Playwright Slam, taking place on May 16th, is where playwrights bring short plays to be cast and performed by audience members that night! Don't miss out on the fun of the first event of the festival!

Tuesday, May 16,

7:00-10:00 PM

Healy Rehearsal Room

Tabby Coverdale is afraid of drowning.

Only—she can’t quite remember why.

Time and place get muddled out in the North Sea, where she’s found herself begrudgingly

stuck on a trawling expedition with her uncle’s crew.

When a storm hits the trawler, breaking the engine and causing it to drift into unknown

waters, a member of the crew disappears in the middle of the night, leaving only a dead albatross

behind. There is no greater curse than that which follows a dead albatross, and for the crew of the

Trawler, their bad luck has only begun.

As more strange events follow the disappearance, suspicion comes up against superstition

—those on the crew who believe a greater force is at work, and those who believe someone is

using folktales to cover up foul play.

As Tabby’s memories stalk her through the present day, the clearer it becomes that the key

to discovering the truth about what’s happening on the Trawler is hidden somewhere in Tabby’s

past. The only question is, how many more bodies will drop before the truth comes to light?

After finishing high school, Mattias goes into crisis mode and tries to become better.

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Teens in a long term inpatient psych ward in New York City.

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Synopsis: Six actors draw cards and play games. In therapy, Brian realizes he'd be much happier if he was a serial killer. Jess gets hit by a car and dies in the first act. Wally takes a road trip to central Illinois. Maple and Eliza play Frisbee in the park. The therapist starts a garden made from human compost. A few other things happen in this play. It's about going in circles forever until you die-- and just how fun that can be! 

Trigger warnings: suicide & depression

Friends circle back after months and years apart just to do the same thing they did when they were sixteen; drive around town. Following Lindsay and Andy's friendship throughout their lives, there are bumps in the road but also freshly paved gravel, all the salty fries and sweet sweet milkshakes. In this work in progress (teehee) it focuses on their relationship in high school, this world is still expanding but the teenage angst is palpable.

When Everett's dementia escalates, Marianne must work to maintain her marriage, a rowdy child, drifting grandfather, and estranged mother. When Did the Sky Turn Purple? explores the rocky and harsh realities of generational life cycles and how we fight to care for each other.

A group of dancers at a ballet studio figuring out what friendship means in the midst of competition

A hitman employed by a shadowy organization begins to question his way of life while hiding out from the fallout of his latest job.

A bleak meditation on aging and death (and a blistering critique of the unfair treatment of middle-aged women) and also a waggish, fizzy, coming-of-age story that centers on Judith, a beleaguered housewife, her teenage daughter Cassie, and Cassie's best friend Jill. The three women navigate sex, death, and sadness, whilst "buccal fat removal" looms, tempts and taunts (because doesn't it always? Loom?)...

A young Korean-American woman wrings out an authentic play from her grandma's war time trauma.

 An innovative new clinical trial aims to treat chronic pain by allowing patients to relive memories from before they got sick. As these patients release the burden of pain for the first time in years, they learn that a pain-free existence comes at the cost of their most important memories. Is a life without pain worth forgetting who you are? 

Come celebrate our first year playwrights! Followed by a special award ceremony presenting the Interrobang Residency Prize, Donald M. Ephraim Achievement Award, Theatre School Dean's Prize, and the Lawrence Bundschu and Warren Snoddy Endowed Playwrighting Prize.

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Tuesday, May 23,

7:00-10:00 PM

Healy Theatre

Hey Kids! Do you feel like time is running away yet is still somehow an endless cycle of meaningless repetition? Well, do we have the solution for you: Sand! Try Dustbowl Incorporated’s new product at a kindergarten near you. Official Product Release: May 32nd. Side Effects Include: Time Loops, Growth Spurts, Mind Reading, Abandonment Iss-Shoes, and Nausea.

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After a bonding exercise gone wrong, Joy begins to feel dangerously wild.

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Roommates, Alex and Frankie take a leap of faith and begin to date. As their relationship progresses tensions rise and their third roommate, Sam, worries about what this will do to the trio's dynamic. Someone should've warned them not to try this at home

A young girl in 1960s Britain discovers herself as she explores her family’s past.

As our planets air becomes unbearable, international infrastructure & institutions collapse, and natural areas spiral to their ultimate demise, Kufahari, a Sovereign Yoruba West African Kingdom whose advanced technological achievements has protected them from the catastrophic effects of climate change, must decide if their Sovereign Kingdom, should maintain one of its foundational principles of self-reliance and avoid any association with other nations or continents, or, should it extend its planet saving resources to the struggling Nations of the world during massive, life altering circumstances, even if it means jeopardizing their own Kingdoms livelihood & stability.

Living in a world where the common practice after death is preserving corpses and putting them on display, best friends Eris and Joanna grapple with their clashing ideas on what it means to respect the dead that surround them.

Ghosts?

Camp Fire Stories is a solo piece about growing up in a weird place, and how the idea of home changes both in our memory and fundamentally.

Solo performance piece exploring a life-altering bike accident.

Randy, a jaded and down on his luck man who has recently been turned into a vampire must reenter the mortal world for the purpose of fulfilling a dear friend's request." Please let me know if you need anything else.