May 15-19, 2025
at Charlotte Street Foundation
3333 Wyoming St, Kansas City, MO 64111
All events are FREE to attend and participate!
Join Kansas City Public Theatre for the 4th Annual Theatre Lab FEST, a celebration of our city’s playwriting talent! Over the course of the festival weekend, audiences can attend nightly performances of the new comedy for…girls by Darren Canady, and new play-in-development readings! ALL are welcome to attend and participate!
Festival Schedule
Thursday, May 15
7:30pm –for…girls Preview
Friday, May 16
7:30pm –for…girls OPENING NIGHT
(Opening Festival Reception to Follow)
Saturday, May 17
1:00pm –”The Whole World in Their Hands” by James Teller (Reading and Talkback)
4:00pm -A special performance of
The Eye of the Seer by Elaine Elizabeth Clifford
Cassandra of Troy – Left to history as a raving mad woman, a cursed prophetess, a tragic figure. This piece questions the determination of one young woman who constantly chose to make her voice heard, despite being disbelieved, ignored, and strung from one calamity to the next along the threads of Fate. Featuring Elaine Elizabeth Clifford, Erdin Schultz-Bever, and live scoring by Sisterbot.
7:30pm –for…girls
Sunday, May 18
1:00pm –Playwright’s Roundtable
3:00pm –”The Yellow Wallpaper” by Katee Belle (Reading and Talkback)
7:00pm -Community Discussion “Funding the Future: The Economics of Artistic Risk“
7:30pm –for…girls
Monday, May 19
7:30pm –for…girls , Industry Night
Featured Production
About for…girls: In this acidic new comedy, Ty Derricks offers the leadership of New Stages Repertory Company the chance to premiere his risky, iconoclastic take on a production of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf: reducing the cast size and employing only white women as actors. Meanwhile, Sheryl fights to save not only the brilliance of the original play, but also what its landmark representations have meant to generations of Black women.
General Admission is FREE at the door.
A limited number of reservations may be purchased in advance. All reservations come with a complimentary beverage!
PLAY-IN-DEVELOPMENT READINGS
The Whole World in Their Hands
by James Teller
An ex-convict, having been exposed to conspiracy theories about the Jews in prison, has decided to join them rather than beat them, and approaches a rabbi to see about converting – and discovers something far more meaningful than world domination.
The Yellow Wallpaper
by Katee Belle
After giving birth and experiencing symptoms connected to a nervous disorder, a young woman finds herself encountering another behind the wallpaper of an attic where she is meant to be recovering.
Kansas City Public Theatre 