MadLab Announces 2018-19 Season: The Future Is Now

For 2018-19, MadLab has declared it their The Future is Now season as all of their full length shows next year are sci-fi takes on the near future and, in one instance, the near past. In addition to those 3 shows, it is another jam packed year including their 20th Theatre Roulette, their 7th Young Writer's Short Play Festival, the latest version of Date Night by their resident improv troupe FFN, and more. Details below:

These will make up the 2018-19 season:

Young Writers 2018 July 13-28

"Lost in Time" Aug 9 - Aug 25

"The Wave That Set The Fire" Oct 4 - Oct 20

Ensemble Show Dec 6 - Dec 22

"FFN's Date Night 2019" Feb 7 -- Feb 23

"Happy Pills" March 7 - March 23

The Twentieth Annual Theatre Roulette May 9-25

"Young Writers 2018" Fridays and Saturdays July 13th - July 28th.at 8:00 with matinees at 3 on Sundays July 15th and 22nd.

After another fantastic run, MadLab is proud to present the seventh edition of The Young Writers Short Play Festival featuring plays written by local high-school students. Young Writers 2018 is a three-week long collection of one-act plays written by Ohio teens and performed and produced professionally by MadLab. In its 7th year, the program continues to grow and expand its presence in Central Ohio, this year the playwrights are from

8 different high schools.

This year's schedule:

Fridays & 1st Sunday Matinee
July 13th, 20th, and 27th @8pm
July 15 @3pm

Saturdays & 2nd Sunday Matinee
July 14th, 21st, and 28th @8pm
July 22 @3pm

"Lost in Time" - Fridays and Saturdays Aug 10th -Aug 25th with a special preview on Thursday Aug 9th.

Synopsis: Danny Petrelli, a sixty year old man, wakes up one morning as his twenty-three year old self. He finds himself in his Boston University apartment, facing his old roommate, Robert. When Danny reveals this miraculous/bizarre occurrence to Robert and explains that prior to his transformation his life was in disarray, the occult minded Robert not only accepts his story, but convinces him that he has been given a second chance and can rectify mistakes he has made by connecting with his future wife, Gwen. But when Danny attempts to alter his life story by contacting and initiating a relationship with Gwen, their relationship founders badly, and Danny must find a way to save what he believes to be his future.

Production History: The play was developed in the playwright's unit of Ensemble Studio Theatre, in Los Angeles. In December 2017,it was work-shopped in EST's Launchpad (their annual staged reading series). MadLab's 2018 production will be the world premiere.

Playwright: Tony Pasqualini

A veteran of forty years in the theatre, Tony is a playwright, actor and director. He has written eight full-length plays, along with several short pieces. His play, Loyalties, received readings for Ensemble Studio Theatre's First Look Series; was a winner of the Ashland New Play Festival; and was subsequently produced in an acclaimed production, which ran for over four months at the Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles. Book-it Repertory in Seattle produced Tony's adaptation of Winesburg, Ohio. His plays Birdbrain, An Idyllic Life and Bleeding Hearts have received workshops and productions at The Pacific Resident Theatre, The Rogue Machine Theatre and Playwrights Studio West. Tony's short play, In the Dark, was a winner of the Fusion Theatre's One Act Play Contest and was subsequently produced in Albuquerque; and was also the grand prizewinner in the Lowell Arts short play contest. His play, Already Forgotten, was a winner of Birdhouse Theatre's Edgefest. His play, Battle of Addison Island, was work- shopped in Ensemble Studio Theatre's Launchpad Series, and the 2015 Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Tony returned to Last Frontier last summer with his play, Foreign Bodies, which was subsequently an O'Neill Festival semi-finalist, and a finalist for the 2017 Rev Shiner Comedy Award. His newest play, Sweet Dreams was recently produced in the Silver Springs Stage One Act Festival. Tony is currently a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Playwrights' Unit.

"The Wave That Set The Fire" - Fridays and Saturdays Oct 5th - Oct 20th with a special preview on Thursday Oct 4th.

Synopsis: In the not-so-distant future, the justice system has been reduced to one woman in a rusty Chevy Impala. When civil society is on its deathbed, what constitutes crime and punishment?

Production History: This will be an Ohio premiere (the play had its world premiere in 2017 in Denver).

Playwright Bio: Ellen K. Graham is a Denver native and a graduate of the University of Chicago. She has been a finalist for Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission, the Shakespeare's Sister Fellowship, and the Global Age Project. She has worked with many theatre companies in the Denver area, including Pandemic Collective, And Toto Too, Athena Project, the Edge, Paragon, and the Denver Center Theatre Company. Her play THE WAVE THAT SET THE FIRE, a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, received its world premiere from Athena Project in 2017. She is the founder of The Production Company Feral Assembly and a co-founder of Shocking Beyond Belief! Films.

Spaced Out Holiday Special Ensemble Show (Working Title) - Fridays and Saturdays Dec 7th - Dec 22th with a special preview on Thursday Dec. 6th.

Synopsis: Science fiction meets the holiday spirit in this sketch comedy show written by the MadLab Ensemble. Everything from Santa to Spock is up for grabs in this original new show.

Full Frontal Nudity's "Date Night 2019" Fridays and Saturdays Feb 8 -- Feb 23 with a special preview on Thursday Feb. 7.

MadLab's in-house improv troupe is back with another year of improvising your stories of love. It's a big city with a million stories of love and FFN is gonna tell them.

Directed by Josh Kessler

Happy Pills -- Fridays and Saturdays Mar 8 -- Mar 23 with a special preview on Thursday Mar. 7.

Synopsis: After nuclear attacks on U.S. cities, happiness and other emotions can no longer be produced naturally by humans; their brain chemistry has been severely altered due to nuclear fallout. The Integrated Borders Union, a new government near former Washington, D.C., works with local drug manufacturers to produce chemically-created emotions; these pills are part of the mandatory Pill Program for all citizens residing in the IBU. To those wandering the wasteland, they must survive the terrain and hungry groups of hunters. We go back and forth in time between Fern's present, in which she resides in the Integrated Borders Union one year after the fallout, and Fern's past, or what happened to her on the road a few months directly after the fallout.

Production History: Happy Pills first received an academic workshop production at the University of Iowa in January 2017. This is Happy Pills' Ohio premiere!

Playwright Bio: Alyssa Cokinis is a playwright, actor, and dramaturg from Iowa. Her one-act play "Cut from a Tree," about the Syrian refugee crisis, received a staged reading as part of the University of Iowa's Climate Narrative Project (2015). Her ten-minute plays "Savior" (2016) and "Terraform" (2017) received staged readings for the University of Iowa's Ten-Minute Play Festival. Happy Pills received its world premiere as an academic workshop production at the University of Iowa (January 2017). "Savior" was extended into a one-act produced by Run of the Mill Theatre Productions in Iowa City (December 2017). Her published poems, essays, and short plays can be found in The Light Ekphrastic, Ink, Ant vs. Whale, Beatdom, and The Translate Iowa Project's "Boundless." A 2017 graduate of the University of Iowa with BAs in Theatre Arts and English, Alyssa is the former research fellow of the International Writing Program's Between the Lines youth program, where she organized workshops centered around using the arts as a tool for peacemaking and conflict resolution. After serving as dramaturg for Iowa Summer Rep's 2017 production The Importance of Being Earnest, she moved across the Pacific to be a drama teacher in Nanjing, China, where she currently works and resides.

The Twentieth Annual Theatre Roulette, May 2019 Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays May 9- May 25

In its twentieth year, Central Ohio's longest running shorts festival presents 3 very distinct nights of new works rotating over 3 weekends culminating in the final day when all 3 nights of programming are performed.