Abby, a precocious emo-goth teenager, orchestrates a surprise reunion for her mother Tanya and birth father Tom, with the help of her mom’s fiancé/healer John. Hoping to provoke long-lasting reconciliation between her parents before her high school graduation, Abby’s plans completely derail when Tom arrives with his new girlfriend Alisha. Can this family confront their past traumas, “deal and heal?”
Genre: Dark Comedy
Separate Rooms: A Comedy
When a group of old college friends, lovers, and strangers gather for an impromptu party after the memorial service of one of their own, attractions and resentments flare up until an astonishing crisis explodes leading the characters to ask themselves what makes a life worthwhile? And can happiness compensate for associated pain?
Alternately hilarious and deeply moving, SEPARATE ROOMS is a Big Chill-like homage to that time of life when you wrestle with who you were and who you’ve become.
Mankind
Mark and Jason were keeping things casual until Jason got pregnant. But however unplanned the pregnancy was, nothing could be less expected than the chain of events it would set in motion. Robert O’Hara’s audacious, hilarious allegory envisions an uncannily familiar future – one long after women have gone extinct from centuries of mistreatment – where man’s capacity to eff everything up soars to new heights.
Lot’s Wife
When struggling actor Tom Braddle discovers that his former fiancé has written a new play with a part for him, his hopes for reuniting are dashed by a realization that the play is all too autobiographical. Did Adam have a hand in the tragic death of his wife and child? A dizzying constellation of competing stories and interests swirl around the company and then – Adam disappears on opening night. A thriller, a comedy, a drama – a meditation on the impulse to make sense of tragedy in our lives through the theater.
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B
An irreverent, darkly comic, modern take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth and sidekick. This fast-paced romp re-examines the world’s most famous detective story with a bold new feminist lens. In this highly theatrical, small-cast escapade, oddball female roommates Sherlock (yes, it’s also a girl’s name—wait, is it a girl’s name? Is it even a name?) Holmes & Joan Watson join forces to emerge from pandemic fog as a deeply codependent, quasi-dysfunctional Odd Couple adventure duo—solving mysteries and kicking butts, until they come face to face with a villain who seems to have all of the answers.
Sensitive Guys
The Men’s Peer Education group at Watson College is dedicated to unpacking and exposing male privilege. These “sensitive guys” believe that through increased self-awareness they can end sexual violence on campus; but when a shocking rumor surfaces, the group is shaken to the core. SENSITIVE GUYS features a cast of women and gender nonconforming actors, double-cast as male and female characters, who try to understand men who are trying to understand masculinity.
macbitches
When freshman acting major Hailey unexpectedly scores the coveted role of Lady Macbeth, her upperclassmen rivals immediately invite her over to “celebrate.” As the Fireball and Svedka flow, the young women interrogate their own ambitions as well as the power structures that have shaped their education—and when the night spirals into violent and shocking acts of betrayal, they come to learn that what’s done cannot be undone.
Glassheart
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.
Franklinland
The story of growing up as the only son of Benjmain Franklin: the greatest scientific mind in the world, inventor of the lightning rod and the urinary catheter and the glass harmonica and bifocal glasses and, oh yeah, in his spare time the United States of America.
In The Upper Room
A play about family secrets, gossip, colorism, voodoo and the magic of the stories we grow up hearing.
Meet the Berrys, a multi-generational Black family living under one roof in the 1970s. Their lives orbit around Rose, a strong-willed matriarch whose superstitions and secrets drive her relatives nuts. Through pointed wit and playful sarcasm, the family elders share fantastical stories about their collective past that call into question the family hierarchy and inspire the youngest generation to take pride in their heritage (and physical appearance). Tender, comedic conversations between tight-knit relatives are interspersed with moments of intense drama that mirror the internal conflicts every family must face at some point.