City of Bloomington issued the following announcement on Jan. 4.
Coalescence Theatre Project #ShePERSISTED New Play Festival curators, Rachel Hettrick and Ann Haugo have made their final selections for the festival to be held at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on January 31st and February 2nd. Out of 256 scripts submitted from across the country, the plays chosen to be presented will be Perfectly Normal by Karen Cecilia a playwright based out of Brooklyn, New York, Black Like Us by Rachel Atkins who lives in Seattle, Washington and Parts & Pieces by Amy Tofte a playwright out of Los Angeles, California. Coalescence is proud to present this sampling of some of the incredible works that are being written by talented women, trans, femme and non-binary playwrights from around the world.
The plays selected will present the Bloomington-Normal audience with three different points of view on what it means to be a family. The #ShePERSISTED Festival allows the audience an opportunity to not only experience these exceptional plays but also provide feedback to the playwrights in a talk back after each performance.
The Coalescence Theatre Project’s 2020 #ShePERSISTED New Play Festival of Staged Readings will be presented at the BCPA, 600 North East St in Bloomington on January 31st and February 2nd. Tickets for each production will be available at the BCPA box office 309-434-2777, shop online at artsblooming.org or before the performance. Ticket price is $10 for each performance or one can buy the #ShePERSISTED Three Show Package for $25.
This year’s selected plays include:
Perfectly Normal - By Karen Cecilia
Directed by Kat Gregory and presented Friday, January 31st at 7:30 PM
Gillian and Arthur have been married for years. She supports his high-level position, putting her own ambitions aside. Their daughter is a television journalist and their son is at Harvard. Accusations about Arthur’s misconduct start to rise, investigated by his daughter’s reporting. This powerful play examines the #metoo movement and the emotional strain when family loyalty and conscience collide.
Black Like Us - By Rachel Atkins
Directed by Elaine Hill and presented Sunday, February 2nd at 2:30 PM
In 1958, Florence, a young African-American woman, makes the life-changing decision to start passing for white, creating a ripple effect through multiple generations. In 2013, her granddaughters accidentally discover her secret and seek out the family she left behind. BLACK LIKE US traces the relationship between Florence and her civil rights activist sister Maxine through 50 years of their estrangement, as their lives both separate and intersect. Moving back and forth through time, what happens in between is a frank, funny and heartfelt look at family ties, sisterhood, the shifting boundaries of tolerance and the questions of what identity really means.
Parts & Pieces - By Amy Tofte
Directed by Tabitha Miller and presented Sunday, February 2nd at 7:30 PM
After their mother’s death, adopted siblings Parker and Mel enter mediation to fulfill the terms of the will. Parker needs the money for a surgery that Mel wants to block. Mel is angry and hurt by her sister’s choices and withholds the money. An unconventional mediator is brought in and secrets, fears and hidden resentments are confronted in this play about loss, identity and the true meaning of family.
We want to thank the festival curators, Ann and Rachel, for their hard work in organizing this festival. We also want to thank all of the playwrights who sent their works to us for consideration and look forward to seeing their submissions for our festival next year.
Original source can be found here.
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