Ginna Hoben

Diary Bonfire is an examination of death, anxiety, and the infinite mark left by social media (or any media) activity– a comedy! In 1995, Virginia made a “dead sister pledge” to carpe diem. At the same time, she began a practice of daily writing. Diary Bonfire uncovers her decades of journal entries as she investigates her choices in the years following her sister’s fatal car accident. Did she seize the day . . . ?

On Christmas Eve, Celia’s only child, Kit confesses that she would rather live with her dad and his much younger partner beginning tonight, the couple’s wedding night. Left alone feeling powerless and enraged, Celia turns to alcohol and pills to escape her pain. Then her eccentric sister Louise shows up to help her out of her despair. In a drug-induced state, (is she dead? or just tripping?) Celia wakes up in an alternate dimension where the sisters review her past, present, and potential future. With a nod to the classics "It’s a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol," this seriocomic holiday play explores themes of letting go and moving on.

On Thanksgiving Day, Mary discovers that her fiancé is cheating on her when she catches him on national TV kissing another woman at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. She then must navigate a year's worth of hapless holidays and luckless romances amid the colorful characters that make up her family. Christmas, New Year's Eve, and St. Patrick's Day bring one dating disaster after another. June provides a “wedding season” of letdowns, and Halloween is nothing less than a horror show. When the second Christmas rolls around, a surprise encounter with a five-year-old boy whom she has come to adore changes her mood, her day, and her whole perspective.

Lady Balthasar is a raucous comedy that explores the meeting of several Shakespearean characters (three of whom are named Balthasar) in search of legal expertise from Portia (The Merchant of Venice), who is disguised as a young male attorney, also named "Balthasar." The play reimagines Portia and Nerissa on their journey to defend Antonio against Shylock, and how the events at the trial affect and change them. When they stop at Dick (the Butcher)'s Tavern, their path intersects with Vi (Viola) and Ros (Rosalind) who have veered out of their respective Shakespearean plots in hopes of a better future together. In a collision of Shakespearean characters: men vs. women; upper class vs. servant class; and the “britches” characters who disguise themselves to weave in and out of two worlds, Lady Balthasar explores biases based on religion, gender, class, and sexual identity.

The language in Balthasar/She/Her/Hers pays homage to Shakespeare’s use of rhetorical devices, wordplay, and –in a few instances– iambic pentameter. Its plot dances around and occasionally partners with Shakespeare’s plots, but finds a resolution all its own.

All she wants is a baby! “No Spring Chicken” is a heartfelt comedy about one woman’s effort to achieve, survive, and (without medication) complete pregnancy at 40. “Hoben’s edgy sense of humor weaves the play’s contrasting elements — hilarity, raw emotion, graphic detail, darker fears — into a consistent whole.” (Washington Post)