The Avant Bard’s 8th Annual Scripts in Play Festival hosted by the Avant Bard Theatre Company,will begin on January 19th and run through February 4th. As usual, we will have talk backs with the playwright, actors, directors and dramaturg after each reading. Wine and cheese will be served. Last year was our most successful festival yet, and many of the readings “sold out.” As President of the Board, I invite you to join us for this exciting event and ask you to please consider becoming a sponsor. This is a FREE event to all and will be taking place at the Museum of Contemporary in Arlington and the Mason Exhibitions Art Gallery also in Arlington. We are really trying to lift up our work as an Arlington Theatre Company.
Here is information on how to become a sponsor. Read about the original plays we plan to showcase below.
Tofana
Julia Marks (local playwright)
In 17th century Italy, women had three options: get married, join a convent, or become a prostitute. Unless, of course, you consider the fourth option: become a widow. Giulia Tofana, hand-in-hand with her mother, daughter, and a vast web of women, created an untraceable poison disguised as makeup. Aqua Tofana was behind the murder of 600 men…and the agency of 600 women. In a world without choice, how far will women go to help each other build their collective power? Tofana explores women’s anger, their fear, and their desire to keep loving. Tofana tells the true story of Renaissance women who attempted to have a voice in their own story, and suffered the consequences. Although they lived in a period of great knowledge, there are very few extant texts from female writers from that time, just as there are very few dramatic texts from women from before the mid-20th century. We know Giulia and her family of poisoners existed– but all records of her come from the hands of men. Her life comes to us colored by myth, and we are left to guess at the truth of it. How do we engage with characters knowing their writers were (perhaps unconsciously) prejudiced against them? What is our responsibility to carry their stories forward? And how can we ever hope to know a true story?
Historic Doubts
Luke Sorge (local playwright )
A century before the Shakespeare authorship debate, a young Lutheran pastor publishes a satirical book comparing the Bard’s authenticity to Jesus Christ’s divinity. With the help of renowned actress Charlotte Cushman, he overcomes his writer’s block and believes he’s ended atheistic arguments once and for all. But when the book is taken literally, his ensuing crisis of confidence leads to a crisis of faith… and a reckoning with the true meaning of Shakespeare. Historic Doubts is not only based on true events, featuring real historical figures, but the story also grapples with arguably the two most influential texts in human history: the Bible and Shakespeare’s works. The enduring impact of the words themselves are much more interesting than who wrote them. In this way, Historic Doubts is absolutely in conversation — at one point, quite literally — with time-tested classics.
Walter Mercado presents: a queer Puerto Rican (not just) Christmxs Carol
Jayne (JC) Deely (NYC playwright )
We all need a little help sometimes. Identity is confusing. Dating is HARD. Some of us go to therapy. And some of us – wait until it gets bad enough that our dead abuela (who’s lookin HOT, btw) sends three Puerto Rican ancestors/icons our way on Christmas Eve to get us back on track by taking us on a tour of our past, present, and future. It was just supposed to be three dates, but Walter has other plans for Zee. “Walter Mercado presents: a queer Puerto Rican (not just) Christmas Carol” is a queer subversion of the classic ‘Christmas Carol’ narrative, a refreshing holiday story about Puerto Rico, progress, gender, and accepting a helping hand from some unexpected ancestors. In subverting the classic literary narrative of Dickens’ Christmas Carol to tell the story of a Puerto Rican nonbinary protagonist and the Puerto Rican ‘ancestors’ who guide them, we are claiming a place within the theatre for a new type of classic, one that diverges from the traditional, largely white, cis canon, especially when it comes to what we expect from a holiday show. Step aside, Scrooge?