Baltimore Playwrights Festival Opens with SHANA UNSETTLED, 6/22

The Baltimore Playwrights Festival (www.baltplayfest.org) kicks off its Thirty-First Season with the June 22nd opening of Shana Unsettled, by Ronda Cooperstein, at Fells Point Corner Theater (www.fpct.org), 251 South Ann Street, Baltimore, MD 21231, 410-276-7837. Directed by Janel Miley and Jim Knipple, Shana Unsettled runs through July 15th, with performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. There will be two Thursday performances on June 28th and July12th at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased on-line at www.fpct.org, or at the door.

After years of life on holy land frontiers, Shana Uzali finds it impossible to protect herself from intrusive facts that call her faith into question. Shana wakes and sleeps and engages with both the living and the dead in order to sort out the confusion she experiences when facing the the truth about her husband’s excessive violence. Tribalism and religious fundamentalism are at the root of Shana’s struggle. Shana Unsettled asks the question: "Has the path that she has chosen led to a dead end?"

Ronda Cooperstein is a librarian, human and animal rights activist, and storyteller who has had several plays produced over the years. She lives in Baltimore with her family and works part-time as a prison librarian and as a substitute teacher/librarian in Baltimore County schools.

The Baltimore Playwrights Festival has presented 273 scripts by 165 playwrights, produced by 25 different companies, over the past 30 Years. Our mission is to provide an environment that nurtures the talents of Maryland and DC playwrights through public readings, discussions, critiques and workshopping of new plays. Our summer season is devoted to the presentation of these newly developed works in cooperation with local area theaters. Further information can be found at www.baltplayfest.org.