Grant Carriker

On Christmas Eve, the matriarch of the Cain family suffers a stroke. Just when it looks like the family has lost her, she is miraculously recovered...except for one small issue: she is only able to say the word "faggot." Much to the shock of her uber woke, openly homosexual grandson - Elliot - and the enjoyment of her filter-less, foul mouthed grandson - Fuckhead - the Cains process the events dividing their family. Accusations are made, people are pushed to the edge of empathy, secrets spill out, and two brothers learn to see each other - and themselves - in a new light. An absurdist satire that explores the power of language, how much we really know about the people we love, and how we navigate finding empathy for each other in times of seemingly diametric opposition, all placed in front of the background of a Christmas tree and ribboned wreaths.

Carol and Howard Bennett run The Bennett Family Funeral Home in the fictional Mount Meyer, Iowa. For years they have kept this family heirloom afloat through hard work, grit...and hiring two men to kill all people who name them their funeral arrangers for a quicker turnaround. However, following a slow decline in community standing and a wake from Hell, the two men - newly married - ask the Bennetts for a raise they aren't able to provide. With the two men declaring a strike and them desperate to keep their livelihood alive, The Bennetts - Carol, Howard, and their aimless but amiable stoner son, Stephen - all take matters into their own hands, raising questions about what they're fighting for and who they are in this world without the foundations that have been in place their whole lives.

Completely in rhyme, this play explores a young teenage girl's first date. Everything is going according to plan for her - the captain of the football team, great conversation, a 5 star restaurant. This is surely to be her "happily ever after..." Until she discovers she has gotten her first period in the restaurant bathroom. What was shaping up to be her Grimm fairy tale ending, quickly turns into a nightmare fueled situation that rises to the heights of a Dr. Seuss story. In the aftermath of entering womanhood and discovering that life is not always as simple and clean as a Cinderella story, she is left with thoughts and feelings difficult to discern as she questions her body, her evolution, her ideas of love, her relationship to God, and what it means to not love yourself even when someone else does.