Beauty never showed up. After centuries under the curse, the Beast and his remaining magical servant (a hopelessly optimistic lamp) move into a shabby Chicago apartment, hoping for a lower cost of living and better luck with girls. In the threatening, impossible, completely ordinary world of paying rent and taking public transportation, is a happy ending even possible? A romantic tragicomedy about facing the witch in your head, and finding the wish in your heart.
Cast Size: 4
The Forest
Juliet is losing her marriage. Her mother Pam is losing her memory. And there’s a mysterious forest growing in and around their living room. Is it any wonder Juliet starts sleeping with one of her high school students? A play about weird love and what to do when there aren’t any right answers.
Lockdown
A writer agrees to help an incarcerated man with his parole statement and embarks on an unexpected journey confronting her own grief.
Grace’s Land 2.0
Grace is a teenage Spoken Word champion, but can’t seem to complete a simple poetry homework assignment. Accompanied by her piano playing, hip hop dancing and visual artist girlfriends, she designs a virtual land of her own, Grace’s Land 2.0, where they’re free of fixed identities, of the pandemic, of micromanaging parents, and the need to fit into the boxes assigned by others.
Les Deux Noirs
Set in the legendary Parisian café Les Deux Magots in 1953, LES DEUX NOIRS reimagines the meeting between Native Son author Richard Wright and essayist/activist James Baldwin. It explores the tension between Baldwin’s searing critiques of Native Son and Wright’s unbridled indignation in response—a confrontation between two mighty African-American artists, with echoes of a present-day rap battle.
Fourteen
In the near future, a robot named Laura has joined a high school to see if it can learn as humans do. Two girls, Ruth and Teri, decide that the superiority of computers would make Laura the perfect class president. When Laura helps Madison, the school bully, with her math homework, she adopts Laura as her best (and perhaps only) friend, and joins the campaign. After a disastrous assembly ends their election dreams, Madison learns that loneliness can’t be answered by a machine.
Honey Sugar Lady Doll
Women in bodacious shorts! This sparkling and raucous comedy offers fast-paced tales about—and starring—strong and sassy females. Women who are intelligent, eccentric, mysterious, baffling, bullheaded and brilliant. As these short plays unfold, you’ll meet Vivacia, a Southern social media star, on a quest to elevate the mediocre standard of American funeral foods. Drop by a Christmas shop where the overworked proprietress unravels as she attempts to train a new crew of “elves” for the holiday tsunami. Spend an afternoon with theatre royalty on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where three theatre legends vie for “best friend” status in the hospital room of their lifelong colleague…and rival. And these are just a few of the unforgettable women you’ll meet in these joyous short plays.
College Colors
This four character play follows a pair of black and white male roommates entering college in the 1960, juxtaposed with a pair of black and white female roommates in 2016.
Buddy Bro Bubba Dude
Men in twisted shorts! This roller-coaster ride of hilarious short plays is all about, and starring only, men! In these absurdly funny tales, you’ll meet men who are confident, men who are brave, and men who are as useless as the “g” in “lasagna.” There’s Wade, who, after badgering his widowed father to start dating again, scrambles to stop his dad from a rendezvous with the last woman he should ever romance. Bubba is a radio show personality who spills a small town’s juiciest secrets during an on-air meltdown. And then, you’ll meet two good ol’ Texas boys struggling to achieve the impossible—an honest conversation about the meaning of life…and sports. And these are just a few of the colorful eccentrics in these rowdy and rollicking short plays.
Babel
Renee and Dani are expecting. Ann and Jamie are also expecting. And a Giant Stork suddenly starts talking. Set in the near future, Babel paints the picture of a society where embryos must be pre-certified. When each couple faces the test results, things take a complicated turn. This dark comedy begs the question, “How far will we go to create the ‘perfect’ world?”