Six shows, six venues, four days: the South Carolina New Play Festival blends established talent and emerging artists
For one short weekend in August, Greenville bursts onto center stage. The second annual South Carolina New Play Festival (SNPF) opens with Rhett Guter’s The Game, directed by West Hyler (Cirque Du Soleil Paramour), and concludes with a Broadway cabaret featuring Hamilton’s Miguel Cervantes. Like a Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo for theater-goers, SCNPF is an intense event—six shows across six venues in four short days. Unlike those festivals, SNPF places local performers beside established Broadway talent.
Take, for instance, The Essential Alice. This first-ever public production combines Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland with music by the late Michael Friedman (Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson), book by Annie Weisman (Physical), and direction by Tony-winner Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, Ain’t Too Proud, Tommy, Big River). And who did McAnuff cast as Alice? None other than recent Fine Arts Center graduate Molly Wareham.
Just as there is magic in local actors performing in large productions, there is electricity in a superstar like Cervantes singing in a cabaret format at the Westin Poinsett Ballroom. Cervantes, who has performed as Alexander Hamilton over 1,700 times, enjoys the nightclub intimacy and setlist variety of small-venue performances. When he performs in a large-scale production, Cervantes plays a character with an arc written by someone else. In a cabaret setting, he tells his own story.
“I open it up to questions,” Cervantes says. “I talk to people about my life, and Hamilton, and other shows I’ve performed in. I talk about my family and the struggles we’ve had. I show them that there’s a human behind the performer. There’s a real connection happening.” The connection, Cervantes says, can be quite intense. “I think one of the coolest things that someone told me was that they went into the cabaret knowing who I was in terms of Hamilton,’” Cervantes says. “And they walked out feeling that they knew me.”
Discovery and connection have always been at the heart of the festival for Hyler, the SCNPF’s executive artistic director, who co-founded it with his wife, Shelley Butler (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical). When theaters across the country closed in 2020, Hyler and Butler found themselves out of work like many theater professionals. They moved home to Hyler’s father’s house in Georgetown, South Carolina, thinking they were waiting for COVID to pass and theaters to re-open.
For two directors who’d spent decades building careers and contributing to the dynamic world of American theater, the “theatrical shutdown” was devastating professionally, artistically, and personally. “Shelley and I have 20 years of connections with the best playwrights, composers, and lyricists in the country,” says Hyler, “and they were complaining about a dearth of opportunities for new plays and musicals to be developed.” Butler and Hyler looked around and discovered a way to connect Broadway with their new home.
The inaugural 2022 SCNPF exceeded their expectations. “Every theater was packed,” Hyler says. “We brought in Tony nominees and cast them beside high school students from the Fine Arts Center and Governor’s School. One of our plays went straight from the festival to an Off-Broadway premiere. Another was licensed by a major play licensing company, and a third is now being developed for Broadway by McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.”
Their goal has been to do more than just bring stars to the stage. “We’re developing shows and artists,” Hyler says. “These are performers, like Molly Wareham, who we know are going to go on to have a major influence on American theater.” This year, the SCNPF brings yet another vibrant mix of Broadway stars, local talent, and new plays to some of the top venues in the Upstate’s vibrant performing arts community.
For more information and tickets, go to southcarolinanewplayfestival.org.
2023 South Carolina New Play Festival Schedule:
August 10: The Game by Rhett Guter and directed by West Hyler at Centre Stage
August 11: Black-Billed Cuckoo by Mat Smart and directed by Shelley Butler at the Greenville Theatre
August 12: Kween by Vichet Chum and directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh at the Warehouse Theatre
August 12: The Essential Alice by Michael Friedman and Annie Weisman and directed by Des McAnuff at Gunter Theatre at the Peace Center
August 13: Catching the Moon: the Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream by Tyrone L. Robinson and Nichole Jackson and directed by Clark E. Nesbitt at the South Carolina Children’s Theatre
August 13: Broadway Cabaret with Miguel Cervantes hosted by West Hyler at Westin Poinsett Ballroom
