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.
Category: Off-West End / Off-Broadway
Off Peak
When two old flames run into each other on the evening commute, different views of the same past threaten to derail their connection. A new play about forgiving, forgetting, and the healing power of a good delay.
A Measure of Cruelty
After a horrifying act of bullying, one of the perpetrators, Derek, is hidden away by a recently discharged, traumatized soldier Buddy, who hides Derek away in his father Teddy’s bar in the days after the crime. In a blistering 80 minutes all three men have to face each other, themselves, and the dangerous, antiquated, but still potent, definitions of masculinity they all inherited.
Scab
Gilda is a middle-aged American worker and life-long union member. After her factory moves to Mexico, she is tasked with training her replacement, a young Mexican man named Eduardo. The union stands firmly against this retraining but it is the only way Gilda can receive her small, but necessary payout. SCAB is a story of two mismatched workers struggling for survival in modern industrial America.
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.
Romeo and Juliet Walk into a Bar
A small midwestern college decides to stage Shakespeare’s classic tale of young star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet with an all female cast. Add in a mysterious guest director with dubious credentials and a bizarre show concept, and anything might happen. Can the students rescue the bard from being hijacked? A smart, hilarious, thoroughly contemporary look at what the Bard might mean to us today.
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.
The Seagull
Irína Arkádina is a famous—but fading—actress in Russia at the turn of the last century. She and her lover, Boris Trigórin, a well-known author, arrive at her brother Sórin’s country estate for the summer, just as son Konstantín is staging an experimental new play he’s written and directed, starring his girlfriend, Nína. Konstantín wants to find “new forms of theater,” but Arkádina is far more traditional—and not about to let anyone forget that she’s the star in the family. Her snide comments during the performance enrage Konstantín, who stops the show and storms off. In Konstantín’s absence, Nína comes out and is introduced to Trigórin. Nína is soon enthralled by the successful author, which starts a love affair—and the ensuing jealousies and anger—that will eventually ruin lives.
right before I go.
Stan Zimmerman (The Golden Girls, Roseanne, Gilmore Girls) brings to life the last words written in letters by individuals lost to suicide — including celebrities, veterans, kids that were bullied, LGBTQ, and the clinically depressed — and those who have survived suicide attempts. Since its acclaimed first performance at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015, the play has traveled across the country, raising awareness and offering hope for suicide prevention.
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.