Lauren Holmes

In a park in Boston, dog owners gather regularly to let their dogs run around off leash — against park rules. Rose, esteemed elder and pit bull advocate, has just adopted a behemoth twice her size. Kostas, an out-of-work construction worker, obsesses over his geriatric pug’s safety. Phil, a happy-go-lucky contractor with a goldendoodle, coaches retirees Ken and Joan on training their demonic pandemic puppy. Loretta, a recent empty-nester, fixates on teaching her German Shepherd new tricks. And then there’s Jaya, a shy nurse who’s just moved to the city, and her Great Pyrenees mutt: they’re newcomers to the pack, and must learn its customs and behaviors. As the seasons pass, they all must overcome constant threats to their dog park society — from other park goers, from park rangers, and from each other. With mimed dogs and the repetitive motions of care turned into (bad) dance.

Recent retirees Tom and Joan have hit the road in their new RV, ready to experience the next phase of their lives. When cash gets tight, they pick up work in a warehouse. What happens when our working lives never end?

Patricia returns home from her fourth stint at rehab—the old-people-hip-and-knee-surgery kind—to her solitary routine: pizza from Tony’s, Jeopardy, Dunkies, and a jug of Carlo Rossi wine. Finally, some visitors stop by to say hi, or maybe stay longer, or maybe take Patricia with them—back to wherever they came from.

Two Boston-based psychic mediums host a regular community-access TV show in front of a live studio audience. At this taping, things go swimmingly -- people are communing with the spirits of their dead pets and relatives -- until an audience member asks for the impossible: to send a message back across the divide.

Wilson is about a a guy named Wilson who runs a campground in the Mojave desert and fancies himself an expert UFOlogist. His life has been turned upside down by COVID— and he has some interesting thoughts about that he'd like to share with you. Guests have all canceled their vacations, except Penny, a young woman just dumped by her girlfriend, waiting out the pandemic in her tent, and freeloading off of him. This suits him just fine until a new aerospace company buys the land right out from under the campground, threatening his livelihood and his sanity. The play deals with the history of land use in California, the ways ideas spread, and the types of people who escape to the desert. It ultimately asks what is scarier: alien abductions, or the inescapable powers of the market?

It's just another day at the gaming factory for Nico: a rapt audience on his livestream, snacks delivered by his mom, no distractions, no cares in the world. Until his sister arrives home to stay for a while. She's aghast at the creature he's become, and the mother that's enabled it. They're all negotiating new, Internet-enabled ways of living and making a living, wondering what they've been forced to give up along the way.

A story about Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and Italian immigrant community of Boston, told through traditional Italian folk music, work songs, and communal dance.