Sunday, Jan 19, 2025 at 2:00pm
Hosted annually by The Phoenix Theatre Company, the Richard P. Stahl Festival Of New American Theatre amplifies new voices and expands the canon of American theatre. The 2025 Festival will continue honoring our longstanding commitment to the development of new works, playwrights, and performers and include a variety of events that allow artists of all kinds to see their work come alive onstage. It will feature: a play reading, two musical readings, two Composer Lyricist Cabarets, Choreography Lab, and a return of the 24-hour Theatre Project. This is an opportunity to witness how a production goes from the page to the stage!
Schedule of Events:
Judgment of the Eye
Play Reading
Written by Simon Bowler
Director Maren Maclean
Dramaturge Kirt Shineman
The play tells the true story of Han van Meegeren, a struggling Dutch artist in the 1940s who discovers he has an incredible talent for forging the paintings of Old Masters like Vermeer and Frans Hals. To make money, he creates dozens of fake Vermeers and sells them for millions to art experts and Nazi officials like Goering. After the war, he is accused of being a Nazi collaborator for selling a “national treasure” to the enemy. To escape execution, Han claims the paintings are clever forgeries he painted. He offers to paint another fake Vermeer to prove his innocence. What follows is a tale about the subjective nature of art, a flawed man’s quest for aesthetic perfection, and an exploration of the contradictions between artistic genius and artificial deception.
