In 1924 Virginia, a dirt-poor young woman named Carrie Buck is brought to a mysterious medical facility. No one will tell her why she’s here, or where her two-month old daughter is. The Doctor in charge is a charming progressive, a student of the new science of heredity and genes. In Carrie, he finds the missing link his entire movement has been searching for, placing her at the center of an unbelievable chain of events that will lead all the way to the Supreme Court. Based on true events. 

• The Colony is proudly presented as a part of AFPP 2022

Gina Stevensen (The Colony) is a playwright, dramaturg, and writing instructor. She was the 2021 winner of the Kernodle New Play Award, the 2020 winner of the New Works Initiative at Good Luck Macbeth, and a 2019 winner of the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series. Gina’s plays have been developed in NYC, London, and across the country with Roundabout Theatre Company, American Stage, Urban Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage, and more. She has been a finalist for Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award, the Jewish Playwriting Contest, and Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition, and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. As a dramaturg she has supported both classics and new works with LaMama E.T.C, Vermont Shakespeare Festival, and Middlebury Acting Company. She has been a guest lecturer at Hunter College and NYU, and upcoming at the University of Arkansas. MFA Playwriting: Columbia University.  www.ginastevensen.com

Ten years after a tragedy befalls a rural family, the remaining members are given a chance at redemption and reconciliation when they stumble upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to their lost son. At once funny and intriguing, The Telling of the Bees offers a unique look at the lengths people will go to in order to make themselves whole.

* The Telling of the Bees is proudly presented as a part of AFPP 2022

Chandler Hubbard (The Tellling of the Bees) (he/him/his) is an actor and playwright in Richmond, Va and a graduate of the University of Virginia (2012). Favorite onstage credits include CORPUS CHRISTI, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor/Best Ensemble, Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award, 2018 (Richmond Triangle Players); THE ALTRUISTS, Winner, Best Ensemble, RTCC 2015; and MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY, Nominee, Best Ensemble, RTCC 2016, (TheatreLAB); STUPID F!%KING BIRD, Nominee, Best Ensemble/Best Play, RTCC 2016 (Quill Theatre). Produced written works include ANIMAL CONTROL, 2019 Martha Hill Newell Playwright's Fund, RTCC Best Original Work nomination, 2019 American Theatre Critics's Association / Steinberg New Play Award Citation (Firehouse Theatre); MOLLY HOUSE, first honoree of the John Knapp and Tim Gillham New Works Program (later retitled So.Queer Playwrights Festival) (Richmond Triangle Players). Other workshops and future productions include: MAN, an episodic live podcast (Firehouse Theatre); HOUSE OF THE DOUBLE AXE (Rumput); CHILDREN OF THE EMPIRE (Fulton Theatre); TELLING OF THE BEES (Barter Theatre); and AKELDAMA (IATI). His screenplay SHANIDAR is currently in post-production by Remember Tommy Productions, Mudroom Films and SideXSide Productions (www.shanidarfilm.com).

August, a seventeen year-old West Virginian, gets caught between finding love with his childhood best friend, Russel, and the truth that their kind of love isn’t welcome in the hills they call home. Guided by his grandmother and watched over by a couple of drag queen angels, August battles against the traditions and addictions of a small town stuck in the past. But when Russel’s father does the unthinkable and the ghosts of August’s familial past creep out of their graves, it may all prove to be too much for a gentle boy with a hillbilly heart.

* Appalachian Dove Song is proudly presented as a part of AFPP 2022

Chris Welles (Appalachian Dove Song) is a New York City based non-binary playwright and comedian. They are a recent graduate of Northwestern University having received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with concentrations in Playwriting and Acting. They are absolutely thrilled to be collaborating with Barter Theater for the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights! Appalachian Dove Song was previously produced by Vertigo Productions in November of 2018, which lead to Pride Films and Plays continuing to develop the piece with a workshop in February of 2019. Chris’ other work includes their new comedic television pilot They/Them, co-written with Edson Montenegro, which has received placement in several film festivals (Finalist in the Downtown LA Screenplay contest, Semifinalist in the Fresh Voices Competition, and Semifinalist in the Cinequest Screenwriting Competition), as well as their play Haus of Apolla, which was featured in Lovers and Madmen Productions’ Adaptation Festival in 2018. Most recently Chris was a selected finalist in the nation’s largest queer stand-up comedy festival, Yaaas Fest, and can be seen as a regular performer/writer at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective. Chris would like to thank their incredible family and friends for their unending love and support.

“Small acts grow into fish-tales to become the myths, folk tales and legendary lies this country is built on.”

Julius Macomb was once a premier radical voice in matters of race and social justice in the 1950’s and early 60’s. Now in the mid-1980’s, the aging novelist/actor/activist is the adjunct writer-in-residence at a small historically Black college (HBCU) in the Midwest who is seeking to reverse the unspooling of his life by remaking himself as a nameless, faceless power broker who exerts his influence and control throughout society.

* Fish-Tales & Legendary Lies is proudly presented as a part of AFPP 2022

Anthony Mapp (Fish-Tales and Legendary Lies) is a Producer, Librettist, Songwriter, and Playwright of the following musicals and plays: To Whom It May Concern, The Secretary of the Inferior!, Therapy!, For All My Girls: A Musical Celebrating the Everyday Diva, RadioSOUL! The MUSICAL, The Last Diva, EXHIBIT A—A Play, dreamin’ America (And Other Colorful Illusions), FISH-TALES and Legendary Lies.

Shy, unassuming, 20-year-old Wiley Young has never been far from his home in Hooten Holler, where he runs the general store with his father. All that’s about to change, however, when a mysterious man visits the holler and Wiley discovers something he never knew about himself: the boy can play! Armed with his mother’s banjo and dreams of stardom, Wiley makes it all the way to Music City, USA where he learns that the cost of making it to the top of the charts may be more than he’s willing to pay. A brand-new, honky-tonk musical fable by Ketch Secor, founding member of the Grammy award winning Old Crow Medicine Show.

* Hooten Holler is proudly presented as a part of AFPP 2022

Ketch Secor (Hooten Holler) For the last twenty years, multi-instrumentalist Ketch Secor has been front man and fiddler for Old Crow Medicine Show. Described variously as alt-country, folk, and mountain music revivalists, Old Crow is an American roots string band with punk rock attitude and energy. Its earliest days stretch back to Ketch’s seventh grade year in Harrisonburg, Virginia, when he and friend Christopher “Critter” Fuqua began playing music together – and its explosion onto the folk / Americana scene in the early 2000s led to a revival in banjo-driven old time music. Old Crow Medicine Show became members of the Grand Ole Opry on September 17, 2013. That same year, they received the Trailblazer Award from the Americana Music Association and, two years later, won the 2015 GRAMMY Award for Best Folk Album with their LP, Remedy. Known for his interest in Appalachian history and musicology, Ketch recently wrote a children’s book, Lorraine – his retelling of a Southern folktale, interwoven with the power of music.

THE COLONY by Gina Stevensen

CARRIE — LIBBY ZABIT

EMMA/SUPERVISOR — PARIS BRADSTREET*

NURSE/VIVIAN — DESTINY FREEMAN

DOCTOR — TYLER CRAMER

DIRECTOR — PATRICE FOSTER

THE TELLING OF THE BEES by Chandler Hubbard

ERIC/NICK — SAM MCCALLA

EMILY — SARAH VAN DEUSEN

DOMINO —TYLER CRAMER

GRACIE — ASHLEY CAMPOS*

EGG — MICHAEL POISSON*

BEATRICE — TRICIA MATTHEWS*

PARKER — ZACCHAEUS KIMBRELL*

DIRECTOR — NICHOLAS PIPER*

JR by Jordan Noble

ACTOR1 — BRENDA ORELLANA*

ACTOR 2 — SARAH VAN DEUSEN 

ACTOR 3 — AMELIA AMPUERO

ACTOR 4 — RICKY MARTINEZ

ACTOR 5 — SAM MCCALLA

ACTOR 6 — MICHAEL POISSON*

ACTOR 7 — PARIS BRADSTREET*

ACTOR 8 — LIBBY ZABIT

ACTOR 9 — ASHLEY CAMPOS*

DIRECTOR — SUSANNE BOULLE

APPALACHIAN DOVE SONG by Chris Welles

AUGUST — ANDY PATTERSON

RUSSEL — GARRETT HOUSTON

MAMAW — MARY LUCY BIVINS*

DIAMOND DOVE — ZACCHAEUS KIMBRELL*

DOVE SOAP — JAMES JIGGETTS

DIRECTOR — BARRETT GUYTON

Fish Tales and Legendary Lies by Anthony Mapp

JULIUS MACOMB — VINCE MCGILL*

CORTEZ FORTUNE — TERRANCE JACKSON

EUGENIA LOVELACE — ALEAH VASSELL*

ACCRA MITCHELL — JAMES JIGGETS

MARILYN MONROE — ZORA VREDEVELD 

DIRECTOR — GEOVONDAY JONES*

HOOTEN HOLLER Created by Ketch Secor and Critter Fuqua

WILEY YOUNG — BEN MACKEL*

BIG JIM WHEELER — RICK MCVEY*

CALLER — SEAN CAMPOS*

AVERY / PENNY / KITTY — HANNAH INGRAM*

STAN / ROY — EUGENE WOLF*

LYLA / MARY LOUISE — KIM MORGAN DEAN*

FATE 1 (GRANNY / BEGGAR / JUDGE 2 / RUBY MILES / SHIRLEY) — CARRIE SMITH LEWIS*

FATE 2 (BUFORD / BUSKER / RANDY DEACON / JUDGE 1 / DJ / GEORGE) — NICHOLAS PIPER*

FATE 3 (JUNIOR / THIEF / HANDSOME HAL LANDON / JOSH KEYS) — SAMUEL FLOYD*

MUSIC DIRECTOR — DISHON SMITH

DIRECTOR — NICHOLAS PIPER

*Denotes member of Actors Equity Association