Drama. The plays featured in this book grew out of the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, an annual event in which the Whidbey Island retreat's unique blend of communion and solitude, invigorating conversation and thoughtful reflection, good food and radical hospitality create an environment where playwrights can do their best work.The results are some of the most compelling new plays in the country: award-winners as well as works that may be less well-known but are no less provocative or inspiring.From the heartfelt whimsy of Sarah Ruhl's "The Clean House" to the acerbic wit of Ellen McLaughlin's "Helen," from the warmth of Kathleen Tolan's "Memory House," to the epic imagination of Naomi Iizuka's "Ghostwritten" and the keen re-imagining of history in Lynn Nottage's "Las Meninas," HEDGEBROOK PLAYS, VOLUME 1 offers a rich and varied bounty.
