Darrah Cloud

3 young women--all immigrants to the United States--cross the Atlantic on the SS Manhattan as part of the first women's gymnastics team sent to the 1936 Olympics. On the ship, they negotiate itchy dresses and proper heels while also negotiating the vast ocean they crossed once going the other way, to freedom. It is here that they meet Jesse Owens, part of the men's team, and come to terms with both the pain and pride of what it truly means to be Americans. This is a play about immigrants, about what it takes to get to the Olympics, and about freedom.

The Costume Shop in the basement of the Masonic Temple, Bloomington, Illinois, home of the First Original American Passion Play, performed every year since 1924 at Lent: as their first pick for Jesus struggles to play the part, his wife, a young seamstress, pushes him to realize her dreams of forgiving the world for the loss of their child… what Connie, Loyce, Ellen, Jenny, Jesus, John and Judas say in the Costume Shop stays in the Costume Shop… a tragi-comedy of redemption at the hands of costumers.

An homage to Our Town set in Skokie, Illinois in 1977, the year the Nazis tried to march in this predominantly Jewish suburb of Chicago. 2 families wrestle with the coming event: one Jewish, one not... as their children fall in love and suffer at the hands of an America no one really knows.

At the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, a kind social worker interviews a young victim who is reluctant to talk at all--until Miles the puppet steps in...

A newly adolescent boy wakes up one morning to discover he has transformed into a cockroach. As the reality of this sets in--and after his hysterical mother drags him to every doctor she can think of--he laments his loss of the role of Romeo in the school play, the reactions of his friends and classmates, and a future which does not guarantee he will ever "get better". Charmed by a famous Harvard scientist, he allows himself to be studied there, to almost-disastrous results... but discovers his place in nature as a part of something big and important, and finally claims his identity.

Joan is a very young teenager when she begins hearing the voices of saints. She vows to follow them. Her sister, her father, her best friend Daniel, all try to talk her out of it, but she won't listen. Daniel loans her his old clothes--clothes that are illegal for a female to wear in those times--and she sets off on a journey alone to fight for France her way--a girl's way.

1936 At the Captain's Ball on the SS Manhattan, 3 immigrant female gymnasts in their 20s cross the ocean back to the Europe they fled with their families--and on their way to the Berlin Olympics as a part of the first American women's gymnastics team. On the ship, they get to know each other, and ultimately meet Jesse Owens, sitting alone at a table as the dance music plays...

At the Center of Child Abuse Prevention, an 8-year-old girl is interviewed by a social worker, who brings in an unusual assistant to help with a tragic case.