The Contemporary Voices Play Festival at BYU celebrates award winning plays and playwrights whose work we think our audiences and students should know. These plays present an opportunity to think deeply and explore the art and the language of theatre.
Lauren Gunderson’s Book of Will has won multiple awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association's (ATCA) Steinberg New Play Award in 2018 and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award in 2017. The playwright herself is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in Theatre Award, the Lanford Wilson Award, and she was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Fortunately for BYU, Gunderson was first Redd Residency Guest Playwright in 2022, spending three days visiting with TMA students, teaching playwrights and dramaturgs and offering professional advice. We are delighted to be presenting a reading of this play.
Below you’ll find several links to resources across the web that will help you engage deeper with, and enhance your enjoyment of, Lauren Gunderson’s Book of Will.
Pasadena theatre, A Noise Within, created this study guide for teachers and audience members, curated by Education Director Alicia Green.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival offers this interactive guide to Book of Will.
Here you can find a podcast (with transcript) from The Folger Shakespeare Library about Book of Will.
