L.C. Bernadine

Two transport agents who work in the so-called “troubled teen industry” are hired by a desperate mother to legally kidnap her child in the middle of the night, and deliver them to a residential school in Utah. Agent Deanna Nash is new to the gig and is not quite prepared for what she will encounter at the 3AM pick-up of 15-year-old Neela. Nash and her boss get Neela as far as the airport before Neela's brother shows up and Neela attempts to bolt, but-– by contract with the transport service-- no move she can make will result in her return home. What does it mean to try to contain what we can’t control, and what happens when containment is no longer an option? Desperation looks different, depending which side you’re on-- and so does compassion.

A fresh new adaptation of this granddaddy of all Westerns, the 1902 novel THE VIRGINIAN created the genre of the literary Western and the archetype of the cowboy hero. Never named, rough-hewn but silver-tongued, living on the frontier between nature and civilization, the Virginian pursues his own singular code of honor while falling in love with the fiercely independent Molly Wood, and battling the forces at work against him, from loneliness to his deadly enemy, a former ranch hand turned rustler.
The publication of THE VIRGINIAN marked a definitive moment in embedding the archetype of the cowboy hero in the American psyche, where, to quote one Western scholar, “it continues to thrive like the hardest weed that ever grew on the American cultural landscape.” THE VIRGINIAN is a western fairy tale with a high-stakes plot that explores myth and myth-making, and the loneliness sometimes at the heart of human motivation.
The last stage adaptation of this novel---which influenced countless books and films from Lonesome Dove to Star Wars-- was more than 100 years ago. This new adaptation was commissioned by City Lit Theater in Chicago, and ran to rave reviews in 2022. (A sample attached below; full script available upon request)

Seeking to get away from a variety of messes, some of which are borderline illegal, Danni has fled to a distant suburb where he rents a modest home with a big backyard that seems to promise peace, quiet, relief. He's welcomed in cheerful but vaguely desperate ways by the home's owner, Wilson, who is recently divorced and fixated on an unusual project he has neglected to mention: he intends to find his new life and prove his worth by becoming part of a program building "tiny homes" for the homeless in local backyards. Starting with his own. Experience as a landlord, something Wilson lacks, is critical to being approved, as is support from Danni, who for reasons of his own is opposed to the program and all its 'delusional altruism.' REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS is a dark comedy about grand gestures and second chances, and what it can mean to get less than you deserve and more than you bargained for.
(Note: This play in its first draft was called YARD WORK)

IS YOU IS by L.C. Bernadine, Erik Olsen, and Nik Whitcomb.
Taking place in 1930s and present-day Chicago, IS YOU IS is a new musical with a jazz-meets-musical-theatre score about The Field Museum’s 1933 exhibit “The Races of Mankind” and its impact on one public school employee, the immigrant and “socially maladjusted” students she cares for during the Depression, and the modern day students who 80 years later find themselves involved in the restoration of this mesmerizing but indefensible blockbuster exhibition, which fed false notions of race to millions.
(full score/demos available upon request; some demos attached via soundcloud link here)

Preparing for the future is not what it used to be, especially for a young person whose living situation is unstable, and who believes that the 'safety net' is dead. Dropped off at a movie theatre, Casey is panicked at their inability to find the aunt who came with them or so it seems to the young usher (Wagner) who tries to help Casey, at the same time that Wagner labels Casey as (possibly) homeless. Wagner does their best to put into practice what they've learned in their first few days of training, but Casey is working on a training of their own: practicing for what they believe is the abandonment that could very well be the next event in their chaotic life.

Bo Han, a student from gritty Datong City, China, is about to start her second summer as a so-called "J-1" worker at a Wisconsin resort, where she'll join hundreds of other foreign students in cheery uniforms, scooping ice cream and learning about the darker side of U.S. vacationland.

Lured by promises of cultural exchange, but imported on J-1 visas as cheap summer labor, Bo's starry-eyed fellow students have no idea what they're in for-- not just from their resort jobs, but from Bo herself, who is sick of being at the bottom of the barrel and determined to kick the barrel over. Getting what she wants, however, involves applying what she's learned from American business a little too adeptly, and turning the sweet-tempered Ahmet, a fellow student from Mauritius, into her own personal housekeeper, room cleaner and wage worker until she can pull off what she's planning.

WILL THE CIRCLE by L.C. Bernadine & Kevin Welch
Are "micro-clans" really a trend for the coming decade, as a magazine article recently announced, along with bullet-proof houses and armored communities? In an era when violence simmers at the edge of every day and every neighborhood, connection may be what we crave, but too often what we get is toxic stress, "lurking in everyone now," says one character in WILL THE CIRCLE, "like HPV." And what better way to combat the stress than by trying to get to know your neighbors, one home invasion at a time?
Set at a Chicago neighborhood block party, WILL THE CIRCLE is a sharp comedy, featuring the songs of the great Americana "roots" musician Kevin Welch. This small-cast, single-set, contemporary musical follows a group of anxious young apartment dwellers adrift in a sea of homeowners, each struggling to create the circle that may or may not ever end up including them, and doing their best to joke their way out of the fear that comes with a world full of endlessly terrifying news cycles.
For Annalise and her friends, creating the 'micro-clan' they think will provide what they're each missing risks more than they anticipate, including the one person who would like to be let in by them: Annalise's fiancé Peter, with whom she is afraid to create the smallest circle of all.
Block parties may be the beer-and-barbecue equivalent of 'Keep Calm and Carry On," but circling the wagons inevitably causes problems of its own, as the characters in WILL THE CIRCLE soon discover.
Fueled by the massively fun (and sometimes deeply moving) songs of the Oklahoma-born songwriter Kevin Welch, WILL THE CIRCLE reminds us that the world is still coming at us, no matter how hard we might try to keep it out. Or as one song puts it:
"SAINTS ARE JUST SINNERS WHO NEVER QUIT TRYING
LOSERS ARE WINNERS WHO JUST PICK THE WRONG DAY
WE'RE ALL BEGINNERS WHEN IT COMES TIME FOR DYING
YOU CAN REST YOUR MIND EASY CAUSE YOU'LL DIE ANYWAY."

How do you change your story? Do you re-write history? Catch a different train? Lie, invent, switch partners? Or do you just throw yourself headlong into the life you think you want?

BORDERLANDS follows the ups and downs of a group of musicians and songwriters, gathered to trade tales in a beat-up bar, and to toast the return of a mysterious friend. Connected in more ways than they can count, they do their best to shore each other up and cheer each other on, all the while taking care not to reveal too many secrets as they stumble to find their own "three chords and the truth."

Inspired by tales in the short story collection "A Guitar and a Pen", BORDERLANDS takes a look at the crazy things we do on the divide between success and failure, as we strive to hit our marks--- or to change our stories once and for all.