Strawshop Re-Opens with STRAWBERRY JAM: A Theatre Festival Unlike Any Other
STRAWBERRY JAM is a Directors Festival of seven plays in fifteen days from playwrights ranging from Pulitzer Prize winners (Quiara Alegría Hudes, María Irene Fornés) to local novices (Alanah Pascual, Shanna Allman, Kaytlin McIntyre). Strawberry Theatre Workshop—which has been shuttered for two years—returns to 12th Ave Arts with its most ambitious program ever. Why produce one play, when you can amplify the artists in your community with seven? Add three Sundays of eclectic music concerts, featuring Strawshop favorites Felicia Loud, Jose Gonzales, and the musicians of BeatleConcert. That's a Strawberry Jam.
See any play for $12, see all the plays for just $36. Music Series sold separately.
* schedule subject to change
JUNE 9-10-11
Leah Adcock-Starr directs I and You by Lauren Gunderson. I and You: One afternoon, Anthony arrives unexpectedly at classmate Caroline's door bearing a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, an urgent assignment from their English teacher. Homebound due to illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. As these two let down their guards and share their secrets, this seemingly mundane poetry project unlocks a much deeper mystery that has brought them together. Written by America's most produced playwright (2017), I and You is directed by Adcock-Starr who created Our Country's Good at Strawshop before the pandemic; the play is performed by Mimi Santos and Kevin Masayuki Tanner.
JUNE 16-17-18
Shanna Allman directs The Lobby by Shanna Allman. The Lobby is in direct conversation, both in terms of format, and in terms of content, with what we have all experienced over the past few years of this pandemic: isolation, the need for connection, frustration, ennui, existential crisis, gallows humor, quiet desperation, hopelessness, etc, etc. The play is, at its core an opportunity for art and audience to commiserate with one another. The Lobby is a world premiere play, featuring Angela DiMarco, Nikki Visel, and David S Hogan.
Gavin Reub directs Drowning by María Irene Fornés. Drowning tells its story swiftly, in a handful of pages, sketching a love affair from the first moment of desire to the bitter end. All the characters, including the jilted lover, are described in the script as potato-heads with bodies “like seals or sea lions” and shiny, oily flesh covered in warts. Their revolting exterior brands them as unlovable and oddly makes the story feel more universal.
Alanah Pascual directs Make America Call My Mom and Tell Her I'm Doing Okay by Alanah Pascual.Make America Call My Mom and Tell Her I’m Doing Okay explores the many ways the new generations are creating their own American Dream, all while dealing with the drama, friendship, and self doubt that comes with being in your 20s. In the devising process, Pascual uses Documentary Style Theatre to hear how each collaborator is creating their dream life and what it took to get where they are now. Make America Call My Mom is a world premiere play devised by Pascual and co-directed by Carly Capriano.
Steven Sterne directs Gaslighting by Kelleen Conway Blanchard. Gaslighting is a ten-minute play commissioned by 14/48, the World's Quickest Theatre Festival. Featuring Stacey Bush and Cody Smith.
Andrea Lowry directs Oscar Clyde Denman by Jennifer Jasper. Oscar Clyde Denman is a ten-minute play commissioned by 14/48, the World's Quickest Theatre Festival. Featuring Stacey Bush and Cody Smith.
JUNE 30-JULY 1-2
Jess K Smith directs The House Fire Project by Kaytlin McIntyre. House Fire Project: In the middle of the night in 2005 a teenage girl's house burns down. Fifteen years later, she goes on an investigative journey to discover what really happened to the house, and to her family. Part true crime mystery, part comical family slide-show, House Fire Project is a one-woman show about the ripples of domestic violence, starring its author. The Strawberry Jam will be its public debut.
Steven Sterne directs Gaslighting by Kelleen Conway Blanchard. Gaslighting is a ten-minute play commissioned by 14/48, the World's Quickest Theatre Festival. Featuring Stacey Bush and Cody Smith.
Young Hot Thespian presents Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes. Water by the Spoonful: Elliot has returned from Iraq and is working at Subway while trying to jump-start his acting career. Scattered throughout the world in chat rooms, recovering addicts keep each other alive, and the boundaries of family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families collide. Young Hot Thespian is a theatre collective including Christian Zumbado, Tré Scott (from Strawshop's Our Country's Good), and Antonieta Castillo Carpio. Spoonful is directed by Myles Romo.
Jasmine Lomax directs A Fish and a Bear in Purgatory by Holly Arsenault.A Fish and a Bear in Purgatory is a ten-minute play commissioned by 14/48, the World's Quickest Theatre Festival. Featuring Stacey Bush and Cody Smith.
