Cohesion Theatre Company Presents The Playwrights Fellowship Staged Readings

Cohesion Theatre Company proudly announces the staged readings for their 2017/2018 Playwrights Fellowship. The two plays showcased, Infertile Ground By Aladrian Wetzel and Safe Space By R. Eric Thomas, will be presented as staged readings across two weekends later this month. A constructive conversation with audience members with surveys and refreshments will immediately follow each performance.

"I had never written a play before, and I applied to the Cohesion Theatre Company's Playwrights Fellowship on a whim. I am so glad I did," said Aladrian C. Wetzel, writer of Infertile Ground. "The experience taught me alot about writing and play development and I was able to grow as an artist under the guidance of a talented dramaturg and director. I now feel that I can confidently call myself a playwright."

Infertile Ground follows Andi, an ambitious and successful architect moving up in the firm. Andi is a loving and thoughtful wife to her also successful lawyer husband. Andi is a dutiful and caring daughter to her Mother. But fuck all that. Andi is ready to have a baby. So let's do this shit!

"I started the process with a different script idea and it morphed and changed into something that I wasn't expecting. My original story idea was big and bold, but it lacked heart. The Playwright's Fellowship helped me find the story I was meant to tell," Wetzel said."

She adds, "I wrote a play about a subject matter that is rarely talked out in the open and was very personal to my experience. It's the intersection of being a person of color, a woman and struggling with infertility."

Infertile Ground will run Saturday, July 14th at 8 PM and Sunday, July 15th at 4 PM.

R. Eric Thomas' play, Safe Space, is about Helen, who has inherited a house. And in that house is a basement. And in that basement is a locked room. And in that locked room, are twenty antique guns, and voice calling out for freedom...

"The way that Cohesion's Playwriting Fellowship is structured enabled Safe Space to explode out of my brain and off the page," Thomas said. "The iterative process helped me to experiment with new ideas, challenged me to push my writing further, and, I think, resulted in a really exciting, funny, politically-charged play about Baltimore and America."

Safe Space will run Saturday, July 21st at 8 PM, and Sunday, July 22nd at 4 PM.

We request that all press that wish to cover the event refrain from reviewing the pieces; this is a workshop and the pieces are still in development.

All tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at www.cohesiontheatre.org or at the door.

Cohesion performs in "The Fallout Shelter" at United Evangelical Church (923 S. East Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21224) at the corner of East Avenue and Dillon Street in Canton. Patrons should enter the space through the grey doors on East Avenue. For more information about the 2017/18 Season at Cohesion Theatre Company, visit www.cohesiontheatre.org