Petty Crimes

March 2-4, 9-11 at 8pm and March 5 at 3pm

Generations and privileges collide in the world premiere of local playwright and attorney Kristin Hanratty’s new play as we’re all asked: if not all people are treated equally by the system, at what point do we need to bend the system, and at what point does it break?
While high-profile trials occupy the nation’s collective consciousness and determine the fate of billionaires, six strangers from Northern Michigan are summoned to serve on the jury for a trial surrounding a Hispanic teenager’s alleged minor misdeeds. In their confined quarters, the group must grapple not only with the case at hand but what it means to be fair and just in a society that is not just or fair to
everyone. Is it possible to do what’s “right” when the law is black-and-white, but the world is anything but? 

World Premiere after receiving a workshop with Actors' Theatre across 2021-2022

What the Constitution Means to Me

May 11-13, 18-20 at 8pm; May 14 at 3pm

Playwright Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans. Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.

Witch

June 15-17, 21-24 at 8pm

"What if there is something amazing ahead of us, and all we have to do is burn down everything we know to get to it?" This wickedly funny, slyly subversive, contemporary fable debates how much our souls are worth when hope is hard to come by. Mischief is afoot in the sleepy village of Edmonton and the fate of the world is at stake. A charming devil arrives to bargain for the souls of its residents in exchange for their darkest wishes. Elizabeth should be his easiest target, having been labeled a “witch” and cast out by the town, but her soul is not so readily bought. Jen Silverman's play offers a collection of richly drawn characters all forced to confront how their desires are shaped by, and may even be able to do undo, the systems of power that limit them.

Paradise Lost

Being rescheduled as a part of the 41st season (2023-2024)

The debate over right and wrong has never been so satisfying. This ultra-contemporary new drama is fiercely engaging, irreverently funny, and deeply moving. The 17th century and present day are seamlessly intertwines as Satan vents to an audience about her frustration at being cast out of heaven and her thoughts on oppression. When she finds out that God has created delicate new creatures called "humans," she crafts a plan for revenge and betrayal on the Almighty.

National Premiere