Moonbox Productions Reveals Playwrights & Plays for 3rd Annual Boston New Works Festival

Moonbox Productions has selected eight original plays by local playwrights for its 3rd Annual Boston New Works Festival.  Moonbox will host the 2024 Boston New Works Festival June 20th – 23rd at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Once again, Moonbox’s request for submissions garnered a broad assortment of musicals and plays from very talented playwrights in the Boston area.  From the over 50 submissions, Moonbox’s diverse panel of judges chose eight original theatrical pieces for this year’s festival.  This year’s festival includes four mainstage plays and four readings.  In the coming months, the playwrights will be part of an extensive workshop process that will culminate in staged productions/readings at the festival in June. 

In addition to the plays, there will be interactive dance performances throughout the weekend and an art installation featuring local artists from Boston and the surrounding areas.

“In this third year of hosting this festival, we continue to be amazed by the depth of artistic talent in our local community,” said Sharman Altshuler, Producer & Artistic Director for Moonbox Productions.  “We are honored to provide this annual opportunity for our local writers, composers, choreographers, designers, technicians, and production specialists and to be able to bring brand new, home-grown work to the halls, walls and sidewalks of the Boston Center for the Arts and Calderwood Pavilion!   We hope you join us this June for four days of arts and celebration,” said Altshuler.

Selected playwrights and plays for the 3rd Annual Boston New Works Festival include:

John Minigan – Covenant

How do we become entrenched in the beliefs we hold, and what – if anything – can get us to walk away when those beliefs lead to chaos and destruction?  Jordan’s mission to infiltrate and report on an apocalyptic religious community has ended in disaster. Questions from an unseen interrogator trigger and inform Jordan’s memories of her time undercover, forcing her to confront the effects of the choices she’s made and decide whether the beliefs that guided her are any less destructive than the beliefs of those in the group.

Kira Rockwell - Holy Chicken Sandwich 

On the eve of a highly anticipated grand opening of a beloved yet politically controversial fast-food empire, one hundred fervent devotees gather in the parking lot for an overnight campout to earn a year of free large combos. As the night unfolds, it’s clear there’s a fox in the chicken coop. Jade, the newly appointed store manager, must find the source of anarchy before the flock devolves into utter chaos. HOLY CHICKEN SANDWICH is a comedic mystery of celestial proportions that explores themes of identity, consumerism, and division––a play that invites audiences to examine indoctrination and uncover what’s really in the secret sauce of devotion.

Rick Parks - Knock Down Drag Out

Developers want to tear down Antoine's, Boston's only drag bar, in order to build some high-rise condos. Zonna, who has been performing at the club for 2/3 of her life, has other ideas. After being visited by the ghost of her drag mother Crystal Crawford, Zonna bands together with her drag queen sisters Ivanka (the club's 70 year old bartender and former chanteuse), Mx (a gender fluid college kid) and Sharia Law (a hardscrabble queen who has fought for everything she's got) and stages a "drag in", where they will live in the club to protest its demolition, while fending off their neighbor, Mrs. Chao (an 80 year old Chinese woman who is on a permanent neighborhood watch), as well as the gentrification of the neighborhood they all love.

Angele Maraj & Brianna Pierre – Once Upon a Carnival

Once Upon a Carnival is an original musical set in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad & Tobago. When 16-year-old Bhavan is forced to move from New York City to his mother’s home country of Trinidad after his father’s death, he is faced with the task of overcoming grief and accepting his identity through a magical quest in the mythological bush land. Set to a vibrant score infused with chutney, soca and calypso sounds, Bhavan’s adventure will test his and the audience’s notions of grief, identity and found family while exploring the magical world of Trinidad at Carnival time.

Jared Eberlein – Fall With Me

Baltimore -1932. Bithiah and J.J. Johnston are quietly surviving the Great Depression, while doing what they can for their neighbors. Fifty-miles south, in the nation’s capital, the world is about to explode. When J.J.’s fellow “doughboys” arrive, in search of someone to lead the fight against a government that’s left the veterans of The Great War and their families to perish, the smell of former glory intoxicates J.J and threatens to derail what little his family has. J.J. must decide what fight is truly his to win and what is worth the risk, should he lose. 

Maggie Kearnan – How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos

A throne of red Solo cups, a pile of teeth, the ghost of Pete Seeger, and a little something for dinner. It’s 2030, and it’s illegal to be a billionaire. Jeffrey Bezos has agreed to give an interview in exchange for information on the federal case against him. But there’s something off about journalist Cherry Beaumont, a crowd is forming outside, and the onstage Fact Checker has a few important clarifications to make. In this near-future fairy tale, the fall of capitalism is about to get very messy.

Cassie Seinuk – Meet Me in the Bathroom

When Freckles, a high school junior, innocently shows her friends a selfie of her and their sexy English teacher Mr. Murphy, she unwillingly sets herself into a social and social media tailspin. The dominos begin to fall as mean girl with a grudge, Laser, steals Freckles' phone and posts the photo online, the school’s beloved English teacher gets fired, and Freckles gets kicked off student government, her ticket to a stellar college application and popularity. Set entirely in the girls' bathroom of a high school in an average town, six teenagers are faced with decision to stand with Freckles and fall into social suicide, or to save face and join the ranks of popular opinion, believe that Freckles is a slut and must be destroyed!

Tina Esper – State of Maine

After escaping a dangerous past in Minnesota, Jane finds herself in a small seaside town where she meets Beckett and Moe.  Moe owns the Inn where Jane finds a room to rent and where Beckett, her partner also lives. But Beckett is experiencing the early stages of dementia and she and Moe are about to discover the cost of keeping a secret, even when it’s done with the best intentions. Moe, Beckett and Jane are all about to face the same inevitable question: what is worth remembering when the past is too painful to hold on to? State of Maine wrestles with the truth, challenges and beauty of letting go and starting over. 

For more information about the Boston New Works Festival, go to www.moonboxproductions.org

 

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