Boston Playwrights' Theatre Presents BOSTON THEATER MARATHON XXIV, May 1

Boston Playwrights' Theatre announces the in-person return of its annual celebration of new short plays. Boston Theater Marathon XXIV will feature 50 ten-minute plays written by New England playwrights and presented by New England theatre companies. The event will take place in BPT's home theatre on Boston University's West Campus.

"We're back in more ways than one!" Artistic Director of the Boston Theater Marathon Kate Snodgrass says. "Not only will we be sitting together in one room again, but we'll be back in our old haunt. We'll be watching and streaming the entire event from our own theatre space at BPT."

Boston Theater Marathon XXIV not only marks the return to live, in-person performance for the event; BTM XXIV will be the first BTM performed in Boston Playwrights' Theatre's home on Commonwealth Avenue since 2004.

As always, net proceeds from the event go to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund (TCBF), which provides financial relief to Boston-area theatre artists in need. BTM's Zoom editions in 2020 and 2021 helped raise more than $70k for the charity.

In 2020 and 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event was held as a daily event over seven weeks via the videoconferencing tool Zoom. In the 15 years prior, the BTM called the Huntington Theatre Company's Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts home.

"After the quarantine, it seemed only natural that we start again at ground zero," Snodgrass says. "We're asking for more volunteers from the theatre community to support our wonderful charity. Plus, we learned from our two Zoom years that there are families and friends who want to see their loved ones perform. We hope that our online streaming will allow for this. All those folks in California and beyond can experience the Marathon from afar!"

As a coronavirus precaution, this year's ten-hour event will be divided into five blocks, each featuring ten plays and running approximately one hour and forty minutes (or 100 minutes). The 20-minute breaks between blocks will allow fresh air to circulate through the theatre. The event will also be viewable entirely from home, as a livestreamed event, on a computer or other device. Full event details and tickets are available on the BPT website, www.BostonPlaywrights.org.

Needham-based Arlekin Players Theatre, an artist­-driven company comprised of immigrant actors from the former Soviet Union, will join the BTM for the first time at the event's close with a ten-minute tribute to the Ukrainian artists who are still making art even during the horrific bombardment of their country.

For more than two decades, the Boston Theater Marathon (BTM) has brought together playwrights, directors and theatres in an effort to foster collaboration between artists and producers. The BTM began in 1999 and was the first substantial contributor to TCBF.

In 2000, the BTM received a special Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for "Enlivening Local Theatre."

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BOSTON THEATER MARATHON XXIV

Visit www.BostonPlaywrights.org for updates, links, and more.

Allie by Grant MacDermott/Flat Earth Theatre

And Then There's Aaron Burr by Ken Green/Hub Theatre Company of Boston

Ankita & Chandni by Fatima Maan/Boston Playwrights' Theatre

A Place for Us by Leila Teitelman/The Lyric Stage Company of Boston

A Quantum Carol by Patrick Gabridge/Post-meridian Radio Players

Ars Moriendi by Jessica Durdock Moreno/Apollinaire Theatre Company

A Song of Morning by Hortense Gerardo/Asian American Playwright Collective

Buffering by Scott Malia/Northeastern University Department of Theatre

Clean Brush Sweep Dust by Gary Garrison/Forge Theatre Co.

Concede or Die by Jack Neary/Actors' Studio of Newburyport

Confessions by Christina R Chan/Open Theatre Project

Drop the Mask by Bill Lattanzi/Liars & Believers

Escape From Faux Pas by Cynthia Faith Arsenault/Moonbox Productions

Falling Through the Air by Monica Jimenez/Actors' Shakespeare Project

From the Rooftops of Tunguska by Sophia Sloan/Fresh Ink Theatre

Ghosting by Joe Antoun /Front Porch Arts Collective

Golp by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro/Theatre on Fire

Graveyard Shift by Amy Bennett-Zendzian/Entropy Theatre

Here She Comes Now by William Orem/Centastage

Karen by Kirsten Greenidge/Company One

In Thunderbird Veritas by Cliff Odle/Umbrella Performing Arts

Leader of the Band by Dave McCaleb/The Pilgrim Theatre

Legacy by Daysha Veronica/Our Place Theatre Project

Lemon Tart by Amy Adler/SpeakEasy Stage Company

Leslie and Milton by Steven Bogart/Central Square Theater

Lois Returns by John Minigan/Fort Point Theatre Channel

Man's Best Friend by Tim Lehnert/The Wilbury Theatre Group

North Star by Kyla Schultz/Wheelock Family Theatre

Not Exactly Dope by Terrence Kidd/Martha's Vineyard Playhouse

Old Acquaintance by Alan Brody/Underground Railway Theater

Playing Chopsticks by Michael Lin/The Lilac Players

Poise by Andrea Aptecker/Marblehead Little Theatre

Precious Stuff by Maia Cataldo/Playwrights' Platform

Rewilding by Sam Noble/American Repertory Theater

Satan at Walmart (a Love Story) by James McLindon/Imaginary Beasts

Small Steps by Jeanne Beckwith/Cape Cod Theatre Company

Speechless by Cassie M. Seinuk/Firehouse Center for the Arts

Stale Mate by Eric Henry Sanders/Cohasset Dramatic Club

Text Me When You Get There by Abby Kaye/Suffolk University Theatre

The Kids From the Lake by Deirdre Girard/Boston College Theatre

The New Game by Ernest Lorentsov/Teatro Chelsea

The Next Thing I Know by Janet Kenney/Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre

The Pros and Cons of Implosion by R. D. Murphy/Theatre@First

The Shave by Catherine M. O'Neill/Gloucester Stage Company

There Goes the Neighborhood by Fabiola R. Decius/Artists' Theater of Boston and

Brandeis University Department of Theatre Arts

Things You Should Know by Andrew Siañez-De La O/Huntington Theatre Company

To Find the Words by David Valdes/Boston Conservatory at Berklee

Two Sides of the Same Coin by Michelle M. Aguillon/Hovey Players

Virginia Slim and Ten Minutes to Go by Kevin Cirone/Titanic Theatre Company

Weathered by Andrea Fleck Clardy/Sleeping Weazel

The Boston Theater Marathon (BTM) is an award-winning all-day marathon of new ten-minute plays. The plays are chosen from close to 400 entries from New England playwrights, and the selected plays are produced by New England theatre companies that donate their time to this event. Generously supported over the years by the Boston University Center for the Humanities and by individual donations, the BTM gives net proceeds to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, an organization helping area theatre artists and companies in crisis.

In 2000, the BTM received a special Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for "Enlivening Local Theatre."

The Theatre Community Benevolent Fund (TCBF) is a non-profit theatre community organization administered by StageSource for the benefit of its individual and organizational members and the theatre artists who are or have been employed by those organizations who face dire need and require financial assistance. TCBF provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner to individual and organizations facing extreme illness, catastrophic acts of nature, and other events such as vandalism/theft, and who have limited or no resources with which to handle such occurrences.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre is an award-winning professional theatre at Boston University (BU) dedicated to new works. Founded in 1981 by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, the heart of BPT's mission is the production of new plays by students and alumni of BU's M.F.A. Playwriting Program-a collaboration with BU's renowned School of Theatre. The program's award-winning alumni have been produced in regional and New York houses, as well as in London's West End. BPT's productions have been honored with numerous regional and Boston awards, including awards from the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) and Boston Critics' Association (Elliot Norton Awards).

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