The Jasper Project is excited to announce that Chad Henderson’s play Let it Grow, has been selected as the winning play in the 2024 Play Right Series competition. Henderson’s play was unanimously chosen from 14 submissions by a committee of four theatre artists including Dewey Scott-Wiley, Libby Campbell, Bakari Lebby, and Jon Tuttle. Henderson’s play will be workshopped during the summer as part of the Jasper Project’s fourth Play Right Series, then presented as a staged reading. Previous winners of the Jasper Project’s Play Right Series include Randall David Cook’s Sharks and Other Lovers, Colby Quick’s Moon Swallower, and Lonetta Thompson’s Therapy.
The Play Right Series was created by Jasper in 2017 as a catalyst for encouraging new theatre art from South Carolina playwrights. The project is unique in that it invites community members to join the project as Community Producers, individuals and couples who take part in the workshopping of the manuscript while they learn about the process of creating theatre art. A minimum fee of $250 per person allows an individual to become a Community Producer who goes on to be recognized as an honored guest at the staged reading of the new script at the end of the project. Previous Community Producers have included James and Kirkland Smith, Bill Schmidt, Ed Madden, Bert Easter, Wade Sellers, Libby Campbell, Paul Leo and many more. Stay tuned for more information on openings for the 2024 Community Producer roster.
Chad Henderson is a professional theatre artist in South Carolina who is known for directing contemporary plays, musicals and original works that mix music, movement, imagination, and invention to create unforgettable works for the stage. Henderson served as the Artistic Director of Trustus Theatre (2015-2021) in Columbia, SC, and is the current Marketing Director for the South Carolina Philharmonic, where he most recently produced Home for the Holidays at Koger Center for the Arts. Selected Trustus Theatre credits include: The Brother/Sister Plays, Green Day’s American Idiot, Evil Dead, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Last 5 Years, Assassins, The Great Gatsby, Next to Normal, and The Restoration’s Constance - an original musical for which Henderson also authored the book. Henderson has directed with various theatres in South Carolina including Workshop Theatre of South Carolina, The Columbia Children’s Theatre, Spartanburg Next Stage, and Theatre South Carolina (USC). Henderson has completed three residencies at The Studios of Key West, where he developed new works and directed as part of TSKW’s One Night Stand, a 24-hour new play project. His short film Overture, which he wrote and directed, won the 2017 Second Act Film Festival Audience Choice Award. In the last theatre season, Henderson directed Hundred Days (Workshop Theatre), a staged reading of Moon Swallower (Jasper Project), Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus (Columbia Children’s Theatre), and Clyde’s (PURE Theatre). Other Charleston directing credits include Living Dead in Denmark (College of Charleston), The Brothers Size (Piccolo Spoleto), and PURE Theatre’s lauded production of Fun Home in 2018 which was revived for Piccolo Spoleto that same year. Chad lives in Columbia, SC with his wife Bonnie, whose love and support fuels his passion for the theatre. Visit his website for more information on the artist.
