Theater Breaking Through Barriers Presents 5th Virtual Playmakers' Intensive: TIME CAPSULE

Theater Breaking Through Barriers today announced the 5th Virtual Playmakers' Intensive: TIME CAPSULE, fourteen short new plays, Monday May 31st through Sunday June 13th, on YouTube nightly at 7:30pm or Facebook at 8:30pm, FREE via ZOOM. For performance schedule, visit tbtb.org.

Disability intersects with all populations in our world: Every age, race, gender and sexual orientation. TBTB strives to create a common ground for all voices and serve as an ambassador in the quest for full, systemic equality in our world. The fourteen original plays constituting the 5th Virtual Playmakers' Intensive represent a diverse chorus within American culture. Created for and rehearsed entirely on the Zoom platform, TBTB's VPI5 will stream live performances of these new short works directly to you, wherever you may be!

TBTB's VPI5 will stream live performances of these new short works directly, one each evening. There are two ways to live stream - on YouTube nightly at 7:30pm (with live captioning, available only on YouTube) and on Facebook at 8:30pm.

The program will include:

SOMETHING IS FAR AWAY

by Enrique Huili, directed by Eric Nightengale

with Shravan Amin, Richard M. Rose, Jamie Petrone

Three people encounter their desires of want. But struggle in, what seems like a fever dream, what we call life.

THE MIDDLE-AGED MEN'S ROMANTIC MOVIE CLUB

by Kathryn Grant, directed by Kristin Heckler

with Ben Rauch, David Harrell, John Little

Three volunteer firefighters bond over their love for romantic movies and their shared thirst for a more expressive life.

THE BIG REVEAL

by Estrella Tamez, directed by Stuart Green

with Shashi Bangera, Carlos Guillermo, Courage Bacchus, Ah Dream Smith

On the twenty-year anniversary of their time capsule burial, three life-long friends reunite to share with each other the mementos they entombed as teen-agers. As they stroll down memory lane, the trio are unprepared for the information about to be discovered in the big reveal.

SISTERS, WEYWRD

by Rebecca Quinn Robertson, Directed by Stephen Drabicki

with Gaia Visnar, Carey Cox, Ann Flanigan

Three old friends meet for a Zoom reunion, which quickly evolves from a nostalgic tête a tête to an excavation of the surreal events of their shared past as teenagers at theater camp. What is raised in this reunion-ritual runs the gamut from the fevered passions of early sisterhood, the landmines littering girlhood, and the transformative power provoked whenever a furious heart communes with the divine Feminine

SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE

by Pamela Sabaugh, directed by Richard M. Rose

with Nick Walther, Sean Phillips, Jack Sims

Three undercover agents on the cusp of a high steaks mission encounter a mysterious presence online. Is it friend or foe?

SAFETY ON

by Monèt Marshall, directed by Ben Rauch

with Robin Marshall, Pamela Sabaugh, Carlos Guillermo

Some things just take time. But in a simulated world where time is an illusion, one man takes all the time he needs to ensure that one sensitive conversation goes just right.

PARENT-TEACHER

by Jerrod Bogard, directed by Tamar Kummel

with George Ashiotis, Stuart Green, Kaisa Penney

A precocious tween runs the show at her latest parent-teacher conference.

GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE

by Fareeda Ahmed, directed by Ashley Wren Collins

with Scott Barton, Kalilah Black, Samantha Debicki, Jennifer Bradley

An amateur medium holds a seance-gone-wrong for her best friend's recently departed parents. The messages from beyond have an eerie urgency that upends their friendship.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

by Cate Allen, directed by Maria Mileaf

with Fred Backus, Alyssa H. Chase, Keith Murfee-Deconcini, Jon Paul Niang

What if the billionaire class built a world that their children refused to take? A young man receives harsh pushback when he tries to reject the shady legacy of his family's business.

D O G

by Juan Carlos Diaz, directed by Kalilah Black

with Helen Coxe, Martin Lewis, Dan Teachout, Xen Theo

Is it still a dog eat dog world out there...

WHAT GENRE IS THIS RABBIT?

by Chris Chan Roberson, directed by Fred Backus

with Aya Ibaraki, Patrick J. O'Hare, Davene Stern, Estrella Tamez

The context of a story is King, especially when rabbits are involved.

BLANKET TIME, a love story

by Jeff Tabnick, directed by Ah Dream Smith

with Fareeda Ahmed, Melissa Jennifer Gonzalez, Lori Brown Niang, Heba Toulan, Alyssa Chase

When her dog dies, Leila takes refuge under her favorite blanket and discovers that it leads to an infinite blanket-underworld. There she finds her true love, Pauline. But Pauline must return to the real world to deal with urgent business. Will Leila find the courage to confront the real world as well?

SOULS HIGHWAY: The Guitar Lesson

by Anita Hollander, directed by David Adam Gill

with Enrique Huili, Bree Klauser, Rebecca Quinn Roberston, Ah Dream Smith

Three women waiting for a Zoom guitar lesson get more than they signed up for.

DOWNWARD DOGS

by Caroline Aaron, directed by Anita Hollander

With Richard Lear, Alyssa Chase

As colleagues in an advertising agency get ready to return to work in person, their beloved dogs slip onto their zoom screens to mourn the fact that their "people" will not be home all day every day anymore.

"As we begin to come out from behind our masks over these next months and once again resume public activities, it's so important that we take stock in all we've experienced over the past 14 months: Where we've been, what was lost and what was learned" said TBTB's Artistic Director, Nicholas Viselli. "While the events of this COVID year have affected all of us in ways, which still cannot be fully comprehended, we are so grateful to have this new virtual resource to connect, create and share our observations with our audience. Throughout this past year, TBTB has presented five Virtual Playmakers' Intensives, creating 57 original short plays and employing over 250 artists. If you were to watch each Intensive in the order it was presented, you can see a very clear progression of what our artists were experiencing as the year unfolded. While each individual work in our VPI series can stand squarely on its own merit, our five Virtual Intensives, as a collective, serves as a Time Capsule that reveals a month-by-month account of what our lives were like under this unprecedented and consequential period in our history. The work also points the way to where we are headed and how we will continue to utilize this virtual medium to expand our reach across the globe. We hope you will join us for this very special installment of our Virtual Intensive series. We promise to deliver 14 evenings of thoroughly enjoyable, thought-provoking entertainment, which you will not forget."

To learn more about TBTB, check out "Meet the Theatre: Theater Breaking Through Barriers" from Theater Development Fund. The video is available at https://vimeo.com/338880820.

You can find the previous Virtual Playmakers' Intensives on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheaterBreakingThroughBarriers/ or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/TBTBtheater.

For more information about any of Theater Breaking Through Barriers' productions and upcoming programs, visit tbtb.org.