Debora Threedy

How can we comprehend good people doing horrible things? What happens when an entire community conspires to cover up the truth? The play weaves together two stories connected by the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a shameful episode in American history, when Mormon settlers, believing they were on the verge of war, killed an entire wagon train of California-bound emigrants and blamed it on Native Americans. Two women, separated by decades, insist on knowing the truth. "The truth suppressed is a kind of lie." Juanita Brooks

What if, when Portia goes to court against Shylock, it's not the first time she has cross-dressed? The play explores the "back story" of Portia's cross-dressing and her introduction to the law, as she rebels against the gender constraints of Renaisance Italy with advice and instruction from her lawyer cousin, Bellario, who is also a gender/sexual outsider. It follows the progression of Merchant of Venice, but all of the scenes occur "offstage" from Shakespeare's play, as Portia matures from a naive girl experiencing her first crush to a married woman struggling to understand the sexual and emotional complexities of commitment in a non-traditional relationship.

One Big Union is a play with music about the death of Joe Hill, a Wobbly songwriter executed in 1915 by the state of Utah for a murder he may or may not have committed. Considered a martyr by organized labor, his songs envisioned gender and racial equality and criticized the gross income disparities of his time. Joe Hill remains an enigmatic folk hero but beyond the mythology lies a larger story of protest, still relevant a century after his death.

The Third Crossing deals with race in America. More specifically, it deals with inter-racial sexual relationships and the impact our society’s prejudices have on those who dare to love across the color line. It also deals with how the offspring of inter-racial relationships trouble our conceptions of racial identity and the price of "passing". A theatrical collage of scenes and monologues, the narrative arc of the play centers on the story of the “founding couple” of inter-racial relationships, Tom Jefferson and Sally Hemings. But the play includes a number of other viewpoints and stories that comment on or reflect in some way that “founding story.” There are scenes based on lectures by a feminist scholar studying Sally Hemings, excerpts from actual trials for violations of anti-miscegenation laws, a conversation with the plaintiffs in the historic case that struck down such laws, a survivor's memories of a hate crime, and others.

The play was inspired in part by the raid on the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) church compound in Texas, when some 400 children were taken into protective custody, and the subsequent litigation regarding custody that was precedent-setting in family law circles. The protagonist of the play is a young woman attorney, Karen, who volunteers to represent one of the teen age girls in protective custody. This brings her in conflict with the girl's mother, a polygamist wife.

An alligator and a green heron become unlikely friends as they are forced to find a new home by the effects of a changing climate. A gentle story to allow young audiences to think about one of the more pressing concerns of the twenty-first century.

A female buddy story, based upon a true story, the play follows two young women as they explore the deserts of Southern California in 1929-31, "making pictures" that capture a transitional moment as the last vestiges of the frontier yield to the modern age. "Thelma and Louise" with a happy(er) ending.