Two one-act plays looking at how protecting the environment comes down to more than environmental policy.
The Polar Bear by Maryanne Melloan Woods. In Southern Alaska, a Polar Bear has wandered far from its natural habitat and traps itself in the garage of Kayla and Dewey. Kayla is desperate to free the bear, but her husband is more interested in preparing his online audition for a dystopian movie scheduled to film in the state.
The Iceberg Effect by Michele Kushner. In the midst of the COVID lockdown, frustrated with her environmental scientist mother’s loss of the will to take action, thirteen-year-old Ellie has conjured up the forgotten figure of Eunice Foote, the first scientist to identify in 1856 the greenhouse gas theory. Ellie learns that the same entrenched forces that blocked Eunice’s contribution to the field are plaguing her mother 165 years later, only the stakes are even higher.
The evening includes a post-reading conversation with the authors.
Directed by John Pietrowski
Recommended donation: $10
Thanks to a generous grant from the Smart Foundation, the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance, in partnership with MCAC, will present concert readings of seven new works by women playwrights from New Jersey.
Maryanne Melloan Woods is a playwright/author/screenwriter. In her career as a tv writer/producer, Maryanne has worked on shows for networks including NBC, Showtime, ABC, Fox, the WB, Nickelodeon and ABC Family.
Maryanne’s plays have been staged by theaters and programs such as HBO’s New Writers Project and the Mark Taper Forum in L.A, and Playwrights Horizons and Primary Stages in New York.
Maryanne has won the New England Theatre Conference’s John Gassner Playwriting Contest, the Venice (CA) Playwrights’ Festival and the Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival. She also received a playwriting grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Her YA novel “Lazarus, ” a paranormal thriller, was published by Owl Hollow Press in 2020.
Maryanne is a Librettists Member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York City. She is also a member of the Writers Guild of America West, The Dramatists Guild and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Michèle Aldin Kushner
Most recently, Michele’s play, RADIO GALAXY, took part in TRU Voices Play Reading series and has been optioned for future production. Her play, UNFIT, was workshopped and presented as a reading at Rider University, NJ. Her play, ABDUCTED, took part in Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights series 2023, was read at WorkShop Theatre Company 2014 and with The Barrow Group in 2015.
THE TEXT OF SEX, premiered in the New York International Fringe Festival 2014. THE TEXT OF SEX also took part in Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series 2012, had a reading at Luna Stage Company, and was presented as a workshop with American Academy of Dramatic Arts’ New York Company. In August 2014, the musical she wrote with composer/ lyricist, Keith Gordon, GIRL POWERS, was invited to the Santa Fe Musical Theatre Festival. Michele’s play, THE BABY GAME, is the recipient of Fulton Theater’s Discovery Project New Play Contest 2012. In 2014 THE BABY GAME was a finalist for William Patterson University’s New Jersey New Play Contest. Her play, ADVANCED WOMEN, is the 2009 recipient of the Todd McNerney Playwriting Award from the College of Charleston. The College presented two public readings of the play at the 2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. ADVANCED WOMEN, was invited to The Great Plains Theatre Conference Playlabs 2010, Omaha, NE, and presented there as a staged reading. As a finalist for the W. Keith Hedrick Playwriting Contest in October 2009, ADVANCED WOMEN was given a staged reading at HRC Showcase Theatre in Hudson, NY. In November 2008, ADVANCED WOMEN took part in the New Moon Reading Series at Luna Stage Company, NJ. Michele’s historic murder mystery, 31 BOND, was originally commissioned by and produced at the Brooklyn Lyceum, NY, in 2002. In June 2007 31 BOND, was presented at the North American Actors Association Playreading Festival at the Soho Theatre, London, England. Michele’s dark comedy, THE PROGRAM, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival 2007. Michele was named one of “three Fringe Festival playwrights to watch” in the Backstage article, “Breakout Talent – Writers on the Rise” after the critically acclaimed production of her play, DEAR AMERICA, took part in the New York International Fringe Festival 2006. Her other plays have premiered as readings or workshops in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles. Michele’s screenplay 11 MONTHS, is the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Award; her screenplay, THIS SWEET EARTH, was a finalist in the Moondance International Film Festival. FAST WATER was a finalist for Final Draft Screenplay Competition. MFA, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Dramatic Writing Program.