Austin Playhouse recently produced staged readings of the three winning plays from their Festival of New Texas Plays. EIDOPHUSIKON by Reina Hardy kicked off the festival on Friday, April 27, NUTSHELL by C. Denby Swanson was on Saturday, April 28, and MONROE by Lisa B. Thompson concluded the lineup on Sunday, April 29. Along with the professional staged reading, which featured Austin Playhouse directors and company members, each of the winning playwrights received a $500 prize.
TWENTYEIGHT, a 2014 play by Tyler English-Beckwith, is a look at eight laborers who are trying to finish the shuttle that will carry them to the Liberian Space Station. This Space Station (also known as the L.S.S.) is a refuge for people of color. It seems that in this very Dystopian future, things, for people of color, are even more violent and oppressive than things are now. This, as an audience member, isn't very comforting. Indeed, this is a short oppressive theatrical experience you aren't likely to forget easily. The world we know is long gone. A rubble of ruins. People of Color have been crammed into settlements, where they work on projects just like this shuttle. What keeps them at work are the faceless Enforcers and a distant dream of liberation. There is the pull and allure of that promised place where what is wrong magically becomes a place of blessings, joys and riches. Isn't that, after all, the promise of all regions? Your heaven in amongst the various heavens.
