Boston Playwrights' Theatre Announces A Different Kind Of (Virtual) Season For 2020-2021

Boston Playwrights' Theatre today announces a series of conversations about new plays, BPT Talks, to be held this fall via the videoconferencing tool Zoom.

BPT's 39th season-which was to have included full productions of five new plays written by Boston University's Playwriting Program class of 2021-has been postponed until 2021-2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. BPT is the professional producing arm of BU's M.F.A. Playwriting Program, and its programming alternates year-to-year between productions of alumni plays and thesis plays by its third-year playwrights.

"Normally we'd be inviting you to join us in our five-play season to view all the wonderful work our playwrights have accomplished over the last two years. But safety is paramount, so we're taking this extra time to explore the plays at a more leisurely pace. Our writers will have the chance to experiment and revise during the next two months, and I'm sure they'll encounter a wealth of new ideas to clarify these very distinct worlds," BPT Artistic Director Kate Snodgrass says. "On the one hand, we're all disappointed to not see you in person; but on the other hand, I hope you'll join us on Zoom to discover even more about the whys and wherefores of the decisions we make. What exactly is a 'playwriting workshop?' Meet the playwrights in person, and let us whet your appetite for next year's season!"

The BPT Talks line-up includes LORENA: a Tabloid Epic by Eliana Pipes, directed by Erica Terpening-Romeo; RX Machina by Caity-Shea Violette, directed by Blair Cadden; Beasts by Cayenne Douglass, directed by Kelly Galvin with assistant director Kolton Bradley; Gone Nowhere by Daniel C. Blanda, directed by Noah Putterman; and Very Good Boys, and Other Myths by Ally Sass, directed by Erica Terpening-Romeo. The plays are being workshopped this school year in collaboration with BU's College of Fine Arts School of Theatre and are directed by students in the M.F.A. Directing Program.

Beginning Oct. 20, BPT Talks will convene each Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. (with the exception of Election Day, Nov. 3) until Nov. 24. Zoom audiences will be treated to conversations with each play's workshop team-a look "behind the curtain" at new plays in various stages of the development process. It is expected that each installment of the BPT Talks series will be unique, with some including short excerpts of the play being discussed. Each conversation will include the virtual audience as well, with a moderated Q&A.

The annual Boston Theater Marathon-50 ten-minute plays written by 50 New England playwrights, produced by 50 area theatre companies-will be held on Zoom for a second time. A fundraiser for Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, last year's Boston Theater Marathon XXII: Special Zoom Edition helped raise more than $56K for the charity over a period of almost seven weeks.

In response to calls from the theatre community regarding greater representation, Boston Theater Marathon XXIII will highlight the voices of the many talented BIPOC theatre artists in New England. Production dates and additional details will be available at a later date.

SEASON 2020/2021 AT A GLANCE:

BPT Talks: LORENA: a Tabloid Epic by Eliana Pipes

A conversation with the playwright and director Erica Terpening-Romeo

Tuesday, October 20

7:30 p.m.

What the playwright says about her play-in-progress:

LORENA: a Tabloid Epic spins out of the media hailstorm surrounding Lorena Bobbitt, who became a sensation after she used a kitchen knife to cut off her abusive husband's penis in 1993. The tacky dystopia of American pop culture tumbles onto the stage in a series of funhouse vignettes that know no bounds, while The Playwright desperately tries to protect Lorena from the play which has clearly gotten out of her control. Then, a twist ending re-contextualizes Lorena's outsized epic through the lens of a quieter sexual assault story that's all too common. LORENA merges the personal with the political to reckon with our cultural sins, and bring Lorena's story into the present day.

Where:

From wherever you are, via the videoconferencing tool Zoom. Audiences will need to download the free Zoom app to participate, and it is recommended they call in a few minutes before "curtain" time.

Full schedule and Zoom links available on the Boston Playwrights' Theatre website:

http://www.BostonPlaywrights.org

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BPT Talks: RX Machina by Caity-Shea Violette

A conversation with the playwright and director Blair Cadden

Tuesday, October 27

7:30 p.m.

What the playwright says about her play-in-progress:

Rx Machina unpacks big pharma's impact on everyday American culture and illuminates the search for humanity in a healthcare system that views patients as consumers and pain as profitable. An ambitious pharmaceutical sales representative's relentless pursuit of a rigidly principled pain management doctor leads to an intoxicating, forbidden relationship that comes with a cost. Ethical boundaries are blurred in a literal manifestation of doctors being in bed with drug reps that forms a love triangle fueled by money, sex, and power. Set in 2015, two years before the federal government would officially recognize it as the Opioid Epidemic, Rx Machina explores who gets to get better and who gets left behind.

Where:

From wherever you are, via the videoconferencing tool Zoom. Audiences will need to download the free Zoom app to participate, and it is recommended they call in a few minutes before "curtain" time.

Full schedule and Zoom links available on the Boston Playwrights' Theatre website:

http://www.BostonPlaywrights.org

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BPT Talks: Beasts by Cayenne Douglass

A conversation with the playwright and director Kelly Galvin and assistant director Kolton Bradley

Tuesday, November 10

7:30 p.m.

What the playwright says about her play-in-progress:

BEASTS is a character-driven play that explores the chaos of American womanhood through the dark underbelly of a relationship between Fran, a pregnant suburbanite, and her older sister Judy, an irreverent artist with a propensity for disruption. When Judy hears that Fran's husband Jim is on a business trip, she decides to pay Fran a visit. The friction between these siblings is palpable and only continues to intensify as Judy unearths confounding secrets and infringes upon the relationship that Fran has with her Doula Amelia, an elitist earth mama who's been Fran's only female friend since relocating back East. As their environment starts to mirror the anarchy of their psychological labyrinthine world, form and logic disintegrate into another realm as Fran and Judy unwittingly fight through pain to arrive at a crystallizing moment of realization.

Where:

From wherever you are, via the videoconferencing tool Zoom. Audiences will need to download the free Zoom app to participate, and it is recommended they call in a few minutes before "curtain" time.

Full schedule and Zoom links available on the Boston Playwrights' Theatre website:

http://www.BostonPlaywrights.org

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BPT Talks: Gone Nowhere by Daniel C. Blanda

A conversation with the playwright and director Noah Putterman

Tuesday, November 17

7:30 p.m.

What the playwright says about his play-in-progress:

At an old cabin in rural Minnesota, something is lurking in the corn. In the wake of his father's death, straight-laced Riley has left his fiancé and the big city behind to search for peace by visiting his old friend. Luckily Hunter knows the cure for grief - old stories, the great outdoors, and plenty of beers. But soon, it becomes clear that Hunter is running from his own demons, and no one will be spared a battle. They spiral through a reckoning of biblical proportions, and neither of them will emerge as the same man...if they make it out at all.

Where:

From wherever you are, via the videoconferencing tool Zoom. Audiences will need to download the free Zoom app to participate, and it is recommended they call in a few minutes before "curtain" time.

Full schedule and Zoom links available on the Boston Playwrights' Theatre website:

http://www.BostonPlaywrights.org

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BPT Talks: Very Good Boys, and Other Myths by Ally Sass

A conversation with the playwright and director Erica Terpening-Romeo

Tuesday, November 24

7:30 p.m.

What the playwright says about her play-in-progress:

After bullying forces 15-year-old Avery Roberts to leave his high school, he finds solace in the sublime glow of YouTube videos, Reddit pages, and the epic battlegrounds of World of Warcraft. It is in this digital landscape that he discovers a group of men who call themselves "incels" or "involuntary celibates," monikers based on the real-life community of the same name. In an attempt to understand her son's new affinity for this group, Avery's mother Elaine, an esteemed professor of mythology, makes her own account on World of Warcraft in order to see what Avery's up to. Upon stepping foot inside the game, Elaine is surprised to experience an intoxicating new reality that sparks something strange and exciting inside of her. A compulsion to play is unearthed in Elaine, and it isn't long until Avery notices some unsettling new changes in his mother.

Very Good Boys, and Other Myths takes us on a mythical journey deep into the underworld of a mother and her son. It is in this realm we learn what happens when two desperate, familial souls face their monsters.

From wherever you are, via the videoconferencing tool Zoom. Audiences will need to download the free Zoom app to participate, and it is recommended they call in a few minutes before "curtain" time. Full schedule and Zoom links available on the Boston Playwrights' Theatre website: http://www.BostonPlaywrights.org

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