Germany in 1943. America in 2033. This charged play follows young adults separated by time and place, united by their resistance to the government oppression they’re surrounded by. In 2033, a group of protestors in hiding begin receiving cryptic text messages. Is it possible that they’re somehow being sent from 1940s anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl and other members of the famed White Rose resistance group? And if they are receiving these messages, why?
Genre: Political
UnResigned
Alejandro has revolutionized student government at his Pennsylvania high school and changed it for the better, so when he unexpectedly resigns from being student body president halfway through his senior year, the entire school is shaken. Who will take over? Who should take over? This exciting play looks at the ways we contribute to our community, the power of the vote, and what it means to be a United States citizen.
Smile Lines
This groundbreaking and emotionally charged play immerses you in the fervor, intensity, determination, and selflessness of the Silent Sentinels protest at the White House in 1917. A century later, do we appreciate the sacrifices and convictions made by those brave individuals? SMILE LINES delves deep into the National Woman’s Party’s historic protests, connecting them to the ongoing struggle for all voices in today’s world.
295N
Six young Northern Virginia students find themselves thrust into a complex world, a world made of poetry, reenactments, the guiding words of Frederick Douglass, and the personal experiences of the students themselves. The heart of this complex world is the death of Freddie Gray, an event that forces each of these students to confront their own relationships with issues of race. As one young African American student, Jasen, finds himself compelled to seek justice, the others are forced to confront how close to home the issues of Baltimore actually are.
The Heart Sellers
Jane and Luna run into each other in the grocery store on Thanksgiving in 1973 and discover they have much in common: they’re both 23, recent Asian immigrants, homesick and lonely with hardworking absentee husbands, and adjusting to a new country surprisingly filled with as much political uncertainty as the places they’ve left. Over a bottle of wine (or two) and a questionable frozen turkey, they dream of Disneyland, learning to drive, and an unknowable future as they share their hopes and fears in making a new home in a new reality.
An Eloquent Fugitive Slave Flees to Ireland
Inspired by his 1845 trip to Ireland. AN ELOQUENT FUGITIVE SLAVE FLEES TO IRELAND is a fictionized account of Frederick Douglass’ voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the steamship Cambria. Exploring themes of racism, sexism, and freedom, AN ELOQUENT FUGITIVE SLAVE FLEES TO IRELAND uses dialogue sprinkled with rap to give enhanced contemporary resonance to a largely unknown page of Frederick Douglass’ life.
The Broken Machine
In this climate-chaos comic-tragedy, a burnt-out coder has become a hermit in the wilderness, nursing a broken arm and making lists from memory—of endangered species, moments of Lost Time, Incorrect States of Mind—in company with her only friend, a gray fox with a bad attitude. When wildfires approach, they flee through the wilderness to the sea, pursued by feckless would-be rescuers and threatened by a punk psychopomp.
The Vagrant Trilogy
THE VAGRANT TRILOGY consists of three plays: The Hour of Feeling, The Vagrant, and Urge for Going. In part one, The Hour of Feeling, (1967) we meet Adham, a hot young scholar back from university in Cairo, readying himself to go to London to give a talk. He marries a girl from the village and takes her with him, and when war breaks out at home, the two near-strangers must decide what to do. The second play in the trilogy, The Vagrant, finds Adham and Abir nearly 20 years later (1982), divorced, him teaching at a humble college in London. Adham’s hopes for professorship are tested when both “homes”—England and Palestine—flare up with political violence, and the compartmentalization he’s built around himself in order to survive starts to crumble. The third play, Urge for Going, finds a completely different Adham and Abir, representing a different fork in the road taken back in 1967. We see them in a modern-day refugee camp in Lebanon, with a daughter (Jamila) determined to break out of the endless stasis of her family’s life.
Two Degrees
Emma Phelps is a paleoclimatologist, focusing on ice in Greenland. In drilling and studying ice core samples, she sees first hand the symptoms of our changing planet, which makes the need to act all the more crucial and urgent. In addition, Emma, as a recent widow, experiences grief that compounds itself with each passing month. Now she’s been asked to testify in Washington D.C. in a senate committee regarding climate change legislation, and in this intersection of science and politics, of politics and the personal, she finds more than just a little is breaking up under the strain of change.
17 Minutes
17 MINUTES is the length of time Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Rubens stood outside of a school while a shooter was inside. The play 17 MINUTES explores the communal and residual effects of a shooting through Andy, a man who struggles with his own complicity in the tragedy, and who seeks meaning in the wake of the shooting.
Tales From Red Vienna
It’s 1920 in Vienna. Stefan was killed in the Great War, and his widow Heléna is bereft. A woman without means, Heléna is forced to do whatever she can to survive. Set as an enormous political tide is turning throughout Europe, TALES FROM RED VIENNA explores the effects of war on women, the circumstances that control their lives, and the dreams that set them free.
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.