Local playwright named finalist in national competition

Ben “Jiggs” Burgess, of Graham, and his play “The Girl in the White Pinafore” were named a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill 2018 National Playwrights Conference.

The National Playwrights Conference was founded in 1964 and is now one of the nations top programs for developing and launching new plays by emerging and establishing playwrights.

“The Girl in the White Pinafore” was named one of the top 55 plays out of the 1,429 plays received during the submission process. However, it was not one of the eight plays chosen to be performed by the conference.

Burgess said the selection of plays is a juried blind submission based process. The play must go through several different jurors during prelims before being named a semifinalist. To become a finalist both jurors and a board member must approve of the play. He said this a process which many recognized plays including ‘Hamilton’ have gone through.

Burgess said “The Girl in the White Pinafore” is based off the New London school explosion on March 18, 1937. He said the explosion killed about 300 people and is the reason there is a smell to natural gas now.  He said the play is on the surface a ghost story about a girl who haunts the superintendent of New London.

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