Life in the Capital, People, We Love Arts

Taking Theater Into Their Own Hands: Interview with Jojo Ruf of The Welders

Jojo Ruf and The Welders / Teresa Castracane

Jojo Ruf and The Welders / Teresa Castracane

Among many other roles in local and national theater, Jojo Ruf is the Executive and Creative Director for an exciting new playwrights’ collective called The Welders.

Over the next three years, The Welders intend to produce a new play by each of their 5 members. At the end of that time, they will pass on the entire project to a different set of writers, thus ensuring the collective continues.

I sat down with Jojo to talk about DC theater, The Welders, and the state of new plays in our area.

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The Features

Q&A with Playwright Mia Chung

Mia Chung / Courtesy Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Playwright Mia Chung is a member of New Dramatists and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. She is a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) playwriting fellow and a Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Global Connections grantee.

Her work has appeared on many stages, but most recently can be seen at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s You for Me for You—a magical realism play about two North Korean sisters separated from each other against their wills. You for Me for You is the first show of Woolly Mammoth’s Free the Beast initiative, which aims to produce 25 new plays over a ten-year period (2013-2022).

Mia recently spoke with me about playwriting, Asian-American representation in theater, and what the DC theater world has done to encourage her continued success.

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The Daily Feed

Celebrate Young Playwrights With YPT

Photo courtesy of Mr. T in DC
New Gala Theatre Sign and Light
courtesy of Mr. T in DC

In case you haven’t noticed, the DC theater community is growing, and fast; but what kind of plays can we look forward to down the road? If you’re interested in the future of DC theater, there’s no better place to look than toward our youngest playwrights.

Next Monday and Tuesday, April 23-24 at 7:30pm, Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) will present 12 new plays by area youth at their annual New Play Festival at GALA Hispanic Theatre.

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