Playwright D.W. Gregory, author of Radium Girls, will be a featured keynote speaker at The Virginia Thespian Festival, Jan. 4 – 6, 2024.

The theme of the conference is “Find Your Light.”

“That’s a topic I know well,” Gregory said. “Anyone working in theatre has to be well-practiced at finding the upside, all the time. Do this long enough and you’ll meet with a lot of frustration — but there is always an upside to every experience.”

Thespian troupes representing more than 70 middle schools and high schools across Virginia are expected to attend the three-day conference,  which will take place at the Capitol One Hall and Hilton Conference Center in McLean, Va.

The conference will include theatre competitions, workshops, and mainstage presentations, including the new Broadway-bound musical, SuperYou, by Lourds Lane.

Gregory is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech on Friday, Jan. 5, introducing the mainstage presentation that evening.

The author of more than a dozen full-length plays, Gregory is best known for Radium Girls. For six years in a row, Radium Girls has been among the ten most produced plays in U.S. high schools, with more than 1,800 productions throughout the United States and abroad.

Other works include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, Salvation Road, and The Yellow Stocking Play, a quick-change musical for three actors with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp. The Yellow Stocking Play recently won awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical in CreateTheater’s New Works Festival on Theatre Row in New York.  Gregory is currently working on a musical adaptation of Radium Girls with the same team.