Summer Test Kitchen connects prize-winning playwrights with WWU Theatre students
Field Note
Every Western story looks different,
opening doors to new experiences
that shape student lives.
You can be part of a student's story.
July 15, 2026
by Chris Casquilho
WWU Communications
Originally published in news.wwu.edu
Seattle Rep Artistic Director Dámaso Rodriguez and playwright Cindy Lou Johnson at a table reading of "Fission"
WWU Theatre’s Summer Test Kitchen is in its fourth year of convening students, faculty, alums, and writers to workshop and test-drive play scripts and screenplays. After week-long intensives, the company will present a series of staged readings of the works in development.
The readings are free and open to the public.
“Test Kitchen is a great way for the community to be on the ground floor for hearing new work that is being developed here at WWU,” said Eva Gil, an assistant professor of Theatre working on the project. “We have award-winning playwrights and screenwriters coming to our corner of the world each July and sharing their new pieces with the public.”
Playwright Doug Wright
Acclaimed theatre veteran Doug Wright in the kitchen
In summer 2026, the Test Kitchen will host Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Doug Wright to workshop and stage a reading of Wright’s latest work, “The Cutter Incident.” The play explores a defining moment in the history of vaccine manufacturing and government oversight which led to the creation of a better system of regulating vaccines. "The Cutter Incident" is being developed for the La Jolla Playhouse in California.
Wright first earned national acclaim earning the Obie Award for Best Playwright for “Quills” about the Marquis de Sade. He went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for his debut Broadway play, “I Am My Own Wife.”
Wright won another Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical nomination for “Grey Gardens” based on the 1975 documentary. He adapted the books for the Broadway musicals “The Little Mermaid,” “Hands on a Hard Body,” and “War Paint.”
Seattle Connection
The next two works in development this summer will bring the talents of Union Arts Artistic Associate Shana Bestock and Seattle Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Dámaso Rodríguez.
Seattle Rep’s Dámaso Rodríguez will direct the Test Kitchen company in Cindy Lou Johnson’s new play “Fission,” about the unlikely duo of scientists who unleash the splitting of the atom. Their earth-shaking discovery in 1938 leads to the devastation of two cities and their 30-year partnership.
Bestock will direct Shanna Allman’s play “Eve’s Ale,” a gritty feminist manifesto under development for Union Arts – a merger of ACT Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare. Set in a small western town in 1886, “Eve’s Ale” is a “fiercely and unapologetically female story set to the tune of a classic western.”
Gifts to Western support scholarships, research, supplies, and programs that transform student lives.
A little can do a lot.
Idris Goodwin looks on while student Savannah Anderson shares thoughts about her character.
Week-long intensives
Participants in the Summer Test Kitchen include professional theatre directors, producers, and playwrights; Western students and alumni; and current faculty and staff members. The four play companies meet for six hours each day for five days to prepare for a live staged reading open to the public.
performers and writers rehearse a script
Idris Goodwin looks on while student Savannah Anderson shares thoughts about her character.
“The development process has been different for each Test Kitchen play because we are working to serve the needs of the playwright,” said Theatre and Dance Chair Rich Brown.
Student and faculty participants receive a stipend, thanks to the generosity of donor Maureen O’Reilly. Test Kitchen partners, like Seattle Rep, pay stipends to the guest artists – playwrights, dramaturges, and directors.
Willow K. Nichols is a senior double-majoring in theatre performance and environmental policy who took part in the 2024 Test Kitchen reading of the “Hot Shots” screenplay and is preparing for a role in 2025’s “The Cutter Incident.”
“Test Kitchen has been a key part of my artistic development as it allows students to hone new skills and make connections in the professional world,” Nichols said. “Not to mention it’s tons of fun!”
Previous Test Kitchen projects have succeeded in advancing works in development, such as author, playwright, and theatre producer Idris Goodwin’s “American Prom,” which was developed at the 2024 Test Kitchen. "American Prom" was recently performed as a staged reading at Sehome High School.
Theatre major Emmett Kineman read various characters from another Test Kitchen project, “King of the Neuroverse,” at the Thespian Festival in Seattle in March.
Theatre major Emmett Kineman rehearses a line from "Fission."
"It was a very different type of theatre to what I am used to,” Kineman said. “I had no other information or takes on the character to go off of, just my own best interpretation so the playwright can hear their work aloud. It helped me develop some great skills as an actor working on a new script, and I enjoyed the process very much!"
Collaboration will continue with Goodwin on his latest work “Problematic Word Play," which Goodwin calls a new kind of “Break Beat Ensemble Investigative Performance Essay.” “Problematic Word Play” links the poetics of William Shakespeare and contemporary rap artists.
Projects continue to expand as the 2027 Summer Test Kitchen invites playwright David Auburn, best known for his play “Proof,” which won the Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Auburn wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film version of “Proof.” A revival of “Proof” is currently playing on Broadway starring Don Cheadle.
Field Note
Hands-on experiences outside
the classroom are part of what makes
the Western experience special.
Programs like this are funded
by gifts from people like you.