First Stages

BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS' THEATRE PRESENTS:
Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 PM, April 4 through May 10
FIRST STAGES
Annual staged readings of plays by this year's graduate playwrights:

Monica Bauer
Jonathan Busch
Michael Collins
Jeremy Goldstein
Donna Keegan
Ryan Bradley Smith

A talk-back with the playwrights will follow each reading

April 4 and 5 (Monday and Tuesday at 7 PM)
THE SAGEBRUSH CIRCUS
by Michael Collins
Directed by Jerry Bliss
Judson Timchuck, a ne'er-do-well Dairy Queen fast food employee, thinks that the good folks of Cactus Land Retirement Home out in Plainview, Texas, need some excitement like…a Circus! Judson strikes gold when he lures his own family into the ring. There’s his sister Bermuda Mumlard, who considers a tray of fried chicken, French fries, jelly beans, pumpkin pie, and Tootsie Rolls, a light snack. There’s his stepbrother Robert Mumlard, an anorexic gun fanatic who keeps wounding the neighbor’s poodle. There’s Uncle Timchuck, a 79-year-old hell-raiser who steals money from the collection plate to bring him luck at the cockfight. And lets not forget White Horse, a homeless Comanche warrior on a peyote-induced vision quest. But it’s the rattler under the trailer porch who just might be the Main Event.
A politically incorrect, western farce.

April 11 and 12 (Monday and Tuesday at 7 PM)
HOLIDAY
by Jon Busch
Directed by Jerry Bliss
For the past twenty years, local artist/eccentric, Dale Bernard and his wife, Marsha, have been decorating their yard for every major (and minor) holiday. Their elaborate designs have earned them minor celebrity status in suburban New Jersey. But this Thanksgiving, nothing seems to be going right. The teenage children are too consumed by football and angst to want to help out. Some uppity neighbors are complaining that the decorations look gaudy. And to top it all off, Lambowski's house down the street threatens to outshine the Bernards with a giant light-up turkey. Dale's stable world of suburban stardom is crashing down around him, and he's got to find some way to cope in this family comedy/patriotic tragedy.

April 18 and 19 (Monday and Tuesday at 7 PM)
THE RED LION
by Brad Smith
Directed by Jerry Bliss
The Golfer's Arms, a pub in a small town in the Midlands, has been an integral part of community life for generations. But the times, they are a’changing, and change isn’t always a good thing. London franchises are creeping into the countryside, so when long-time owner Michael decides to retire and sell the bar, the locals go up in arms. John and his son George, perennial Easter bunny impersonator, want to save the bar before the hot-shot salesman from London buys their heritage. It doesn’t help that barmaid Claire is dating the salesman. A funny, serious look at what makes a family when a pint is more than a pint.

April 25 and 26 (Monday and Tuesday at 7 PM)
MATERNAL INSTINCTS
By Monica Bauer
Directed by Melissa Wentworth
Maternal Instincts, three-related one-acts, examines the comic and tragic ways mothers affect their children.
In Two Men Walked Into a Bar, two macho Marines from different eras battle it out over a murder mystery. In Hallmark Moment, Louise—a young Goth poetry-slam champion—applies for a job at the local Hallmark card shop and achieves poetic results. Finally Sarah and Lillian, two lesbians Sittin’ In a Tree, find out what happens when a newly-discovered mothering instinct conflicts with the past.

May 2 and 3 (Monday and Tuesday at 7 PM)
BOATING
by Donna Keegan
Directed by Melissa Wentworth
Four generations of women struggle to free themselves from a destructive family legacy. Matriarch Eleanor is desperate to free her daughters, Joanie and Carol, of the abusive ties to their dead father. Ill and dying herself, Eleanor refuses all help and demands that they sell the house and burn their father’s cherished boat. But the past is difficult to erase. As the years pass, the legacy takes its toll on both sisters and, eventually, on Carol’s daughter Sara Ann and even on her granddaughter Nora. All the women must discover their own ways to confront the past—to either break free of the boat and all it represents, or to drown in their own despair.
An intimate, family drama with important stakes.

May 9 and 10 (Monday and Tuesday at 7 PM)
HEAVY
by Jeremy Goldstein
Directed by Dan Winerman
When an old college flame's mother drops in uninvited one Friday night, Lawrence tries to take it all in stride. Of course Mom -- always the yenta -- still wants him in the family. The final blow is struck when his brother Michael crashes the party, and he's -- god forbid -- an artist! Will Lawrence manage to keep it all under control, or will this be the Shabbos from hell? A perfectly schizophrenic comedy.

All shows are free and open to the public. Donations are accepted at the door.
There are no advanced ticket sales for First Stages productions. Reservations are not required.
A talk-back with the playwrights will follow each reading
CALL OUR OFFICE AT 617-358-PLAY (7529) FOR MORE INFO.

About our Graduate Playwriting program