Let’s Make a Deal

by Jason Cossette (Fargo, ND)

Directed by Adam Pankow

Let’s Make a Deal follows the misadventures of Johnson, recently deceased and seeking answers. Peters, Johnson’s assigned guide for the immediate afterlife, may have those answers but seems more interested in managing expectations and moving things along. The apparent reality may not be what Johnson expected, but can it be accepted?

About the playwright

Jason Cossette works as a pharmacist in Fargo, ND where he lives with his wife and four children. He spends much of his free time disappointing his spouse and making feeble attempts to connect with his kids interspersed with Netflix binges. His hope is to have the courage and confidence to learn about and see as much of the world as possible before he leaves it.

Hotel Rewards

by Stephen Murray (Minneapolis, MN)

Directed by Lee Klocke

When a business traveler arrives at a hotel, things begin to get weird. The front-desk agent informs her of their new rewards program which seems to be more like cloud storage for things that people forget in their rooms. Common hotel foibles – like taking the mini-shampoos – come back to haunt the guest. This is an exploration of the silly things we do in hotels and the unfulfilling structure of rewards programs.

About the playwright

Stephen F. Murray is a freelance writer whose work has been performed in Illinois, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Michigan. Original pieces include: Laer’s Last Prayer (Ghostlight Productions, Chicago, IL), Nesting Dolls (runner up, Solas Playwriting Competition, UK) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (co-written with Brian Pastor, City Lit Theater, Chicago, IL), Geppetto (Broom Street Theater, Madison, WI & Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL), The Wrong Dream (Best of the Festival, City Lit Art of Adaptation, Chicago, IL), Renewal (Playbill’s Virtual Theatre Festival), and various other short plays and monologues. He was the founding artistic director of Promethean Theatre Ensemble and is a former member of Strawdog Theatre Company, the side project, and Lost Note Theatre Company. Mr. Murray holds a degree in theatre from Northwestern University.

Roughing It

by Judy Klass (Nashville, TN)

Directed by Jacob Dybwad

A family begins a summer of camping out in a family friend’s big yard. One daughter seems into it. One is definitely not — until her sister has a talk with her, alone, about what is really going on.

About the playwright

Eight of Judy’s full-length plays have been produced. Cell was nominated for an Edgar and is published by Samuel French/Concord. Country Fried Murder won the S.O.P.S. competition and was produced at the Shawnee Playhouse in Pennsylvania in 2019. Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One won the Dorothy Silver Award, and was produced in Chaffin’s Barn Theatre in Nashville in 2019. Kimberly in Overdrive was in the OPPA! New Works Festival in Layton, Utah, in 2020. Thirty-five of Judy’s short plays have been produced, many with multiple productions all over the US. A few have gone up in the UK and Ireland. Three are published, each as a stand-alone script, by Brooklyn Publishers. Others have appeared in magazines and in anthologies like The Art of the One-Act. One is in press in The Best New Ten-Minute Plays 2021, to be published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Others have been turned into podcasts and Zoom productions. Judy grew up in New York and New Jersey. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee (she’s also a songwriter) and teaches at Vanderbilt University. You can learn more about her at www.judy-klass.com

The Bees

by Ryan Armstrong (Aurora, CO)

Directed by Katie Spokely

Explaining love, and otherwise, to a child, who may be holding back all they may know.

About the playwright

Ryan is a published author, playwright, poet, and short story author. His one act play “Al Was Right” and “The Rain Problem” have been published by Heuer Publishing. “The Mystery of the Rabbit Hole” as part of “G-Men in G-Strings: The J. Edgar Hoover Follies” with Heuer and “The Tree Brothers” for 31 Plays in 31 Days website have been published as well. Several other plays have been produced throughout the United States.

Lift

by Heidi Kraay (Boise, ID)

Directed by Dawn Gunderson

A woman with terminal cancer takes a last balloon ride up to the troposphere and meets a young albatross who helps her die the way she wants, a gift that will help him earn a mate.

About the playwright

Playwright, writer and theater maker Heidi Kraay examines the link between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Her work pulls myth, metaphor and monsters together to attempt connections across difference. Plays include Unwind: Hindsight is 2020, see in the dark, How To Hide Your Monster, New Eden, Me and My Shadowand Kilgore, along with co-devised plays, one-acts, plays for young audiences and short plays. Her work has been presented where she lives in Boise, Idaho, regionally, in NYC and internationally, most recently through Playwrights’ Round Table, Trinity Street Players, Georgia’s One Minute Play Festival, HomeGrown Theatre, Tomo Suru Players, Thingamajig Theatre Company and The Alternative Theatre Company. Her work has been awarded funding from several Boise city and Idaho state grants. Heidi holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts from California Institute of Integral Studies and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. www.heidikraay.com

Distilled

by Ariel Wethern (Fargo, ND)

Directed by C.C. Manstrom

A dead plant brings into question the commitment of promise for one couple.

About the playwright

Ariel Wethern holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Industry from Minnesota State University of Moorhead. She has previously been published in the Fargo, ND based literary journal “The Poetry Rag” and is currently battling procrastination to complete her debut novel. Ariel resides in North Dakota with her troupe of finicky indoor plants: Simon & Garfunkel, David Byrne, Billie Holiday, and Stevie Nicks.

Virtual First Date

by William Ivor Fowkes

Directed by Brenna Lahren

During the COVID-19 crisis, a man and a woman attempt a first date on FaceTime.

About the playwright

William Ivor Fowkes is a playwright and author based in New York and a member of the Dramatists Guild. His plays have been presented in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Many have been broadcast on the radio, on podcasts, and online; many have been published. His fiction has been published in many literary journals. His full-length plays include ALL IN THE FACULTY (Dramatists Play Service), INCIDENT IN CONFERENCE ROOM B (Cimientos at IATI Theater 2020), PRIVATE PROPERTY (Players’ Ring 2018), MUSEUM LOVERS (Harlequin Productions 2017), SUNSHINE QUEST (Fresh Fruit Festival 2014), COUPLE OF THE CENTURY (Downtown Urban Theater Festival), THE BEST PLACE WE’VE EVER LIVED (Love Creek Productions), THE GERMAN LESSON (Great Plains Theatre Conference Playlabs), and others. His short film, THE BRAZILIAN DILEMMA, is available on Amazon Prime Video. A graduate of Yale University (B.A., magna cum laude) and Northwestern (M.A., PhD), he was formerly a philosophy professor and a media & television executive. He currently runs a playwrights’ group at the Dramatists Guild in New York. www.williamivorfowkes.com

Choices

by James McLindon (Northampton, MA)

Directed by Lori Koenig

A debtor burdened by crushing student loans is offered a way out … but is the deal too good to be true?

About the playwright

James McLindon’s plays have been produced or developed at theaters across America, Ireland, the UK and the world, including the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Lark, PlayPenn, hotINK Festival, Irish Repertory, CAP21, Samuel French Festival, Victory Gardens, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Hudson Stage Company, Abingdon, New Repertory, Lyric Stage, Detroit Rep, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Seven Devils, Telluride Playwrights Festival, Ashland New Plays Festival, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Colony Theatre, Theatricum Botanicum, Circus Theatricals, and Arkansas Rep. They have been published by Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Kraus, and Applause Books.