Introducing the Jasper Project's 2025 Play Right Series Winning Playwright – Ryan Stevens

It’s the 5th season for Jasper’s innovative project, the Play Right Series and we couldn’t be happier to announce that Ryan Stevens is our 2025 winner.

A native of Greenville and a 2020 graduate of USC with an MFA in Playwrighting, Stevens received his MA in Theatre in 2017 and BA in English in 2015, also from USC. Currently a Playwriting Fellow at Emery University, Stevens will commute from Atlanta during the upcoming summer to workshop his play, Busted Open, alongside a group of Midlands-area Community Producers, a process  that will ultimately lead the play to the staged reading phase of development. In addition to this performance at summer’s end, Jasper will also publish his manuscript and register it with the US Library of Congress.

The purpose of Jasper’s Play Right Series is threefold: to empower and enlighten audiences by offering insider views of the process of creating theatre art via the roles of Community Producers; to increase opportunities for theatre artists to create and participate in new art without being attached to a theatre organization; and, to provide more affordable and experimental theatrical experiences for emerging theatre artists and their audiences.

This year’s Community Producers will witness the first ever table reading of Stevens’ new play, Busted Open, as well as attend a private rehearsal and informal presentations by the playwright, director, cast and crew, and ultimately be celebrated for their financial and personal contributions (minimum investment $250) to the project at the staged reading premiere of Busted Open in late summer.

Previous Community Producers, several of whom have re-invested year after year, have included community members like Bill Schmidt, Ed Madden, Linda Khoury, Paul Leo, and James and Kirkland Smith. Additional financial support has also been generously provided by folks like Jack McKenzie, Hunter Boyle, Robin Gottlieb, and many more.

Judges for this year’s competition were Linda Khoury, executive director of the SC Shakespeare Co.; Stan Brown, professor of acting at Northwestern University and professional actor who recently enjoyed his Broadway debut in Water for Elephants; and, Jayce Tromsness, a longtime multifaceted SC theatre artist.

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Play Right Series 2025 Community Producer Schedule

SUNDAY, JULY 20: Introducing Ryan Stevens and Busted Open

Meet the 2025 Play Right Series Winning Playwright Ryan Stevens and witness the Inaugural Table Reading of Busted Open

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 3: The Art of Stagecraft

The cast & crew of Busted Open explain the process of preparing for a role and tricks of the trade to demystify some of the magic of the theatrical arts   

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 17: The Playwright's Craft

Learn about the processes of 4 award-winning playwrights including Ryan Stevens, Chad Henderson, Lonetta Thompson, and Colby Quick with your host Jon Tuttle, author of South Carolina Onstage, The Trustus Collection, and more

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SUNDAY, AUGUST  31:  Sneak Peek Week!

Be a fly on the proverbial stage wall among an intimate group of guests to watch a working rehearsal of Busted Open – see how far the cast has come since the first ever Table Reading just six weeks earlier

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SUNDAY: SEPT 14: The Big Event – Staged Reading of Busted Open

Take your reserved seat for the Premiere Stage Reading of Busted Open by Ryan Stevens at Columbia Music Festival Association and enjoy a post-show champagne toast to the cast, crew, and creator of Busted Open!

For more information  about the 2025 Play Right Series schedule and Community Producer opportunities please visit the Projects section of our website JasperProject.org.

REVIEW: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune

Trustus Side Door Theatre

April 11 – 20, 2024

The play opens on a darkened apartment, with a couple making love. After working together for several weeks Frankie, a waitress has agreed to a date with Johnny, a short-order cook, and the two have ended up in Frankie’s one-room walk-up apartment. Johnny (played by Jason Stokes) has fallen madly, absurdly, head-over-heels in love with Frankie (Marybeth Gorman Craig). Frankie thinks this is an absurd notion. She’s had a lovely evening but would be happiest if Johnny would just get dressed and leave so she could get in her pj’s and eat ice cream and watch television. 

The evening unfurls as our two world-weary, battered souls talk and listen and question and argue about love and the notion of love, and whether any of us are really and truly prepared to meet the love of our lives, that one soul without whom we cannot live. A late-night classical music radio station provides the score, complete with a velvet-voiced deejay. 

Johnny is persistent and obnoxious and relentless and meddling and romantic, and he NEVER SHUTS UP in his quest to convince Frankie that she is in fact his soulmate. There were several times when I wanted her to push him out the window or split his head open with an axe. He’s just adorable. This may be the best work I’ve seen from Stokes, and I’ve seen him in any number of roles. His shading, his timing, his nuance, his unending enthusiasm is all spot on. 

I’m not sure how Marybeth Gorman Craig is able to pull off world-weary and luminous at the same time, but she does it beautifully. Her Frankie has been burned and disappointed by men over and over. Her skepticism is as relentless as Johnny’s enthusiasm. She would like to believe him, but her experiences won’t let her. Yet.           

When I first heard this was being produced in the Side Door, I was  concerned that it would be too “cozy” for this show. In fact it’s the perfect space. We feel as claustrophobic as Frankie. Jayce Tromsness’ scene design and Erin Wilson’s set dressing is true to tiny NYC apartments. There’s a working kitchen! I love a working kitchen on stage; Frankie’s need for a late-night nosh (cold meatloaf sandwiches – delish) resulted in real meatloaf sandwiches ON TOAST. (I went home and made toast after the show.)  There’s a later scene where Johnny whips up a western omelet; there is a soupçon of menace to his chopping skill. 

For any of you who might hesitate to see this show because you’ve heard that there would be  NAKED PEOPLE onstage, relax. There are no naked people onstage in this production, and it didn’t affect the story one iota.

 We’ve all had those all-nighters, where we argued and made up and loved and snacked and made discoveries about ourselves and each other and made love again until the sun rose. Hopefully, we’ve sometimes even had “the most beautiful music ever written” as a soundtrack. Erin Wilson has given us a lovely, lovely show. Frankie and Johnny are tired and resigned and hopeful and hopeless. You don’t necessarily get a “happy ending,” but you don’t get a sad one, either. I was sad and hopeful and wanted a cigarette at the end of the evening.

Sadly, you only have 4 more chances to see this production: April 17 – April 20 at 8:00 p.m. There is limited seating in the Side Door Theatre so make your reservations now. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling the theatre at 803-254-9732. Beer and wine are available for purchase in the lobby.