At the Jasper Project we’re all about new art and providing opportunities for new art by SC artists to come into existence. In addition to Jasper Magazine, my two favorite examples of this are our Play Right Series project and our 2nd Act Film Project, both coming up soon. But we couldn’t implement either project without the support of our generous and devoted sponsors.
This Sunday, September 14th at 3 pm at Columbia Music Festival Association (914 Pulaski St.) we’ll celebrate the culmination of our 5th annual Play Right Series project with a highly staged reading of winning script, Busted Open, by Ryan Stevens. Ryan was one of a large number of SC writers who answered our call for new theatre art back in the winter of 2024. A panel of distinctive judges including Stan Brown, Jayce Tromsness, Linda Khoury, and Libby Campbell, who is also the coordinator of the project this year, selected Ryan’s play to be developed and workshopped this summer and ultimately brought to life via Sunday’s staged reading.
Some things about the Play Right Series you might want to know: In order to finance the project, which means pay the cast and crew, print copies of the play in book form registered with the Library of Congress, and other necessary incidentals, we invite community members (like you) to join the project as a Community Producer for a nominal fee of $250. Everyone who works on the project as an actor, director, or graphic artist is also paid $250 – so the money that comes in from Community Producers goes right back out to the artists involved.
So when I write that we couldn’t implement this project without the support of our sponsors (Community Producers and Artists Sponsors) I mean it literally and fiscally. Today I’d like to honor these Community Producers and publicly thank them for their trust in the Jasper Project to put their generous funds to good use.
The 2025 roster of Play Right Series Community Producers includes the following:
HUNTER BOYLE
LIBBY CAMPBELL
KRISTIN COBB
STAN CONINE
LARRY HEMBREE
BOB JOLLEY
HENRY LAKE
PERRY MCLEOD
SHEV RUSH
BILL SCHMIDT - ACTOR SPONSOR
WADE SELLERS
KIRLAND SMITH
JAMES SMITH
HEATHER STALKER
JON TUTTLE
AND ME
I hope you can join us on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm at CMFA (915 Pulaski) for the premiere staged reading of Busted Open by Ryan Stevens. Tickets are only $10 and may be purchased here or at the door.
Thank you to our Community Producers and to the cast and crew of Busted Open and to the hardworking Jasper Project board of directors . Thank you all for supporting Jasper and the Play Right Series and for believing in our mission to serve the greater Columbia and South Carolina arts communities by providing collaborative arts engineering and community-wide arts communication, committed to four integrated priorities:
Process – illuminating the unique processes endemic to all art forms in order to provide a greater level of understanding and respect for that discipline.
Community/Collaboration – nurturing community both within and between arts disciplines.
Narrative – creating a more positive and progressive understanding of SC culture.
Economy – being efficient stewards of arts funding committed to creating more with less.