James Still

Two adult siblings share one profound thing: a violent childhood trauma they both survived and have gone on to very different lives. While the siblings sustain an undeniable and troubled connection through the years, that event from childhood continues to shape their lives in contrasting ways. After losing touch for a couple of years, the sister and brother find themselves on a road trip traveling back to the rural setting of their childhood. Before they reach their destination, a series of mishaps strands them in a small town in the Flint Hills of Kansas where they are unexpectedly caught up in the lives of three locals each of whom have developed their own ways of coping with a quickly changing world.

1637. Plymouth Colony. When two young men discover themselves passionately and inexplicably drawn to one another, their insistence that “there is a nearness between us,” collides with the complex morality of the Puritans and points toward a mysterious and unknown future. Surprisingly, the moral conscience of the play is Governor William Bradford, who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 and is fighting to keep Plymouth true to its mission of being a spiritual community while also being a place governed fairly and with integrity. Inspired by two paragraphs from the Plymouth court records, (A) NEW WORLD shines a light on loves and lives nearly lost to the secrets of history.

Little-known historical footnote: early in the morning of April 16, 1865 when doctors pronounced the death of President Lincoln, Mary Lincoln was taken back to the White House where she refused to go into any room crowded with memories. She finally settled on a little-used room on the second floor and didn’t come out for nearly 40 days and 40 nights. She did not leave the room to attend the funeral downstairs in the East Room. She did not leave the room to accompany Lincoln’s body on the train back to Springfield for the burial. She did not leave the room when President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the new President. She refused the entry of almost everyone. Later, Mary Lincoln would write only once about her “40 days/nights of magical thinking” — there is no historical record of what really happened in that room, and that is what inspired the play. THE WIDOW LINCOLN is about one of the most criticized and maligned women in American history. At its core, it’s about a woman trying to grieve, trying to imagine a suddenly unknown future, and trying to do it on her own terms.

A cast of 8 women. A 19th Century story that could have only been written in the 21st Century.

Before Julia Child and long before today’s proliferation of cooking shows, there was James Beard, the first TV chef. He brought a love for fine cooking (and a sense of humor) to the small screen in 1946 and helped establish an American cuisine based on fresh ingredients. Famous for quips like “If ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around” — Beard went on to become America’s first “foodie,” and the award bearing his name is still the prize most coveted by chefs across the country. Larger than life (literally and metaphorically) American culinary icon James Beard was a complex, entertaining, beloved and frustrating friend and mentor to many. Openly gay even though his primary audience was middle-America housewives, Beard always kept his phone number listed and famously took calls from anyone anytime who needed a little cooking advice. I LOVE TO EAT invites you to meet the man described as “the face and belly of American gastronomy” in this solo play that imagines a late night in Beard’s Greenwich Village home where Beard shares recipes and cooking tips, gossips, spills secrets, fights loneliness, talks to best pal Julia Child on the phone, sings Gilbert & Sullivan, and even re-enacts some of the wilder moments from his landmark 1946 television show in which he infamously shared the screen with a certain cow named Elsie... A few lucky audience members also get to dine on one of Beard’s signature hors d’oeuvres — lovingly prepared right in front of us as part of the play. “I haven't had so much fun since using a blow torch on ‘The Tonight Show’ to make a six-foot crepe suzette.” — James Beard in “I LOVE TO EAT”

Inspired by Anna Sewell's novel subtitled "The Autobiography of a Horse". A story of resilience and justice that spans the life of a horse named Black Beauty.