La MaMa Umbria Celebrates 2017

SCHEDULE

Friday, March 31

Opening Reception | 5:30-6:45 pm | La MaMa Galleria

Kickoff the weekend and meet the playwrights at La MaMa Galleria.

Manar by Melis Aker | 7:00-8:30 pm

In Dearborn Michigan, racial tension and Islamophobia run high. The disappearance of A Son threatens to rupture the fragile fabric that connects the lives of people around him. This exploration of grief, paranoia and cultural segregation weaves its characters’ memories into their present-day lives as they feel trapped in the trenches of mourning, searching for tangible resolution in an age of digital empathy.

Saturday, April 1

A Stranger Came Home by Jesse Koehler | 3:15-4:45 pm

Frank, Beth, and Noah Rose have all come home to assist their dying mother Margie. Each have returned to guarantee recognition in Margie’s will and personal ownership of the house. A stranger, Tom, soon arrives at the home and Margie insists on his staying; implying some sort of deep connection between them. We soon realize that Tom has connections with all the members of the family as we begin to question exactly who, or what, Tom is. Just be sure those fields don’t start growing in the house.

She Was A Great Dad by Susan Jeremy | 5:00-6:00 pm

It’s 1950 and Johnny Swinton, an established musician with a beautiful wife and son, has a secret––he’s a woman. Inspired by the life of trans saxophone player Billy Tipton. Susan Jeremy effortlessly portrays all characters in this jazz infused tale of love and secrecy.

Terminal 4 by Catherine Fletcher | 7:30-8:45 pm

An absurdist dramedy work-in-progress that depicts seven individuals trapped at an international airport in the American Midwest during the course of a single day. Hailing from a range of cultural and economic backgrounds, the characters’ lives grind to a halt through a seeming combination of a blizzard and technical failures. Interwoven with monologues by the Chorus as well as chatter from air traffic control, the play’s action gradually becomes derailed as the actors playing the characters refuse to act as scripted and blur the boundaries between what’s real and what’s not.

Chris Castiglione | 9:00-9:15 pm

A new play by Chris Catiglione.

Sunday, April 2

3 plays, 3 decades: a NY Fantasia by Glory Kadigan | 12:30-2:00 pm

“3 plays, 3 Decades a NY Fantasia” consisting of Superstars (1970s), The House Always Wins (1990s) and Wait Don’t Wait (Present day.)

SchmidtSmithSchmidt by Leonie Bell | 2:15-2:45 pm

Susi lives in a pre-fab, post-wall, past-tense apartment surrounded by porcelain cats and Mama’s hoarding tendencies of husbands and household items. Susi wants to be Brandy and find her Papa who fled West to become the all-American Dad. Rope is jumped, polka music plays, and dream realities crash into each other at acute angles.

Stolen by Lynne Bachleda | 3:00-4:30 pm

Stolen is based on a true story. For nearly sixty years Cornelius Gurlitt hid 1,400+ pieces of Nazi-era art valued at more than one billion dollars in his Munich apartment. His father, a “degenerate art” collector for Hitler, had slyly amassed the stash. In Cornelius’ fragile mind, the pieces became his living and entire “family.” A chance chain of  tragic and explosive events forced the octogenarian to face what he feared most. Stolen looks at the weak recluse’s last days when he stands before an accusing world. Can he save his family? What happens when the paintings come alive again?

Crocodile (The Last Escape) by Amanda Andrei | 4:45-6:00 pm

A young Filipina torn between the love of her life and duty to her family, walks alone at night, deep in the Agusan Swamp. In the 1970s Philippines, her world is changing: Filipinos leave their families for other countries, the swamp is drying up and silent. In guilt and grief, she cries out for answers––and is swallowed by a legendary time-warping crocodile lurking in the swamp. Within the beast, she meets a sculptor and long-time resident of the reptilian belly. In a world where dreams/futures dodge across geography and space, they must navigate purgatory to find their own meaning of being alive.

Manifold by Ailís Ní Ríain | 6:15-7:00 pm

“Take a life. Do with it what you will. Hang a left and shuffle the pack for the next guy. No plan is safe from laughter.” (extract) Animals in distress come in many guises.

Trust Ur Local Squirrel by Peggy Chane | 7:15-7:45 pm

Two competing squirrel newscasters uncover city corruption.

Post-Show Reception | 7:45 pm

Italian treats with Adriana and company for playwrights. La MaMa will announce the Call for Nominations for the Ellen Stewart Award, the artists selected for the Next Generation Residency Program for 2017, and the resident artists and program for La MaMa Umbria – Summer 2017.

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