Join us for a live 90-minute zoom presentation every Monday and Wednesday as students and staff explore the scripts you want to hear. Sit back and listen,or jump in and lend your voice to a role.
Students participating in the Fall 2020 Dramaturgy Practicum read, evaluated, and selected titles, vetted by a panel of students and staff, to create a season of eclectic themes, styles, and genres. Their goal is that you are entertained as you grapple intellectually and emotionally with these plays. All titles in the spring 2021 Out Loud Series are plays written by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. These are also the plays that they devoured in a single sitting.
We hope that you will find them as engaging as we did.
Ghosts of Bogotá
by Diana Burbano
The journey of three Latinx siblings to Columbia for their grandfather’s funeral becomes one of shared secrets and fantastic revelations in a play that addresses the immigrant experience of never feeling fully at home in any country.
Theme(s): Grief and Death / Family / Sexual Abuse
Content Warnings: Strong Language, Sexual Language, Homophobia, Mentions of: Sexual Abuse/Assault/Physical Abuse, Abortion, School Shootings, Racism, and Discussion of Death
March 29 & 31 | 7pm EST
Umoja
by LaDarrion Williams
– A group of seniors set out to create a club for Black Excellence on a predominantly white college campus but, when their petition is sidelined by racial tension and controversy, the students must share their truth and some of their deepest secrets.
Theme(s): Coming of Age / Racism / Identity / Empowerment
Content Warnings: Strong Language, Sexual Language, Homophobia, Sexual Assault, Abortion, and Racism
April 5 & 7 | 7pm EST
Topdog / Underdog
by Suzan-Lori Parks
The play follows Lincoln and Booth as they navigate poverty, racism, and the bonds of brotherhood through hand after hand of three-card Monte. 2002 Pulitzer Prize
Theme(s): History / Brotherhood / Masculinity / Racism / Poverty
Content Warnings: Gun violence, strong language, sexually suggestive language
April 12 & 14 | 7pm EST
Swimming While Drowning
by Emilio Rodriguez
Angelo Mendez leaves home to escape his homophobic father; at a Los Angeles homeless shelter, he finds love with another homeless teen in this gritty and funny romance.
Theme(s): LGBTQ+ / Homophobia / Homelessness
Content Warnings: Strong language, sexually suggestive language
April 19 | 7pm EST
Am I Dead? (Second Read)
by Kevin R Free
In the hereafter, three souls struggle to reassemble the black men they wronged in life until Isis, the goddess of marital devotion, pushes them to address the truths of their wrongs in life. Am I Dead? will be pre-cast as a workshop process with the playwright.
Theme(s): Abuse of black men, Relationships, Identity
Content Warnings: Derogatory Language, Strong Language, Religious Themes, Fights, Violence, Gore/Dismemberment, Homophobia, On Stage Death
April 21 | 7pm EST
Skeleton Stories
by Delondra Mesa
On Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a young girl named Maya journeys into the underworld to find and rescue the spirit of her dead mother. Through a series of vignettes, guided by the Aztec spirit Yellow Dog, Maya encounters lost souls and experiences their stories before confronting the god of Death… who wants to keep Maya for his own
Theme(s): Grief, Parental relationships, Coming of age
Content Warnings: Strong language, Death/Religious Themes, Violence, Gore/Dismemberment, Sexual Assault
February 1 & 3 | 7pm EST
Am I Dead?
by Kevin R Free
In the hereafter, three souls struggle to reassemble the black men they wronged in life until Isis, the goddess of marital devotion, pushes them to address the truths of their wrongs in life. Am I Dead? will be pre-cast as a workshop process with the playwright.
Theme(s): Abuse of black men, Relationships, Identity
Content Warnings: Derogatory Language, Strong Language, Religious Themes, Fights, Violence, Gore/Dismemberment, Homophobia, On Stage Death
February 8 | 7pm EST
The Bitches
BY BRIE KNIGHT
Set in a doggie hotel where a Pekingese, a Great Dane, and a Black Lab dissect Humanitarianism and debate their ability to change the world.
Theme(s): Civil Rights/Equality/Societal issues
February 10 | 7pm EST
Content Warnings: Mild language, references to alcohol
Native Pride (and Prejudice)
by Vera Starbard
Set in Alaska, the familiar Jane Austen tale, takes on the complexities of love, Alaskan Native corporations, and federal blood quantum in this timeless romantic comedy.
Genre: Adaptation, Romantic Comedy
Theme(s): Native American culture/love/feminism.
Content Warnings: Innuendo and language
February 15 & 17 | 7pm EST
Buffalo Hair
by Carlyle Brown
Race, war and history collide in this play, set in 1874, when a group of black troopers capture a black man who has chosen to live among the Cheyenne and the men must decide between personal and cultural identities.
Theme(s): Self-discovery / Race / Militarism / History
Content Warnings: Violence, war, animal harm, racism, gore, and suicide
February 22 & 24 | 7pm EST
Life is a Dream
adaptation by Nilo Cruz
Astrological omens predict that if King Basilio’s son Segismundo is crowned, he will become a horrible tyrant who will bring destruction to his kingdom. Basilio imprisons Segismundo for life, but decades later he decides to let his son prove his ability to defy the stars. Allowed to rule the palace, Segismundo wreaks bloody vengeance on the kingdom, confirming the prediction of the stars, and the prince is returned to his prison. In Nilo Cruz’s sublime translation of Calderón de la Barca’s classic, the question of whether life is a dream or an illusion takes on a renewed relevance and urgency.
Genre: Classical Drama
Theme(s): Destiny vs. Self-Determination, Forgiveness, Moral Awakening, Honor
Content Warnings: Violence, Genocide, Murder, Slavery, Abusive Actions and Language
March 1 & 3 | 7pm EST
American Divide
BY MAXIMILIAN GILL
Border patrols and refugees meet in a bar ten years after the east and west coasts of the United States break off and form their own republics in this disturbingly plausible dystopian play.
Theme(s): Immigration / Border Security / Politics / Race
Content Warnings: Language, human trafficking, sexual themes, strong political themes, homophobia, drug use, racism, and violence
March 8 & 10 | 7pm EST
Too Heavy for Your Pocket
by Jiréh Breon Holder
In the summer of 1961, the Freedom Riders are embarking on a courageous journey into the Deep South. When twenty-year-old Bowzie Brandon gives up a life-changing college scholarship to join the movement, he’ll have to convince his loved ones—and himself—that shaping his country’s future might be worth jeopardizing his own.
Theme(s): Race, Gender, Class, Power, Faith, and Politics
Content Warnings: Derogatory language, Racial and Sexual language and content, Violence, Mental and Physical Abuse, Racial and Gender Oppression
March 15 & 17 | 7pm EST
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