Centering on twelve individuals who were high school freshman from around the country in 2020 You're The Reason I'm Still Here (working title) explores the profound impact of COVID-19 on the mental health, social development, and overall transition from childhood to adulthood asking the questions, when the adults in your lives don't know if it's going to be okay who do you turn to? The answer is profound, surprising, and hopeful. If you would like to contribute please check out the campaign HERE.
OUR FATHER- A New Play - Semifinalist at Premiere Stages & The O'Neill Playwrights Conference
Thank you to Premiere Stages at Kean University and The O’Neill for seeing the beauty in this play.
On a wee island in Ireland, nestled in the quiet back of a pub, we find a father patiently awaiting his son. As he waits, the tumultuous sea churns outside, a piano plays within, and the sun gently rises. Enter a young American, carrying a secret bigger than her backpack and too heavy for casual conversation. A daughter adrift, a father becalmed: Our Father ponders how these two disparate, unlikely threads might entwine against a backdrop of soulful melodies and unspoken wishes. Can we wander our way to connection and understanding when facing the truth is too much but turning away from it is impossible.
THE FLOREANA PROJECT - Summer 2024
Floreana (working title) is a documentary theater piece consisting of the compilation of interviews with island residents over ten years, video/sound collection of wildlife and a call to action for residents of a very different island (Manhattan Island). With bringing the essence of Floreana to Governor’s Island in New York City, the project aims to have an island-island connection like never before asking the question, how can theatre activate change through storytelling?
Funding pending, I will be collaborating with Kathleen Amshoff, Mary K. Baxter and Leah Reddy on the in-process Floreana project. In March 2024 we will be traveling to Floreana to conduct interviews of the island residents, gather visual and audio recordings, and create a documentary theatre piece that aims to travel to different countries to support the Island to Ocean Connection Challenge. Theatre is a way for change to happen and I’m so excited to team up with the four amazing artists below. If you are interested in hearing more about the project please don’t hesitate to reach out.
SIGNED WITH FOCUSED ARTISTS
Excited to be stepping into the next step of my career as a writer signed with Focused Artists! I have a beautiful body of work and excited for the guidance of getting it all out in the world.
MIDNIGHT RIDE READING
IMPACT OF "ANNE PAGE HATES FUN"
Anne Page Hates Fun was my last full production at the American Shakespeare Center. One of the sweet spots of this last year was receiving an email from the wonderful Anne G. Morgan in October. The title of the email was, Anne Page’s Impact. This article, written by Pamela Macfie for the Sewanee Review, reminded me of why I write. In my writing, I often wrestle with how women deal with harassment and assault, and my hope is always to reach at least one person with my words. I’m grateful for Pamela’s courage to share her own story.
… like an uninvited guest, a revenant who can’t be silenced. But his voice doesn’t silence me now.
When Anne Page cracked me open, the words finally came, and in a torrent.
- Pamela Macfie
NEWS UPDATES FROM THE PAST YEAR
May 2021
It’s been TWO years since I’ve done any live news updates on my website and, well, a lot has happened. My main news is I have stayed healthy and teaching a lot on zoom.
Thank you Roundabout, MTC, Strike Anywhere and NewYorkRep for keeping me employed during this challenging time. More about the specifics of how I’ve spent this time can be found in my new blog post here. Talking about blog posts, I’m getting back to blogging! I teach my students to not overthink when they write, and so I’m trying to practice what I teach while blogging.
I’m grateful a friend I met in West Virginia at the amazing CATF festival, has been helping, and nudging me (in the kindest way) to make updates. As reentry begins to happen for us all, slowly and safely, I’m going to catch up on my news. This might be a bit out of order but I want to remember my craft, my art, and that while this year has been so very difficult, there is much to be remembered, celebrated, and shared. Thank you Elizabeth for all your help and all those other creative souls that have kept asking me, “how have you been doing?” – Always feel free to drop me a line to let me know how YOU are doing, and know whatever you have done in this stretch of time is ENOUGH. You are enough. Reentry will be hard and different for each all. Do what you need!
Lots of love, Amy
LIVE READING OF PLAY IN PORTLAND, MAINE SUMMER 2021
May 2021
THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF SEAN & LUCY – LIVE READING
My play, The Midnight Ride of Sean & Lucy, has been on the shelf for way too long and is finally getting a staged reading in Portland, Maine this summer. The reading is July 31st and August 1st, 2021. More information here soon! If you happen to be in Maine this summer be sure to let me know, I would love to see you!
COMMISSIONED TO WRITE NEW PLAY
April 2021
New play will address the voluntary intoxication loophole
The wonderful folks at NewYorkRep have commissioned me to write a new play addressing the voluntary intoxication loophole that lets ‘rapists walk free’ in over forty states. This piece is not only a play but a call for change. The goal is to have a development reading of the play in both Los Angeles and New York in April, 2022. As a sexual assault survivor, being commissioned to work on this piece is a great honor and a further step to make actual change.
A big thank you to Gayle Waxenberg and Laurie Bernhard for thinking of me for this project!
NEWYORKREP
develops and produces new plays and musicals that inspire and compel social change by telling stories that expose the travesty and beauty of our humanity. By illuminating social and ethical questions through art, we strive to create provocative theater that promotes empathy, compassion, and inclusion.
ZOOM READING OF "IT'S A LONG WAY"
A young American girl journeys to Ireland to attend the wedding of her dead boyfriend’s sister. Hoping to find someone to blame for his death, she learns more than she ever wanted to know about the young man she loved.
Read moreDRAFT FINISHED OF NEW PLAY
January 2021
New Play The Last Red Lobster of Maine in the Works
After, I don’t know, five years (?) I finally finished a first draft of the play I promised my playwright friend, Don Nguyen that I would write for him. It started off as a joke when we discovered, having a meal at the Red Lobster in Times Square, that there were no Lobster’s in their tank. Going deeper into our exploration of this particular food chain we learned that Maine, the land of Lobsters, actually had a franchise or two. Born out of this became a large play that touches on climate change, connection, loss and friendship.
THE LAST RED LOBSTER OF MAINE
What happens when the water is too warm for the lobsters and they all keep moving north until they have nowhere left to go? When a nor’easter threatens the last known franchise of the Redish Lobstah, patrons, owners, and employees are stuck facing their own mortality in the hands of a talking lobster.
I’m hoping to have a reading of this play in the upcoming year so I can begin to work on it. For some reason all the pieces I worked on during quarantine are large ensemble plays that have a lot of big things happening on stage. I think part of this year was about my imagination being opened to whatever I wanted to write.
WRITER'S RETREAT IN FRANCE
MARCH 2020
Chateau de Poigny Residency – France
When I received an email from Jacqueline Goldfinger a lifetime ago inviting me to a writer’s retreat in France I was delighted to say yes. This retreat, which had been planned almost a year in advance was to take place March 6th - March 14th 2020. A group of twenty American playwrights, directors, screenwriters, dramaturges, and creative beings were off to Poigny to indulge in what I now know as the simple luxury of group collaboration.
As the date approaches and whispers of the Covid-19 virus began individuals began to make choices to stay or go on the retreat. The thirteen of us who ended up converging in France had no idea that this would be the last in-person collaboration as artists for over a year.
I’m grateful to have carried the memories of this retreat with me in the frightening early days of the Pandemic. I’m looking forward to reuniting with these beautiful artists in November in Spain.
SHORT PLAY PERFORMED AT SECRET THEATRE
FEBRUARY 24th - 2020
My short play, EASY AS PRESLEY, was written for the pre-pandemic installment of Queens NY Madness.
Performed at the now closed Secret Theatre
Directed by Michele Travis
Featuring: Samantha Debicki, Chandler Gregoire and Cary Hite
ORIGINAL PLAY NOMINATED FOR COMPETITION
March 2020
Dixieland nominated for playwrighting competition at PlayMakers
While in Paris on a writers retreat (see this post) I learned that my brand-new play, Dixieland (working title) was a finalist for The International Thomas Wolfe Playwrighting Competition at PlayMakers in Chapel Hill.
This play was written as a response piece to Wolfe’s novel Look Homeward, Angel and I hope to continue to work on it as I have grown very fond of the piece.
Below is the list of the ten finalists. I hope you google these playwrights and discover more about their work. ☺
Missing Celia Rose by Ian August
Through Hike by David L. Caruso
Resubdivided by Mason Cordell
The Family Marcher by Alex Drinnen
Fall with Me by Jared Eberlein
Lineage by Anne Flanagan
Of the Sea by Fiona Gorry-Hines
Against the Flesh by Nick Robideau
Dixieland by Amy E. Witting
SEMI-FINALIST FOR 2020 BLUE INK AWARD
Original play, DAY 392 , named Semi-Finalist for the 2020 American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award. It was wonderful to dust off my MFA Thesis play and invite it gently back into the world.
The American Blues Theater supports so many beautiful voices in the American Theatre. Check out their website here to learn more about this year’s winner – Yussef El Guindi!
DRAFT READING OF NEW PLAY
February 4th, 2020**
Thanks to New Georges and their lovely space (my last in-person reading) some brilliant folks gathered to read a brand new zero draft of Dixieland (working title)
** While this update should have happened in real time, posting it now (May 2021) has me missing all these talented humans, music stands, pianos, and smooshing around a table while I drink too many seltzers to help me stay open to hearing characters come alive.
FAMILY HISTORY PROJECT – A PEN PAL EXCHANGE
JANUARY 2020
I have been gathering threads of my family history through letters with my father. This project which was started a couple years ago continues today. My hope is to continue to collect the threads to create a piece of theatre based on his life.
UPCOMING PRODUCTION OF "UNBEINGDEAD"
February 22, 2020
Unbeingdead is part of The House On The Hill Trilogy
Commissioned by the Orange Beach New Play Festival
Upcoming production – February 22, 2020
NEW PLAY "WOMYN'S WILL"
Announcing:
Womyn’s Will
A new play by Amy E. Witting
ANNE PAGE HATES FUN OPENS AT AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER
ANNE PAGE HATES FUN OPENED AT THE AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER IN FEBRUARY AFTER AN INTENSE AND FRUITFUL REWRITING PROCESS. THIS EXPERIENCE WAS ONE I WILL NEVER FORGET, AND I MARKS A HUGE GROWTH AS A WRITER. BELOW ARE SOME LINKS TO PRESS RELEASES AND A REVIEW OF THE PIECE ALONG WITH PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE PRODUCTION. I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING HOW THE SHAKESPEARE’S NEW CONTEMPORARIES PROJECT GROWS, EVOLVES, AND BRINGS TO THE STAGE MANY MORE NEW PLAYS INSPIRED BY WILLIAM S.
AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER
AMERICAN THEATRE
BROADWAY WORLD
SHAKESPEAREANCES
