Now in its 25th year, the Occidental New Works Festival has paired student playwrights and actors with professional guest directors and performers. Focused on writer-centric rehearsal and performance, the festival provides a real-world experience of new play development as it is practiced in major theaters around the country.
Produced by Jacob Trust '27 and Resident Professor Laural Meade
The Plays & Schedule | Playwrights | Student Producer
The Plays & Schedule
All performances are in Keck Theater and will be followed by a brief talk with the writer and director.
Admission is free.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
3:00pm
Silvertrails by Keelyn McDermott
directed by Michael Schlitt
Against the backdrop of 1890’s rural Texas, Bucky Morgan decides to leave his hometown behind for an uncertain life. A secret love affair, unstable parents and a stubborn best friend all come to a head the night before the big cattle drive. Full of classic Western imagery and heart, Silvertrails explores love, family, and learning to live for oneself – learning to become a cowboy.
8:00pm
3 Lads by Aidhan Farley Astrachan
One night three high-school age boys coincidentally meet online while playing video games. 3 Lads explores the complicated and truthful connection that they make with each other and how even when we have the most accessible technology, it can still be just as difficult to form real relationships.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
2:00pm
Ouroboros by Fiona Connor
directed by Darin Anthony
Loosely inspired by Jim Morrison's "The Hitchhiker," Ouroboros follows a troubled young couple as they prepare for the birth of their first child, all the while hassled by the trickster ghost of a recent murder. As the baby's arrival grows nearer, they struggle in a drugged-out haze, tormented by the same series of abusive cycles they've known since childhood.
7:00pm
a double-bill of two short plays:
Sunday in Madison County by Fiona Dosanjh
directed by Amie Farrell
During Sunday mass 10-year old Saoirse announces she doesn't believe in God, much to her best friend Maeve's horror. The news that an elderly woman from their church (“the best Catholic ever!”) has died makes the girls question everything. Does God exist? Does Hell exist? Are they going to Heaven? What kind of cookies are being served at Coffee Hour?
Transplants by Quinn Patwardhan
directed by Rose Portillo
Three over-the-top transplants to Los Angeles comically cagematch to better understand their new city. Maude, a snarky septuagenarian professor, and ArmHammer, a filterless punk rocker with aspirations of activism, wind up rooming with Maude’s 40-something Hollywood veteran son who still can’t get a job, making tensions flare about everything from elitism to glam-rock.
The Playwrights
Aidhan Farley Astrachan ‘25
Aidhan is a Theater & Performance Studies major and a Media Arts & Culture minor. He grew up in New York City and is half French. Aidhan loves playing sports, seeing shows, and hanging out with friends. 3 Lads is his first production as a playwright.
Fiona Connor ‘27
Fiona is a Theater & Performance Studies major, and an aspiring multidisciplinary artist with primary interests in acting, poetry/short stories, and visual art. Inspired by her love affair with the lyrics of Jim Morrison, Ouroboros (Fiona’s first foray into playwriting) explores some of the subjects she is repeatedly drawn to in her art: life/death, abuse, addiction, parent-child relationships, and the cyclical nature inherent to each..
Fiona Dosanjh ‘27
Fiona is from Hamilton, New York. She is majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Theater & Performance Studies. She hopes to go into comedy. This is her first play and she’s especially excited to develop it in the New Works Festival.
Keelyn McDermott '25
Keelyn is a performer who recently played the titular role in Oxy’s production of Antigone. She’s thrilled to have discovered a love for playwriting in both Professors Will Power and Laural Meade’s classes. She’s extremely grateful for this opportunity to further develop her newfound skills.
Quinn Patwardhan ‘28
Quinn grew up in Kensington, M.D. just outside of Washington DC. He is a first-year student at Oxy, planning on majoring in Computer Science, Media Arts & Culture, and/or Theater & Performance Studies. Quinn is an aspiring comedy writer and stand-up comic.
Student Producer
Jacob Trust '27
Jake is from Boston, Massachusetts and has grown up loving all aspects of theater. He has been studying and practicing theater since he was four years old and hopes to continue to do so for the rest of his life. He also loves film and is a passionate musician.