←Recommendations of THE GHOSTS OF LOTE BRAVO

I would like to read about it

Sad and powerful and full of magic, love and despair. A glimpse into a desperate existence we don't usually come across in our day-to day lives.

Grim and lyrical, this is a play with a conscience and with a grasp of the theatrically magical. It has one foot in the hyperreal and one in the supernatural, but its dramatization of human connections, and the depths of human feeling, is transcendent.

I had the honor and privilege of seeing this work at the Unicorn. It is haunting, beautiful, hard-hitting. I still think about it and see the images in my mind months later. It is a piece that needs to be performed across the country. Hilary Bettis has crafted something amazing that needs to be seen by everyone.

This play was developed at The National New Play Network MFA Playwrights Workshop. This program, conducted annually in conjunction with The Kennedy Center and the National Center for New Plays, provides a graduate–level student playwright with an NNPN-affiliated director and dramaturg, a professional cast for a week of script development, and an introduction to the Network, its Membership, and programs. The play also received an NNPN Rolling World Premiere. The partnering NNPN Member Theaters were Borderlands Theatre (Tuscon, AZ) Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland, OH).

The Ghosts of Lote Bravo by Hilary Bettis received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The partnering NNPN Member Theaters were Borderlands Theater (Tucson, AZ) and Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO).

What a haunting, gorgeous, wrenchingly poetic story. Hilary crafts such a specific and gritty atmosphere with her words--it would be fascinating to tackle this piece as a director or designer. This play pulls no punches, grinding us into the stark realities on which we so often turn a blind eye. But somehow, in the midst of the blood and the pain, Hilary makes space to dream of hope. To me, that's an exciting starting point for production, because it can leave the audience galvanized to action in the world outside the theater rather than just beaten by a tragedy.

A beautiful study of lives lived and lost, and a look at the the lengths to which humans will go for the opportunity to make the next day better for themselves and those they love. Bettis' ability to weave the dark beauty of belief with the desperation and unrelenting want of these women is powerful and highly theatrical. I can't wait to see it produced.