UPDATED: Feb. 7, 2019 at 12:45 p.m.

The 2019 Cold Read Festival aims to give playwrights and actors an opportunity to workshop their latest pieces in front of a live audience. Featured artists spend a week with various actors and directors, preparing for a “cold read” performance at the end of the week.

A “cold read” in theater is the reading of a script without much preparation beforehand. This raw performance in front of a live audience helps writers make any tweaks to their work before it’s put together in a larger production.

The festival begins with the Cold Read Kick-off on Thursday at Archbold Theatre. The reception starts at 6:30 p.m. with a “cold read” of the comedy “All in the Timing,” by David Ives, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for each event.

Kyle Bass, associate artistic director for Syracuse Stage, was one of the people responsible for recruiting artists and organizing the week’s events.

“The Cold Read festival is a celebration of works for the stage,” Bass said. “It’s really meant as a way to foster and support new plays.

The festival features three artists: a playwright-in-residence, a solo artist in residence and a local playwright. This year’s playwright-in-residence is Larissa FastHorse, an award-winning playwright whose work focuses on indigenous peoples and their experiences.

She’s currently writing a historical play with the working title “The Dakota Project.” FastHorse was inspired by the stories of Dakota families that were affected by the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. The play centers around the lives of families before and after the war.

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As an indigenous person, FastHorse said it’s crucial for her to tell the tales of indigenous peoples accurately and truthfully.

“I do a lot of questioning of what we call history,” she said. “My goal with all audiences is to make them question everything they know about this country and the way it has come to be and what they call history and what they call truth.”

While the play is still a work in progress, FastHorse is working with her director to organize their research to illustrate the hardships that Dakota families went through post-war. FastHorse has commissioned Isabella LeBlanc, a Dakota actress from the region in which the play takes place, for the project. On Sunday, the first-ever reading of the new play will be held at 3 p.m. at Archbold Theatre.

The solo artist in residence is Marga Gomez, a GLAAD Award winner, a veteran solo writer and a performer. Her workshop piece, titled “The Spanking Machine,” will be performed twice Thursday, at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., at the Near Westside’s SALTspace. The play reflects Gomez’s artistic tendency to “mix humor with heartbreaking life stories.”

“The Spanking Machine,” directed by Adrian Alexander Alea, is about Gomez’s relationship with her first boyfriend, before they both came out. While the story reflects on some dark and personal struggles, including Gomez’s experience with sexual assault, she also uses levity to tell her story.

“Humor is an important survival tool we all have,” Gomez said. “I celebrate it while not trying to sugarcoat anything.”

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Finally, local playwright Tanner Efinger is set to hold a reading of his new play “The Picture of Oscar Wilde” on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Archbold Theatre. The story is based on the historical facts of famous author Oscar Wilde’s friendships and relationships.

Throughout Wilde’s life, he endured three major trials. The play is set between the second and third trial in which he faced charges of “gross indecency.” During that time period, “gross indecency” charges were an oppressive means of criminalizing same-sex relationships in the United Kingdom.

During this time in Wilde’s life, one of his greatest friends was Henri de Toulouse-Latrice, who is best known for his works “At Moulin Rouge” and “Le Chat Noir.” Efinger became enthralled with researching Wilde and Toulouse-Latrice’s friendship during this tumultuous time. “The Picture of Oscar Wilde” is Efinger’s idea and imaginative interpretation of their relationship.

With the Cold Read Festival, Efinger wants “The Picture of Oscar Wilde” to bring more awareness to the work of local artists. After moving to Syracuse, a year and a half ago, Efinger has founded his own theater company, called Breadcrumbs Productions, to support local artists in the area and give them a platform to take risks with their work.

“The fact that this play was created here in Syracuse and is going to be performed by local theater artists continues to push this concept that professional theater artists work here. We create here and we develop art here,” he said.

Bass hopes the Cold Read Festival gives the local audience a chance to broaden their theatrical interests with these new artists and their works.

“It’s about exciting our audiences about new works, new plays, and to demystify new plays,” he said. “Audiences have grown to kind of want what they know. In the theater world, it can be kind of a challenge to raise interest in a play they haven’t heard of by, perhaps, a playwright they haven’t heard of.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Larissa FastHorse’s name was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on March 6, 2019 at 9:50 pm

Contact Amy: abnakamu@syr.edu