Playwrights & Plays Revealed For 4th Annual BOSTON NEW WORKS FESTIVAL

Moonbox Productions has selected seven original plays by local playwrights for its 4th Annual Boston New Works Festival.  Moonbox will host the 2025 Boston New Works Festival June 26th – 29th at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Once again, Moonbox's request for submissions garnered a broad assortment of musicals and plays from very talented playwrights in the Boston area.  From the over 50 submissions, Moonbox's diverse panel of judges chose seven original theatrical pieces for this year's festival.  This year's festival includes three mainstage plays and four readings.  In the coming months, the playwrights will be part of an extensive workshop process that will culminate in staged productions/readings at the festival in June. 

In addition to the plays, there will be interactive dance performances throughout the weekend and an art installation featuring local artists from Boston and the surrounding areas.

“Helping support the creation of brand new works by local artists is really where the rubber meets the road in live theater,” said Producer Sharman Altshuler. “We are thrilled to be back this year with a new batch of fantastic new plays by Boston area playwrights and musicians, and excited to share them with our audiences – a great opportunity to create community and remind us all of the vast wealth of talent we have right here in Boston,” said Altshuler.

Selected playwrights and plays for the 4th Annual Boston New Works Festival include:

Main Stage Plays

 

Fangirl

Playwright – Luna Abréu-Santana

Director – Alexis Elisa Macedo

Jackie Gonzalez is obsessed with Star Thieves, a hit musical TV show about the trials and tribulations of band life. While considered a "loser" at school, Jackie is lovingly embraced by her online fandom community: the "Thieves." In an attempt to publicly humiliate Jackie, high school bully, Quinn, devises a catfishing scheme where she poses as “Willow,” a new stan on the block. As Quinn becomes emotionally invested in the fictional world of Star Thieves, Willow and Jackie's relationship progresses and they plan to meet at the fandom event of the year: Comic Con. What will happen when Jackie realizes that her online bestie is actually the bully from her everyday life?

 

Guts

Playwright – Rachel Greene

Director – Shalee Cole Mauleón

The hit reality weight-loss competition show GUTS is back with its BIGGEST! SEASON! EVER! There will be grueling challenges, verbal abuses, and – of course – the fan-favorite weekly weigh-ins. But behind the camera rivalries are forming, romances are blossoming, and friendships are being found in the most unlikely of places. Can these six contestants find self-love, communal healing, and liberation in a place designed to make them hate themselves and their bodies? Do they have the guts?

 

Mox Nox

Playwright – Patrick Gabridge

Director – Alexandra Smith

In a world of rising water, two sisters reunite at their family home. Mira, the caretaker sister, had to weather her mother's death alone, and holds every childhood slight so close that she is literally burning from the inside out. Sister Deedee has returned to bring her fiancé, Pike, to higher ground, even as her memory vanishes. A play of lyrical magic and visual surprise, with characters who desperately need love and dry land. 

Readings

Choose & Celebrate

Playwright – Catherine Giorgetti

Director – Devon Whitney

In 1973 Boston, Teresa grapples with the realities of gay life: how to support her best friends Eric and Christopher in their union ceremony, how to deal with a homophobic straight friend who doesn't understand her, and what to do when violence permeates her community. Inspired by stories from Gay Community News and the real queer people who lived in 1973 Boston.

Creature Feature

Playwright – Micah Pflaum

Director – Hazel J. Peters

Creature Feature is a deconstruction of John Milton's court masque "A Masque Performed at Ludlow Castle," (commonly known as "Comus.”).  The Shepherds of the Citadel warn their charges never to venture into the nearby woods. They tell the story of a sorcerer who dwells there, corrupting travelers into monsters. But for an acolyte hiding his own transformation, braving those woods could be his path to answers. He discovers a realm of wild magic and revelry, but when his faithful friends pursue him into apparent danger, he must confront his fear that he will bring disaster to all he loves.

Hitch

Playwright – James McLindon

Director – Donovan Holt

Lane, a 36-year-old white man, picks up a young biracial hitchhiker in upstate New York on a summer's morning. Dee is wary, thinking he's hoping for a casual hook-up, but she also desperately needs a ride; he says he stopped because she looks scared, an impression that is soon borne out. As they drive on, the lies they tell each other about who they are, where they've been and where they're going, slowly begin to unravel as they learn from each other about missing fathers and missing daughters and families. In the end, both realize they need to face their demons … and decide whether to turn back or keep going.

How to Kill a Goat

Playwright – Mireya Sánchez-Maes

Director – Daniela Luz Sánchez

“The best way to get to know New Mexico is through its music!” In How to Kill a Goat, Mariana takes the audience on a wild ride through her life as a bilingual Chicana in the borderlands. Packed with humor, music, and vivid characters, Mariana shares stories of slaughtering goats, fitting bras, falling in love, and facing loss. With each vignette, the play asks: Why do we tell stories? And how do we keep our culture alive? 

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