Devin Porter

A Black father writes a letter to his future son, imagining the joy of raising him while confronting the fear that the world may never see his child’s innocence. As he walks through each stage of his son’s life—from first steps to adulthood—his love is shadowed by the constant threat of racial violence and the pressure to protect him from it. The piece asks: How does a father prepare a child for a world he wishes he could shield him from entirely?

A father reflects on the rigid, harmful version of masculinity he inherited and how it shaped the way he treated his son. As he finally confronts his own upbringing, he chooses vulnerability, accountability, and love—painting his nails red to stand beside the child he once failed to protect. The piece asks: Can a man unlearn everything he was taught in order to become the father his son truly needs?

At Alpine Creek, Niko reunites with his estranged mother, Yolanda, to confront the massive loan she secretly took out in his name. Their painful conversation uncovers the generational trauma and survival choices that shaped her betrayal as time runs out for both of them. Through carved memories and the fragile offering of her home’s title, the play asks whether forgiveness can repair what’s been broken.

Owen reflects on how his parents’ violent arguments shattered his childhood innocence and shaped the broken patterns he carried into adulthood. Now, after losing his own family and beginning therapy, he must decide whether he can rebuild himself from the pieces—can broken crayons really still color?

Malachi, a call‑center worker under strict evaluation, is suddenly contacted by his estranged sister for the first time in five years. Her news—that their mother has cancer—forces him to confront the hurt, distance, and complicated history he thought he’d left behind. As he chooses whether to show up for a family that didn’t show up for him, he must ask himself: what kind of man does he want to be when love and loyalty collide?

Kevin fights to secure funding for a field trip that would expose his students to African American history they never see in their textbooks. When the principal shuts the proposal down without explanation, Kevin demands to know why he’s denying these kids access to the history that could change their lives.

Curtis returns to the sacred dirt of Chimayó, seeking a blessing before proposing to Julia, the woman he fell for back in their college days at Santa Fe. As he recalls their unlikely beginning—from ice‑cream‑shop awkwardness to five years of love, growth, and dreaming together—he prepares himself for the moment that could shape the rest of his life. The play asks: Can a little faith and a handful of holy dirt give Curtis the courage to ask for forever?

Javon shares how skipping a simple errand for his mother led to her being at TOPS Supermarket during the 2022 Buffalo mass shooting, a loss that has haunted him for a year. As he returns to her tradition of baking Kearns Pie, he begins to understand the love behind it and searches for a way to move through his grief and guilt. Will honoring her tradition help him heal, or will the weight of what he didn’t do continue to follow him?

Nate visits his grandfather’s grave, unloading the grief, anger, and loneliness he’s been carrying since losing the only person he felt truly understood him. As he vents about family pressure, therapy, and the pain he refuses to face, the truth of how deeply he depended on his grandfather finally breaks through. The piece asks: How does someone learn to heal when the only person they trusted to listen is gone?

Kim walks the same 527 steps home every night, remembering the life she built and the pride she took in her work. One night, a police encounter just 38 steps from her door leaves her blind and forever changes the path she once knew. Now she retraces those steps each year—but how do you keep moving forward when the world keeps repeating the same harm?

A father teaches his nine‑year‑old son how to survive a police encounter, drilling him through a script of compliance that no child should ever have to learn. As the boy begins to question why the world sees him as a threat, Terrence struggles between protecting his son and confronting the painful truth he can’t fully explain. The piece asks: How do you prepare a child for a world that refuses to see his innocence?

Tiffany, a middle‑schooler determined to keep her perfect attendance streak, proudly recalls the daily adventures she once shared with her older brother JJ. When she secretly follows him one morning, she discovers the dangerous reality behind his dream of “the good life” and witnesses the moment everything changes. Now she clings to her attendance record as a way to honor him—but will holding onto perfection help her make sense of what she lost?

A young boy named Alex refuses to go to basketball practice, clinging instead to the imaginative world he’s built with his loyal companion Roger after being bullied at his old school. When Theresa realizes how deeply Alex’s loneliness and their recent family changes have pushed him into that world, she steps into his imagination to meet him where he feels safest. The play asks: Can a parent enter a child’s fantasy long enough to help them face the real world?

When Ekow reaches his breaking point after years of racial bias in their department, he asks his closest friend Aaron to stand beside him in a public protest during Homecoming weekend. Aaron is forced to choose between supporting the cause — and the friend who has always trusted him — or protecting the tenure contract that would secure his family’s future. The play asks: What happens when doing what’s right means risking both your career and the friendship you value most?

After years of living under his father’s suffocating expectations and violent discipline, an eighteen‑year‑old finally reaches a breaking point that pushes him toward a dangerous decision. Now, sitting in therapy for the first time, he must confront whether that “wrong” choice was actually the first step toward saving his life—can the path to the right place really begin with a mistake?

Ben and Darrell relive the legacy of their fraternity, only to confront the painful truth that the Rite of Passage bonded Ben to the brotherhood more than to his own son. As Darrell finally names the hurt his father caused, both men must face whether their relationship can survive the weight of tradition—so what does forgiveness look like when loyalty has already broken you?

Gram Gram tells her grandaughter Lauren how she trained relentlessly to become one of the first women firefighters in 1940s California, only to be rejected because the world refused to let women do that job. Her failure becomes the fuel behind her message: that Lauren must chase the opportunities she never had.

Michael struggles to find his place as a step‑father when Jackson rejects him at every turn, forcing him to confront his own childhood wounds and longing for family. But after witnessing Jackson’s heartbreak on the baseball field, Michael must ask himself: what does it truly mean to show up as a father when you’re not the one they were waiting for?

A child awakens a deactivated teaching robot whose programmed lesson on “What is America?” unfolds through a mechanical retelling of racial violence from Emmett Till to Alton Sterling. As the robot’s battery drains, the child reshapes its body into gestures of resistance until it finally powers down in a kneeling pose. Asking us to wonder whether the next generation will choose to join the protest.

After a chaotic Friday full of out‑of‑control students, Jasmine confesses that she’s on her last warning as a new teacher at Ridge Elementary. As she recounts pepperoni‑on‑the‑ceiling disasters and crayon‑up‑the‑nose emergencies, she fears she’s failing at the one job she desperately needs to keep her home and support her child. When Monday comes, will she hold it together—or lose the job that her whole life depends on?