gently used
In the suburbs of Cleveland, 78-year-old Phyllis Kovalchuk has been loyally working as a grocery scanner for decades, until one day without further notice, she is replaced by a self-checkout scanner and an anti-theft robot. To make ends meet, she starts selling her old furniture—gently used—on Facebook Marketplace. When a ragtag group of twenty-something sex workers take an interest in her antiques, what follows is a humorous and surprising connection that speaks to the uniquely Midwestern queer culture of found objects and found family.
2F, 1M, 1NB; 90 min. no intermission
hi how can i help you
22-year-old Emery is a college dropout working in fast food, and she thought she couldn’t disappoint her parents even more. Then she told them she wanted to be a professional clown. Oh, and she also might be Autistic. The only way to move forward is to unmask, but is there a person under all those years of compulsive people-pleasing? Is she going to like who she becomes in the end? A dark comedy in the style of Fleabag meets Convenience Store Woman, hi how can i help you is a story about Autistic joy, about the parts of ourselves we keep hidden, and how sometimes, the best way to unmask is to don another costume entirely.
4F, 4M; 90 min. no intermission
(i’m right behind you)
It’s end of summer vacation – one week before high school, one week before everything changes for good. Three best friends spend these last few days on the shores of Lake Erie, questioning what will become of their friendship once secrets kept threaten to unravel them for good. Loosely based on the story of Orpheus & Eurydice, (i’m right behind you) is a story of mythologies old and new, about growing up, and the age-old anxiety of becoming unknowable to those who know us best.
3F; 90 min. no intermission
* The Bechdel Group Finalist (2024)
Before the Flood
It’s the week of required sexual health class, and 14-year-old Annie DiLuvian is on the cusp of something that promises to change everything, she can feel it. Aided by a Greek Chorus of her closest confidants—a British boy band who are all gay for each other, thank you very much—she must navigate revelations of seismic proportions and middle school boys at the same time.
5F, 10M, doubling possibilities; 90 min. no intermission
* Semi-Finalist, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (2024)
📍 Paper Kraine Productions, 2022
The Size of a Fist
In a post-global warming world, a precocious young girl and her bookish father live, isolated, in an abandoned nuclear fallout shelter. For Bee, the cold concrete shelter is all she knows. Thanks to their “pale blue dot” signal that alerts the government of their presence, they receive weekly shipments of imitation food that is no longer tenable on Earth. Life for the pair is monotonous: Papa passes the time by tending to his extensive library, and Bee gets to work on an autobiography she hopes will outlast her. Everything changes when one day, the drone delivers a packet of seeds. Without knowing whether the apple tree will survive the harsh unpredictable weather, the duo must learn what it means to live for each other, at all costs. Press
1F, 1M; 2 hours incl. intermission
* Runner-Up, KCACTF National Undergraduate Playwriting Award (2020)
📍 Oberlin College New Works Festival, 2019