The week after Thanksgiving. A Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching.

Is there a heaven? Joe says no; its all a bunch of hokum. His wife, Roberta, has always claimed to agree. But lately shes beginning to wonder, especially when they find themselves in church a lot, having reached the age when funerals are more frequent than weddings. Their granddaughter, Ellie, doesnt have time in her own busy life to ponder the after-life. But when mortality confronts them, her grandmothers claim to have gone to heaven and back doesnt sound so crazy after all. With thoughtful storytelling and quiet wit, Brunstetter looks at beginnings, endingsand an enigmatic angel.

New York producer Jerry Cobb has invited wunderkind playwright Nebraska Jones for an all-expense-paid trip to paradise. Cobb has invested all his money commissioning Jones next play, which he believes will eclipse his Broadway debut  hailed by critics as a masterpiece of comic timing. Banking on Jones reputation and momentum, Cobb is disheartened to find his playwright suffering from a severe case of depression: hes morose; he wont eat; he cant write  in fact all he wants to do is drink Cobbs bourbon and sleep all day in the $250-per-night luxury room, at Cobbs considerable expense. Right-hand man, Charlie Bascher, is charged with keeping the kid at the typewriter, distracting him from the booze, and figuring out the cause of his distemper.

It is the eve of Obama's first election. Four of Harvard University's brightest; a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist, and a neuro-psychiatrist, are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly how it responds to race. But like all smart people, they are also searching for love, success, and identity in their own lives. Lydia Diamond brings these characters together in this sharp, witty play about social and sexual politics.

The holidays are always a wild family affair at the Shealy house. But this year, Dotty and her three grown children gather with more than exchanging presents on their minds. As Dotty struggles to hold on to her memory, her children must fight to balance care for their mother and care for themselves. This twisted and hilarious new play grapples unflinchingly with aging parents, midlife crises, and the heart of a West Philly neighborhood.

Ten year old Kai is given a magical crystal door-knob by his grandfather that enables him to travel through space and time to see future events in his life. The further along he goes, the less he feels like he's seeing into his future, but more that he is living life as most people do; all too quickly. Both poignantly sad and zany, Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison expands on the notion that life is too short to miss any moment of it.

Sam Greevy is the toast of 1920s womens apparel, until the maverick fashion designer Sam Roms springs his radical creations on the world. The Sweatshirt, The Track Suit, Skater Pants: the clothes he comes up with are as from another dimension, and maybe they are. As Greevy tries to adapt to rapidly changing fashions, a parallel drama unfolds in Albany, circa 1998: a teenager stoner keeps losing articles of clothing, and a man keeps bursting out of his closet and taking them.

Struggling writer Jo has been given the opportunity of a lifetime to write her own memoir. The only catch is that her publishers explicitly ask that she only write about her life truly, and that it be as exciting as possible. Forced to rexamine her rather dull life, strange events begin to occur, and Jo has to decide if her life is worth writing about, or worth living.

The Prozorov family chafes at the constraints of life in their small provincial town, once a bustling army garrison where their late father served as general. Attempts to shore up their crumbling social status lay bare the larger forces of unrest that will soon engulf them all.

Along with the family dry cleaning business, Junie has also inherited the responsibility of taking care of her aging father and her sister who has just come back from rehab. When all Junie wants is to achieve her dream of becoming a country star, a small opportunity comes her way via the local church. She has been offered the opportunity to sing parting songs that are tailor-made for the recently deceased. A hilarious and compelling musical about family, loss, and the ways life gives you exactly what you need.

A comedic romp into the world of fantasy role-playing games, She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly. When Agnes finds Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook, however, she stumbles into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was Tilly's refuge. In this high-octane Dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and 90s pop culture, acclaimed young playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.

A comedic romp into the world of fantasy role-playing games, in a new edition created specially for High School performing groups! She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly. When Agnes finds Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook, however, she stumbles into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was Tilly's refuge. In this high-octane Dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and 90s pop culture, acclaimed young playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.

In a post-apocalyptic "Lost Vegas", an ex-lawman enlists the help of a young swordstress and her cursed strongman to help avenge the murder of his lover. However, the gang they'll be going against has powers that go way beyond just gunpowder and steel. To get revenge, they may have to become just as blood-thirsty as the monsters they're facing.

In this funny, vibrant, epic tapestry, the world of pre-Revolutionary Russia comes alive again, with all its hope, and then the nightmare that followed. During the German bombardment of Leningrad, earlier and now St. Petersburg, the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, struck on the head by a falling brick, stumbles into a basement for shelter and finds herself unexpectedly back at the long abandoned site of the Stray Dog Café, where in the second decade of the twentieth century the most famous Russian poets, artists, actors and dancers gathered to drink, sing, argue and make love, and gradually the Stray Dog comes to life again, with Mayakovsky, Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Mandelstam, the ballerina Karsavina, the puppet loving and famously promiscuous Olga Sudeikina, the poet Blok and his beautiful actress wife Lyubov, the critic Brik, who became an informer for the secret police, and many others appear. In this funny, vibrant, epic tapestry, the world of pre-Revolutionary Russia comes alive again, with all its hope, and then the nightmare that followed, in which most of these amazingly talented and compelling people were one by one devoured by Stalin's Skeleton Clowns. Eerie, surreal, moving, funny, erotic, with occasional song and dance, a tribute to these remarkable ghosts. Part of Nigro's ongoing cycle of plays tracing the history of Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries that includes Pushkin, Gogol, An Angler In The Lake Of Darkness, Emotion Memory, Rasputin, A Russian Play, Marina, Mandelstam and others.

In this moving and powerful ensemble piece, a police detective investigates the mysterious death of a young Mexican actress in a bathtub. She has been making a film about a girl who dies in a bathtub, directed by a beautiful and charismatic but troubled Russian woman who seems to have cast a spell on the others involved: a cynical, womanizing British screenwriter who wants desperately to sleep with her, a frustrated Irish actress, and a sardonic Italian assistant director. Was it an accident, suicide or murder? As the detective gets pulled deeper and deeper into the complex and passionate world of these people, he finds himself becoming obsessed both with the dead girl in the tub and the Russian director who might be her killer. The play moves back and forth in time and space as the detective begins putting the pieces of the puzzle together. But what is reality, and what is just a movie? The deeper in he goes, the more haunting the puzzle. Is he in a movie, too? Theatre, film noir and dream combine to pull us into the maelstrom with him.

Side Show was inspired by the lives of Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins born in Brighton, England, in 1908. While children, they moved to America and became known as "San Antonio's Siamese Twins." In the 1920s, the Hilton sisters made a change from side show attraction to star performers on the vaudeville circuit, earning $3,000 a week during the Great Depression. In 1936, Violet was married on the fifty-yard-line of the Cotton Bowl, in front of a paying audience as the finale of the Texas Centennial celebration. On film they appeared in Tod Browning's Freaks and the '50s B-film Chained for Life. Daisy and Violet died penniless and alone of influenza within hours of each other in North Carolina in 1969. A unique musical that explores what makes us all different and how beauty is truly only skin deep, Side Show tells the amazing story of how these talented and extraordinary women navigate their feelings, dream of life and love beyond the freak show and long to be like everyone else. Learn about their lives as side show attractions, beloved vaudeville stars, and two sisters attached for life.

A reclusive singer-songwriter makes an album that rocks the world. Now as the music industry implodes, two siblings battle over their mother's legacy and her twenty years of silence.
- nytheatre.com

As he plots his escape from the rural Midwest, Travis is discovered by the one person who might convince him to stay. Two lost souls must confront the brutal truth about themselves and each other in a coming-of-age drama where a pair of headlights along one highway road illuminates a path toward a dangerous future

Cinderellas Prince Charming is serving ten years in the pen, Belles house is overrun with little monsters, Alice has been hitting the caterpillars pipe a little too hard lately, and Snow Whites husband has shacked up with the three little pigs. Now shes keeping up appearances as the fairest in the land with the help of a little girdle and a lot of hair dye, and trying to keep Belle from draining the royal booze reserves and Cindy from inhaling the banquet table. When Briar Rose comes home from rehab with the face of a beauty, and Charming returns from prison with the libido of a beast, the desperate housewives of the magical kingdom are forced to grapple with princely infidelity, poison apples, and Cindys appetite for creamy poofs and brutal revenge. This fractured fairy tale brings an arched brow and an eye for dark, sexy hilarity to the Ever After that keeps going long after the Happily fades away.

The turbulent life of Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, is told, viewed through the outrageous comic lens of master parodist Charles Busch. Evoking both 1930s Hollywood epics and the grand 19th Century romantic theatre of Sarah Bernhardt, this version of the life of the ill-fated Egyptian Queen takes her from her teenage seduction of the Roman leader Julius Caesar through her volatile tragic romance with Mark Antony and to her ultimate death. Charles Buschs Cleopatra has echoes of the many great stars that have played her on stage and on film, such as Claudette Colbert, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh and several who thankfully didnt, including Jean Harlow, Barbara Stanwyck and Mae West.

Love is a Blue Tick Hound is a collection of four one-acts, three of which have received New York premieres, and all of which have won multiple festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada. All four pieces feature challenging roles for women and lend themselves to diversity in casting. Each play has a run-time of approximately 25 minutes and may be licensed individually or collectively (as assembled herein), to comprise a full evening of theater. Publication includes: Fin & Euba; Clean; The Gulf ; Stuck

Sports agent Liz Rico has money and an elite client roster but a woman in a man's industry has to fight to stay on top. She's worked twice as hard to get where she is and wants to take over the agency that she's helped build. Enter Freddie Luna, a high school basketball superstar with a troubled past. If Liz can keep this talented yet volatile young star in line, she just might end up making not only his career, but her own as well. But at what price?

This drama by the author of Mass Appeal explores the heart of a young man in crisis, inflamed by the people who claim to care for him: his mother, his football coach and his tutor. James Bernard is a star college quarterback whose innocence renders him devastatingly vulnerable. His mother and coach are pushing him to go "professional"; his tutor is concerned over the inherent corruption of organized athletics, believing that football is just another metaphor for war.

In her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs describes with brutal honesty the hardships she endures under slavery, including the extraordinary choices she makes to be near her children. To survive, she escapes into her imagination and through writing, discovers hope for a better life. Accompanied by the rich musical traditions of slave spirituals, Harriet Jacobs is an inspiring look at a young womans fascinating journey from slavery to freedom.

Judge Jackie Justice rules over her reality television courtroom with an iron fist, presiding over a three-ring circus of America's most chaotic civil cases. But, when a drop in ratings brings her face to face with the liability of her own love life, the judge must learn to navigate the ludicrous laws of love in this over-the-top courtroom comedy.

Chicago. The South Side. The 1930s. A world where opportunity is elusive for people like Bigger Thomas. After landing a job in the home of a wealthy family, Bigger unwittingly unleashes a series of events that violently and irrevocably seal his fate. Using W.E.B. DuBois' theory of double consciousness as a grounding point, this adaptation of Native Son focuses on the landscape inside the mind of Bigger Thomas, bringing the power of Richard Wright's novel to life for a whole new generation.

Meet Milo Mazowski - a campus security guard who's determination to woo a lovely local bar owner is only hampered by one thing: his unlimited memory which makes him spout out pretty much every unromantic thing he's ever heard in his life. A bittersweet comedy about learning how to forget.

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One hotel suite, four tenors, two wives, three girlfriends, and a soccer stadium filled with screaming fans. What could possibly go wrong? It's 1930s Paris and the stage is set for the concert of the centuryas long as producer Henry Saunders can keep Italian superstar Tito Merelli and his hot-blooded wife Maira from causing runaway chaos. Prepare for an uproarious ride, full of mistaken identities, bedroom hijinks, and madcap delight.

In this action-packed samurai story set inside the halls of an all-American high school, Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin tells the tale of Emi Edwards, a high school geekgurl whose fighting to overthrow the cruel shoguns of her school. However in her journey to right wrongs, will her own cravings for popularity and power corrupt her quest to save the school? Will she able to establish a new world order? Or will violence just beget more violence?

When a complaint is filed against one of the 70,000 teachers in New York's public schools, they're sent to a Reassignment Center, one of a series of empty offices in the Department of Education Building. There, they sit and wait for their case to be reviewed. Usually for months. Sometimes for over a year. A claim of improper behavior by a failing student lands Evelyn Reid in "the rubber room," where she encounters a group of teachers, some guilty, some not, who have long since lost any hope of returning to a classroom. Over the course of the school year, these colleagues form an unlikely alliance, reminding each other of forgotten passions, emerging to face life outside in unexpected new directions. They also learn French and workshop a screenplay.

Washington, 1951: After crafting the criteria for identifying Communists hiding in the U.S. Department of State, Bob and Norma have been tasked with a new challenge-outing homosexuals. That'll be tricky, since they're both gay, and have married each other's partners as a cover, presenting lives as flawless and wacky as a 50's sitcom. Can they lead the witch hunt without outing themselves?

Al has to take the rap for his pal Duane's botched robbery, but before he goes, he leaves his drunken ex-beaty queen wife Sylvie in the care of his father Jefe. In the year he is gone, Jefe and Sylvie fall in love, and when Al is granted early parole, he enlists Duane in a mad and murderous hunt for the fleeing lovers. In the course of their search, they meet China, a weird changeling who wields a water gun filled with ammonia and purports to know where his wife has been taken.

From the nationally recognized Educational Theatre Association's Thespian Playworks competition come four short scripts - all created by high school-aged playwrights! Included in this volume are: Escalator by Tanner Heath; Atlas's Equal by Austin Hughes; The Okay Kids by Hunter McKenzie; It's Gonna Rain by Matthew Waterman.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tech. Around you, a company of 14 is engaged in the very peculiarand peculiarly impossibletask of making a new play. Youll have a seat next to the sound designer as he mixes cues. Youll eavesdrop on backstage gossip as it happens over headset. Youll watch the director struggle to contain the uncontainable. Anne Washburn (Mr. Burns) took notes during her tech rehearsals over the years. 10 Out of 12 is a wry and absorbing look at how work forms us and deforms us.

Eight-year-old Tina Denmark knows she was born to play Pippi Longstocking, and she will do anything to win the part in her school musical. Anything includes murdering the leading lady! This aggressively outrageous musical hit garnered rave reviews during its long Off-Broadway run.

Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be yet another empty promise. As his decision brings him face-to-face with a nation at war with itself, the loved ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return. . . only to discover that for Hero, free will may have come at a great spiritual cost. Father Comes Home From The Wars is an explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love, with all three parts seen in one night. Part 1 introduces us to Hero, a slave who must choose whether or not to join his master on the Confederate battlefield. In Part 2, a band of rebel soldiers test Hero's loyalty as the cannons approach. Part 3 finds Hero's loved ones anxiously awaiting his return. A devastatingly beautiful dramatic work filled with music, wit, and great lyricism, Father Comes Home From The Wars is an epic tale about holding on to who we are and what we love in a country that both brings us together and rips us apart from one of America's most powerful writers.

Twenty-five years have passed since we last visited the six Walker sisters from Memphis, Tennessee, and theyre all back on the phone again for another crisis-filled weekend. The most immediate concern: Mama has taken off all her clothes in the community room of her nursing room and the sisters must put their heads together and decide what to do with her. And thats just for starters: oldest sister Peggy has been bilked out of all her money by a neer-do-well boyfriend. Aneece and Paiges marriages are on the rocks. Audrey continues to mourn the death of both her husband and her only child by climbing inside a bottle. Sherry is still trying to earn the respect of her sisters after so many years of being the free-spirited family laughingstock. And Roseanne, after three failed marriages to three minister husbands, has lost both her religious faith and the faith shes always put in her family. To top it all off, a cousin has asked all six Walker siblings to beta-taste her new candy, with mutually disastrous gastrointestinal results. The sequel to Belles, Dunns most popular comedy-drama, Belles: The Reunion will appeal to both those whove already fallen in love with the Walkers, as well as audiences discovering these telephone-tethered women for the very first time.

Newly discharged soldier Jess has finally returned to her Florida hometown. She brings with her not only vivid memories of her three tours in Afghanistan, but painful burns that have left her physically and emotionally scarred. Jess soon realizes that things at home have changed even more than she has. Through the use of virtual reality video game therapy, she builds a breathtaking new world where she can escape her pain. As Jess advances farther in the game, she begins to restore her relationships, her life and, slowly, herself.

Siblings Bo and Ally are back in thier childhood home in Idaho for the funeral of their father. Their mother Carol has painted the whole house white and is suspected to have been drinking since their father's death. What Ally and Bo come to find out is that their mother has a method to her madness as she pulls out some home videos of their father just before he died. Called a fusion between realism and the absurd, A Permanent Image is a tense exploration of the distance families put between themselves, and what it takes to bring them back together.

Jane Martin's newest work compiling the stories of a drum majorette, a kidnapped girl, a woman bent on figuring men out through football, and several more.

A weekend in the country spins out of control when jealous wife Maureen makes a reckless accusation about her husband Ian and their old friend Ella. Ella's husband Peter tries and fails to stop the domestic carnage in this fierce and funny story about the unexpected ease of betrayal and the fragility of marriage.

Astronaut Bill Cooke returns from the first manned mission to Mars bearing secrets and illicit cargo. Now his wife and teenage children are all that stand between Bill and a shocking action that will alter not only their lives, but also all of humanity.

Picking up twelve years after the events of Advance Man, Blast Radius follows a sister and a brother at mortal odds in an Earth radically changed by an alien occupation. Ronnie leads a desperate human insurgency that might have finally found the weapon that will turn the tide - at a terrible cost. Abbie, who has allied himself with the conquering alien race, may have found a chilling solution that will end human resistance for good. Action-packed and emotionally charged, Blast Radius is the story of a family and a world at war with itself.

Picking up eight years after the events of Blast Radius, Sovereign completes the story of a sister and a brother at mortal odds in a radically changed Earth. The alien race that has ruled the Earth has fallen to Ronnie's rebellion, with the few remaining survivors on the run. The human race is slowly rebuilding all over the world. Ronnie is now the battle-scarred Governor of what used to be Florida, everyone's hero and no one's friend. Until one night, when Ronnie's soldiers smuggle into her office the greatest war criminal in the world: her brother Abbie, the foremost human ally of the extraterrestrials. When dawn comes, the people of Ronnie's settlement will certainly discover him and rip him to pieces. As Ronnie grapples with an awful decision about what to do with the man she hates and loves in equal measure, Abbie makes one last desperate move, forcing a confrontation that will forever change the future of the human race. Unfolding over two suspenseful real-time acts, Sovereign brings The Honeycomb Trilogy to a wrenching and unforgettable climax.

In the backyard of a recession-stricken Ohio town, the beer is on ice and the citronellas are ready to be lit. Dean, a disillusioned journalist, and his freeloading best friend unwittingly prepare for the most explosive barbecue of their lives. Tensions mount when Dean's girlfriend inadvertently invites a mysterious woman from his past to the party. Burgers are flipped and scores are settled in this new drama about remembering who you were and confronting who you've become.

When American couple Katie and Craig vow to make a last-ditch effort to create a baby of their own, their quest leads them to India, where a thriving commercial surrogacy industry offers them one final chance at parenthood. But will their decision to "rent out" a surrogate unite or divide them? A hilarious, unsettling look at reproduction in the 21st century, Samsara questions whether we can truly achieve intimacy in the face of shrinking worlds and expanding boundaries.

Transplanted from their beloved Moscow to a provincial Russian town, three sistersschool teacher Olga, unhappily married Masha, idealistic Irinayearn for the city of their childhood, where they imagine their lives will be transformed and fulfilled. Three Sisters is the portrait of a family grappling with the bittersweet distance between reality and dreams.

Carol is not a nature person and is not thrilled about turning 60. Nonetheless, her free-spirited best friend Jill decides that the best way for them to celebrate is to take a weekend away at a bed and breakfast in the Poconos with their husbands, Matt and Dan. The B&B is empty of people (off season), but full of knick-knacks, and Carol finds herself more than usually unsettled. When she suddenly shares a kiss with Jill, seemingly initiated by neither, both women find themselves questioning the foundations of their friendship and their marriages. Matt and Dan are swept into the action as Carol and Jill veer around trying to set the world back on its axis and redefine who they are and what they want. The men, in turn, test their wives sense of the boundaries of friendship and come to see their lives with fresh eyes. Crafted as a fast-moving farcical comedy, Out of the City looks compassionately at how a simple gesture can take on profound meaning for people who are taking everything for granted.

A freak storm knocks down all the trees in town and brings a prodigal daughter rushing home. But has she come for reconciliation? Or as an angel of vengeance? A comic new play about love, forgiveness and family struggling to operate in a relentlessly chaotic and violent world.

Signature in the Schools is a multifaceted program that encompasses in-school workshops for Arlington Public Schools English, Social Studies and Theater classes, theatrical training for young artists, and the creation of an original play.

Signature in the Schools is a multifaceted program that encompasses in-school workshops for Arlington Public Schools English, Social Studies and Theater classes, theatrical training for young artists, and the creation of an original play.

Mable is a confidence trickster. She has taught her two sons so they can be part of it. The her daughter Blue sets up the deal of the decade - the thing is will she include her mother and brothers?

Its dusk. Mother and father are in their bedroom, dressing in preparation for Parents Evening at their only daughters primary school. During this rare opportunity to check in, the couple embarks on a volatile, passionate and surprising confrontation that challenges every one of their life choices. The play is a painfully witty, perceptive exploration of the landlines of parenting in modern marriage.

Play inspired by the life of outsider artist, Nukain Mabusa. Aging farm laborer Nukain has spent his life transforming the rocks at Revolver Creek into a vibrant garden of painted flowers. Now, the final unpainted rock, as well as his young companion Bokkie, has forced Nukain to confront his legacy as a painter, a person and a black man in 1980s South Africa. When the landowners wife arrives with demands about the painting, the profound rifts of a country hurtling toward the end of apartheid are laid bare.

When Oupa is visited by his ten-year-old grandson (who is playing hooky from school) the two spend a memorable afternoon together. The boy reminds the old man of his lost sense of wonder, while the child is given a bit of hard-earned wisdom. In a charming meditation on the beauty and transience of the world around us, Fugard continues to mine the depths of the human spirit with profound empathy and heart.

Mom found her soul-mate on Facebook, and he lives in Iowa. So Becca says goodbye to her beloved math teacher, bulimic best friend, neighborhood pony and her mildly deficient teenage life, and she follows her wayward mother to a new, uncharted beginning. But in this fanciful, absurdist and intoxicating musical play from the imagination of Jenny Schwartz and Todd Almond nothing can prepare them for what they'll find.

When Julia Shelby's brother shows up on her doorstep on Thanksgiving, heartbroken and hungry, she and her husband usher him into their home and invite him to stay a few days to sort everything out. After all, the holidays are all about family, right? But what they didn't expect is for their guest to turn their house upside down, and take an extended vacation - in their living room! Find out what happens when a little brother outstays his welcome, and a loving family tries to show him how to move on

When an aimless former rock musician finds himself broke with nowhere to go, hes forced to move in with his son in his cramped New York City apartment. As they try to forge a new existence together, an unusual money-making scheme further complicates their lives and loves. A dramedy about the people we choose to let in, and the parts of ourselves we refuse to live with.

At a bar across from a falafel place, Max and Anna meet again, or is it for the first time? A funny and emotionally raw portrait of a couple struggling to hold on to one another without losing themselves, Fish Eye explodes the traditional chronology of romance and offers a modern take on the exhiliration of love  when nothing means everything and everything means nothing  and the entire world can shrink down to a single moment.

When Dean, Jane and Michael's polyamorous relationship comes to an end, the trio is forced to deal with the consequences of love in a nontraditional relationship. MMF explores the realities of love, need, want and people who don't know the difference.

Amidst the late-night din of St. Patricks Day in New York City, Donna comes home to find a highly intoxicated man named Theo dressed like a leprechaun in her apartment. Mistaking Theo for her roommate Jamie's sublet, Donna puts him into the empty room only to learn that Jamie is still home. With no explanation of how he got in, Donna and her roommates try to figure out where Theo came from and how to get him out of the apartment. Theo's undeniable charm and seemingly magical habits, however, don't make it easy. After everything from a police chase and zombie apocolypse, we find out who we are, who we could be, and who is Theo?

With genomic breakthroughs happening at breakneck speed, we can learn more about what our futures may hold than ever before. But how much should we know? And who gets to decide? Inspired by a recent court case between a Native American tribe and an Arizona University, Informed Consent takes us into the personal and national debate about science v. belief, and whether our DNA is our destiny.

From the award winning playwright of End Days, Deborah Zoe Laufer, comes a story about three twenty-something roommates who are glued to their video games. They are masters of the virtual worlds behind the computer screens in their Las Vegas basement. When one of them uses his gaming skills to land a job with the National Security Agency launching actual drones and missiles, online battles begin to have real consequences. Leveling Up is a fresh, contemporary look at how we navigate the blurry line between worlds both virtual and real and what it means to grow up.

The collection, Theater Masters' Take Ten Vol. 1 is comprised of the following plays: DONNA'S FIRST BRAZILIAN by Lydia Blaisdell. A recent divorcee returns to the dating pool and treats herself to a wax. ENGLISH LESSON by Paula Vesala. A Finnish mother teaches her son English. When they keep meeting an old Puerto Rican woman, the only native language they share is the language of loss. THE BATTLE OF CONEY ISLAND by David Jacobi. Now in "People Heaven," Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison deal with the repercussions of their life-long feud. An angry elephant may or may not show up. NORDIC AMBITION by Phillip Howze. A suspended man comes face-to-face with the terror and hilarity of his mortality. As memory and language unhinge, can spectacle save us from the shame of our American present-or will history once again repeat itself? OF OUR OWN by Matthew Capodicasa. Six years years ago, Theo disappeared, leaving Becky behind. After a chance encounter in the park, Becky and Theo walk through the spaces of their old life together, and face the impossibility of ever truly finding what's been lost. OFF TACKLE GLIDE by Sean David DeMers. Off Tackle Glide is a chance encounter between an NFL prospect and a Catholic priest. With the potential to make large amounts of money and achieve instant fame, Adam takes a detour into a church to explore his choices for the future. When Father James helps talk through his options, Adam considers subverting expectations by taking the road less traveled. LAODAMIAD by Chas LiBretto. Laodamia is the first woman to be widowed by the War in Troy. To cope, she decides to carry on her marriage with a statue of her husband's likeness. Can her father halt spiraling descent into madness before it's too late? And what can he do about his nation's grief? Based on fragments from Euripides' lost play Protesilaos, Laodamiad explores love, war, and loss. TIME DIFFERENCE by Lin Tu. For the Chinese young couple Yuan and Fan separated from each other with one in the US and the other in China, time difference is not the only difference that awaits them.

When U.S. Marine Jenny Sutter returns from Iraq, she lays down her rifle but isn't ready to pick up her children. Buying some time, Jenny takes a one-way trip to a misfit desert community called Slab City, where its kind residents gently nurture her wounded spirit, and nudge her back to her own humanity.

Their lives seem perfect but underneath the surface things are different

A man and woman awaken from an apparent drugged-out night to find their baby missing. The pair relive their history in order to remember their way back to their child and to try to set things right. This haunted, poetic journey moves through time from past to present to future, and from darkness and doubt to the glimmer of miraculous light.

Ms. Thomas previous and similar rollicking version of Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes delighted audiences off-Broadway in 1991, in a production starring Jean Stapleton as Philamente, a blossoming literary lady on the verge of coming into her own. It was re-imagined in 1993 at ACT in San Francisco, with many productions throughout the country since then. During the Salon movement of the 17th century, women, thirsty for knowledge and freedom, began to read, discuss and absorb all the learning they could now get their hands on. Frequently, into that mix came sycophants and opportunists, to take advantage of the budding but not fully formed intelligence of the Women's Movement. Enter Trissotin, a mediocre poet with a lot of sex appeal and little literary talent, who all but seduces Philamente, determined to be at the forefront of the movement. Equally determined to marry him off to her younger daughter (who just wants to marry her sweetheart Lycandre and raise children), she bullies her meek husband into tacitly agreeing, and the machinations that follow between family members, visiting poets and maids who refuse to learn proper French are predictably and delightfully Molière. This version strays from a strictly literal translation of the play, often employing anachronisms in the rhymed couplets that may appall purists, but have delighted audiences since its original inception. In this new version, there are 6 women and 4 men, and the familiar "Voice of Reason", present in almost every Moliere play and always a male, is now, for the first time, FEMALE! If you want your audiences to roll with laughter as they recognize their hilarious selves in the midst of a Feminist culture, this version is for you.

Former deep sea divas, Coral and Oceana, didnt exactly have the happily ever after storybook lives that the two erstwhile mermaids dreamed of when they rescued their handsome young sailors and swam ashore thirty years ago. Talk about unhappy endings! Corals sailor, Fernando, took off with her treasure and returned home to his wife and four kids in Venezuela! Oceanas dreamboat, Hans, hit the road with her treasure to live happily ever after with his boyfriend, Juergen, in Norway! When Coral and Oceana learn of a mermaid rescue involving a young Coast Guard Lieutenant whose car went off a nearby bridge, they dive into action to find the young, innocent mermaid and warn her about the perils and pitfalls of falling in love with mortal men who abscond with your gems, leaving you penniless with a broken heart and two skinny legs. Helped by their cousin Marina who was unceremoniously dumped by the Captain when her treasure finally ran out, the trio of middle age former sea goddesses try to convince the young mermaid, Pearl, to hightail it back to the sea. But love, being what it is, gives Pearl some ideas of her own. Foolish Fishgirls and The Pearl is a feisty fairytale about a mermaids life on dry land after true love is found, lost and found again. And, like Coral, Oceana and Marina, you may find that happily ever after is closer than you think!

Freshman year at college is hard when your roommate is weird, you're feeling homesick, and a hook-handed serial killer is slashing girls' throats. But if Lexi can discover what really happened to her high school best friend on that car ride to the movies, everything will be okay. In this existential slasher comedy, Lexi and her friends learn what it means to grow up  and it's not pretty.

his collection of 9 monologue plays, five for women and four for men, takes us on a journey back and forth in time from as long ago as 1392 (Gringonneur, in which a painter is slowly driven mad by an enchanted deck of tarot cards) through 1903 (Portal, in which the landscape architect who designed Central Park reveals a conspiracy to conceal the gateway to a vast hidden labyrinth and another dimension lurking under Manhattan island), to 1940 (Mermaid, in which Inspector John Ruffing returns, now an old man patrolling the English coast during the Blitz, haunted by his lost wife turned mermaid, luring him into the sea), to 1954 (Lagoon, in which Meredith Cherry believes the Creature From The Black Lagoon is creeping up the steps into her bedroom at night) to the present (Nothingness, in which Ben Palestrina, now 62, is troubled by a terrible vision of an infinite abyss of nothingness first imagined by David Hume, and is somewhat comforted by billiard balls) and the trilogy Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, Just Out The Corner Of Her Eye, and Muse, in which Jasmine, a beautiful but troubled girl, tries to find something in her world she can hold onto. A rich and complex collection of monologues through which recurring themes of loss, madness, the fragile nature of our hold on what we imagine is reality and the enduring power of love intertwine.

Mae returns home to help take care of Dad and  maybe (a little)  herself. You Got Older is a tender and darkly comic new play about family, illness, and cowboys  and how to remain standing when everything you know comes crashing down around you.

Deep in the American South, Charlotte and Jonny have been best friends since they were nine. She's Jewish, he's Christian, he's black, she's white. Their differences intensify their connection until sexual desire complicates everything in surprising, compulsive ways. An unexpected love story about where souls meet and the consequences of growing up.

Killer Cop Tony Law meets trailer-park trash Phil Nichol and Lizzie Roper in Tracy Letts' jaw-dropping smash-hit dark comedy. Breath-taking events. Truly shocking behaviour. Thrilling high-energy climax. 'you won't see finer acting on the Fringe' Daily Mail.

This collection of seven shorter plays and monologues includes Mata Hari, about the last night of the beautiful and mysterious exotic dancer before her execution as a spy; Marina, a monologue play about the great Russian poet Marina Tsvetayeva; Queens, about a young woman obsessed with the complex and tragic sex lives of the face cards in her deck of playing cards; The Wood Where Things Have No Names, in which a young woman tries to deal with what she now understands as the betrayal inherent in all love relationships; Pentecost, in which Egg Rooks, who lives at the dump, tracks down the preacher Jack Pentecost in an abandoned windmill on a rainy night to confront him with the consequences of his latest seduction of a young girl; Lamp Post, in which a troubled young woman bangs on a young man's door in the middle of the night, convinced that he is the Crisis Center, and tells him a harrowing story about her ability to turn out street lamps and kill peacocks with her thoughts; and Zombie Radio, in which a young woman who hears voices attempts to communicate her desperate situation to her tragically dense boyfriend.

When Carter, an American telecom executive, brings his wife Mara on a business trip to Cambodia, he never imagines that the ghosts of this beautiful country will find a way to haunt their lives. As business deals unravel and personal negotiations brim with political consequences, Carter and Mara become personally entangled with Khmer Rouge victims and perpetrators, and must decide if the salvation of one life is worth sacrificing justice for many. Genocide, complicity, greed, and love collide in this play that shines a light on the human experience and asks how far are we willing to go to survive?

When Citizen Barlow, in spiritual turmoil, seeks a new life at the bustling home of 285-year old Aunt Ester, he sets off on a magical journey across history and time to the City of Bones, where he discovers the true meaning of freedom

the story of a man's salvation and a family's--and a people's--quest for redemption. King Hedley II takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1985, in the Hill District, an African-American ghetto neighborhood. the action occurs in the alley behind the rundown homes of King Hedley and his neighbor Stool Pigeon. On this tiny plot of ground, King is planting a small garden when we first meet him: out of jail following a long incarceration for murder, King is now determined to make things grow in his life. More tangible plans involve--in collaboration with his buddy Mister--a scheme to sell a batch of almost-certainly-stolen refrigerators and, possibly, a jewelry store robbery. King also is ripe to have a child with his wife Tonya; and he's eager to clear his mother Ruby out of his house (she's waiting for an opening in a senior citizens' building). Such are the homely, more or less ordinary circumstances of King Hedley's life.
nytheatre.com

the uncertain future promised by the Civil Rights movement of the 60's

A musical triple-feature inspired by three monstrously true, behind-the-scenes tales of the most famous monster movies in cinema history! In 1920s Germany, director F.W. Murnau fears he may lose a lawsuit brought by the estate of Bram Stoker over his silent vampire film Nosferatu, which is suspiciously similar to Dracula. Will all of the prints be destroyed? In 1930s Hollywood, make-up man Jack Pierce works carefully to create the defining look for Frankenstein's monster while trying to meet the demands of the studio. Will he get the credit he deserves? In 1970s England, actor Peter Cushing hopes to be able to finish the final British sequels to Frankenstein and Dracula before outside forces threaten to get in the way. Will his horror fans be disappointed? Will all of these men triumph while fighting for their art against the various demons they must face? As these famous monster makers each discover- -sometimes real life can be even more frightening than the movies!

Eddie manages an Italian chain restaurant in Pocatelloa small, unexceptional American city that is slowly being paved over with strip malls and franchises. But he can't serve enough Soup, Salad & Breadstick Specials to make his hometown feel like home. Against the harsh backdrop of Samuel D. Hunter's Idaho, this heartbreaking comedy is a cry for connection in an increasingly lonely American landscape.

Get your deerstalker cap onthe play's afoot! From the award-winning mastermind of mayhem, Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor), comes a fast-paced comedy about everyone's favorite detective solving his most notorious case. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must crack the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than 30 characters. Does a wild hellhound prowl the moors of Devonshire? Can our heroes discover the truth in time? Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be.

Stu and Ben hate their new coworker. And it's not because she's a woman. Or because she might actually have good ideas to contribute if they gave her a chance. Or even because she has the courage to confront them about their behavior. She just needs to realize that some things are just the way things are. A frightening look into the flawed "system" of the corporate world.

Having dedicated her life to religious service, Shelley runs a Bronx soup kitchen with unsentimental efficiency, but lately her heart's not quite in it. Her brisk nature masks an unsettling fear that her efforts are meaningless. When Emma  an idealistic but confused college dropout  arrives to volunteer, her reckless mix of generosity and self-involvement pushes Shelley to the breaking point. With keen humor and startling compassion, Heidi Schreck's play navigates the mystery of faith, the limits of forgiveness, and the pursuit of something resembling joy.

the war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.a. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda's kitchen after a wild night of partying, the three strike a deal for an arrangement that has hilarious and devastating consequences for everyone. Or are they non-consequences? Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov and disco anthems, 3C is a terrifying, yet amusing, look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin.

In the Marshall family's peacefully remote Colorado ski chalet, Erik and Helene are making themselves very much at home. So at home, they just might stay for good. At the edge of civilization, the lifestyles of the rich collide with the lifestyles of the aimless in the bubbling waters of a hot tub...but beware what lurks beneath.

Victor is a ruthless fashion designer in the 1970s at the top of his game. Esme, his glamorous protege and muse, is pushed aside when an ordinary Midwestern woman inspires Victor to make his artistry accessible to the masses. A generation later, a woman grappling with a healthy dose of self-loathing must wrestle her own family demons to find her way through the world of fashion that won't give a woman her size a second look. Skipping back and forth in time, Everything You Touch is a viciously funny look at the struggle to find an identity that's more than skin deep.

A youth-theatre adaptation of the popular Off-Broadway girl-loves-ghoul rock and roll musical, set in the atomic 1950's.. This girl loves ghoul rock and roll Off Broadway musical is set in the atomic 1950s at Enrico Fermi High, where the law is laid down by a zany, tyrannical principal. Pretty senior Toffee has fallen for the class bad boy. Family pressure forces her to end the romance, and he charges off on his motorcycle to the nuclear waste dump. He returns glowing and determined to reclaim Toffee's heart. He still wants to graduate, but most of all he wants to take Toffee to the prom. The principal orders him to drop dead while a scandal reporter seizes on him as the freak du jour. History comes to his rescue while a tuneful selection of original songs in the style of 50s hits keeps the action rocking across the stage.

A retirement home in northern Idaho is being shut down, and only three residents and a bare-bones staff remain. When a record breaking blizzard blows into town and an elderly resident disappears into the storm, everyone is brought to face their own mortality. Samuel D. Hunter and Joanie Schultz return with a tender and heartbreakingly funny play about life's unexpected beginnings and endings.

Merrily We Dance and Sing is a slapstick, madcap musical farce. While a small-town community theater performs an original operetta The Naughty Boy, an escaped serial killer gets loose in the theater - eventually hiding from the local police on the stage - which forces the actors to improvise new plot lines, rewrite dialogue, and take the opportunity to invent their own happy endings. Imagine Gilbert & Sullivan Meet the Marx Brothers. With book & lyrics by Van Zandt & Milmore and original music by Van Zandt, Milmore & Ed Alton. Includes the songs I Am First an Englishman, Once Upon a Time, the near-impossible tongue twister show stopper Its All in the Chase and They Call Me Sweet Carnation (Because I Love to Smell).

As Juan José feverishly studies for his citizenship exam, his obsession to pass takes him on a fantastical odyssey through U.S. history guided by a handful of unsung citizens who made courageous choices in some of the countrys toughest times. American Night: The Ballad of Juan José is a provocative, irreverent, and hilarious mix of past and present, stereotype and truth.

School for Trophy Wives is loosely based on Moliere's L'Ecole des Femmes. It is set in present day Hollywood, with all the accompanying glitz, glamour, and garishness we have come to know and spoof in Tinseltown. In this version, Arnolphe is Arnie, a Hollywood producer who has finally made it big after years of clawing his way to the top. He now wants to settle down with a wife and kids. He is MUCH older than his protegee Agnes, whom he found on a farm when she was 4, adopted as his ward, and raised, until he realizes, at her graduation, that she would be a perfect wife for him. Having made fun of his colleagues and all their trophy wives over the years, he must take special care that no whiff of scandal will ever hit him from the cover of People Magazine or the Hollywood Reporter, and that his wife will never adhere to the trophy standards his friends have had to deal with. This is where Molière comes in, but with some 21st century flair.

From the playwright who brought us Happy comes a whimsical comedy about love, aging, bad luck and airport security. Sara's having a bad week. Really bad! The light bulbs in her apartment keep burning out; there's a leak in the roof; the aquarium is full of dead fish; the cat's gone AWOL, and her Father -- who chased off her last beau -- is suspicious of Tom, their new neighbor, a TSA agent who just brought Sara home from the emergency room on New Year's Eve with a fractured fifth metatarsal. As Tom's attraction to Sara increases, he learns of the bizarre streak of bad luck that's been haunting Sara for years - twenty-two years to be precise

Evan is what you would call "accident-prone." Having suffered from various injuries his entire life, he's now been randomly stabbed. In his apartment, his twin sister and his fiancée are trying to help him recover while fending off a steady stream of visitors and a bitter neighbor with a thing for stuffed cats. Something isn't quite adding up though. As the morning descends into a buzz of secrets and lies, this dark farce quickly becomes a brutally funny commentary on how, under the right circumstances, violence can take hold of just about anyone.

an American businessman thinks he has found an ideal place to build a golf course - a small Scottish island. the trouble is the place he has picked on the island the locals believe is a haunt of faeries. and then they start uncovering bodies

Faith, Hope and Charity comprise Evelina Fernandez's series, A Mexican Trilogy. The plays center around the Moraleses, a Mexican-American family. The trilogy deals in part with the impact that inspirational historical figures have upon the lives of the Morales family. Those figures specifically are Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Pope John Paul II.

When a down on his luck middle aged man inherits an apartment in Paris, he plans to solve his financial woes by selling it. He arrives on the doorstep and discovers, to his dismay, that the elderly woman living there has lifetime habitation rights under an arcane French law and she is not about to give them up. Because he has no other place to go, she invites him to stay in the spacious apartment. A spiral of friendship, romance with the old lady's outspoken daughter, and some uncomfortable revelations about his unmourned father affect all in this poignant play with strong roles for all three actors.

Tiny Tim hatches a plan to get his father home for Christmas day. With the help of some kindly sellers at the market and his friend Charlotte, Tiny Tim stages a spectacle filled with ghosts and Christmas cheer to convince Scrooge to give his father the day off. It all seems to be going according to plan until a little bit of real Christmas magic catches everyone by surprise . . . .

A star-crossed prophecy. A lot of music. Just not a lot of light. In this darkly comic rock-fable, a melancholy sandwich maker's humdrum life is intersected by two entrancing sisters. A sweeping ode to young love set against the backdrop of the northeast blackout of 1965, Fly By Night is a tale about making your way and discovering hope in a world beset by darkness.

When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the familys Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her fathers hidden desires. Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

Based on the classic 1989 film, Heathers The Musical is the darkly delicious story of Veronica Sawyer, a brainy, beautiful teenage misfit who hustles her way into the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerberg High: the Heathers. But before she can get comfortable atop the high school food chain, Veronica falls in love with the dangerously sexy new kid J.D. When Heather Chandler, the Almighty, kicks her out of the group, Veronica decides to bite the bullet and kiss Heathers aerobicized ass. . .but J.D. has another plan for that bullet.

Newlyweds Jack and Avery Perch want to enjoy their kitschy Niagara Falls honeymoon, but doubts about their speedy nuptials, the unfortunate history of their room, and the opera-singing concierge aren't helping. Meanwhile down on the boardwalk, a woman who might have been Avery is living something that might have been Avery's unmarried life against the backdrop of rickety carnival rides and fortune tellers. When they collide, both women see their lives flash before their eyes in this magical romantic comedy about the choices we make in love and the things we have to leave behind. This colorful collection also includes an additional selection of heightened short plays that explore what happens when everyday life rubs up against the messy and fantastic mysteries of the universe.

Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage. Sarah Ruhls singular voice returns to Playwrights Horizons with Stage Kiss, a charming tale about what happens when lovers share a stage kissor when actors share a real one.

From the nationally recognized Educational Theatre Association's Thespian Playworks competition come four short scripts - all created by high school-aged playwrights! Included in this volume are: This Play is About Pirates- Caleigh Derreberry; Skin- Derick Edgren; The Trial of Adbot 579- Francis Bass; What We Talk About When We Talk About Planned Parenthood- Alexa Derman

This intimate, immersive new adaptation of Chekhov's classic from critically-acclaimed playwright Annie Baker, author of Body Awareness, Mirror Circle Transformation, and The Flick, brings colloquial language to this internationaly beloved story of human relationships and yearning. Written with the goal of creating a version that sounds to our contemporary American ears the way the play sounded to Russian ears during the plays first productions in the provinces in 1898, Ms. Baker's Uncle Vanya introduces 21st century audiences to Chekhov's enduring wit, insight, and emotionl depth.

A film noir comedy/mystery with Shakespeare on the brain. Hard boiled detective Birnam Wood faces his most difficult case ever as he travels to Italy to unravel a scandal involving a rich merchant's young daughter. But he soon finds himself drawn into a whirlwind of crime, blackmail and murder with a cast of characters that includes Scottish witches, star-crossed lovers, a pack of jesters and a strong willed woman people call a shrew. It's a case of laugh out loud hilarity combined with a puzzling murder mystery with every suspect drawn from the works of William Shakespeare. A stand alone theatrical adventure set in the world of the international hit The Maltese Bodkin.

Though she has no intention of buying anything, Mrs. Eva Baskin, continuously sets up appointments with sales people solely to have lunch and conversation with them in her home.

Tom is a Virginia Senator and rising star in the Republican Party. When a long-time family friend resurfaces and offers the opportunity of a lifetime, Tom faces a crisis of conviction while his marriage hangs precariously in the balance. The God Game is a play about faith and politics, marriage and friendship, choices and consequences.

One of the greatest tales from the American West - on stage for the first time. Journey into the Wild West, 1890, in this classic story of good versus evil, of law versus the gun, of one man versus Liberty Valance. A tale of love, hope and revenge set against the vicious backdrop of a lawless society. When a young scholar from New York City travels west in search of a new life he arrives beaten and half-dead on the dusty streets of Twotrees. Rescued from the plains, the town soon becomes his home as he finds the love of a local girl. This love gives him purpose in a broken land, but is it enough to save him from the vicious outlaw who wants him dead? He must make the choice: to turn and run or to stand for what he believes, to live or to fight. . .to become the man who shot Liberty Valance.

Behold the newest nobody of the funniest century yet. Hes almost Christ-like, from a distance, in terms of height and weight. Listen closely or drift off uncontrollably, as he speaks to you directly about the notion of home, about the notion of the world. all of it delivered with the authority that is the special province of the unsure and the un-homed, which is a word he made up accidentally. the running time, if he doesnt die or think of anything else, is roughly one hour.

For their 7th full-length work, the Debate Society has created a darkly comic thriller of post-war verve and pre-adolescent disquiet. Blood Play is set in the tranquil Chicago suburb of Skokie in the early 1950s. While the kids are away on a camping trip with their Jr. Cherokee's Troop, a string of coincidences yields a spontaneous grown-up party. In the basement of a brand-new ranch house, exotic cocktails like "Rapupu Sours" are sampled, games like "Bee Pee Bo" are played and new friends like Jeep, the door-to-door photographer, are made. What an unforgettable night this is to be! BUT things are happening that no one is talking about. And something is stirring underground. Soon, the story spread . . . Whispers in the basement bars of the homes around the neighborhood. Rumors served at the soda shop. Kids, terrified, telling trembling tales in tents in the backyard . . . He's out there
- nytheatre.com

For ten-year-old neatnik Norman, sharing a room with his messy older brother Michael is a nightmare-with heaps of crumpled paper, clothes strewn about, and piles of smelly, dirty socks everywhere! One day, Michael sends away for some 'amazing Beans', and before long, the boys are the proud owners of two giant plants. But as the plants grow taller and taller, the boys realize that their socks are mysteriously disappearing! as the plants' hunger for socks continue to grow, Norman and Michael must try to conceal their botanical secret from the rest of the kids on Levitt Lane, especially the frighteningly nosey cheerleader, Patty Jenkins.
- press release

This tale of a mother accused and convicted of the deaths of her two young babies is a horrific yet powerful. By adopting a form commonly associated with verbatim theatre, the subject is imbued with a clarity that is at once both unrelenting and utterly engaging, as it slowly emerges that these events are not truth at all, but Kelly masquerading theatrical illusion as truth. What unfolds is a bleak yet tender exploration of grief, exploitation, and the innate hypocrisies of reportage.

One of Manhattan's most established play festivals, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival fosters the work of emerging writers, giving them the exposure of publication and representation. The festival resulting in this collection was held August 5th - 10th at Playwrights Horizons on 42nd Street in New York City. From the initial pool of 1,385 submissions, the Final Thirty plays were chosen to be performed over a period of one week. A panel of judges comprised of celebrity playwrights, artistic directors, and theatre professionals nominated one or more of each evening's plays as finalists. Out of these plays, six winners listed below were chosen by Samuel French, Inc. to receive publication and licensing contracts: John, who's here from Cambridge by Martyna Majok; The Logic by Will Arbery; Taisetsu Na Hito by Leah Nanako Winkler; A Wake For David's Fucked-Up Face by Skylar Fox; et-y-mol-o-gy by Jennifer Jasper; Mandate by Kelly Younger

Suzanne's attempts to write about and speak with Beethoven are continuously punctuated by radio broadcasts about her husband who is missing under mysterious circumstances. Mediated throughout by snatches of Ghanaian string music juxtaposed against strains of Beethoven's Fidelio, the Drama exists within a displacement of time and space, fluctuating between Vienna, austria, in 1803 (eurocentric space), and Legon, Ghana, in 1961 (colonized African-American space).

Set in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, brownsville song (b-side for tray) is a powerful tale of resilience in the face of tragedy. Moving fluidly between past and present, this bold new play tells the story of Tray, a spirited African-American 18-year-old and his family, who must hold on to hope when Tray's life is cut short. Kimber Lee's lyrical social drama about the shocking death of a young African-American teenager is a poignant story for our time, and demands the attention of audiences far and wide.

Zelda At the Oasis is about Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, wife of the noted American novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald. It concerns Zelda's struggle to realize herself as a recognized artist in her own right. a thirty five year old Zelda must decide whether to sign herself back into a sanitarium (the one place where she is free to develop her artistic potential), or to resign herself to her failed marriage with Scott. Memories are triggered as Zelda transforms a Bartender into all the people (male as well as female) who have played a part in shaping her self-image, and insights are gained. Both Zelda and the Barman come to understand their lives in new ways.

Welcome back to First Baptist of Ivy Gap. After a fire that resulted in the death of the churchs beloved pastor, the sanctuary has been renovated and a new pastor has been called. There to welcome him are Olene, a reformed Vegas stripper who fancies a star-studded career in religious music; Mae Ellen, the churchs rebellious organist who may find that love comes along when least expected; Vera, the sharp-tongued wife of the chairman of the churchs board of deacons, who covets the role of the sexpot in Neil Simons Last of the Red Hot Lovers; Loretta, said to be the author of trashy Southern novels, whos determined to impose her questionable values on the church; and Edith, the former pastors beloved and resourceful widow, who faces a future without the things she cherishes most. . .her husband, her church and her friends. Add Joseph J. Jennings  the churchs newly called pastor whos competing with the ghost of the deceased pastor  and we have the third installment of the First Baptist trilogy. . .a poignant look at colorful characters who  while being given second chances  share laughs, love and forgiveness.

Jacks unexpected return throws his family into a frenzy, and his sister Lorna needs answers. Is he coming home or running away? Where is his wife everyone hates? And how did he get all that money? Theresa Rebecks new comedy tackles the timely issues of corporate greed, small town values, and whether or not your family will always welcome you back. . .with no questions asked.

"O Beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves. . ."In our age of cyber-bullying and aggressive patriotism remember those lyrics  or else! Theresa Rebeck pens a theatrically inventive mash up of contemporary American life and the history that got us to this politically polarized age. It's fiercely funny story explores the lives of high school students, teachers, and their families as they cope in a world of real personal problems and extremist ideological rhetoric that gets so heated that Jesus, Saint Paul, Joan of Arc, John Adams, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin, among others, show up to weigh in and mix it up. Alternately sweet and fiery, and as topical as tonights newscast, O Beautiful lands the complex realities of our culture squarely on the stage deck in an electrifying blend of ancient characters, founding fathers and your neighborhood high school.

Lucy is an influential 8-year old with a passion for righting wrongs and a "magic" index finger that doles out justice. When Lucy sees something she thinks is unfair, she points her magic finger at the problem, and it causes all sorts of mischief! One day, when visiting her friend William Gregg on his family's farm, Lucy observes the Gregg family shoot a group of ducks. Horrified, Lucy she points her magic finger at the family and oh, boy that little finger makes things topsy turvey! Overnight the tables are turned. the Gregg family is transformed into miniature people with duck wings while the members of the hunted duck family become human sized and sprout arms. the ducks are adjusting to TV, telephones, and even the bathtub while the Greggs must nest in a tree and learn to survive in the air. Can Lucy make things right? Best for ages 5-10

Jerome Teppel, a recently married, fairly well-off CPA, discovers that among his wife Francine's monthly purchases was a gun. Shortly after that, Jerome is informed by his neighbor, Lenore Franklin, that his wife and her husband are having a torrid affair. What ensues next is murder, betrayal, a little sex and a lot of laughs.

Set in the tony resort town of Newport, RI, during the height of the Jazz Age in summer, 1926, Theophilus North follows the exploits of the title character as he searches for adventure and his place in the world. Quitting his teaching position in New Jersey, and stranded in Newport after his jalopy breaks down, thirty-year-old Theophilus takes odd jobs (tennis instructor, French tutor, private reader&) in houses of the wealthy, infiltrating himself into the lives and troubles of Newports residents, both upstairs and downstairs. But the greatest adventure in store is not at all what he has imagined&

Alida is a reclusive writer of fiction slowly losing her memories. Reluctantly, she has come to depend upon a young caregiver to complete her final book - an autobiography. Delving into the dark woods of her past, the two women wrestle over the nature of language, loneliness, and the essential self.

Just beyond the elegant dining room of an Upper East Side restaurant, four busboys angle for shifts, pray for tips, and cling to dreams of life beyond their dingy back-of-house grind. Expertly juggling delicate entrees, fussy customers and beer-swilling line cooks, the young men face off with management and each other. As tensions reach a boiling point, how far will each of them go to see his own manana come?

Madame Bovary is the tragic, yet scintillating story of a woman who longed for a life she could never fully achieve. Emma Bovary is a woman who desires the illustrious and romantic world she has only read about in books or observed from afar. As this desire grows, Emma must seek to fulfill it, whatever the cost, in an ultimate quest to become the Madame Bovary of her wildest and most passionate dreams. Telling Emma's story through the eyes of her own daughter, Adrienne Kennedy brings a fresh and exciting approach to this classic novel.

SPAIN- (2M, 3F) Barbara, recently deserted by her husband of five years, discovers a Conquistador in her living room. Though she has had vivid fantasies about Spain, the Conquistador and his cruel and bloodthirsty approach to life were never part of them...until now. Through him and a maze of real and imaginary characters--including her best friend Diversion, a Mayan Ancient, and a very familiar guitar player--Barbara sorts through the leftovers and finds her Duende. SALTIMBANQUES - (2M, 3F) Before she died, James' and Louise's eccentric artist mother told them they were Picasso's illegitimate twins. James now runs from his sadistic sculptress girlfriend and Louise follows him to their mother's cabin in the woods, where the ghosts of their very different pasts haunt them in the form of memories of love gone wrong, parenting gone crazy, and in the flesh of Mommy's former student-who is convinced he is the reincarnation of Picasso himself. Like Picasso moved from his Blue Period to his rosy painting of the Family of Saltimbanques to his legendary Cubist self-creation, these survivors reinvent themselves using the materials of experience and the force of imagination. GREEN MAN - (2M, 2F) Painter Abigail's model is a naked man painted green, and her architect husband Ronald's new intern bears a striking resemblance, though he's clothed. Their new acquaintance, Genice, is a stone sculptor of gargoyles whose musician fiancé appears in the same hue. Who the Green Man is to each of them is a mystery only they can help each other unravel. A play about love, loss and other things made of stone. Featuring two original songs by the author, sung by the Green Man.

he Last Smoker in America is a raucous, irreverent and unfiltered new musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Tony Award® nominee Bill Russell (Side Show) and music by Drama Desk® nominee Peter Melnick (Adrift in Macao). Enter an America where the government is in your kitchen, sniffing for outlawed cigarettes! The extreme anti-smoking laws test the sanity of one suburban family. Pam is having an impossible time trying to quit. Her husband Ernie retreats to the basement to relive the rock star dreams of his youth, while their teenage son Jimmy only turns away from his videogames to explore his gangster rapper persona. Adding to the dysfunctional dynamic is anti-smoking fanatic Phyllis, the neighbor who cant keep her nose out of everyone elses business. This original and hilarious new musical will leave you craving for more!

With pissed-off Pikachus, steam punk armies, stood-up Sailor Moons and roller-blading monsters on the prowl, it's easy to get lost in the Inferno-esque anime convention where the fans, the otakus, and the geeks prowl. But to score a rare meeting with their comic book idol, teenage outcasts Dayna and Honey will take on obsessive magic players, Jedis and elfs, cosplayers and convention guards - through all nine flights of Ohio's Dante's Fire-Con. But when the dark nature of their quest breaks through the fantasy of these girls cos-playing - they find that no game can mask the deep loss theyve recently shared. . .unless they truly discover who they are.

After decades as the gentle-natured leader of a Christian retreat that endeavors to cure gay teens, Walt is packing up his life and preparing for a reluctant retirement. But when his final client quietly disappears into the remote Idaho wilderness, Walt discovers that his previously unwavering moral compass no longer points the way. With profound humanity and subtlety, A Great Wilderness navigates complex moral terrain, exploring the shifting motives and inconstant strength of our personal convictions.

This free structured look at the 1986 Challenger disaster places the teacher who died with six others as they hurtled into space at the center of an exploration of our need to reach beyond ourselves and dare the universe. Defying Gravity artfully interweaves the past with the present and the lives of participants and bystanders, drawing parallels among painter Claude Monet's artistic quest, the zest of the teacher selected to the first civilian astronaut, the perspectives of her grieving daughter, the aspirations of elderly tourists who drive their Winnebago to Florida to watch the space shot and dream of hotels in space, the guilt felt by a NASA mechanic and his girl friend's fear of heights.

Mark Morton and his reluctant sixteen year old son, Danny, share a Palm Springs motel for several days. They are there for family week at a rehab center where Gwen, Mark's wife and Danny's mother is trying to recover from severe alcoholism. While Mark has great hopes for Gwen's recovery, Danny has none. An emotional and poignant journey with some laughs along the way as father and son discover how little they actually know about one another.

The time: the fifties; the place: Hollywood, where film star Mary Dale finds the Red Menace invading her own Beverly Hills backyard. When she discovers that her husband has been lured into the local Communist party by way of a method acting class and that there is a left wing plot afoot to abolish the star system, Mary wages a private war to save her husband, her country and billing over the title. The McCarthy era is turned on its head in this novel take on a serious subject.

New York, 1948. Irish OFlanagan is the tough as nails, red-headed headliner of the Club Intime. A lifetime of hard knocks has left her bitter and with a chip on her shoulder the size of Mount Rushmore. In the spirit of fantasies such as A Christmas Carol, Its a Wonderful Life and The Bishops Wife, an angel in the form of a sexy vaudeville magician named Albert comes down to show Irish that the path shes been taking is leading her to disaster. He takes her on a journey that reveals that in the next twenty-four hours, shell be killed in a botched kidnapping of a corrupt senators beautiful daughter, Valerie, engineered by the notorious gangster, Chick LaFountain. Irish rejects this look into her future but when indeed everything comes to pass, she desperately tries to no avail to change her fate. At the moment when Chick LaFountain is about to shoot Irish for real, Albert makes a deal with the Lord to save her life. However, his good deed must be an anonymous one. Like Scrooge, Irish has a chance to begin again. She saves Valerie and with the help of her devoted longtime admirer, a busboy named Eddie, and her faithful maid, Peona, has Chick sent up the river. Irish and her friends go caroling in Times Square, and for one brief moment, she remembers the wonderful gift that Albert the angel has given her. He blows her a kiss and she feels it against her cheek. Albert is able to return to Heaven knowing Irish will be all right.

The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams.

Young Americans Zack and Abby have the perfect ex-pat life in Paris: a funky bohemian apartment in up-and-coming Belleville; a stable marriage; and Zacks noble mission to fight pediatric AIDS. But when Abby finds Zack at home one afternoon when hes supposed to be at work, the questions and answers that follow shake the foundation of their seemingly beautiful life.

Kenyatta Shakur is alone. His wife has died, and now, this former Black Revolutionary and political prisoner, is desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter Nina. If Kenyatta truly wants to reconcile his past, he must first conquer his most challenging revolution of all - fatherhood. Sunset Baby is an energised, vibrant and witty look at the point where the personal and political collide. One of the most exciting and distinctive undiscovered voices in America.

A worker dies suspiciously while cleaning augers at an animal food pellet factory, bringing two years of intricately tangled relationships to light. Daveya naïve aspiring tattoo artist with romantic feelings for the dead mans wifepleads his innocence despite being the only worker present during the accident. The factory owners--a pair of estranged brothers feuding over their late father's estate--are only concerned with how this incident will interfere with their plans to sell the struggling factory. Meanwhile, the dead mans wife, Grace, finds herself relieved to have finally escaped the tulmultuous relationship she has been trapped in for years. Moving back and forth in time to reveal how their respective stories converge, Dead Peasants is a darkly comic thriller that examines greed, dependency and culpability in a desolate prairie town.

After a series of brutal layoffs at Sutton, Feingold and McGrath, a precocious young consultant is brought in to save a middle-aged admans job, and maybe his life. This hilarious and keenly observed world premiere takes an intimate look at how money and work shape the human heart  and what we owe to others when everything around us is falling apart.

When most people speak of their high school experience it usually has more to do with the social part than the academic part. The real life lessons are learned outside of the classroom and in the halls, cafeteria, parking lots, and anywhere students are allowed to be themselves. It is this social interaction that is the focus of Third Class and the settings in which all of the scenes and monologues take place.Third Class is the fourth in Brad Slaight's "Class" plays series and continues to explore the school experience from the students' POV via the many experiences they encounter as they interact with each other. Like the other Class Plays, Third Class addresses a variety of contemporary topics and issues, both humorous and serious, that make up the important and unpredictable high school years. The many scenes and monologues have been arranged in a "suggested" order and you may find it necessary to change the order and/or omit some of the scenes depending on your needs.

Adapted from Judith Byron Schachners acclaimed book of the same name, Yo, Vikings! is the mini-saga of 10-year-old Emma Katz, the fiercest Viking in Swarthmore, PA, and her quest for real adventure. Yo, Vikings! combines sweeping melodies, thrilling Viking chants and funky rock n roll with a beautiful, heart-warming story to engage and excite every member of the family.

This play is based on the folk story "Juan Darien" told by Horacio Quiroja, relating the moralistic value of "a life for a life" and the transformation it creates in the life of the avenger. An animal becomes a human and then reverts back to an animal by an act of revenge. The play can best be told in dramatically en masque with some choreography. It lends itself to musical enhancement of a Latin, jazz/blues, or ethereal Andean flute music. The text for this work is but the skeleton upon which the work is co-constructed by the performers in a manner more than is true of most plays. Building it out requires music, choreography, magic and masque. It is also an ensemble piece. The story told in the verse should be enacted in dance, e.g., in the sequence of death taking off souls of the village, in the jaguar courting scene, in the school scene, in death taking of the Mother etc.

When a fathers love of music clashes with his daughters passion for basketball, modernist composer Charles Ives is the perfect referee. Charles Ives Take Me Home is a comedic and poignant story of dissonance, defense, and devotion.

Past and present violently collide when Lotte, an English tourist who repairs dolls, is captured while on a tour of current-day Troy and flung back into the ancient camp of Euripides' Trojan Women. Lotte Jones, a doll repair expert, needs a vacation. She books herself on a cultural tour for singles and travels with them to modern-day Troy, where she finds more of a change of scene than she'd bargained for she's in the midst of an attack by the Greek army threatening to destroy the last fragments of a mighty civilization. When the camp is torched, the women are enslaved and Lotte is rescued by the British Embassy. Her life returns to normal  until a revenge-obsessed Hecuba claws her way up through the centuries into Lotte's doll shop, in search of her murdered children's bodies. Part contemporary drama, part homage to Euripides' Trojan Women, Trojan Barbie recasts the legendary fall of the city of Troy against the vivid reality of modern warfare. Poetic, compassionate, and tinged with great warmth and humor, Trojan Barbie is an epic war story with a most unlikely heroine, who always looks on the bright side even as past and present collide about her.

At long last, the dreaded teen years have been captured with the usual MOM hilarity with MOMologues 3: The Final Push. Responding to pleas from moms who saw the first two shows, the writers understood that comedy would abound as they experienced their own torment and terror as the moms of teenagers. From the list of parenting fails to the Seven Dwarves of the puberty years: Surly, Grumpy, Moody, Sulky, Secretive, Fresh and Spoiled, this play captures the laughs and tears of motherhood again. Four separate characters tell their individual stories, either directly to the audience in monologues, in scenes with each other or in the always popular round robin of 'Things Moms Say.'

A small town arts council has $20,000 to award to a local artist with an under-represented American voice. Should they choose the teacher/painter of modest talent or the self-taught artist who creates religious figures out of trash? This comedy explores how gossip, politics and opinions of art can decide who is the most deserving. A tart, sharp skewing of small town cultural wars.

In Lauren Yee's whimsical and poignant new play The Hatmaker's Wife, a young woman moves in with her boyfriend expecting domestic bliss, but instead has trouble getting comfortable. Her strange new home seems determined to help out - and soon the walls are talking. They reveal the magical tale of an old hat-maker and his long-suffering wife, who runs away with his favorite hat. This sweet and surreal story bends time and space to redefine the idea of family, home, and true love itself.

Nate Wright, a detention-riddled sixth grader (and drummer for the greatest garage band in the history of the galaxy, enslave the Mollusk!) hopes to woo beautiful Jenny away from her boyfriend Artur by winning the Nickelodeon, the first prize in his schools Battle of the Bands. But when Artur and Jenny team up with Nates arch-rival Gina to form the sap-pop band, Rainbows and Ponies, hes gotta take his game to an all-star level. What will he do?

In Jenny Schwartz's linguistic feast of a play, Rosemary and Evelyn met a hundred thousand years ago in Central Park when their children were barely born. Somewhere Fun reunites the two women thirty-five years later on Madison Avenue, one windy fall day. With their children now grown and the world changing rapidly before (whats left of) their eyes, each finds herself face to face with the terrors, joys, and surprises of life and time. This is a wildly original story about connection  to our families, our memories, our moment in time.

Evie Malone- gamer girl, college senior and confirmed virgin- has it all figured out. Not only does she command a top-ranked guild in Warcraft with her online boyfriend, she also makes a little cash on the side writing love letters for people who've screwed up their relationships. Love is like Warcraft, after all. It's all about strategies, game plans, and not taking stupid risks. Well, that's what she thinks. . .until she actually falls for a guy. In Real Life. And no amount of gaming expertise will help her out when she finds herself with a non-virtual, totally real, and incredibly cute boyfriend, who wants more from her than she's willing to give.

From the winner of the 2013 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, comes a story about friendship and the complex though essential role of women in wartime. Virginia Hascall has left her home and fiancee to become a Women Airforce Service Pilot, and do her part to help defeat the Axis powers in the Second World War. Through triumph and tragedy, she and her sisters in flight suits learn as much about themselves as they do about airplanes. As the war rages over there, the women form a sisterhood that cannot be broken, and Virginia must make a decision that will change her life forever. With a cast of nine vibrant female characters, Decision Height offers a look into an underrecognized subset of American heros and revises history into herstory.

Its just after Labor Day, and Marthas Vineyard has started emptying out, but you can still smell the suntan lotion (the expensive kind). And the expensive life is just what Simone is living these days, as personal assistant to Michaela Kell, trophy wife of an absurdly rich (and often absent) New York ad man. When Simones older sister, a social worker from blue collar Buffalo, comes to visit, lifestylesand worldscollide. This keenly observed comedy about class, family and the choices that shape who we are unfolds in real time, fast, furious and funny.

Award winning playwright, Meg Miroshnik casts a spell with The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls. Once upon a timein 2005a twenty-year-old girl named Annie returned to her native Russia to brush up on the language and lose her American accent. Underneath a glamorous Post-Soviet Moscow studded with dangerously high heels, designer bags, and luxe fur coats, she discovers an enchanted motherland teeming with evil stepmothers, wicked witches, and ravenous bears. Annie must learn how to become the heroine of a story more mysterious and treacherous than any childhood fairy tale: her own. This subversive story haunts the audience, and carries a powerful message for young women living in a world where not everything ends up happily ever after.

Award-winning playwright Meg Miroshnik transports her audience to Poor Prairie, the dusty, desolate town where fifteen-and-a-half year-old Jean has been exiled as caretaker for her wild-child cousin, Almeda. Its a grim, dangerous place to eke out an existence as a teenage girluntil a handsome man arrives with a past and a brand-new basketball in tow. As the towns girls come together to form a team set on making it out of Poor Prairie, a murky committee of townspeople threatens to stamp out girls' sports altogether. Inspired by the flourishing and the decline of high school girls' basketball teams in the 1930s rural Midwest, The Tall Girls asks: who can afford the luxury of play? And what is the cost of childhood? Featuring a stong ensemble of female characters, The Tall Girls examines issues of class and gender amidst the historic 1930s Dust Bowl.

In Collapse, Hannah, tries desperately to hold the façade of her perfect life together, even as her husband, David, mysteriously calls in sick to work. Day after day they struggle with infertility, and Hannah herself is on the verge of being laid off. When Hannahs sister appears on their doorstep, she brings with her a renegade attitude and an illicit package that send David and Hannah on a 12-hour odyssey into the heart of their deepest fears. Will they survive? Will their relationship? Esteemed playwright, Allison Moore, deaftly weaves comedy into the fabric of her topical story. The economic collapse has affected Hannah and David's relationship, and Moore's comedy subversely captures the truth burried beneath the laughs.

Cougar The Musical unleashes three divine but disillusioned women who develop a taste for hot, young men. They let their inner cougar roar and purr, finding self-love and empowerment in the process. The sexy, ferocious cast of three fabulous-over-forty women and one multi-talented boy toy sing and dance their way through a satiating range of original songs, from grinding blues, to doo-wop, to pop to "Julio," a romantic ballad, sung to a vibrator. Hilarious, soulful and heartwarming, Cougar the Musical is a madcap ride from Cougar Bar, to nail salon, to boudoir, and back as the women learn to say "yes" to getting older, yes to trust and friendship and yes" to proving that love is ageless.

Behind a tall church pulpit, a fire-and-brimstone preacher delivers a shocking sermon to his congregation. On the tropical sands of a deserted island, two lesbians come together. And at the home of a young boy Sutter, a mother scolds him for reading Jackie Collins romance novels. This is just a taste of playwright Robert OHaras wildly imaginative anthology of sassy lessons in sex ed, a kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnect to portray growing up gay and African-American. With variety-show vivacity, outrageous humor, and real heart and soul, it tests how we talk about human desire and racial stereotypes at home, in church, and on the corner. Shantay! Sashay!

London. Autumn. 1889. The famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and colleague Dr. John Watson are called in to investigate a most intriguing mystery: What could have frightened Sir Charles Baskerville to death? Is there an ancient curse on the Baskerville family? Is Sir Henry Baskerville, Sir Charles young heir, being stalked by a supernatural Hound from Hell or a diabolically clever murderer? In this new adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles greatest adventure Holmes and Watson pursue the answers to these questions from their rooms in Baker Street, through the teeming streets of London and on to the windswept moors of Devonshire. With a dash of humor, this thrilling feast culminates on the fog-bound reaches of Dartmoor, where finally the secret of The Hound of the Baskervilles is revealed.

Perfect Harmony is a musical comedy about the greatest a cappella group in high school history, eighteen-time national champions, the Acafellas. Its also about their classmates and female counterpart, perennial runners up, the Ladies in Red. Through song and story, we see these students grapple with the weighty issues of truth, love, and what constitutes appropriate choreography for Nationals. As the story unfolds, we learn not just about these students themselves but also about the true nature of harmony.

From the award winning playwright of End Days, Deborah Zoe Laufer, comes a story about three twenty-something roommates who are glued to their video games. They are masters of the virtual worlds behind the computer screens in their Las Vegas basement. When one of them uses his gaming skills to land a job with the National Security Agency launching actual drones and missiles, online battles begin to have real consequences. Leveling Up is a fresh, contemporary look at how we navigate the blurry line between worlds both virtual and real and what it means to grow up.

JC Lee's probing play about a suspicious teenager addresses issues of privilege, race, and trust. When a teacher makes an alarming discovery about Luce, an all-star high school student, Luce's parents are forced to reckon with their idealized image of their son, adopted years ago from a war-torn African country. Told primarily from the perspective of the adults, Luce also raises questions about the roles that parents and teachers play in the lives of these teenage students.

In a theatre dressing room in Poland, an elderly and sick Aldridge prepares to play King Lear. The intrusion of a young female journalist forces him to look back on the defining moment of his illustrious career. Thirty years previously, Edmund Kean, one of the greatest actors of his generation, collapses on the Theatre Royal stage in London, and Pierre Laporte, theatre manager and friend, asks Aldridge to replace him as Othello. At the same time Parliament is preparing to vote in favour of abolishing slavery in all British colonies. Opinions are fiercely divided. The American-born Aldridge performs successfully at the Theatre Royal but the reactions of the cast and critics are complex and divisive. He is not allowed to fulfil his engagement and the betrayal of a dear friend changes the course of his life.

In The Realistic Joneses, we meet Bob and Jennifer and their new neighbors, John and Pony, two suburban couples who have even more in common than their identical homes and their shared last names. As their relationships begin to irrevocably intertwine, the Joneses must decide between their idyllic fantasies and their imperfect realities.

Joe Taylor, a retired actor, moves into a prison-turned-elder-care facility shortly after the demise of Medicare and the election of Dick Cheney to President. There he discovers a community of loveable, irascible inmates hell-bent on bucking the dehumanizing system in which they have landed. Together, this band of aging misfits rediscovers purpose and dignity in the face of a system mightily stacked against them. A delightful comedy with bite from Katie Forgette, that dares to confront the issue of aging in America.

How's a queen to keep her head in the middle of a revolution? Marie Antoinette delights and inspires her French subjects with her three-foot tall wigs and extravagant haute couture. But times change and even the most fashionable queens go out of style. In the humorous and haunting Marie Antoinette, idle gossip turns more insidious as the country revolts, demanding liberte, egalite, fraternite!

a post September 11 monologue in which an upper crust American matron takes tea and proceeds to the chilling as she outlines her belief that it is "hubris" to assume that humans have innate value, and that torture is therefore a wholly suitable response to terror.

The unmistakable playwright of Stunning, David Adjmi, offers a new fierce and furious play about intimate human relationships. Carol and Jerry celebrate their anniversary with friends Martin and Judy. But an evening of haute cuisine and expensive wine is cut short when Martin, no longer able to repress years of frustration, lashes out at the people he loves. Soon, the facade of their pristine American lives shatters. With ferocious humor and violent turns, David Adjmi's searing drama lays bare the vast desolation that lies beneath a quiet dinner with friends.

This brutal and hilarious one-act play was declared one of the greatest plays of all time for women in Lucy Kerbels volume 100 Great Plays For Women. Set in an all-girls boarding school, Numbers depicts a vicious battle of wills between four Sixth Form girls in the hour before a new Head Girl is announced. As the girls vie for the coveted position, old friendships and loyalties give way to ambition and betrayal. Nothing is too extreme in a battle which increasingly proves less about the disputed role and more about how the girls conflicting ideologies of class, privilege and morality will affect the rest of their lives.

about an out-of-work female impersonator who, when his elderly landlady dies in her sleep, takes on her identity in order to hang on to her valuable Greenwich Village townhouse. This "perfect" scheme goes awry and leads to a wild path of twists and reversals plotted by an eccentric rogues gallery of outrageous schemers. Expect Busch's signature blend of quick-witted banter and gender-bending hijinks in this new play from the master of Off-Broadway farce.

In 1979, Washington D.C. was a place where people actually talked to each other...where adversaries fought it out on the Senate floor and then smoothed it out over drinks and hors d'oeuvres. But it was all about to change. In this play spanning 30 years and six presidential administrations, Hester Ferris throws Georgetown dinner parties that can change the course of Washington's politics. But when her beloved son suddenly turns up with an ambitious Reaganite girlfriend and a shocking new conservative world view, Hester must choose between preserving her family and defending the causes she's spent her whole life fighting for. From the prolific pen of novelist, essayist, and playwright Anthony Giardina comes a play about politics in family, and families in politics. A searing new drama, The City of Conversation delves into the ever-changing tapestry of U.S. Government and the people who shape it off the senate floor.

It's 1967 in Detroit. Motown music is getting the party started, and Chelle and her brother Lank are making ends meet by turning their basement into an after-hours joint. But when a mysterious woman finds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over more much more than the family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and they find themselves caught in the middle of the '67 riots.

One year ago, Edmond died in a horrible fire. He took with him the dreams of his fiancée, Meredith, the trust of his best friend, Eric, and the answers to the burning questions that still linger about his death and the terrible crime he committed. But on a stormy night at the cemetery where he rests, the secrets from his past will finally refuse to stay buried; and those he left behind will finally refuse to stay silent. In this original, suspense-filled musical thriller by the author/composer of Thrill Me, there are enough twists, turns and surprises to keep the audience guessing up until the final shocking moments.

Suffering from a profound sense of disappointment after her 40th birthday, Sonia flees her family and goes on a binge of prescription Zoloft and greasy chimichangas. Sonias rebellious daughter Jackie and her best friend Penelope atch a plan to lure Sonia back home, while their fathers struggle with a secret association of their own. This irreverent story examines the search for happiness and the mysteries of sexuality through the eyes of two brazen teenagers.

In a run-down movie theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35 millimeter film projectors in the state. their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, the Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.

Watson: trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; loyal engineer who built Bells first telephone; unstoppable super-computer that became reigning Jeopardy! champ; amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking for love. These four constant companions become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale) dedicated to the peopleand machinesupon which we all depend.

Boots, a girl who wears yellow rain boots even when its not raining, and a boy called Eggs take a journey through memory and imagination following the sudden death of their friend, Peter. As Eggs dreams of asking Boots to the upcoming Favorites Dance, Boots loses herself in a world of fallen leaves, consumed by her quest to remember the last words Peter said to her before he died. The Swing of the Sea is a play about growing old without aging that examines the way fantasy and memory converge when we lose someone we love.

Since the death of his boyfriend, morbidly obese 600 pound Charlie has confined himself to his small Idaho apartment and is eating himself to oblivion. With his health quickly failing, Charlie becomes desperate to reconnect with ellie, his estranged and angry teenage daughter whom he has not seen in 17 years. He would give her anything: his love, his money. . ..maybe even his life. Written by Obie award-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter, the Whale is a tough, humorous and emotionally powerful play about how we cope with loss, and how new definitions of family, friends and religion shape our lives.

This High School Edition of See Rock City & Other Destinations is a contemporary musical about connections missed and made at tourist destinations across America. A wanderer believes his destiny is written on rooftops along the North Carolina Interstate. A young man yearns to connect with intelligent life in Roswell, New Mexico. A woman at the Alamo steps out of the shadow of her grandparents' idealized romance to take a chance on love. Three estranged sisters cruise to Glacier Bay to scatter their father's ashes. Two high school boys face unexpected fears in the Coney Island Spook House. A terrified bride-to-be ponders taking the leap. . .over Niagara Falls. With a score that incorporates pop, rock, folk and more, each story builds on the last to create a vivid travelogue of Americans learning to overcome their fears and expectations in order to connect.

Mogadishu, 1993. Paul is a Canadian photojournalist who is about to take a picture that will win him the Pulitzer Prize. Princeton, the present day, Dan is an American writer who is struggling to finish his play about ghosts. Both men live worlds apart but a chance encounter over the airwaves sparks an extraordinary friendship that sees them journey from some of the most dangerous places on earth to the depths of the human soul.Flying from Kabul to the Canadian High Arctic, The Body of an American sees two actors jump between more than thirty roles in an exhilarating new form of documentary drama. It urgently places these two mens battles  both public and private against a backdrop of some of the worlds most iconic images of war.