2018 Thingamajig Playwrights Festival: October 12 – 22

The Thingamajig Playwrights Festival pulls back the curtains from the playwriting process and gives you an inside look at how a play goes from ideas in a playwrights head to words on a page to action on the stage. To enjoy all the events in the festival, Festival Passes are available now!

The Playwrights Festival runs from October 12 to October 22 with various events throughout the week. Festival passes are limited. The full festival pass is $70 without a season ticket, and $50 when purchased with a Thingamajig Theatre Company 2018/2019 Winter ‘Season Ticket.’ This week long intensive will include two readings of new plays, open rehearsals, a final staged reading of the two plays being workshopped, two readings of published plays by the same playwrights, and numerous performances of Dennis Elkins’ “box.”

Festival Passes include:

  • Tickets to ‘box.’
  • Admission to the first read-throughs
  • Exclusive access to the rehearsal process
  • Admission to the final staged readings
  • Admission to two readings of plays by the same playwrights
  • The chance to see the magic happen

(The Thingamajig Youth Playwrights Festival will take place on October 21. More information on the Youth Playwrights Festival, coming soon…)

“box.” — a fully staged and produced one-man show — is the brainchild of Pagosa Springs favorite, Dennis Elkins. The show is an an autobiographical journey of cleaning house after loved ones die and when those of us who are left must choose what to keep and what to shred. The easy solution is to dump the stuff in a box and deal with it later — but, when “later” comes, we still agonize with the left-overs in a comical way.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Dennis Elkins’ “box.” and to buy individual tickets.


Full Calendar of Events

Two Plays Under Construction

“Almost Always, Fayeville” by Brian Quirk
A transgender Fairy Tale set in Reagan Era South

First Reading: Monday, October 15 at 10am to 12pm
Invited Rehearsal: Thursday, October 18 at 1pm to 2pm
Final Stage Reading with Talk Back: Sunday, October 21 at 7pm

Play Synopsis:
What do you do when you are a girl, a gifted girl to boot but you’re born in the early 1980s south… oh, and you have a boy’s body… also an absent minded professor father… and yes, an evil step mother too. How can you survive your Grimms Fairy tale life? Will your new evil stepmother win? Will your gifts carry you through? Will your father wake from the spell? Maybe your new baby butch step sister can save the day…


“The Adventure Club” by Jennifer Faletto
Sometimes part of being in a club is keeping other people out.

First Reading: Monday, October 15 at 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Invited Rehearsal: Friday, October 19 at 1pm to 2pm
Final Stage Reading with Talk Back: Monday, October 22 at 7pm

Play Synopsis:
Daring individuals wanted for admission into The Adventure Club. Initiation adventure to occur over the week of Spring Break.* $200 non-refundable application fee, rugged conditions, long hours, no technology. Prestigious membership granted to those who endure. Additional details will not be provided. If you can’t handle that this club is not for you. Contact kendra@theadventureclub.org for an application…

*Those who have ever spent/considered spending Spring Break in Cancún need not apply.

The Bonus Play Readings

Marrow by Brian Quirk
Tuesday, October 16 at 7pm
A dancer in his prime is gaybashed and a lifetime of memories come flooding back as the question is asked, “what is hate?”

The Texas Homecoming Revolution of 1995 by Jennifer Faletto
Wednesday, October 17 at 7pm
It’s the Friday before Homecoming in a suburban high school and a scandal emerges… Crystal Andersen has committed an unspeakable act with the Texas flag. In a culture where legacy and tradition often go unquestioned, one student changes the consciousness of her community.


Jennifer Faletto
Jennifer Faletto’s plays include THE TEXAS HOMECOMING REVOLUTION of 1995, f/k/a BATHROOM HATE (2015 Reva Shiner Comedy Award finalist), DOMESTIC ANIMALS (2016 Woodward/Newman Drama Award finalist & 2016 O’Neill semifinalist) and THIS LITTLE LIGHT. Jennifer’s plays have been developed and produced at The Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, Venus Theatre Company, Amphibian Stage Productions, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Best Medicine Rep, The Blank, The Capital Fringe, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, Panndora’s Box, and Short + Sweet. Jennifer studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, Australia and holds a BFA in theatre performance from TCU. She is also a graduate of the Second City Conservatory (Chicago). Coming up: November 3, 2018 – REINDEER CUPCAKES to have a reading as part of the Denver Center Theatre Company micro-theatre project.

Brian Quirk
Plays include MARROW part of (IM)PULSE, Spectrum Dance/Seattle Rep, directed by Donald Byrd(3 Gypsy Rose Lee Theater Awards); WARREN, Boise Contemporary Theater; MAPPLETHORPE/The Opening, The Provincetown Playhouse, New Conservatory Theater Center, Sixth@Penn, and The Popop Studios, directed by John Stix. Developmental/readings: Playpenn, Seven Devils, Primary Stages, The Atlantic Theater, EST, Hudson Stage, Actors Studio, Dixon Place, Axial Theater, and Emerging Artists. Quirk is Weissberger nominated and the recipient of The Robert Chelsey award, the Erik A Takulan fellowship from Djerassi, a Leon Levy Foundation Grant, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant from MacDowell, an Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Grant and The Jane Camp Fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A three-time MacDowell Colony Fellow, with residencies at Ucross and The Wurlitzer. Member of id theater’s writing group, a Dramatist Guild, and alum of the Actors Studio/ PDU and Project Y Playwrights group.

The Playwrights Festival runs from October 12 to October 22 with various events throughout the week. Festival passes are limited. The full festival pass is $70 without a season ticket, and $50 when purchased with a Thingamajig Theatre Company 2018/2019 winter season ticket.

For more information, call (970) 731-SHOW (7469)