This December, the Goodman's Owen Theatre will once again be a hotbed for innovative new work when it plays host to the 10th annual New Stages Festival, a celebration of new plays designed to give playwrights an opportunity to take risks and experiment. This year's festival will feature two fully staged workshop productions and three staged readings of new plays in development, all celebrating the work of Latina/o Playwrights.

Developmental Productions (Full Stagings of a New Play in Process)

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  The Upstairs Concierge

  By Kristoffer Diaz
  Directed by Eric Ting

  December 7 - 22, 2013

  Ella can’t wait to start her new job as the upstairs concierge at a sleek hotel. Catering to celebrity guests is her dream, but it has its challenges—big time! Playwright Kristoffer Diaz gleefully skewers our fame-obsessed society in this unforgettable contemporary farce.

  RESERVE TICKETS

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  The Solid Sand Below

  By Martín Zimmerman
  Directed by Jonathan Berry

  December 8 - 22, 2013

  Julian Flores narrowly escapes a prison sentence and lands in Iraq where he’s anything but a model solider. But when an IED blast nearly costs him his life, something changes in him. Soon, the adrenaline, clarity, and intimacy of battle become something he can’t live without—even after he returns home.

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Staged Readings (Script-in-Hand Concert Readings

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  The Rooster Room

  By Quiara Alegría Hudes
  Directed by Thomas Kail

  Saturday, December 14 at 11am

  The Rooster Room is a gathering place for a vibrant crew of family, friends, and local artists and laborers. Unexpectedly, the North Philadelphia bar also serves as a safe haven for 11-year-old Ruby after she’s removed from her abusive parents’ home. The Rooster Room explores politics, the communal nature of storytelling, and what it means to be part of a family, all set to the live piano serenades of the jazz musician who lives above the bar.

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  Feathers and Teeth

  By Charise Castro Smith
  Directed by Henry Godinez

  Saturday, December 14 at 3pm

  There’s something growling and scratching inside Carol’s cast iron pot... and it’s starving. Carol’s fiancée Arthur accidentally ran over a creature with feathers and teeth, and hopes to nurse it back to health. But is this creature innocent or evil?

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  Another Word for Beauty

  Written by José Rivera
  Directed by Steve Cosson
  Original Music Composed by Héctor Buitrago

  Sunday, December 15 at 2:30pm

  Inspired by an annual beauty pageant which takes place at the Buen Pastor women’s prison in Bogotá, Colombia, Another Word for Beauty is a haunting and lyrical look at the lives of the women trapped within the prison’s walls, and the events and circumstances which led to their imprisonment. The play was developed in collaboration with acclaimed New York-based theatre company The Civilians and features original music by Colombian musician Héctor Buitrago of the Grammy Award–winning band Aterciopelados. 

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