In conversation with 2025 Broadway Licensing New Works Grant Winner, Faith King

Caryn Gresham

The world premier of her new show “Dead and Gone” is coming this April!

Growing up in Red Bank, New Jersey, Faith King took to theatre like some kids take to soccer.  She was all in from her early childhood days when she preferred talking into a microphone rather than playing with toys.  She pretended to write stories and then talked her family members into performing them.

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love theatre,” Faith says.  “I attended a small elementary school that put on a musical at the end of every school year and I remember vividly being an orphan in Oliver Twist when I was in second grade.” 

As she got older, she found herself drawn to playwriting as much as acting.  She loved her high school writing classes and the opportunities she had to stretch her imagination writing plays.

When it came time to choose a college, Faith found the best match at her mother’s alma mater, West Virginia University.  “As I looked at theatre programs, I knew I wanted to learn about the entire theatre experience – acting, writing, costume and set design, and producing,” she says.  “WVU’s School of Theatre and Dance had the most of what I wanted and, four years later, I can say this was the right call for me!”

This year, Faith’s studies and determination have paid off.  Her two-person play, Dead and Gone, won the 2024/25 Broadway Licensing New Works Grant at WVU.  The award provided Faith with a $5,000 grant.  Half of the grant is a direct scholarship for her to produce the play; the other half goes to its production.

Dead and Gone has its debut in April at the Falbo Theater, Canady Creative Arts Center.  The story centers around childhood friends Ben and Fee as they share car rides around their hometown in the week leading up to Ben’s father’s funeral.  The one-act drama explores grief, growing up and how we hold onto each other through difficult times.

“The title comes from a line in Hamlet, when Ophelia sings a song about her father being dead and gone,” says Faith.  “I played Ophelia in summer theatre after my freshman year in college and that line really stuck with me.” 

She began her work on the play in her junior year when she wrote the first scene for the final of her playwriting class.  Later, she wrote the whole play in her senior year when she took independent study with Professor Radhica Ganapathy.

“She encouraged me to turn it into a full play and was the person who suggested the entire play take place inside a car,” she says.  “It really gives the play an intimate feeling in that closed setting and makes the story more emotional for the actors and the audience.”

Winning the Broadway Licensing Grant was exciting for Faith.  She has applied for three years in a row.  Her sophomore year her work was not selected for consideration.  Her junior year her work was among those considered for the grant.  This year, she won. “Getting the grant is a nice way to cap off my senior year,” she says.  “I’m able to work with some new talent at WVU and as a producer I am enjoying seeing the chemistry between the actors and the energy of the staff and crew I selected. “

See more about Dead and Gone premiering at the Falbo Theater in the WVU Canandy Creative Arts Center. Dates:

Thursday, April 24 — 7:30

Friday, April 25 — 7:30

Saturday, April 26 — 7:30

Sunday, April 27 — 2:00