2014 Breaking Ground Festival of New Plays
Breaking Ground is the Huntington Theatre Company's festival of new work, a vital part of our new play development program. The festival highlights the work of local playwrights and presents national writers in partnership with the Huntington. Over the last seven years, Breaking Ground plays have gone on to appear at the Huntington as well as theatres in Boston, across the country, and internationally.
The four-day festival included:
- Merit by HPF Lenelle Moïse, directed by Robert O'Hara
Thursday, January 30 at 7:30pm; South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
- Home of the Brave by HPF Lila Rose Kaplan, directed by Sean Daniels
Friday, January 31 at 7:30pm; South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
- Tania in the Getaway Van by Susan Bernfield, directed by Portia Krieger
Saturday, February 1 at 2pm; South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
- The Second Girl by HPF Ronan Noone, directed by Campbell Scott
Saturday, February 1 at 7:30pm; South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
- Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield, directed by Daniel Goldstein
Sunday, February 2 at 7:30pm; South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Plays & Playwrights
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Directed by Robert O'Hara
Thursday, January 30
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Winner of the 2012 Ruby Prize, Merit follows Mona, a precocious and passionate fiction writer who is the only student of color (and Southerner) at her prestigious graduate program in contemporary Vermont. When she befriends distinguished professor Doctor Sive—a demanding divorcee with fatigued sex appeal—the two are called to strike a balance between curiosity and propriety, power and love, desire and professionalism.
Featuring James Boland, Breean Julian*, Lonnie Farmer, Joy Jones*, Crystal Fox*, and Charles Weldon*.
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Directed by Sean Daniels
Friday, January 31
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
As she begins her Presidential campaign, Evelyn is depending on her family to come across as wholesome. But when her campaign manager visits at Christmas, her family can’t quite fit into the all-American mold. Inspired by Moliere’s Tartuffe, Lila Rose Kaplan’s new comedy reveals what happens when the slick lies of politics collide with the messy truth of family.
Featuring Erin Brehm, John Gregorio*, Nick Sulfaro*, Paula Plum*, Joel Van Liew*, and Jessica Worthan-Newman*.
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Directed by Sean Daniels
Directed by Portia Krieger
Saturday, February 1 at 2pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Fall 1975: 11-year-old Laura is in the hall closet, pretending to be Patty Hearst. Diane, her mom, heads back to school, gonna get a job, gonna make Laura her companion in liberation, openness, possibility! If, by quirk of history, Laura is supposed to come of age at the same time as her mom...well, she's not gonna play, no way. Flash forward to today: is Laura a model product of the women’s movement, or just of Diane’s expectations?
Featuring Therese Plaehn*, Erica Spyres*, Colleen Werthmann*, and Stephanie Wright-Thompson*.
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Directed by Campbell Scott
Saturday, February 1 at 7:30pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
With Eugene O’Neill’s classic Long Day's Journey Into Night as a backdrop, The Second Girl takes us into the kitchen of the Tyrone family in August 1912. In the interplay between the immigrant Irish servant girls, Bridget and Cathleen, and the chauffeur, Jack Smythe, playwright Ronan Noone evokes the love and despair of the big house while exploring the tragedy and triumph of sacrificing one home for another.
Featuring Liam Craig*, Kathleen McEfresh*, and MacKenzie Meehan*.
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Directed by Daniel Goldstein
Sunday, February 2 at 7:30pm
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
A kaleidoscopic love story, Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life collides an ever-shifting present with fragments of the past. Erika and Vicky are hurled through 25 years of love and heartbreak in a collection of the moments that make up a life.
Featuring Laura Heisler* and Sue Jean Kim*.
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