Avalanche Theatre to Present NEXT DRAFT SERIES: Workshop Readings of Two New Plays in Development

Avalanche Theatre has revealed the selections for October's Next Draft Series, which will be presented October 19 - 22, 2023 at The Understudy Coffee and Books. In line with Avalanche Theatre's mission to foster the development of new plays and playwrights in the Chicago theatre community, the Next Draft Series features workshop performances of two plays by Chicago playwrights. The Next Draft Series creates an opportunity for writers to fully develop their scripts through internal company readings as well as the staged workshop performances in front of a live audience.

The workshop performances will take place October 19 - 22, 2023 at The Understudy Coffee and Books. This fall's workshops features new plays by two Chicago playwrights: Homunculus by Andrew Piechota; and body, no organs by Dizzy Turek.

"We're thrilled to be continuing the Next Draft Series with these fun and fascinating plays, which are appropriately spooky for October," says Utz. "After the success of our first round of development, which featured Black Bear Island by Karissa Murrell Myers, Time is a Color and the Color is Blue by Melanie Coffey, and Lucid by Camilla Dwyer, we were so happy to share how much these plays had grown. Now, as we look ahead to this fall, we're excited to grow and continue creating this much-needed platform for the development of new plays in Chicago, by Chicago playwrights."

In Homunculus, two debt-laden young workers toil in the depths of a decrepit mansion-turned-crypto-mine deep in the woods near the Columbia River Basin, looking after a massive rig of computer servers. They receive food via airdrop, rest in sleeping bags, and are forbidden from contact with the outside world. As they struggle to adapt to the demands of a distant authority, they spiral, each in their own way, toward mysticism and obsession. There is someone watching them; there is something in the walls; there is something within themselves, aching to be free - here at the intersection of technology, nature, and the occult.

In body, no organs, Hallelujah has died. As she descends from the earth, she finds herself after life, waist deep in floodwaters, no sun, seemingly no land, and no other souls in sight. All she has are the clothes on her back and a giant gash down the middle of her chest. Inside this gash, she finds her organs which she can take out and hold in her hand. Oh, look, there's a man sitting on a porch; wonder what he thinks of all this.

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