Welcome back to YEAR 3 of The Boston New Works Festival! The Festival is Boston’s stomping grounds for fully produced NEW WORKS by LOCAL Playwrights, performed by LOCAL Artists, celebrating LOCAL audiences. Come see a new show, or see them all! Years 1 & 2 featured over 12 WORLD PREMIERES. Join us this June campus-wide at the Boston Center for the Arts and the Calderwood Pavilion for Boston New Works Festival 2024!
Knock Down Drag Out (1.5 hours no intermission)
By Rick Park
When Boston’s only drag club is threatened with demolition, four queens band together and fight with everything they have to hold onto their chosen home while struggling with the question of what happens to the people on the fringe when the fringe no longer exists.
Developers want to tear down Antoine’s, Boston’s only drag bar, in order to build some high-rise condos. Zonna, who has been performing at the club for 2/3 of her life, has other ideas. After being visited by the ghost of her drag mother Crystal Crawford, Zonna bands together with her drag queen sisters Ivanka (the club’s 70 year old bartender and former chanteuse), Mx (a gender fluid college kid) and Sharia Law (a hardscrabble queen who has fought for everything she’s got) and stages a “drag in”, where they will live in the club to protest its demolition, while fending off their neighbor, Mrs. Chao (an 80 year old Chinese woman who is on a permanent neighborhood watch), as well as the gentrification of the neighborhood they all love.
Once Upon a Carnival (2 hrs 25 minutes 1 intermission)
By Angele Maraj & Brianna Pierre
ONCE UPON A CARNIVAL is a magical realism tale about grief, identity, and found family set in 1990s Trinidad and Tobago to a vibrant fusion of chutney, soca, calypso and musical theatre.
Once Upon a Carnival is an original musical set in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad & Tobago. When 16-year-old Bhavan is forced to move from New York City to his mother’s home country of Trinidad after his father’s death, he is faced with the task of overcoming grief and accepting his identity through a magical quest in the mythological bush land. Set to a vibrant score infused with chutney, soca and calypso sounds, Bhavan’s adventure will test his and the audience’s notions of grief, identity and found family while exploring the magical world of Trinidad at Carnival time.
Covenant (95 minutes no intermission)
By John Minigan
After federal agent Jordan’s mission to infiltrate an apocalyptic religious community ends in disaster, questions from an unseen interrogator force her to decide whether the beliefs guiding her mission are any less dangerous than the beliefs of those in the group.
How do we become entrenched in the beliefs we hold, and what – if anything – can get us to walk away when those beliefs lead to chaos and destruction? Jordan’s mission to infiltrate and report on an apocalyptic religious community has ended in disaster. Questions from an unseen interrogator trigger and inform Jordan’s memories of her time undercover, forcing her to confront the effects of the choices she’s made and decide whether the beliefs that guided her are any less destructive than the beliefs of those in the group.
Holy Chicken Sandwich (80 minutes no intermission)
By Kira Rockwell
During a grand opening campout in the parking lot of a beloved yet politically controversial chicken empire, the newly appointed, quietly queer, store manager, must find the source of anarchy before the flock devolves into utter chaos, revealing deeper themes of identity, consumerism, and division in Holy Chicken Sandwich, a new comedic whodunit of celestial proportions.
On the eve of a highly anticipated grand opening of a beloved yet politically controversial fast-food empire, one hundred fervent devotees gather in the parking lot for an overnight campout to earn a year of free large combos. As the night unfolds, it’s clear there’s a fox in the chicken coop. Jade, the newly appointed store manager, must find the source of anarchy before the flock devolves into utter chaos. HOLY CHICKEN SANDWICH is a comedic mystery of celestial proportions that explores themes of identity, consumerism, and division––a play that invites audiences to examine indoctrination and uncover what’s really in the secret sauce of devotion.
How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos (90 mins no intermission)
By Maggie Kearnan
In the near-future fairy tale How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos, mysterious journalist Cherry Beaumont interviews an increasingly vulnerable Jeffrey Bezos about the ethics of being a billionaire, and whether the masses gathering outside might deserve a bigger piece of the pie.
A throne of red Solo cups, a pile of teeth, the ghost of Pete Seeger, and a little something for dinner. It’s 2030, and it’s illegal to be a billionaire. Jeffrey Bezos has agreed to give an interview in exchange for information on the federal case against him. But there’s something off about journalist Cherry Beaumont, a crowd is forming outside, and the onstage Fact Checker has a few important clarifications to make. In this near-future fairy tale, the fall of capitalism is about to get very messy.
Fall With Me (120 minutes 1 intermission)
By Jared Eberlein
During the Great Depression, an African-American war hero must choose between providing for his family or returning to his former glory, to hold the U.S. Government accountable for debts unpaid to his fellow WWI veterans.
Baltimore -1932. Bithiah and J.J. Johnston are quietly surviving the Great Depression, while doing what they can for their neighbors. Fifty-miles south, in the nation’s capital, the world is about to explode. When J.J.’s fellow “doughboys” arrive, in search of someone to lead the fight against a government that’s left the veterans of The Great War and their families to perish, the smell of former glory intoxicates J.J and threatens to derail what little his family has. J.J. must decide what fight is truly his to win and what is worth the risk, should he lose.
Meet Me in the Bathroom (100 minutes no intermission)
By Cassie M. Seinuk
What happens when an “innocent” picture with your favorite teacher turns into the biggest scandal the school has ever seen? In the girls’ bathroom of a nondescript suburban high school, five teenagers are forced to reckon with their past as it begins to bleed into what they hope for their future. Narrated by a teenage Greek chorus, Meet Me in the Bathroom gets at the heart of what it means to be a teenager and watch everything you’ve known fall apart around you.
State of Maine (75 minutes no intermission)
By Tina Esper
Moe, Beckett and Jane are all about to face the same inevitable question: what is worth remembering when the past is too painful to hold on to?
After escaping a dangerous past in Minnesota, Jane finds herself in a small seaside town where she meets Beckett and Moe. Moe owns the Inn where Jane finds a room to rent and where Beckett, her partner also lives. But Beckett is experiencing the early stages of dementia and she and Moe are about to discover the cost of keeping a secret, even when it’s done with the best intentions. Moe, Beckett and Jane are all about to face the same inevitable question: what is worth remembering when the past is too painful to hold on to? State of Maine wrestles with the truth, challenges and beauty of letting go and starting over.
Daily Schedule
