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 on Thursday, Aug. 21 at 7 pm and 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 is an incubator for professional playwrights. Past residencies have included rising stars of contemporary American playwriting. Selected by JMU School of Theatre and Dance in the Spring of 2025, The Sparkle Wars by Brendan Bourque-Sheil and Sarai’s Knife by John Minigan will be developed in collaboration with JMU faculty and current students this August. If you want a sneak peek of how plays go from page to stage, we encourage everyone in our JMU community to join us for this free reading and pioneering program. MNWL started at JMU seven years ago and creates an opportunity for students to work as actors, stage managers and assistant directors on new work. Development happens through conversations, rehearsals, and public readings. This year, two plays will be workshopped from 8/14/25 - 8/23/25. For ten days students, faculty, and guest artists work with the invited professional playwrights developing their play and culminating in public readings.

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.