BLESSINGS FROM THE PANDEMIC

by Rich Orloff DRAMA

2-60

ACTORS (GENDER-NEUTRAL CASTING ALLOWED)

BLESSINGS FROM THE PANDEMIC, a theatre piece in five movements, is a mosaic of poetic reflections exploring our journeys in response to the events of the pandemic: the big, the small, the humorous, the challenging, and even the inspiring. The piece is designed for performance by an ensemble of variable size, either live on stage or virtual.

(5 stars)

Two Degrees

by Tira Palmquist

DRAMA

2

WOMEN, 2 MEN

Emma Phelps is a paleoclimatologist, focusing on ice in Greenland. In drilling and studying ice core samples, she sees firsthand the symptoms of our changing planet, which makes the need to act all the more crucial and urgent. In addition, Emma, as a recent widow, experiences grief that compounds itself with each passing month. Now she’s been asked to testify in Washington D.C. in a senate committee regarding climate change legislation, and in this intersection of science and politics, of politics and the personal, she finds more than just a little is breaking up under the strain of change.

Tira Palmquist is known for plays that merge the personal, the political and the poetic. Her most-produced play, TWO DEGREES, premiered at the Denver Center, and was subsequently produced by Tesseract Theatre in St. Louis and Prime Productions at the Guthrie, among others. Her other plays include SAFE HARBOR, THE WAY NORTH, TEN MILE LAKE and THE WORTH OF WATER. Tira teaches creative writing at the Orange County School of the Arts.

HOOK’S TALE

by John Pielmeier COMEDY

2

MEN

Captain James Hook (nee Cook), badly maligned by a certain play and despised by generations of Peter Pan fans, finally gets to clear his name. The good Captain, with the aid of his friend Smee, tells his life story in this family-friendly play, recounting his friendship with and ultimate betrayal by Peter Pan, his romance with Tiger Lily, his relationship with the Darling family, and his adoption of a lovable crocodile. In narrating his tale, he uncovers the hidden treasure of Neverland, discovers the identity of his long-lost father, and learns the importance of growing up and growing old.

John Pielmeier’s plays include AGNES OF GOD (winner, Great American Play), VOICES IN THE DARK (Edgar Award), SLEIGHT OF HAND, an adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST, and many others. He has written over 25 movies for television, including Sins of the Father, new adaptations of Flowers for Algernon and Sybil, and the screenplay for Agnes of God. His TV movie Choices of the Heart, about slain American missionaries in El Salvador, received the Christopher Award and Humanitas Award.

Full-Length Plays

“Douglas Post’s new adaptation… resonates in our age of class unrest and digital disconnects”

Chicago Reader

Howards End

by Douglas Post

Adapted from E.M. Forster’s novel DRAMA/ADAPTATION

5

WOMEN, 4 MEN

The Bohemian Schlegel sisters are two independent women negotiating the seemingly unbridgeable gulfs that class, money and gender throw in their paths at the dawn of the 20th century. As they chart their course through a rapidly changing London, they encounter the Wilcoxes, who are wealthy capitalists, and the Basts, who struggle to make ends meet. HOWARDS END is a play about three very different families whose lives intertwine in a world speeding towards cataclysm.

Douglas Post’s plays include DROWNING SORROWS, EARTH AND SKY, and MURDER IN GREEN MEADOWS, and his musicals include GOD AND COUNTRY and THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. His work has been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, and China. He has received the Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award, Midwestern Playwrights Festival Award, Cunningham Commission Award, Blue Ink Playwriting Award and three Playwriting Fellowship Awards from the Illinois Arts Council.

Boca

by Jessica Provenz

COMEDY

3 WOMEN, 2 MEN (DOUBLING)

Are you ready for some laughs? Come, soak up the good life in Boca Raton, a city that offers the fountain of youth. In this Garden of Eden, the sun always shines, the lawns are always manicured, and the weather holds steady at a perfect 75, just like Boca’s well-maintained seniors. BOCA is a series of short intertwining comedies that follow a group of retirees in a fictional retirement community, the Boca Oasis, who, between rounds of golf, bridge, and Botox, discover that the key to happiness lies within their very community.

Jessica Provenz’ play BOCA was produced at Barrington Stage Company and GableStage, both directed by Julianne Boyd. Other productions include A WAKE ON CAPPAQUIDDICK (Irish Rep, New Georges), TRUE ART (Pioneer Theatre), and ANDROMEDA (Barrow Group). Jessica has received commissions from Araca Group and Killer Films, among others. and conducted research for the Spielberg/Hanks series, Masters of the Air. She is a two-time recipient of the Lecomte du Nuoy Award for Emerging Playwrights.

Full-Length Plays

LES DEUX NOIRS: Notes on Notes of a Native Son

by Psalmayene 24

DRAMA

1 WOMAN, 3 MEN

Set in the legendary Parisian café Les Deux Magots in 1953, LES DEUX NOIRS reimagines the meeting between Native Son author Richard Wright and essayist/activist James Baldwin. It explores the tension between Baldwin’s searing critiques of Native Son and Wright’s unbridled indignation in response—a confrontation between two mighty African-American artists, with echoes of a present-day rap battle.

Psalmayene 24 (Gregory Morrison) is an award-winning playwright, director, actor, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Mosaic Theatre. He is the writer and lyricist of THE BLACKEST BATTLE and the writer, director, and lyricist of the film THE FREEWHEELIN’ INSURGENTS. CINDERELLA: THE REMIX completed his acclaimed Hip-Hop Children’s Trilogy, exploring hip-hop culture. Psalm has received the Imagination Award from Imagination Stage, grants from the NEA, Walt Disney, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, and Boomerang Fund for Artists Inc.

—Out In Jersey

The Forest

by Lia Romeo

DARK COMEDY/DRAMA

2 WOMEN, 2 MEN

Juliet is losing her marriage. Her mother Pam is losing her memory. And there’s a mysterious forest growing in and around their living room. Is it any wonder Juliet starts sleeping with one of her high school students? A play about weird love and what to do when there aren’t any right answers.

Lia Romeo was a 2021-2022 fellow in the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard. Her play THE FOREST was developed at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and was scheduled to receive a National New Play Network rolling world premiere this season. SITTING AND TALKING premiered at Mile Square Theatre and was produced by Laguna Playhouse, New Jersey Rep, and others. Her works have been seen Off-Broadway at 59E59 and regionally around the country.

Full-Length Plays

LOT’S WIFE

by Eric Rosen

DARK COMEDY/MYSTERY

2 WOMEN, 2 MEN

When struggling actor Tom Braddle discovers that his former collaborator and romantic partner, Adam Mace, has written a new play with a part for him, his hopes for reuniting are dashed by a realisation that the play is all too autobiographical. Did Adam have a hand in the tragic death of his wife and child? A dizzying constellation of competing stories and interests swirl around the company and then…Adam disappears on opening night. A thriller, a comedy, a drama—a meditation on the impulse to make sense of tragedy in our lives through the theatre.

Eric Rosen has served as the Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre and was the co-founder and Artistic Director of Chicago’s About Face Theatre. He is multiple Jeff Award-winning director and has directed plays across the country and internationally. As a playwright, his works include LOT’S WIFE, VENICE, DREAM BOY, (Jeff AwardBest Play) and WINESBURG, OHIO (Jeff Award-Best New Adaptation).

Eleanor

by Mark St. Germain

BIOGRAPHICAL DRAMA

1 WOMAN

ELEANOR is an up-close-and-personal examination of the most important First Lady in history, the times in which she lived, and the personal cost of being the largely private wife of a public figure, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who loomed larger than life at a time when this nation, and the world at large, needed it most.

“What we have here is a great show, period.”—Wall Street Journal

Mark St. Germain is the author of FREUD’S LAST SESSION (Off Broadway Alliance Award), CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel awards) and BECOMING DR. RUTH, the story of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, among other works. His adaptation of John Updike’s novel GERTRUDE AND CLAUDIUS premiered in repertory with HAMLET at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival and will be presented at the Barrington Stage Company in the Berkshires, where he is an Associate Artist.

“Wonderfully entertaining... theatrical storytelling at its best.”

—Berkshire Eagle