Blaire Baron

In the International Greenroom where all of Shakespeare's plays converge, the "bit players" of the Bard's canon—from Lady Macbeth's understudy to the forgotten Prince Fortinbras—discover a terrifying truth: a mysterious committee plans to "optimize" Shakespeare for modern audiences by eliminating characters deemed irrelevant. As a teleprompter with simplified dialogue appears and a tribunal demands they justify their existence, these marginalized personas band together to defend not just their roles, but the very soul of Shakespeare's language. With wit, passion, and unexpected alliances, these characters—forever living in the shadows of Hamlet and Romeo—must prove that even the smallest role carries the power of the Bard's enduring magic. A love letter to theater, language, and those who preserve both against the tides of time.

Set on September 11, 2011—exactly ten years after 9/11—"Hope" follows Gwen, a 40-year-old mother who returns to a New Mothers breastfeeding support group she co-founded a decade earlier. Gwen gave birth to her son Freddie on the morning of September 11, 2001, just blocks from the Twin Towers, losing his twin brother Joey in the chaos. Now with a new unnamed baby, Gwen struggles with PTSD, conspiracy theories about 9/11, and growing isolation as she clashes with the group's evolved, sanitized approach to sharing.
The meeting, once a raw space for authentic emotional expression, has transformed under Devon's leadership into a wellness-focused environment that prioritizes "safe spaces" and positive thinking over genuine struggle. As Gwen's apocalyptic worldview and inability to name her baby alarm the other mothers, tensions escalate. Her friend Lee, fearing for the children's safety after Gwen receives pain medication at a hospital, makes an anonymous call to Child Protective Services.
The play explores the aftermath of this betrayal as the group fractures, with Gwen forced into state-mandated therapy and compliance. In the final scene, months later, Gwen returns transformed—having found her voice again through her son Freddie's formation of "The September Truth Club." She introduces her now-named baby, Hope, representing her decision to choose authentic engagement over medicated compliance.

In a reimagining of a 17th-century Don Juan play, a sharp-tongued frog-narrator, Ribbet, guides us through a story that refuses to behave. Princess Estella, a Morisco noblewoman with a history of exile and survival, finds herself pursued by the infamous seducer Don Juan, whose charm masks a trail of ruin.
Enter Dawn O’Leary, a fed-up, time-hopping enforcer of narrative “corrections,” sent to ensure Don Juan’s story ends the way it always has: with forgiveness, reform, and marriage. But Dawn has reached her limit.
As duels misfire, identities collapse, and the script itself begins to unravel, Estella is forced to choose between the safety of tradition and the cost of rewriting her fate. With the Spanish Inquisition closing in and a ferry to Morocco sounding its final call, the women abandon the story that was written for them—leaving Don Juan to meet an ending he cannot seduce his way out of.

In 2019 Shaw, D.C., Jasmine, a Jamaican woman searching for her lost children, and Bim-Jam, a recovering addict, live in a Board & Care facility targeted by well-meaning gentrifiers Charles and Pamela from the Neighborhood Alliance. When the pair pushes to close the building over safety concerns, residents face displacement. During a police response, Jasmine mistakes housing activist Stella Gordon for her daughter Duchess—and she's right. When Jasmine refuses to drop her sewing tool, police shoot her. As she dies in Stella's arms, mother and daughter finally reunite, exposing the tragic human cost of neighborhood "improvement."