- Liz Lauren
- A scene from Smokefall, a New Stages success story
If, in a year or two, you want to brag that you were among the first people to see the Goodman’s new production—and if you don’t want to pay for a night at the theater—you should most definitely check out the New Stages Festival, which opens tonight and runs through November 16. The festival, now in its eleventh year, features six new works, three as staged readings, three as full productions, and functions as the Goodman’s farm system: since its inception in 2004, about a third of the plays featured in New Stages have gone on to productions on the Goodman’s main stages, including the recent Smokefall and The World of Extreme Happiness, last season’s Buzzer and Ask Aunt Susan, next spring’s The Upstairs Concierge, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined.
Representatives from the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, saw the reading, though, and agreed to coproduce a staging with the Goodman. The California production received dismal reviews, and the play went through another round of revisions before it opened at the Goodman to a much better critical reception. In the end, Haidle joked that he and Palmer read the play in its various forms a thousand times.
“Play at New Stages aren’t finished,” Palmer says. “We see where they’re going and we can see the next steps. We’re excited to continue the journey.”
