Fringe Festival 2023
September 22-October 14, 2023
The Studios on Three Next Stage Workshops—part of BU’s annual Fringe Festival—features workshop presentations of brand-new plays by MFA writers Isabelle Sanatdar Stevens, Brandon Zang, Tina Esper, and Maggie Kearnan.
Mr. Parent by Melinda Lopez with Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Conceived with and directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
October 10-22, 2023
A struggling actor turns to teaching for a steady paycheck, thinking “how hard could it be?” It doesn’t take long to realize that the answer is somewhere between “very” and “impossible.” But then—as he careens from the Boston Public Schools by day to serious thespian at night—Mr. Parent starts to wonder where he really belongs. Mr. Parent is a deeply felt and hilarious solo performance about crushingly inequitable systems, the brilliance of every kid, and how we might all find the space to be ourselves.
Jack Welch Developmental Residency
Kill the Magistrate by Abbey Fenbert
Directed by Courtney Elkin Mohler
December 4, 2023
Thanks to the support of tireless Boston theater champion Jack Welch, this residency gives BU alumni writers 30 hours of development time to explore, evolve, and experiment with collaborators. The playwright workshops their play-in-progress and shares it in a public reading.
Driving in Circles a new musical by Jay Eddy
Directed by Sam Plattus
March 21-April 6, 2024
Driving in Circles is a solo-ish new work that traverses the highway between confessional monologue, stand-up comedy, and rock concert. Set to a sometimes whispering, sometimes screaming folktronica score, Driving traces the aftermath of intimate violence—mapping our hero’s darkly funny, deeply felt, defiantly hopeful journey through the bodymind-altering landscapes of trauma towards something like happiness.
Boston Theater Marathon XXVI
May 5, 2024
Boston Theater Marathon XXVI features 50 ten-minute plays written by New England playwrights and presented by New England theatre companies which donate their time (and talent!) to this annual event. Net proceeds are gifted to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, which helps area theatre artists and companies in crisis. You can learn more about this annual event here.
New Play Development Workshop
Hoops, a Boston premiere by Eliana Pipes
Directed by Tonasia Jones
Adapted from The Hoops Project by Nicole Acosta
May 21, 2024
BPT is partnering with Company One Theatre and The City of Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture on the upcoming Boston premiere of Playwriting alumna Eliana Pipes’ Hoops. In preparation for a summer production (July 12-August 10, 2024) at The Strand Theatre in Dorchester, BPT will host a developmental workshop—culminating in a public reading—of the play at our home on Commonwealth Avenue.