A techno-thriller that begins when a young woman is raped at a fraternity and ends in a future where corporations promise a new body with the swipe of a screen, CLICK follows a hacktivist named Fresh who turns industrial espionage into high art. As this virtual Banksy takes over the global imagination, the man who stole her life develops a technology that sends the two of them on a collision course at the heart of the corporate empire, where innovation comes at any cost. A cyberpunk drama for the #MeToo era, a story of trauma, transformation and reclaiming who you are.
Cast Size: 10+
A Christmas Carol (Melrose)
Inspired by the original novella, Melrose captures Dickens’ witty wording and evocative style to surprise audiences with parts of the familiar story they didn’t know were there! A Christmas Carol tells the beloved story of Scrooge and his miraculous transformation. This new adaptation of a holiday tradition is the perfect way for families to recapture the nostalgia of Christmases past and to create memories for many Christmases to come.
Cinderella: The Real Story
This new take on an old classic tells the forgotten stories hidden in the fairy tale we all know so well. Hilarious, imaginative, and powerful, this play is specifically designed to be performed by young performers and may be adapted to a virtual or in-person performance venue.
The Christmas Carol Farce
Charles Dickens’s ghost arranges for a high school production of A Christmas Carol to be broadcast on TV. The cast is ecstatic, until they learn their performance must be cut to one hour. At the TV studio, they discover it must be cut to 40 minutes for commercials. Just before they go on-air, an overtime football game forces them to cut again. When all that’s left is 5 minutes, they perform a hilariously fast holiday classic.
Distance Learning
A group of high school seniors face their final year learning online with a beloved teacher as a pandemic rages outside. Together they will face social isolation, missed milestones, the potential loss of friends and family, their places in the world and what the birth of a new social justice movement means for them.
The Cherry Orchard
Liúbov Ranyévskaya returns to her Russian estate after five years in Paris, following her son’s death. But her family is ridden with debt, and their home and beautiful cherry orchard will be auctioned off at the end of the summer. Lopákhin grew up on the estate, the child of former serfs, and has become a wealthy merchant. He suggests they build vacation homes where the orchard sits. The income would save them, but Liúbov and her brother won’t even consider it. They—like the cherry orchard—are a relic from another time: beautiful, but now fruitless. Summer comes to a close, and the Ranyévskayas must leave—with the sound of axes coming from the orchard.
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.
Bina’s Six Apples
Bina’s family grows the finest apples in all of Korea. But when war forces her to flee her home, Bina is alone in the world with just six precious apples to her name. Can these meager possessions help her find her family? Join Bina on her spirited journey that ranges from the heartbreaking to the humorous. Encountering new challenges at every turn, Bina is forced to rely upon her apples and their important legacy as she begins to discover the power of her own resilience. Often mesmerizing, always heartwarming, Bina will discover that she’s not the only one on a difficult quest for a place to call home.
That Summer in Sumner
THAT SUMMER IN SUMNER is the middle drama in The Till Trilogy, a three-play cycle exploring the epic saga of Emmett Till. While the first play, The Ballad of Emmett Till, is the story of the boy, That Summer in Sumner explores the 1955 trial of his killers. While drawing upon trial transcripts, contemporaneous news accounts, and the abundant photographic and media imaging, the play is not a docudrama, but my imagined interpretation of behind the scenes events from the perspective of three African American journalists covering the trial and from Emmett, himself, his ghost, his cipher, his Kah, coming to grips with what has happened to him.
This is the second play in The Till Trilogy, a three-play cycle which includes BENEVOLENCE and THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL, exploring the epic saga of Emmett Till and the birth of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
Asking Strangers the Meaning of Life
In the opening scene of this comedy, a writer meets the ghost of Franz Kafka, which sets off an existential chain of events forcing the cast to confront the meaning of life. Through a series of hilarious random encounters, the play questions whether we can understand our existence or is life just one long Zoom meeting interrupted by Amazon and DoorDash deliveries. Designed to be simply staged, ASKING STRANGERS THE MEANING OF LIFE can use a cast as small as five or as many as ten. The cast can be any race, ethnicity, physicality, and sexual orientation/identity.