Amelia Kennedy

At the end of summer in a garden in Brooklyn, three creative writing MFA grads reunite for a drinks party with their respective partners. As the evening becomes continuously tense with old attractions and old resentments resurfacing, the characters explore the possibilities of what it is to love in our modern age, and also begin to question living in New York and if all the sacrifices that come with pursuing a creative life in the city is worth it. ‘This Is How I Love’ is a play about how we betray so much of ourselves in the pursuit of success in both career and love. It’s a play about the devastating human tendency to have what we desire in front of us, and to run away from it all.

How much of ourselves will we sacrifice in order to find connection? Three women at different stages in life discuss dissatisfaction, insecurity and love.

In 2007 a British all-girls school is taken on a week-long trip to learn how to be good wives, being taught skills such as walking, holding conversations and applying modest makeup. Throughout this trip the girls tackle sexist restraints within educational institutions all while trying to understand what it exactly means to be a woman. ‘Why Must We Pray Screaming?’ is a play that highlights the cruelty young people can show each other as they work through the painful process of being forced to grow up before figuring out who they are.

Aspiring writers Adam and Mia meet at a course in New York one summer and instantly connect—until their disparate responses to the pressures of professional artistry force them apart as the course comes to an end, leaving Mia heartbroken. A decade later, the two reunite at Adam’s urgent request after he receives catastrophic news. Why does she feel so compelled to travel across the country to oblige? And what drove him to ask her, of all people? As all they went through that summer comes hurtling back, they attempt to understand the nature of the force somehow still linking them after all these years.

On the final night of summer in the small, mid coast Maine town of Damariscotta, Dashiell and Josh busy themselves closing up the sole independent pizza parlor for the evening, until Josh’s twin sister Sage arrives with devastating news about Maureen - the woman who nannied them as children. The evening begins to take a dark turn as Josh begins to reflect on the fact that Maureen may have abused him as a child and together the characters start to consider cycles of generational trauma and whether or not those ongoing progressions can be stopped. ‘A Second Coming’ is a play about how we all grapple with past pain in order to live on and move forward, it is a play about family, chosen or otherwise and above all finding togetherness as we navigate the darkest parts of ourselves.