Victory Gardens Theater has announced the lineup for the 2016 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including The Wayward Bunny by Greg Kotis; BREACH: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate by Antoinette Nwandu; EOM (end of message) by Laura Jacqmin; Kill Move Paradise by James Ijames; Gaza Rehearsal by Karen Hartman; and Girls In Cars Underwater by Tegan McLeod. The 2016 Festival runs August 5-7, 2016 at Victory Gardens Theater, located at 2433 N Lincoln Avenue.

INGITION’s six selected plays will be presented in a festival of readings and will be directed by leading artists from Chicago. Following the readings, two of the plays may be selected for intensive workshops during Victory Gardens’ 2016-17 season, and Victory Gardens may produce one of these final scripts in an upcoming season.

“At Victory Gardens Theater, we bridge Chicago communities through innovative and challenging new plays by giving established and emerging playwrights the time and space to develop their work. This year, we have invited some of the most thrilling playwrights to join our IGNITION Festival,” said Isaac Gomez, Victory Gardens Theater Literary Manager. “Their plays exemplify the current political and cultural zeitgeist of our city and country: the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, race and gender, the modern struggles of fatherhood, the insular world and morality of video gaming, and a woman’s journey to self-love.”

All readings will be free and open to the public. For more information or to RSVP, visit victorygardens.org or call the Victory Gardens Box Office at 773.871.3000.