The Theatre School at DePaul rounds out the month of May with its annual playwriting festival, Wrights of Spring. The two-week celebration includes free performances that showcase 16 original scripts from DePaul playwrights which will run through Sunday, May 31.

 “It is a scary thing to get into a writing cohort,” said playwriting major Olayinka Bart-Williams, who is participating in the festival for the second time. “You’re going to feel naked for a really long time. And it’s OK to fail. Everyone else feels naked with you.”  

Wrights of Spring, which began in 1996, is a grand finale for its many involved students. DePaul students enrolled in the playwriting program showcase their year in playwriting, while others organize and curate events.

“There are students in the management program who have different roles in putting the festival together,” said Carlos Murillo, the chair of theatre studies program and head of DePaul’s playwriting program. “Students serve as the producers, run marketing and special events for the festival.”

Festival pioneer and associate dean of The Theatre School Dean Corrin guides students through the festival each year. He also named the event after composer Igor Stravinsky’s ballet and orchestral work, “The Rite of Spring.”

“I can’t resist a pun,” Corrin said. “That’s a part of how we make it feel like a festival — to give it a silly name!”

Corrin is retiring this year, making the conclusion of this 30th festival his DePaul curtain call. Students and faculty celebrated his career with him at a party Thursday, May 21.

On top of helping start the festival, Corrin also helped to create DePaul’s playwriting major, one of the only BFA programs for playwriting in the country. 

Students like Emily Haslam, a senior playwriting major, exhibit their written works in table reads and workshops at the end of the year. Haslam’s play, “Charades,” is about a queer couple divided by the Mormon religious system in Utah. It debuts Saturday, May 30.

 “The idea I started with is completely different from what I ended up with,” Haslam said, noting that the changes came in increments until she completed the script. “I have no idea how I got there!”

Liliya Viytyk, a senior majoring in theater management, designed the 2026 festival website along with some other participants.

“Wrights of Spring is one of the only required theater management opportunities,” Viytyk said. “I think it’s low stakes in a way that’s a good opportunity to learn for the organizers. How does organizing work? How does scheduling work? It’s a good way to connect.”

Bart-Williams is premiering her latest play, “Booty Juice,” a comedic prison break story about escaping a psychiatric ward. She and the other playwrights use these audience presentations to improve their writing. The play will have a second showing on Thursday, May 28.

“Our job is actually to be looking at the audience and making sure what we’re saying is coming through,” Bart-Williams said. “After that, we can say, ‘This didn’t work, let’s edit it and see if it hits the second time.’”

Members of each graduating class get a certain amount of allotted time for their play. Sophomores like Bart-Williams get 60 minutes, while juniors can go as long as 120 minutes.

Freshman students can’t take playwriting courses until their second year, but they are given an opportunity to tell 10-minute stories if they want to participate. These scripts are each read only once, during the Debutante Ball on Tuesday, May 26, giving the freshmen a brief spotlight. 

The Theatre School faculty and festival supervisors give awards to student participants. The playwrights themselves are only up for two awards: two financial grants to fund a bigger production of one of their scripts. The school will announce the recipients of this year’s awards in July.

Between plays, the festival includes other events like the “ST*RS Drag Show,” their own Battle of the Bands and “First Year Flops.”

The Wrights of Spring has nightly showcases through Sunday, May 31, with location and production details listed on their website.

“It’s all students who want to contribute to this process,” Corrin said. “Everybody’s there because they’ve chosen to be there, not because somebody’s assigned them to be there. That brings a really special energy to the event.”

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