An original play conceived, produced, and directed at Eastern Nazarene College has been accepted into the New York City International Fringe Festival.           

“The Bible Women’s Project” was selected out of 4,000 submitted scripts to be one of the 200 theatrical and dance performances presented at the festival, which is one of the largest multi-arts festivals in North America. The play will be presented in Manhattan five times between August 12 and August 28. Specific performance dates and times will be available on the festival’s website at fringenyc.org. 

“To be accepted into this is a huge deal,” said Tara Brooke Watkins, director, who conceived the idea for a play exploring the stories of women of the Bible as seen through the eyes of contemporary female college students. “There are two major festivals in the world that bring together new plays that are considered ‘fringe’ — or non-commercial — and help them get seen by producers: the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and the Fringe NYC Festival. Not only will our show be seen by major producers, but our cast will be exposed to some cutting edge theater themselves for two weeks.”           

Watkins said the idea of first applying for the festival came from ENC staff member Lauren Bowen, who once worked for the festival. After compiling and submitting all the required application materials — including a copy of the script, a video and a personal essay — Watkins received notification that “The Bible Women’s Project” was selected as an alternate.           

“This was not the news I wanted, but at the same time, I felt the show had been recognized as good and I was prepared to accept that as our happy ending,” she said. 

Watkins began rehearsing the play for a performance at a local church, and in late May, received news that the play had officially been accepted into the festival.

“There have been major successes that have come out of fringe festivals,” Watkins said. “While this could be an opportunity for the show to go even further, I am honestly just so honored to have it be as well-received as it has been.” 

First presented in February 2015 at Eastern Nazarene College, “The Bible Women’s Project” explores the women of the Old and New Testaments using dramatic scenes, monologues, dance and song, comparing contemporary women’s stories to those of the Bible. To create the play, female ENC students met twice a week for four hours at a time to share and discuss women’s stories from the Bible. Each woman would read a story, then ask the group questions. 

“All the contemporary stories in the play are true,” Watkins said. “The final product has become a story about today’s young Christian women learning about the women from the Bible.” 

Following its original premiere, the play proved so popular that an encore presentation was performed the following fall. Performances have also been held by request at local churches. 

Because the play’s cast will need to stay in New York for two weeks during the festival — and some will have to travel back and forth to the Boston area for work — the cast will be conducting fundraisers to help defray the costs of performing the play in New York, Watkins said.

“It will be a big undertaking and we will need audience members there to support us as well as prayers for funding,” Watkins said. “Prayers and contributions are welcome!” 

--Eastern Nazarene College