2008 Readings:

7 Short Pieces
By Molly Englund (Boston, MA)
Directed by Alex Balestrieri (Chicago)
A collection of monologues, short scenes, and 10 minute plays, dark and funny, connected through similar themes of nostalgia, family, adulthood and death. These are good people caught in menacing tales, trying to escape the life they have and find something better.
Featuring Janeane Bowlware, Jesse Weinberg, Devon Carson, Joanna Jacobs, Eliza Huberth, Andy Junk, Kieran Kredell

We Three
By Will Goldberg (Chicago)
Directed By Matt Hawkins (Chicago)
A story of a young man’s increasing disassociation from reality and its effects on his loved ones as they struggle to continue to care for someone they no longer understand or recognize.
Featuring Mary McClenahan, Taylor Bibat, Brandon Boler, Michael Kessler


VULNERABLE
By Pat Donahue (Waterbury, CT)
Directed by Jason Fleece (Chicago)
If Eugene O'Neill had written JUSTICE LEAGUE comic books, they probably would've looked something like VULNERABLE, a play that looks for the hallmarks of the classic American stage drama -- unrequited passion, potentially deadly ambition, dark family secrets -- within the slightly less reputable (but no less significant) Great American Art Form that is the superhero. 
Featuring Devon Carson, Tim Koch, Alex Balestrieri, Eliza Huberth, Michael Kessler, Kieran Kredell, Katherynne Wolf, Andy Junk, Austin Campion, Jeremy Oase
 
 
The Poet's Project
Led by Bryan Lee (Washington, DC)
Explores the intersection of poetry, Hip-Hop, and lyrical performance in the world of theater. Our poets will combine voice, rhythm, and body to produce a collaborative theater piece. This “workshop-in-progress” will focus on the construction of identity: how we as young people understand and articulate our political, social, racial, and sexual selves in a changing America. 

One Stockinged Foot
By Lindsey Austen (Brooklyn, NY)
Directed by Jason Gerace (Chicago)
Two sisters must work with their negligent and self-indulgent mother to turn the house around in the wake of tragedy. This story explores the relationship between wise children--kids who never really need to be taught a lesson--and the parents who just are not savvy enough to keep ahead of them. 
Featuring Zoe Schwartz, Katherine Schwartz, Marie Goodkin

Retarded 
By Joey Boren (Atlanta, Georgia)
Directed by Carol Karaguez (Chicago)
Four friends wait in an abandoned mental retardation center for a psychic who is three hours late to their séance.  As various stages of limbo overlap, we bear witness to the dark comedy of disillusionment and unbearable suffering that comes from the wrong kind of love.
Featuring Anna Simonton, Adam Shalzi, Amanda Cowper, Sarah Mauldin, Evan Fillon, Talia Ricci, Andy Junk, Ryan Santa


Ars Memorativa
By Meredith Friedman (Hawaii, Chicago)
Directed by Bryan Lee (Washington, DC)
Follows a young artist, and her very own Greek chorus, as she pillages her mishaps and triumphs to unearth her thoughts, fears, and feelings about the vast chasm that is art. Love Your Art examines not only why we create art, but why we look at it.
Featuring Amber Robinson, Talia Ricci, Rafael Martinez

Ida et al
By Will Goldberg (Chicago)
Directed by Alexis Randolph (Chicago)
13 year old Ida Zeroni says she's heard the voice of God.  Her family's not sure what to think, her neighbors are afraid of her, and as the media decends on her town, it seems like everybody has an opinion-- or an ulterior motive.  A sharp, funny look at belief, family, and the spread of information.
*This is a special presentation of the in-progress first act of a full length play.
Featuring Clarissa Gregg, Janeane Bowlware, Evan Fillon, Teeny Lamothe, Dani Bryant, Michael Kessler, Chris Daley


Qualified
By Brian Kettler (Portland, OR)
Directed by Beth Kaskel (Chicago)
Bonnie interviews Benjamin, a recent college dropout, for a mysterious position.
Featuring Anna Stevens, Adam Mack

Spark      
By Ben Fisher (San Francisco, CA)
Directed by Tim Koch (Chicago)
When Ophelia Peck creates an atomic bomb for a high school science project  all hell breaks loose. This absurdist comedy explores the hysteria that ensues when an 18 year old girl becomes a nuclear super-power.
Featuring Teeny Lamothe, Charlie Jensen, Andy Junk, Matt Test, Pat Donahue

The Clearing
By Jake Jeppson (Washington, DC)
Directed by Erica Weiss (Chicago)
Seventeen years after a traumatic event, the Ellis family is still attempting to get back to normal. Is it their own psyches that won’t let them forget or is there a greater force at play? The play moves backwards and forwards in time, as characters reconcile past and present.
Featuring Mary Mikva, Joel Vinning, Michael Slefinger, Will Schmidt, Drew Schad