Curated by Beth Lincks,
TBG Literary Manager
First scene, first seen!
The beginning of a play can be the hardest part to get right. Spring Forward, in honor of the beginning of daylight savings time, on March 13th, is TBG’s first annual reading of first scenes from a half dozen new plays and works-in-progress by emerging and established playwrights.
BERNHARD by Lynn Rosen
During war time – when up is down, love is death, and spit takes are a lot less funny – young Bernhard tries to keep his promise to “not die.” But is living an option too?
CIVILIANS by Cassandra Medley
Three African-American women suddenly become innocent neighborhood victims during the infamous War On Drugs.
THE HUMAN COURT by Jessica Dickey
When a caretaker with a background in voodoo arrives to help a man put his wife into a home for Dementia, the contracts of love must be renegotiated.
THE MOURNERS’ BENCH by George Brant
The story of a living room and its three sets of inhabitants, all struggling to overcome the tragedy that took place within its walls.
SOME NIGHT DRIVING by Tracy Carns
An orphaned teen dreaming of Hollywood stirs up trouble at a truckstop café on the outskirts of a small Montana town.
And, with the permission of his estate, we are very happy to include the first scene of one of James McLure’s last plays, THE BASEBALL GAME OF THE WEEK, a funny meditation on progress, memory and baseball.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS…..
George Brant’s plays include Grounded, Elephant’s Graveyard, Grizzly Mama, and Marie & Rosetta. His scripts have been awarded the Kennedy Center’s David Cohen National Playwriting Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the Smith Prize and the Keene Prize for Literature. He is published by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus.
Tracy Carns is a NYC-based playwright and the editor of the Overlook Press’s drama list. Her plays include Take Me Down, Guns and Knives, Verita, Some Night Driving, Straight Through, Cocks in a Box, and An Alternative Alternative Theory of Dark Matter.
Jessica Dickey is an award-winning actor and playwright most known for her one woman show The Amish Project (Rattlestick). Plays include Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick), Row After Row (Women’s Project) and The Guard (Ford’s Theatre. Jessie is a member of New Dramatists and a board member for the New Harmony Project.
James McLure (1951 – 2011) is the author of Lone Star, PVT Wars, and Laundry and Bourbon. The Baseball Game of the Week, one of his last plays, was developed at New River Dramatists.
Cassandra Medley is a member of Ensemble Studio Theater. Winner of the 2006 August Wilson Playwriting Award, Most recently produced plays include: “American Slavery Project,” 2012-13, NYC, “Cell,” Molelo Theater-San Diego, California, “Cell,” Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2011.
Lynn Rosen is currently a playwright in residence at New Dramatists with work produced at New Georges, Women’s Project, EST, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Studio Theatre, Centerstage Baltimore and more. She also co-created/co-writes the comedy series DARWIN, which was named one of the Top Ten Web Series of 2015 by Paste Magazine.
This event is free of charge.