOT – DERR HOLLY L.
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Caroline Shaffer
4X6 HEAD SHOT – HADEN Kyle

Holly L. Derr

A Long Time Coming

Caroline Shaffer

Ashland

Kyle Haden

Lyons Pride

The Actors

Ashland by Isabel Estelle

4X6 HEAD SHOT – ROUTH Rachel
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Hall Jaz
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Kate Hurster
4X6 HEAD SHOT – White Devin

Rachel Lindsey Routh
Vim

Jaz Hall
Wes

Kate Hurster*
Emily

Devin White*
Sebastian

4X6 HEAD SHOT Catherine Castellanos
4X6 HEAD SHOT – KRISCHE Jade

Catherine Castellanos*
Susan

Jade Morgan Krische
Stage Directions

Lyons Pride by Bleu Beckford-Burrell

4X6 HEAD SHOT – Hamilton Kaci
4X6 HEAD SHOT – WEY Omolade
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Samantha Miller
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Michell Alex

Kaci Hamilton
Ivory Lyons

Omolade Wey*
Egypt Lyons

Samantha Miller
Queen Lyons

Alex Michell
King Lyons

4X6 HEAD SHOT – POWELL Shayne
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Jeffries Antonio
BURKE Leith HS (1)
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Tim Turner

Shayne C. Powell*
Richard Lyons

Antonio Jeffries
Marquis McDonald

Leith Burke
Everton

Tim Turner
Stage Directions

A Long Time Coming by Weston Gaylord

4X6 HEAD SHOT – IVARY LIISA
4X6 HEAD SHOT – Rafael Untalan V200x300
4X6 HEAD SHOT – JOSE Michaela
4X6 HEAD SHOT – WILLIAMS Ellen D

Liisa Ivary*
Helen

Rafael Untalan*
Terry

Michaela Jose
Liza

Ellen D. Williams*
Ponderosa

4X6 HEAD SHOT – Briones Teo
4X6 HEAD SHOT – LANIER Jennifer
4X6 HEAD SHOT – RICHARDSON Emma

Teo Briones
Alder

Jennifer Lanier*

Cypress/Librarian/Joshua/

Ticket Taker/Charlie

Emma Richardson
Stage Directions

*Appearing through an Agreement between ANPF and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

2023 Fall Festival Photos

Watch this space for updated photos of the 2023 Fall Festival workshop and rehearsal process

 78A1150
78A1125
V78A0932

Bleu Beckford-Burrell, Isabel Estelle, and Weston Gaylord. ANPF 2023 Fall Festival presenting playwrights, have arrived!

2023 Fall Festival Company. All together and ready to collaborate!

Host Playwright Beth Kander and Artistic Director Jackie Apodaca.

Photo Gallery


Ashland  Pre-show - Rehearsal - Talkback

 78A1987
 78A2024
 78A1471
 78A1486
 78A2108


Lyons Pride Pre-show - Rehearsal - Talkback

 78A2249
 78A2347
 78A1509
 78A1229
 78A1569
 78A1559
 78A2190
 78A2365
 78A2212


A Long Time Coming Pre-show - Rehearsal - Talkback

 78A2387
 78A1319
 78A1671
 78A1663
 78A1275
 78A2446
 78A2503
 78A2370
 78A2527

Testimonials

Thank You to Our Grantors

City Of Ashland
Oregon Cultural Trust
OAC Logo
JcccLogo
Miller Foundation
The Carpenter Foundation