The Collage Project
Local playwright Scotto Moore headed a team of six outstanding playwrights commissioned to participate in a six-week writing session in May. The writers wrote towards two different themes. Each team created a multi-authored work from scratch which was curated into two shows that will be presented in September and December. These shows will feature the work of playwrights: Kelleen Conway Blanchard, Keiko Green, Justin Ison, Morgan Ludlow, Scotto Moore, Juliet Pruzan and Jennifer Lynne Roberts. See the two shows that resulted in this collaboration.
CRIME AND ROCKETS
September 9-26
Ballard Underground Theatre
Directed by Jenifer Ross
Heather Bernadette, Stage Manager
Humanity’s seemingly boundless expansion across the galaxy hasn’t come without a price... ‘cuz wherever there’s humans, there’s badhumans, and somebody’s gotta crack the cases when they try to get away with murder. From your first day as a rookie beat detective working a mining colony on an asteroid, to your elite days as head of security on a luxury cruiseliner touring the rings of Jupiter, someone’s always breaking the rules. Homicide in a space station prep school; organized crime smuggling illegal nanoweaponry out to the rebel colonies; alien specimens stolen from a top secret laboratory there’s no end to the trouble a few malcontents can cause, and some of these malcontents might not be too recognizable as human anymore. Society’s counting on a few good souls with theirs hearts still in the right places physically or otherwise to help put things right.
Crime and Rockets launches us into the future, where human nature itself is evolving as rapidly as the technology that catapulted us into deep space. You can’t let a case get too cold not with the cold vacuum of space on all sides as a constant unfriendly reminder that the consequences of letting the bad guys get away with it could be disastrous.
Tall Tales of the Unnatural Frontier
December 3-19
Annex Theatre
Directed by Jen Moon
Maren Comendant, Stage Manager
What made the lone gunslinger so lonely? Once upon a time in the west, you could dream of settling down with your family and a plot of land, where maybe you could find respite from the demons of the past. But strange things howl in the moonlight out on the wide open plain... and few of them are friendly. Meanwhile, connecting east coast to west, the Transcontinental Railroad offers unwary travelers the chance to journey into parts unknown... veryunknown to be sure, if you chance to get off at the wrong stop. Some travelers band their carts and wagons together for safety and companionship and even a bit of magic, bringing a wild circus to the small towns that pepper the trail a perfect place to hide from the trouble that’s chasing you, if you can find a costume that fits.
“Tall Tales of the Unnatural Frontier” is a shadowy slice of dark Americana, exploring a time when the country’s founding ideals were still waiting for their time to truly flower and a time when the sway of the rational intellect had yet to reach all parts of a land steeped in folklore and legend. Civilization would someday tame the unnatural frontier and the wanderers who made it their home but not before a few extremelytall tales seared their way into our nation’s collective subconscious memory, whispered around the dying campfire of an elusive moment in history.
September 9-26
Ballard Underground Theatre
Directed by Jenifer Ross
Heather Bernadette, Stage Manager
Humanity’s seemingly boundless expansion across the galaxy hasn’t come without a price... ‘cuz wherever there’s humans, there’s badhumans, and somebody’s gotta crack the cases when they try to get away with murder. From your first day as a rookie beat detective working a mining colony on an asteroid, to your elite days as head of security on a luxury cruiseliner touring the rings of Jupiter, someone’s always breaking the rules. Homicide in a space station prep school; organized crime smuggling illegal nanoweaponry out to the rebel colonies; alien specimens stolen from a top secret laboratory there’s no end to the trouble a few malcontents can cause, and some of these malcontents might not be too recognizable as human anymore. Society’s counting on a few good souls with theirs hearts still in the right places physically or otherwise to help put things right.
Crime and Rockets launches us into the future, where human nature itself is evolving as rapidly as the technology that catapulted us into deep space. You can’t let a case get too cold not with the cold vacuum of space on all sides as a constant unfriendly reminder that the consequences of letting the bad guys get away with it could be disastrous.
Tall Tales of the Unnatural Frontier
December 3-19
Annex Theatre
Directed by Jen Moon
Maren Comendant, Stage Manager
What made the lone gunslinger so lonely? Once upon a time in the west, you could dream of settling down with your family and a plot of land, where maybe you could find respite from the demons of the past. But strange things howl in the moonlight out on the wide open plain... and few of them are friendly. Meanwhile, connecting east coast to west, the Transcontinental Railroad offers unwary travelers the chance to journey into parts unknown... veryunknown to be sure, if you chance to get off at the wrong stop. Some travelers band their carts and wagons together for safety and companionship and even a bit of magic, bringing a wild circus to the small towns that pepper the trail a perfect place to hide from the trouble that’s chasing you, if you can find a costume that fits.
“Tall Tales of the Unnatural Frontier” is a shadowy slice of dark Americana, exploring a time when the country’s founding ideals were still waiting for their time to truly flower and a time when the sway of the rational intellect had yet to reach all parts of a land steeped in folklore and legend. Civilization would someday tame the unnatural frontier and the wanderers who made it their home but not before a few extremelytall tales seared their way into our nation’s collective subconscious memory, whispered around the dying campfire of an elusive moment in history.