Katie Winkler

Synopsis
A Carolina Story is the story of the biblical Job with two primary twists. First, it takes place in Depression era Western North Carolina, and second, this Job is a woman. Josephine Campbell-Smith (Jo), the wealthy daughter of one of the town's founders, has inherited his businesses and almost single-handedly kept the town alive during the hard times of the Depression, but when tragedy after tragedy strikes, Jo finds herself accused and alone, struggling for answers from a God she feels has abandoned her. A Carolina Story, alive with the music and culture of Appalachia, is a musical story of how one woman rediscovers her faith and finds a way to live, and love, again.

Synopsis
Battered: A Play about Domestic Violence Inspired by Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book is a story within a story within a story. It takes place in a small theater during the read-through of a new play by a young woman, Julia, who has escaped from a violent relationship with her intimate partner. Julia has chosen to write an adaptation of the Victorian poet Robert Browning’s masterpiece, The Ring and the Book, drawn not only to the long narrative poem’s subject of the real-life murder of Pompilia Comparini by her husband Guido Franceschini, but also to the story of the great love between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett.
As the main character in this play within a play endures the increasing violence of her tyrannical husband’s abuse, Julia begins to relive her own nightmare. Empowered by the spirit of Pompilia and the words of the poets, however, Julia finds her way to a new beginning, full of life and hope.

This faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic horror novel begins by telling the story of how the author dreamed of her creature after a stormy night spent telling ghost stories and revealing the complicated relationship Mary Shelley had with her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley and his friend Lord Byron. Then, the layers are peeled away as Mary becomes narrator of her tragic tale and leads us to the Arctic, Switzerland, England, and beyond, following Victor Frankenstein and his hapless, abandoned Creature, who seeks knowledge, acceptance, justice, and ultimately revenge against his Creator, who has denied him any hope of happiness.

Sylvester comes to visit Roddy Usher his friend at Roddy's request and senses that something is up right away, seeing the sketchy old mansion in the swamp and Roddy's sickly sister Madeline. Sylvester wiles his days away reading to his friend while his friend sings and plays his "Usher's Lament" about how hard life is when one is so sensitive to sound! It doesn't help much when Madeline starts screaming about being shut up in her coffin and not really dead. Maddening. Of course, all's well that ends well when the mansion crumbles and sinks into the swamp. Oh, a raven shows up, too. This Poe guy is a barrel of laughs.