Boston New Works Festival VIRTUAL PROGRAM
For Immediate Release Media Contact Regina Norfolk
RNCommunications, LLC
508-494-6630
reginanorfolk@comcast.net
Moonbox Productions Announces Its First Ever Boston New Works Festival!!!
Moonbox will host the Boston New Works Festival June 23 – 26 th on five different stages at the Calderwood Pavilion and the Boston Center for the Arts.
BOSTON, MA – Moonbox Productions is thrilled to announce its first ever Boston New Works Festival taking place June 23rd – June 26th at the Calderwood Pavilion and the Boston Center for the Arts. The Boston New Works Festival will be a weekend long festival celebrating new original plays by local playwrights. The plays will take place on five different stages at the Calderwood Pavilion and the Boston Center for the Arts on Thursday, June 23 rd 7:30 – 9:30, Friday, June 24 th 7pm – 10pm, Saturday, June 25 th 4pm – 10pm, and Sunday, June 26 th 3pm – 9pm. Tickets are $25 for an individual show, $50 for a Day Pass (available Fri, Sat, or Sun) and $125 for a Festival Pass (Thurs – Sun) and are available at bostontheatrescene.com or by calling 617-933-8600. Pay what
you wish tickets are available at the box office. For a complete list of show dates and times go to
moonboxproductions.org.
During the pandemic shut down, Moonbox productions pivoted from normal operations to launch this new initiative dedicated to cultivating new works by local artists. A request for proposals was sent out in the fall of 2020 and over sixty-five submissions from local playwrights were received. From those sixty-five proposals, a diverse panel of judges chose seven original theatrical pieces. Throughout the past year, the selected submissions have gone through an extensive workshop process that will culminate in the stage productions taking place this June.
“Seven original plays, performed on 5 different stages over the course of four days, a can’t believe it’s actually happening,” said Producer Sharman Altshuler. “New works have been on Moonbox’s short list forever, but it wasn’t until COVID – with all of its undeniably disastrous ramifications – that we suddenly found ourselves with the time and space to finally dive in. We have always sought to staff and cast our shows exclusively from the local Boston community, and to be able to extend that commitment now to the support and showcasing of local playwrights and theater-creators is deeply exciting and gratifying! The Boston area is teeming with creative talent, and an annual Festival will create a fun, accessible, welcoming, and exciting event that all communities in
the greater Boston area and beyond can participate in and enjoy together,” said Altshuler.
Selected playwrights and plays for the 2022 Boston New Works Festival include:
Surrey Houlker – For the Fish – Directed by Shira Gitlin
The Plaza Black Box Theatre
Friday, June 24 th – 8pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 8pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 3pm
‘for the fish’ sets out to explore the experience of growing up alienated and queer in the countryside. How can we find (and keep) safety as queer people? What even is ‘safety’? Do fish have feelings? Somewhere deep in rural Massachusetts in the 70s, 13-year-old Susanna goes fishing with her Uncle whenever she gets bored. Or overwhelmed. Or terrified. Susanna’s big heart and quick temper keep her precariously perched between normalcy and disaster. Her Uncle, grappling with their addiction and Susanna’s math homework, finds themselves caught up in this wave of teenage turmoil. As 1974 comes to a close, Susanna and her Uncle draw closer, bonded by an understanding very few in their town will ever hold.
Kathleen Cahill & Michael Wartofsky – Late, A New Musical – Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary
Roberts Studio Theatre
Thursday, June 23 rd – 7:30pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 4pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 7pm
Two weeks after a school shooting, nine teenagers return to class. In a theatrical style reminiscent of Our Town, they try to piece together the fragments of their last ordinary day together. With a contemporary sound inspired by musicals like Dear Evan Hansen and Spring Awakening, Late explores the students’ interconnected stories as they wrestle with identity, social pressure, love, grief, and memory.
Kai Clifton – Queens – Directed by Kai Clifton
The Plaza Theatre
Friday, June 24 th – 8pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 4pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 5:30pm
Queens is a play about four queer black men living in New York City. Through storytelling that combines poetry, rhythm, and song, we follow Sky, Bobbi, Alex, and Adrienne as they discover all the juiciness adulthood has to offer from careers to friendship, love, and sex. Amid it all, they fight for their masculinity, confronting societal pressures without apology.
Catherine Giorgetti – Rocky Relationships – Directed by Katie A. Clark
Deane Hall
Thursday, June 23 rd – 7:30pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 6:30pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 5pm
Rocky Relationships is a movement play about relationships. As tides shift and waves crash, they push and shove the rocks on the beach into new and unexpected places. As we descend to see life through the rocks’ ever- shifting perspective, we gain a new insight into the ways in which we, too, drift in and out of each other’s lives.
Gabby Simone Preston – Silt – Directed by Gabby Simone Preston
Deane Hall
Friday, June 24 th – 7pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 5pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 7pm
Silt is a play about an impossible conversation about unconscious racial violence and how it changes relationships. In an imagined world without accountability, both author and audience confront reality together. Will they – and will the characters – choose acknowledgement or ignorance? Silt offers a challenging and cathartic experience of racial conflict that is at once poetic and disturbing.
David Coleman – Sister School – Directed by Maura Tighe
Roberts Studio Theatre
Friday, June 24 th – 8pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 8pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 3pm
Sister School is a musical that explores the world of an all-girls high school whose time may just be up and the girls who will sing their way into the hearts of all who have ever asked the question, “is this the place for me?” “I hate this school!” echoes through the halls of the Victoria School for Girls, one of the oldest single-gender institutions in America. Can a new student, a returning alum, and the head of school change the narrative to show us that single-gender schools are relevant? And will they be open to recognizing other genders?
Rebecca Wright & Kelvyn Koning – The Prince and the Painter – Directed by Rudy Ramirez
Martin Hall
Friday, June 24 th – 7pm
Saturday, June 25 th – 8pm
Sunday, June 26 th – 3pm
In this new fantasy musical, the Hero’s Journey meets the brilliance and queerness of the Jazz Age. After its magic disappears, the country of Fidan is crumbling. Ylber Sassoun, a rebellious young artist, unwittingly holds the key to its survival – but he’s busy trying to outrun his own terrible secret. As he struggles, he befriends a movie starlet, her fiancée, and a strange, serious boy. Will Ylber and his friends be able to untangle the mystery of the vanished magic before their country – and perhaps reality itself – collapse around them?
For more information about the Boston New Works Festival, go to www.moonboxproductions.org
Moonbox Productions was founded in 2011 by Producer/Artistic Director Sharman Altshuler. Based in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Moonbox is dedicated to supporting local arts and local artists, and to connecting communities to the non-profit organizations that serve them. To fulfill their artistic mission, Moonbox taps the deep well of talent within their
own communities to bring top quality theatrical experiences to stages throughout the Greater Boston area. To fulfill their social mission, they partner with a local non-profit organization for each show, giving them visibility on their website and in their promotional materials, as well as giving them access to their audiences in order to raise awareness of their cause, create connections within the community, and increase the reach and impact of their work. Moonbox has also established a youth mentorship program (“Shadowbox”) and is currently launching a new company initiative (“Turning the Tide”) to increase representation and opportunities in theater for Deaf and Disabled artists. To learn more, visit www.moonbox.org.