The Sparkle Wars

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In a major city of the American South lies the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Memorial, where just about every type of American life is crammed into fifteen chaotic miles. When a group of Memorial High School Theatre students get their production of The Laramie Project shut down by a book-banning school board, they decide to make their own piece of documentary theatre about the fight to get the play back.  This action takes them to the front lines of a culture war guaranteed to change their neighborhood and all of them with it. The Sparkle Wars is a mockumentary about how communities create and tell the stories that define them.

Join us Saturday, Aug. 23  at 7 pm for a pre-show conversation with playwright Brendan Bourque-Sheil.

The Madison New Works Laboratory is made possible by the generosity of Paul Holland and Linda Yates.

Madison New Works Laboratory started at JMU seven years ago and is a national destination for new work development. Our writers and composers have gone on to win awards and fellowships from the Theatre Communications Group, Dramatist Guild, and the Playwright’s Center. Artists-in-residence from across the country join our student actors, stage managers, and faculty for a ten-day residency, collaborating through conversations and rehearsals to develop their work. Each play for the 2025 season was selected through a competitive national search and will receive a staged reading in the Studio Theatre. We are also collaborating with The Firehouse Theatre to bring one of this summer’s two plays to Richmond. Our first play is The Sparkle Wars by Brendan Bourque-Sheil and our second play Sarai’s Knife by John Minigan. Join us for a free public reading, where you’ll meet the playwrights, take part in a post-show conversation, and get an inside look at the creative process behind bringing a play to life.

Brendan Bourque-Sheil's plays include Dogrose Patrol (O'Neill Finalist, written with Madison Smith), Sunrise Coven(Stages Theatre, Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Penny Seats Theatre), Between Two Caves (Landing Theatre, Garden of Voices), and The Book of Maggie (Finalist, Reva Shiner Comedy Award, Stages Theatre, Death and Pretzels Theatre Company). He has participated in the Stillwright Retreat and won the Writer's Colony's Real People Fellowship. For Alley Theatre's Department of Education and Community Engagement he's been a principal writer of 12 devised theatre plays for teens. He worked as Playwright in Residence and Literary Associate for The Landing Theatre where he hosted and produced The Landing Theatre New Works Podcast. For ten years, he has worked as a teaching artist for Alley Theatre, and a consultant in Creative Writing for the Kinder High School of Performing and Visual Arts. He also tells personal narrative stories for a live audience at shows including Grown-Up Storytime, City Cast Houston and World Channel's "Stories From the Stage." He enjoys learning American Sign Language and long walks in graveyards.