2016 BREAKING GROUND FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK
ALONE ABOVE A RAGING SEA
by Christopher Oscar Peña
Directed by Daniel Goldstein
Public reading: Thursday, December 1 at 7:30pm
Location: Deane Hall, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
For a family who only sees one another on holidays and special occasions, Christmas promises a comforting togetherness. When Andy misses his flight, however, he is left to pursue a connection with a total stranger, while his sister Alex must face their parents alone. A contemplative look at the nature of intimacy, alone above a raging sea contrasts the secrets of a family with the surprising honesty of a one night tryst.
ANNA K.
by Deborah Salem Smith
Directed by Stella Powell-Jones
Public Reading: Friday, December 2 at 8pm
Location: Deane Hall, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Anna Karenina is dead, and Dolly and Kitty want to know why. But as they call up flashes of Anna’s beauty and grace, they are drawn toward new revelations of betrayal. How will they live with the secrets they kept, even from each other? Inspired by the three central women of Tolstoy’s novel, this drama gives a contemporary twist to the women’s lives as they interrogate their infatuations, their epic love affairs, and most of all their mesmerizing friendship.
FOUR WALL PRISM: AN EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION OF HISTORICAL EVENTS
by Thom Dunn
Directed by Morgan Gould
Public reading: Saturday, December 3 at 8pm
Location: Deane Hall, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Marcus’ plan to dash away from his one-night stand with Cori falls apart when the city of Boston goes on lockdown in a hunt for the Marathon Bombers. Trapped together in an apartment along with Cori’s roommate Jayme, they soon realize that the biggest threat isn’t outside after all, in playwright Thom Dunn’s stress-fueled comedy about privacy and privilege under siege.
THE TWO KIDS THAT BLOW SHIT UP
by Carla Ching
Directed by M. Bevin O'Gara
Public reading: Sunday, December 4 at 7pm
Location: Deane Hall, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
As kids, Max and Diana meet on their parents' date, then are kicked out of the house so their parents can get it on. They are forced to play together even though they aren't really that fond of each other. Through over two decades of their parents' tumultuous relationship of getting together, breaking up, getting married and then divorced, Max and Diana are perpetually forced together and become the most unlikely of friends. They see each other through their own marriages and divorces, rehabs and spin-outs, career rejiggerings and epic life fails. But when they actually fall into each other, will they lose the only family they've ever known? A play about falling in and out of love with your best friend.