5 Pittsburgh playwrights explore pandemic in ‘Homegrown Stories 2’
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After the success of last summer’s “Homegrown Stories,” City Theatre and Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse have commissioned five additional playwrights to write 10-minute plays for “Homegrown Stories 2.”
With a company of Point Park alumni and Pittsburgh-based artists, a digital reading of the works will take place at 7 p.m. May 25 in partnership with City of Asylum. The plays are conceived for a digital medium and offer responses to the current world.
“Having seen the response to this past summer’s collaboration, the team at City Theatre was eager to revisit the partnership with the Pittsburgh Playhouse,” said Clare Drobot, City Theatre associate artistic director.
That initial response included more than 600 views and monetary donations that were used to support the artists involved, Drobot said.
The two productions provide “almost a bookend to the pandemic — how were we responding to the pandemic at first and, now that we’re a year in, how have our responses changed?” Drobot said. “It seems like we’ve gone from the larger global view to a more personal reality.”
Featured playwrights were chosen jointly by the teams at City Theatre and Pittsburgh Playhouse.
“We thought about voices we missed, voices we were excited to hear from,” said Monteze Freeland, one of the featured playwrights and an actor, director and producer for local theater. “We also picked people with ties to both organizations, to some degree.”
A little bit of hope
As far as their themes were concerned, Drobot said, writers were give free range but with a limit on cast size and the props they could use.
Contrasting to the first round of plays, she said, “These plays have a little bit more hope to them.”
“Homegrown Stories 2” will feature:
• “to make bread out of toast,” by Patrick Cannon, directed by Marc Masterson — It involves two teachers on Zoom debating a Zoom high school musical production, with a student on screen with them. “It talks about how we’re making art in these times and how that can affect our relationships,” Drobot said.
• “The Colonizers,” by Gab Cody, directed by Sam Turich — “It takes place in the future in space,” Freeland said. “It’s about one of the last humans to get themselves out of here, and what that isolation feels like — and what happens when you get a visitor you don’t expect and you’re in their world now.”
• “Stir Crazy,” by Kim El, directed by Herb Newsome — “A Black coworker who says, ‘I can’t with the world right now’ is visited by a co-worker who is white, and they talk about their experience of the pandemic,” Drobot said. “It’s not just tackling covid and isolation but also the racial justice conversations we’re having in this country.”
• “A Post-Apocalyptic Romantic Comedy,” by Freeland, directed by Amber Holder — A couple tries a Zoom exercise class to see if it will benefit their relationship. “It’s about the overexposure we’ve had to our spouses and loved ones, being a little too close for too long,” Freeland said. “They’re working through by working out.”
• “Joy,” by Molly Rice, directed by Taavon Gamble — “It’s ultimately about the use of words as pathogens. It’s a smart, magical play that takes our world and reinvents it and explores an alternate world, and the way language changes and evolves and the weight of that,” Drobot said. “It’s a great metaphor for some of the conversations that sprang out of this past year.”
Performers include Ryan Patrick Kearney, Sam Lothard, Alex Manalo, Jason McCune, Jerreme Rodriquez, Saige Smith, Jacqueline Springfield and Alison Weisgall.
“We had a wonderful ensemble of about 40 artists collaborating (on the five plays),” Drobot said. “It reminds you of the village it takes to make theater and how important community is right now.”
Viewing of “Homegrown Stories 2” is free, although registration is required. A talk-back session will follow the May 25 livestream. A digital recording will be available for four days after the performance.
Details: alphabetcity.org, pittsburghplayhouse.com and citytheatrecompany.org