Art House Productions to Present 2024 INKubator New Play Festival

Art House Productions has revealed the lineup for the 2024 INKubator New Play Festival from May 13-21. This year's playwrights are Upasna Barath, Amanda Sage Comerford, Leo Layla Díaz, Neil Levi, Dave Osmundsen, and Marcus Scott. Audiences who attend the festival will have the opportunity to participate in conversations with the writers, directors, and actors following each performance. All readings are free to attend, but advanced registration is required.

INKubator is a year-long generative process for a select group of six playwrights in residence at Art House Productions. During the program, playwrights meet on a monthly basis alongside program director Alex Tobey to share new work, receive feedback, and develop a first draft of a new play. The program culminates in the INKubator New Play Festival, where the playwrights work with professional directors and actors to hear the play read aloud for the first time. Casting will be announced at a later date.

"It's incredible to think six years have flown by since our first INKubator cohort in 2018," remarks program director Alex Tobey. "Since then, INKubator has nurtured 38 playwrights, with their works seen in readings and productions nationwide. I’m excited to showcase New Jersey's top playwrights once more, and unite artists and audiences to foster new play development in Jersey City."

The venue is ADA accessible. To request ASL interpreters or captions, please email info@arthouseproductions.org at least 2 weeks before the event.

For more information about the 2024 INKubator New Play Festival, please visit arthouseproductions.org.

FULL FESTIVAL SCHEDULE 

Monday, May 13 at 7:00pm

Gore is for Girls 
by Leo Layla Díaz
directed by Hannah Marie Pederson

You’re invited to Trinity’s Necromancy Party! She found a dead body in her backyard, and now she’s invited all her friends and others to resurrect the mystery man. Together they’ll celebrate the summer, play jump rope with the line between life and death, and try not to start the zombie apocalypse in Jersey City in this new play by Leo Layla Díaz.

Tuesday, May 14 at 7:00pm

couple goals
written and directed by Upasna Barath

After exchanging flirty messages on Instagram, two actors meet at a futuristic Malibu house for a romantic and creative getaway. As Ananya, a fresh-out-of-rehab TV actress, and Nathan, an award-winning performer, spend time in isolation with each other, reality unravels. In this drama with a surrealist twist, Ananya and Nathan realize the complexities of their relationship are inextricably tied to their industry.

Wednesday, May 15 at 7:00pm

We’d Rather Know If You Weren’t Coming Back
by Dave Osmundsen
directed by Mack Brown

In a seaside town called Crichton-by-the-Sea, a young Autistic woman becomes a tour guide for a local ghost tour company. As she and her fellow guides confront the literal and metaphorical ghosts that haunt them, sinister secrets arise that force them to reexamine their individual and collective mythologies. A new play about the places and people we haunt, and the people and places we allow to haunt us.

Monday, May 20 at 7:00pm

The Rip
by Neil Levi
directed by Isabel Perry

A coastal town on the edge of a vast ocean. Two teenage brothers defy their parents’ prohibition and head to the beach, where hostile locals and a menacing sea await them. When one brother returns home without the other, everything that’s held the family together threatens to fall apart. The Rip is about trying to find your way in the world when you don't know where or who you are, and the fine line between love and hate.

Tuesday, May 21 at 7:00pm

Talk to Me, Ocey Snead
by Amanda Sage Comerford
directed by Jessica Brater

In this bizarre yet true New Jersey tale of spectacle, scandal and betrayal, a bathtub drowning quickly becomes a murder mystery. As three sisters cloaked in black emerge as the prime suspects, local sleuths set out to discover not only what’s real, but what lies behind the veils.

Wednesday, May 22 at 7:00pm

Bizarro World
by Marcus Scott
directed by Martavius Parrish

A clique of young entrepreneurial computer programmers—all diversity hires at a Big Tech company in Silicon Valley—decide to strike out on their own by creating an innovative, one-of-kind simulated reality affinity space that comes complete with a truly revolutionary and singular artificial intelligence–powered virtual assistant. When a power grab commences and power players try getting ahold of the algorithm that will launch the group into the upper echelon of the tech world, they make a last-minute addition before launching. There’s just one thing they weren’t counting on and now all hell is about to break loose. Part office comedy, part sci-fi techno-thriller, Bizarro World explores machine learning, unlearning, the dualities of justice and injustice, equity and equality, visibility and representation, surveillance and over-policing in the digital age.

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