The Wayward Artist to Present the Third Annual JU1CE New Play Festival
Plays include: Anteros Was Here by AJ Layague, The Gravity of Black Holes by Linda Goddard Schmenk and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Feb. 05, 2026
The Wayward Artist will present the third season of JU1CE: A Secret Revealed, March 6 - 8 at 7:30 pm. Three evenings of original 10-minute plays will explore the power of truth and discovery. Local playwrights bring fresh stories to life that are funny, bold, and heartfelt. Directed by Artistic Director Craig Tyrl and Teddy Page, this program is in co-production with the Orange County Playwrights Alliance.
Anteros Was Here by AJ Layague
A myth-inflected Western where cowboys, gods, and choral figures collide. On a ranch, violence, desire, and power unfold as the god Anteros watches humanity wrestle with love, justice, and consequence. Ritual, poetry, and physical storytelling lead not to resolution, but reckoning.
The Gravity of Black Holes by Linda Goddard Schmenk
A quiet, poetic two-hander linking a contemporary Japanese-American science student with a woman from another era. Through physics, grief, and time, the play explores loneliness, inherited pain, and the unseen forces that draw people together across generations.
The Green Grocer by Joni Ravenna
A sharply funny and tender story about aging, desire, and self-image. When Katie develops an unexpected crush on her younger grocer, fantasy and insecurity collide with the reality of her marriage. Humor meets emotional honesty in this reflection on love and longing.
Merely Players by Eric Eberwein
Three lives intersect around faith, death, and moral compromise: a priest, a hospice nurse, and a woman in emotional free fall. Darkly comic and deeply human, the play questions hypocrisy, grace, and the difference between performing belief and truly living it.
Tempus Fugit by Greg Atikins
A playful but pointed look at time, ambition, and regret. When Cynthia meets her future self, youthful idealism clashes with lived experience. Fast-moving, imaginative, and funny, it asks what we owe the people we are still becoming.
The Takeaway by Linda Goddard Schmenk
Two estranged sisters reunite in a Chinese restaurant, navigating old wounds and cultural expectations while waiting for food that becomes a catalyst for truth. A perceptive restaurant owner observes it all, adding warmth and perspective. Themes of family, identity, and silence linger.
Trapped in Limbo by John Franceschini
Set in a psychiatric institution, this unsettling drama collapses past and present as a wealthy baroness relives childhood trauma under clinical observation. Mandated doubling exposes cycles of power and abuse, revealing the brutality hidden beneath respectability.
Your Pleasure Is All Mine by Nikki Pearson
A near-future grief story where a woman coexists with an AI replica of her deceased partner. As intimacy, consent, and autonomy blur, the play explores the ethics of artificial love and the human need to be deeply known—even when the risk is real.
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