Peter Snoad

Tom Galloway is depressed. Grieving the loss of his life partner, and recently retired, he has no idea what to do with the rest of his life. His book club buddies help him brainstorm possibilities, and Tom finds that the climate crisis stirs his passion. He vows to volunteer with a climate research project based at a local university.

But Tom never follows through, stymied by fear of failure and a series of surreal visions of his own violent demise. Fortunately, he gains confidence and strength from the support of his fellow book lovers – particularly Izzy, a college student and climate activist. Izzy had joined the book club while in high school at Tom’s invitation. The experience was a lifesaver, and Izzy is determined to repay his kindness by helping him find new meaning in his life. Will Tom become a warrior for the planet, too?

Small-town librarian Meredith Stafford and her husband Beau are losing the struggle for the perfect lawn. Invasive weeds and pesky moles have made an unholy mess of their front yard. Meredith decides to “go wild”, replacing the decimated lawn with a “natural” landscape. When she’s fined for violating a local lawn ordinance, she’s incensed: their son, Johnny, a Marine, gave his life in Iraq to defend their rights and freedoms.

Meredith decides to challenge the ordinance in court. While she loses the case, she becomes a social media sensation. And that launches her on a bizarre journey that shakes her faith in America as a bastion of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Unbeknown to Meredith, a multinational corporation allied with corrupt politicians is poised to make millions from marketing a highly toxic new lawn treatment called New Dawn. By spreading the “go wild” gospel, Meredith is seen as a threat to the company's bottom line – and she becomes the target of an orchestrated smear campaign. She is falsely accused of a terrorist attack on her own home. She loses her job. And she and is shunned by members of her church. But with the aid of an environmental group and sympathetic neighbors, Meredith clears her name and helps expose the New Dawn scam. Meanwhile, with the “go wild” movement now a national and international phenomenon, Meredith and Beau give their now lush and wild front yard a new name: Johnny’s Garden.

A human skull. A cowrie shell. A manumission paper. These and other items unearthed during renovations at the 18th century manse inherited by John Marsh suggest his ancestors were enslavers. The freedom paper refers to an enslaved woman called Violet. And when John’s wife, Betsy, “sees” a young Black woman in period servant’s dress in their living room, she concludes it must be Violet. Betsy becomes obsessed with finding out who Violet was and what happened to her. Her dogged research reveals some unsettling truths: about the Marsh family’s profitable engagement in the slave trade; about local resistance to confronting the community’s hidden history of slavery; and about her husband’s conviction that White people bear no responsibility for addressing slavery’s legacy. The experience causes Betsy to question her marriage, her priorities, and her future.

As a child, Matt Barnett was sexually abused for five years by his evangelical Christian father. Soon after his father's sudden death, Matt leaves home for a fresh start, and carves out a new life for himself overseas, working as an energy consultant. Now, more than two decades later, he returns to Vermont after learning from his widowed younger brother, Luke, that their dementia-stricken mother is dying. Luke is a teacher who still lives in the local community with his 16-year-old daughter, Enaj. Quietly passionate about Native American rights and culture, Luke is helping to fight a gas pipeline project that threatens an ancient Abenaki burial ground.

Matt has always believed his mother was complicit in the abuse – and as part his own healing process, he wants to learn the truth before it’s too late. But the conversation never happens: his mother dies soon after his arrival. Luke then reveals that he is fatally sick with cancer and asks Matt to become Enaj’s guardian after his death and to move back to Vermont to be with her. For Matt, that would mean living once again in the community of his traumatized childhood. His love, loyalty and resilience are tested as never before.

Boston, Massachusetts. 1979. The city is racked by racial violence over court-ordered busing to achieve school desegregation. Serena Fox, an African-American college student, takes a class on the history of racism and becomes captivated by the ideas and passion of David Walker, the influential but unheralded 19th century black abolitionist.

After receiving several "visits" from him -- "Is this his ghost or am I going crazy?”-- Serena is convinced that Walker, who officially died of lung disease, may have been assassinated by the agents of Southern planters alarmed by his incendiary writings.

Determined to learn the truth about his death, she leads a campaign to build a memorial at his unmarked gravesite in South Boston – and to exhume his remains. Her controversial quest triggers a media backlash, hate calls, and a rupture in her relationship with her white boyfriend. But Walker’s inspirational example gives her strength and a belief that she could play a leadership role in the contemporary struggle for racial justice.

It's a growing phenomenon that no one wants to talk about: White people are turning Black. On the eve of his wedding, Alan Guthrie learns it's about to happen to him. The veteran slacker/stoner is freaked--not least because his prospective father-in-law would do everything in his power to prevent his daughter marrying a black man. Alan's solution? Persuade his identical twin brother, who is gay, to impersonate him at the ceremony. The desperate ruse launches Alan and his co-conspirators on a madcap pre-nuptial adventure involving organic vegetables, ventriloquism, a golfing accident--and some serious identity issues.

Joe Bell was a celebrity—a popular tour guide at Elmwood Hall, a famous Gilded Age mansion in Rhode Island. But for the last 14 years, Joe has been in jail. The African American guide known for his encyclopedic knowledge and folksy charm was convicted of burning down the historic mansion he once so proudly showed to visitors.

It’s now 1986, and the world has forgotten about Joe Bell. But not Susanna Hatch. The young white law student believes Joe was framed by the FBI as part of its campaign against black militants in the turbulent Civil Rights era. And she’s determined to prove his innocence. Some basic inconsistencies in the case give her grounds for hope. For one thing, Joe’s motivation for the crime was never adequately explained: he had a passionate—and scandalous—affair with the mansion’s wealthy owner, Lindsay Pettigrew, after she hired him as a tour guide. Why would Joe have destroyed something so precious to his lover? There were no eyewitnesses, and the prosecution’s case rested entirely on forensic evidence that could have been manufactured. Moreover, Susanna doesn’t believe Joe is crazy, as his defense lawyer argued in mitigation at his trial.

Susanna goes to interview Joe in the prison psychiatric unit where he’s confined. While she wants justice for Joe, she’s also desperate to learn the truth for personal reasons: Lindsay Pettigrew was her grandmother, and she had always idealized Joe and Lindsay as a pure and perfect love union. Plagued by doubts about her own current romantic relationship, Susanna hopes for confirmation that true love can endure and triumph.

As she discovers, the truth is rarely simple—and sometimes shocking. Joe reveals that he did, indeed, burn down Elmwood Hall and that he and Lindsay planned it together. It was a symbolic act against oppression and exploitation, but one born out of love. They wanted to be together forever, and the mansion, with all its history and associations, stood in their way.

Al saw a buddy blown up in front of his eyes by a booby-trap bomb; the image still haunts him more than 40 years later. Tom talked his way out of a lynching by college students who called him a “commie faggot’ for organizing to stop the war. Jay went into self-imposed exile in Canada. Randy went to jail for refusing to cooperate with the draft system. Frank got a medical exemption – with the help of a fake X-ray from a sympathetic family doctor – and became a draft counselor to other working-class kids who had seen friends go “over there” and come home in a box or a wheelchair. Penny saw the suffering and the carnage first-hand as a nurse in a field hospital in Vietnam.

“The Draft” is an interweaving of the real-life stories of 10 young Americans – eight men and two women – whose lives were shaped and forever changed by the military draft during the Vietnam War (or “The American War”, as the Vietnamese call it.) The play examines the choices they made when confronted with the draft and the personal impact of those choices then and since. With the U.S. embroiled in ongoing military campaigns overseas, “The Draft” asks provocative and relevant questions about moral choice, the meaning of patriotism, and the impacts of war and militarism.

www.vietnamdraftplay.com

The wealthy suburb of Nirvana, California is home to a nuclear weapons production plant as well as the Nirvana Community Players. The local thespians have long dreamed of winning the annual award for the state’s best community theatre production. And this year artistic director Jonathan Sinclair—whose day job is designing missiles—is certain they will finally triumph with Noel Coward’s "Present Laughter". The one problem is the lead role: Jonathan can’t find the right actor to play Garry Essendine, the matinee idol at the center of Coward’s classic comedy.

Enter a man dressed as Mars, the Roman god of war. He wants to read for the part. And he blackmails Jonathan into casting him as Essendine, threatening to expose him for cheating on his wife and participating in a secret CIA project to provoke America’s next war. Desperate to save his career and his marriage—and to stay out of jail—Jonathan tries to convince the other core members of the theatre company that Mars, always in full regalia and answering to no other name, is perfect for the lead role in Present Laughter. Naturally, it’s a tough sell. Is “Mars” crazy? A terrorist? Or just a harmless eccentric with identity issues?

But Mars’ charm and personal magnetism are persuasive. He’s soon a local celebrity, inspiring high school students with classes and skits on Roman mythology. The clincher is a movie deal: a major studio decides to film the Nirvana Community Players’ production of "Present Laughter" – or rather an adaptation by Mars called "Present Slaughter" – as “reality theatre”. The new version is set in Roman times and stars Mars as a vain and sexually impotent Caesar obsessed with fighting imperial wars.

In the dramatic climax of this spoof on militarism and celebrity culture, violence intrudes and the boundaries between myth and reality blur….

During a chance conversation in a park, two apparent strangers make an unusual connection: they occasionally say the same things at exactly the same time. Why? One of them has an outrageous theory – and takes dramatic steps to prove it.

After a class reunion, two old high school buddies go to a rock concert for a trip down memory lane. Everyone there is white like them. Which makes one of them very uncomfortable. What’s a woke dude to do?

Two strangers meet at a bus-stop and find different meaning in a single word. Will it change their lives?

Art for Art's sake? In a modern art museum, an artist wearing only body graffiti and a thong asserts the validity of their own living art exhibit. One visitor isn't buying it -- but Art wins out.

A teenage environmental activist explains to her priest how killing her sexually abusive father has helped stop global warming.

Robert climbs a mountain in search of peace and quiet. Instead, he meets an engaging stranger who convinces him to make an unusual commitment.

Mr. Gross, a successful New York businessman, craves silence. And fantasy meets reality when he buys a remote Pacific island as the ultimate sound-proof getaway.

All multi-tasking Rebecca wants is her bagel and cream cheese. What could possibly go wrong?

They haven’t seen each other in years. And when Walter comes to town, he invites Andy to join him for a drink. But the man Andy meets looks radically different from his old friend. And an even bigger surprise awaits...

Seven-year-old Maddy cares deeply about “Bertha”, the ancient Chinese cork tree in a local park. And her commitment inspires action to heal a family wound.

Christle seeks to woo Assaf with her homemade apple pie. Will he bite?