York College’s JL Smith New Play Festival to kick off with keynote by LA playwright

York College’s JL Smith New Play Festival will kick off at 7 p.m., May 6, with performances of six 10-minute plays and a keynote speech delivered by Los Angeles-based playwright Charly Evon Simpson. Simpson will discuss her career and what drew her to playwriting; she will take questions from the Zoom audience. Information can be found on the York College Theatre Program’s website, and on the YCP Theatre social media sites including Twitter at @FestJL.

Simpson is a playwright and TV writer, with a wide range of plays including Behind the Sheet, Jump, form of a girl unknown, it’s not a trip it’s a journey, and more. Her work has been seen and/or developed with Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Lark, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Chautauqua Theater Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and more. She is a recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award from the Vineyard Theatre and the Lanford Wilson Award from the Dramatists Guild.

Simpson is currently a core writer at the Playwrights’ Center and is in the incoming class of residents at New Dramatists. Alongside her work in theatre, she is also working in television on such shows as Showtime’s Rust and the second seasons of HBO’s Industry and Perry Mason. She received her BA from Brown University, a master’s degree in women’s studies from University of Oxford, New College, and her MFA in playwriting from Hunter College.

The JL Smith Festival finishes on May 7, with the reading of the full-length play Recounting by Lancaster writer David Nice. This inaugural year of the Festival will feature plays by playwrights from across the country and abroad. Keep current on all the information at the dedicated Twitter account @FestJL.