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Marking its 35th year of producing in 2025, The Works (Playworks Group) was formed by Steve Umberger as a project-based company to develop work for stage and film. The group often focuses on work that broadens perspective on local and global communities, and how they are connected. Playworks has an evolving team of professional freelance artists and community members who share a common vision and approach. Among past projects are world premieres of new scripts, regional premieres of work from the national scene, development events, and arts-in-education film/video projects. Playworks has performed at and collaborated with Spirit Square, Blumenthal Performing Arts, The Forest at Duke University, Davidson College, Riverside Theatre, Plymouth Harbor and others. Plays and events include:
Kith and Kin by Oliver Hailey
It began with this dark comedy about a tirelessly dysfunctional Texas family, written by one of theatre and television's most unusual and distinctive voices - and a friend of Playworks - who was also a writer and creative consultant for the classic TV series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Other early projects * region's premiere
Heathen Valley by Romulus Linney"
Some Things That Can Go Wrong at 35,000 Feet by John Orlock (Premiere)
Finding Donis Anne by Hal Corley*
Bridge by Angus Maclachlan (Development series)
Boca by Christopher Kyle (Development series; film)
Amelia (Company developed; Amelia Earhart's inner monologue on her last flight)
Counter Girls by Michael Russell (Premiere)
Counter Girls by Michael Russell (Premiere)
Burn This by Lanford Wilson*
The Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard*
Husbandry by Patrick Tovatt (Area premiere; Stage & film development project)
Husbandry by Patrick Tovatt (Area premiere; Stage & film development project)
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally*
John Orlock, Hal Corley, and Michael Russell joined us from N.Y. for productions of their plays, reflecting the ideal of having writers present during the process. Husbandry, first seen at Actor's Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, was also made into a film short with the cast of the stage production, made possible in part by an ASC Emerging Artist Grant. Playworks has initiated many collaborations including a revival of Shirley Valentine which traveled to theatres including Twin City Stage, Appalachian Summer Festival, Pack Place and Florida's Riverside Theatre. The SummerStage series with Spirit Square Arts Center included Michael McKeever's Open Season, and a festival of new scripts in staged readings: Judy Simpson Cook's Starstruck, McKeever's The Garden of Hannah List, and Hal Corley's Brush the Summer By, with all three writers present to join the rehearsal process. Shortly after the festival two of the plays received their world premieres, Starstruck at Flat Rock Playhouse, and Brush the Summer By at Adirondack Theatre Festival. Thinking in Pictures was a unique collaboration with The Light Factory, one of only four
museums of film and photography in the U.S. Funded in part by The Rockwell Foundation and The Wesley Mancini Foundation, the festival offered the unusual format of new film scripts in staged readings. With all writers in attendance, the titles included Dairy Queen Days, adapted by Bob Inman from his novel, Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins by Brian Christopher Williams, and Jeff Stacy's Gospel Hill, which was soon after became a feature film starring Danny Glover and Angela Bassett.
Other work in the past decade has included The Christians by Lucas Hnath, and Lunch at the Piccadilly, a new musical by Clyde Edgerton and Mike Craver. Based on Edgerton's best selling novel and NY Times Notable Book, and with songs by Drama Desk Award winner Craver, Piccadilly was developed in three productions and a concert version at the York Theatre Company (development series) in New York (produced by Amy Jones and Guy Barudin). In recent years Playworks has developed a new format for live performance: stage-and-film documentaries. These projects are developed over extended periods with director and creative team working with groups of people whose life stories illuminate the history and the culture of the times in which they lived. Acting Our Age: One Century in Seven Voices, sponsored by Aldersgate and performed on stage at McGlohon Theatre in 2019 after 15 months of development, featured seven people ages 73 to 95 who have seen 100 years of American life. With new groups, the series continued with the documentary Voices of the Pandemic (2021), and the live stage productions Using Our Voices (2022) and Voices of the Harbors (2024) in Florida, the last sponsored by Plymouth Harbor. Another documentary project, Call Me By My Name (2023) was developed over the course of 18 months with members of the unhoused community, receiving a N.C. Humanities ARP Project Support Grant. Playworks employs members of professional disciplines including Actors' Equity Association, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists and IATSE. See the Press and Connect pages, as well as individual project pages, for more information and highlights about events and activities.
© 2025 Playworks / All rights reserved
John Orlock, Hal Corley, and Michael Russell joined us from N.Y. for productions of their plays, reflecting the ideal of having writers present during the process. Husbandry, first seen at Actor's Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, was also made into a film short with the cast of the stage production, made possible in part by an ASC Emerging Artist Grant. Playworks has initiated many collaborations including a revival of Shirley Valentine which traveled to theatres including Twin City Stage, Appalachian Summer Festival, Pack Place and Florida's Riverside Theatre. The SummerStage series with Spirit Square Arts Center included Michael McKeever's Open Season, and a festival of new scripts in staged readings: Judy Simpson Cook's Starstruck, McKeever's The Garden of Hannah List, and Hal Corley's Brush the Summer By, with all three writers present to join the rehearsal process. Shortly after the festival two of the plays received their world premieres, Starstruck at Flat Rock Playhouse, and Brush the Summer By at Adirondack Theatre Festival. Thinking in Pictures was a unique collaboration with The Light Factory, one of only four
...
museums of film and photography in the U.S. Funded in part by The Rockwell Foundation and The Wesley Mancini Foundation, the festival offered the unusual format of new film scripts in staged readings. With all writers in attendance, the titles included Dairy Queen Days, adapted by Bob Inman from his novel, Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins by Brian Christopher Williams, and Jeff Stacy's Gospel Hill, which was soon after became a feature film starring Danny Glover and Angela Bassett.
Other work in the past decade has included The Christians by Lucas Hnath, and Lunch at the Piccadilly, a new musical by Clyde Edgerton and Mike Craver. Based on Edgerton's best selling novel and NY Times Notable Book, and with songs by Drama Desk Award winner Craver, Piccadilly was developed in three productions and a concert version at the York Theatre Company (development series) in New York (produced by Amy Jones and Guy Barudin). In recent years Playworks has developed a new format for live performance: stage-and-film documentaries. These projects are developed over extended periods with director and creative team working with groups of people whose life stories illuminate the history and the culture of the times in which they lived. Acting Our Age: One Century in Seven Voices, sponsored by Aldersgate and performed on stage at McGlohon Theatre in 2019 after 15 months of development, featured seven people ages 73 to 95 who have seen 100 years of American life. With new groups, the series continued with the documentary Voices of the Pandemic (2021), and the live stage productions Using Our Voices (2022) and Voices of the Harbors (2024) in Florida, the last sponsored by Plymouth Harbor. Another documentary project, Call Me By My Name (2023) was developed over the course of 18 months with members of the unhoused community, receiving a N.C. Humanities ARP Project Support Grant. Playworks employs members of professional disciplines including Actors' Equity Association, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists and IATSE. See the Press and Connect pages, as well as individual project pages, for more information and highlights about events and activities.
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Photos: Donna Bise, Jay Thomas, William Guerrant