THE DINNER PARTY

(8A) At a regional theatre, seven actors and an assistant stage manager are in previews for a new devised piece inspired by an iconic feminist art installation. But the show has some blind spots—rehearsals are rocky, and this diverse crucible is slow to coalesce into a cast. A funny and serious work-in-progress about the joys and perils of performing in America today, and the itchy work of coalition-building. Commissioned by: Studio Theatre.

REDWOOD

(8A) When Steve Durbin goes down the rabbit hole of online genealogy, he makes an unwelcome discovery that throws his entire family into turmoil. Chiefly: his niece, Meg, who's forced to reconsider her relationship with Drew, a white physicist. With acid wit, love, and dance, REDWOOD ponders the project of interracial family-making in a haunted country. World Premiere: Portland Center Stage. Regional Premiere: Jungle Theater. Off-Broadway: Ensemble Studio Theatre. 

THE CREDIBILITY GAP (FKA HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY)

(4A) Izz, a nationally celebrated journalist, has recently become the subject of an awful newsroom scandal. But when she returns to her Texas hometown seeking space to "breathe and reboot," she finds in her former Panther grandmother something more complicated than absolution. Over the course of a single weekend, the two women are forced to re-negotiate their moral and ethical boundaries. The Credibility Gap is a twisted drama about the twin burdens of family and identity. What happens to a soul when one's life's work (not to mention the state's ability to see you as human) requires impeccability? Development: WPLab, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, The Public Theater.

REBEL’S REST IS BURNING DOWN

(5A) When the first Black graduates of a small liberal arts college in the Dirty South return to campus twenty years later for a "reparations summit," the scabs fly off. Friends reminisce, ghosts may or may not terrorize their evening, and the one Confederate monument still on campus burns to the ground. This play examines the psychological toll of Black self-making at a PWI. It also considers how college is structurally complicit in America's greatest sins. Development: Peacedale Global Arts. Commissioned by: Playwrights Horizons.

GUESS WHO’S NOT INVITED TO THE COOKOUT

(6-12A) Welcome to the 57th Annual Beauchappelle family reunion. Never mind; it’s the 101st. This family epic, set at two non-consecutive crawfish boils on the old homestead in east Texas, interrogates the ritual of reunions. Expect time travel, montage, and astral projection. For Black Americans in particular: what is this impulse to narrativize a family legacy? And, who shoulders the burden of posterity? Development: Sewanee Writers Conference, EST/Youngblood. Commissioned by: Portland Center Stage.

BALL CHANGE

(4A) Set at the switchboards of an elite celebrity answering service, BALL CHANGE examines how our communication technologies (and metropolitan mythologies) become obsolete. When we first meet the "Bells" in the swinging 60s, all is glam and good fun, but fifty years of economic, social, and technological upheaval sure leave their mark on a girl. This is a time-traveling tale about how objects and ideas go out of style. Development: Manhattan Theatre Club, Cape Cod Theatre Project. Commissioned by: Manhattan Theatre Club/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

THE JOY OF PAINTING

(6A, One Act) Jane loves Deacon. But Jane’s got dread. She leaves his bed for a community center art class which may or may not be led by Bob Ross. An absurdist odyssey about evasion tactics, the uses of art, bad habits, and night terrors. World Premiere: Clubbed Thumb, Winterworks.