Local theatre company 5th Wall Productions will host the New Works Festival from December 5th to 8th at the South of Broadway Theatre Company. The event is the culmination of 5th Wall's “Matinee and Mimosas Staged Reading Series.”
Each month, 5th Wall Productions presents readings of new plays followed by a talkback with the playwright. They then choose two of these new plays to produce as workshop productions, where the cast and director work closely with the playwrights to streamline the script and bring it to life for a first time audience.
During the festival, 5th Wall Productions will be producing two new plays – Skin and Bones by Laura Neill, and MLM is for Murder (Or, Your Side Hustle is Killing Us) by John Bavoso – as well as a staged reading of another new play, Savings! By Gina Femia.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Festival Schedule:
- Dec. 5th at 7:30 pm – Skin and Bones
- Dec. 6th at 7:30 pm – MLM is for Murder
- Dec. 7th at 3:00 pm – MLM is for Murder
- Dec. 7th at 7:30 pm – Skin and Bones
- Dec. 8th at 11:00 am – Matinees and Mimosas Staged Reading – Savings! (free event)
- Dec. 8th at 2:00 pm – Skin and Bones
- Dec. 8th at 4:00 pm – MLM is for Murder
- Dec. 8th at 7:00 pm – SOBT New Play Development Program Writers Workshop (free event).
About the Plays:
Skin and Bones by Laura Neill
Skin and Bones is a collision of worlds, a conversation between a retired theatre usher and a
bouncer. The conversation is far from usual—Katharine masquerades as a Vietnam vet to defy
Marly's expectations, and Marly counters by convincing Katherine that she has Alzheimer's. In
short, the characters play to each other's greatest insecurities, going farther than any stranger
should—and through this dishonesty and psychological torture, Katharine and Marly recognize
their need for connection and find a bond between them. This is a play about loneliness, about
feeling left out after following all of society's expectations—and about finding a way to keep living.
Directed by Stephanie Ganacoplos
MLM is for Murder (Or, Your Side Hustle is Killing Us) by John Bavoso
Side hustles. It's seems like everybody has at least one these days. For Minerva Ross, the
way to escape the doldrums of her graphic design job in Washington, DC, is to write and
narrate her own feminist true crime podcast about how and why women commit murder.
Meanwhile, across the country, Felicity Evanston, a Mormon stay-at-home wife and
mother—and Minerva's high school nemesis—has just started selling ridiculously
patterned leggings for the multi-level marketing company Linen & Fate, as much as a
way of having something that's just hers as to supplement her husband's income. The
two haven’t crossed paths in years, but when the bubbly and unassuming Felicity snaps
and realizes the only way to get ahead in a rigged pyramid scheme is to literally start
killing off the competition, both women suddenly experience the kind of overnight
success they've been so desperately craving—but risk losing their families, freedom, and
very souls in the process.
Directed by Michelle Jones
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