The program will include: SOMETHING IS FAR AWAY
Theater Breaking Through Barriers today announced the 5th Virtual Playmakers' Intensive: TIME CAPSULE, fourteen short new plays, Monday May 31st through Sunday June 13th, on YouTube nightly at 7:30pm or Facebook at 8:30pm, FREE via ZOOM. For performance schedule, visit tbtb.org.
Disability intersects with all populations in our world: Every age, race, gender and sexual orientation. TBTB strives to create a common ground for all voices and serve as an ambassador in the quest for full, systemic equality in our world. The fourteen original plays constituting the 5th Virtual Playmakers' Intensive represent a diverse chorus within American culture. Created for and rehearsed entirely on the Zoom platform, TBTB's VPI5 will stream live performances of these new short works directly to you, wherever you may be!
TBTB's VPI5 will stream live performances of these new short works directly, one each evening. There are two ways to live stream - on YouTube nightly at 7:30pm (with live captioning, available only on YouTube) and on Facebook at 8:30pm.
The program will include:
by Enrique Huili, directed by Eric Nightengale
with Shravan Amin, Richard M. Rose, Jamie Petrone
Three people encounter their desires of want. But struggle in, what seems like a fever dream, what we call life.
by Kathryn Grant, directed by Kristin Heckler
with Ben Rauch, David Harrell, John Little
Three volunteer firefighters bond over their love for romantic movies and their shared thirst for a more expressive life.
by Estrella Tamez, directed by Stuart Green
with Shashi Bangera, Carlos Guillermo, Courage Bacchus, Ah Dream Smith
On the twenty-year anniversary of their time capsule burial, three life-long friends reunite to share with each other the mementos they entombed as teen-agers. As they stroll down memory lane, the trio are unprepared for the information about to be discovered in the big reveal.
by Rebecca Quinn Robertson, Directed by Stephen Drabicki
with Gaia Visnar, Carey Cox, Ann Flanigan
Three old friends meet for a Zoom reunion, which quickly evolves from a nostalgic tête a tête to an excavation of the surreal events of their shared past as teenagers at theater camp. What is raised in this reunion-ritual runs the gamut from the fevered passions of early sisterhood, the landmines littering girlhood, and the transformative power provoked whenever a furious heart communes with the divine Feminine
by Pamela Sabaugh, directed by Richard M. Rose
with Nick Walther, Sean Phillips, Jack Sims
Three undercover agents on the cusp of a high steaks mission encounter a mysterious presence online. Is it friend or foe?
by Monèt Marshall, directed by Ben Rauch
with Robin Marshall, Pamela Sabaugh, Carlos Guillermo
Some things just take time. But in a simulated world where time is an illusion, one man takes all the time he needs to ensure that one sensitive conversation goes just right.
by Jerrod Bogard, directed by Tamar Kummel
with George Ashiotis, Stuart Green, Kaisa Penney
A precocious tween runs the show at her latest parent-teacher conference.
by Fareeda Ahmed, directed by Ashley Wren Collins
with Scott Barton, Kalilah Black, Samantha Debicki, Jennifer Bradley
An amateur medium holds a seance-gone-wrong for her best friend's recently departed parents. The messages from beyond have an eerie urgency that upends their friendship.
by Cate Allen, directed by Maria Mileaf
with Fred Backus, Alyssa H. Chase, Keith Murfee-Deconcini, Jon Paul Niang
What if the billionaire class built a world that their children refused to take? A young man receives harsh pushback when he tries to reject the shady legacy of his family's business.
by Juan Carlos Diaz, directed by Kalilah Black
with Helen Coxe, Martin Lewis, Dan Teachout, Xen Theo
Is it still a dog eat dog world out there...
by Chris Chan Roberson, directed by Fred Backus
with Aya Ibaraki, Patrick J. O'Hare, Davene Stern, Estrella Tamez
The context of a story is King, especially when rabbits are involved.
by Jeff Tabnick, directed by Ah Dream Smith
with Fareeda Ahmed, Melissa Jennifer Gonzalez, Lori Brown Niang, Heba Toulan, Alyssa Chase
When her dog dies, Leila takes refuge under her favorite blanket and discovers that it leads to an infinite blanket-underworld. There she finds her true love, Pauline. But Pauline must return to the real world to deal with urgent business. Will Leila find the courage to confront the real world as well?
by Anita Hollander, directed by David Adam Gill
with Enrique Huili, Bree Klauser, Rebecca Quinn Roberston, Ah Dream Smith
Three women waiting for a Zoom guitar lesson get more than they signed up for.
by Caroline Aaron, directed by Anita Hollander
With Richard Lear, Alyssa Chase
As colleagues in an advertising agency get ready to return to work in person, their beloved dogs slip onto their zoom screens to mourn the fact that their "people" will not be home all day every day anymore.
"As we begin to come out from behind our masks over these next months and once again resume public activities, it's so important that we take stock in all we've experienced over the past 14 months: Where we've been, what was lost and what was learned" said TBTB's Artistic Director, Nicholas Viselli. "While the events of this COVID year have affected all of us in ways, which still cannot be fully comprehended, we are so grateful to have this new virtual resource to connect, create and share our observations with our audience. Throughout this past year, TBTB has presented five Virtual Playmakers' Intensives, creating 57 original short plays and employing over 250 artists. If you were to watch each Intensive in the order it was presented, you can see a very clear progression of what our artists were experiencing as the year unfolded. While each individual work in our VPI series can stand squarely on its own merit, our five Virtual Intensives, as a collective, serves as a Time Capsule that reveals a month-by-month account of what our lives were like under this unprecedented and consequential period in our history. The work also points the way to where we are headed and how we will continue to utilize this virtual medium to expand our reach across the globe. We hope you will join us for this very special installment of our Virtual Intensive series. We promise to deliver 14 evenings of thoroughly enjoyable, thought-provoking entertainment, which you will not forget."
To learn more about TBTB, check out "Meet the Theatre: Theater Breaking Through Barriers" from Theater Development Fund. The video is available at https://vimeo.com/338880820.
You can find the previous Virtual Playmakers' Intensives on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheaterBreakingThroughBarriers/ or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/TBTBtheater.
For more information about any of Theater Breaking Through Barriers' productions and upcoming programs, visit tbtb.org.
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