2024
REVOLT by Angelica Guarino
REVOLT follows an unexpectedly tumultuous date night for two young
couples. They think they’re entering a fun escape room game but soon
find out that they truly are being held against their will by the
game’s host. While you may be thinking “isn’t this really close to the
plot of Saw?”, REVOLT trades in hack-and-slash horror in favor of a
more existential form of torture. Freed from the everyday challenges
of getting out of bed, going to work, and staying sober, the group
must decide how – and if – they even want to escape.
Angelica Guarino (angelica.guarino373@gmail.com) is a playwright and
librettist based in New Jersey. Her full-length play, Mercury in
Gatorade, premiered off-off Broadway as part of NY Winterfest 2022.
Her short plays 9 Minutes and The Best Little Dog Funeral in the
Adirondacks have been produced as part of the AERY Theater Company’s
20/20 Festival (Garrison, NY; 2021), the PTC New Play Festival
(Brookville, NY; 2021), the SOOP to Nuts Festival (Pelham, NY; 2022),
and the In Death’s Company Short Play Festival (Maplewood, NJ; 2023).
Her musical Teen Sleuth Space Opera – an original mystery inspired by
the world of Nancy Drew – received a reading as part of 24 Hour
Plays/Dramatists Guild’s “End of Play.” reading series (Virtual;
2023). Angelica is a member of the 2023-2024 cohort of Speranza
Theater Company’s Women Playwrights Circle. Other professional
writing credits include work made for Funny or Die and Common Sense
Media (2018-2023). Angelica holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Film and
Television from Boston University and is working towards a certificate
in Dramatic Writing from The Dramatists Guild Institute. Angelica is a
member of the Dramatists Guild.
Conventuais by Christian Mendonça
Portugal, 1847. Madre Superiora has just excommunicated Sister Marta
from the convent to cover up an unholy scandal. To replace Sister
Marta in the morning bake team that financially sustains the convent,
Madre Superiora throws Sister Adelaide into the mix. Sisters Perpetua
and Gorette, the other nuns on the bake team, are secretly
aiding Sister Marta post-excommunication, and find Sister Adelaide’s
addition to be a dangerous wrench in their plans. That is, until they
bake their secrets into each other. A play about overlooked pleasures
and pains, agency, truth, and trust, especially when it feels like the
world is failing you.
Christian Mendonça is a Portuguese-American playwright, whose work has
been read at the Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation’s Roundtable
Reading Series (Come Flores, 2020), Art House Productions’ INKubator
New Play Festival (Flowers for Men, 2022), Premiere Stages’ New Play
Festival (Flowers for Men, 2023), and American Stages Lift Every Voice
Festival (Flowers for Men, 2024). Further distinctions include:
Finalist for the Goldberg Play Prize (American Quality, 2018),
Semifinalist for Landing Theater’s New American Voices Play Festival
(Filomene, 2021), Finalist for DISQUIET International Literary
Program’s Luso-American Fellowship (Untitled Screenplay, 2023), and a
commission for Art House Productions via the Hudson County Historic
Partnership Program to write a play about the Bayonne Oil Refinery
Riots of 1915-1916 (Dearest Paweł, 2023). His work aims to inject
moments of tenderness and introspection into spaces where they might
not otherwise exist or be visible.
Hello and Goodbye by Alexis Krysten Morgan
At the repast of her father’s funeral, Naomi struggles to deal with
her grief and feelings of abandonment. When Theresa, a stranger who
says she knew her father shows up, Naomi finds herself drawn to her
and a friendship quickly develops. Things become complicated when
Naomi realizes that there is more to Theresa than meets the eye. When
Naomi finally learns the truth, she realizes that her life as she
knows it will never be the same.
Alexis Krysten Morgan is a playwright, educator, and advocate who
desires to use her art to create healing spaces for communities of
color and individuals with exceptionalities. She has been a fellow
with Company One Theatre in Boston, MA, and TC Squared Theatre Company
in Cambridge, MA. Her short plays REPAST, THE POLITICS OF MARRIAGE,
and KNOW WHO YOU ARE were produced by TC Squared. Other works
including SHOW ME and ACTS OF JOY were presented and commissioned as
part of Company One’s social justice series. In 2021, FOLLOWING THE
RULES was part of Boston’s Theatre Marathon’s festival. Her television
pilot, BY THE WAYSIDE, made it to the 2nd round of Sundance’s 2021
Episodic Lab. In 2023, her play MILES TO GO was part of Abingdon
Theatre Company’s Virtual Festival of Short Plays. Her play, CONCRETE
DREAMS was produced by TC Squared and performed at Greater Egleston
High School in Boston, MA in 2023. Currently, she is an associate
dramaturg and teacher at the NJ Play Lab and serves as a board member
for Passage Theatre Company in Trenton, NJ.
Track by Angel J. Rivas
Andrew has a sudden urge to run and run fast. It’s his senior year of
high school and he needs to do something substantial. He decides that
joining the Varsity Track team is it. Late at night, once the local
track is closed to the public, he comes across Silvia, the town’s star
track runner, and looks for guidance. She’s quick with the cold
shoulder, just as quick as she is around the track. With unwavering
confidence and determination, Andrew embarks on a journey to leave
something behind but the road proves to be rocky as hell. Track
explores how we move forward; do we accelerate towards denial or stand
still and face our fears head on?
Angel is an Ecuadorian writer from West New York, New Jersey.
Following a run at Villagers’ Theatre, his most recent play, “Track”
was nominated for outstanding production of an original play at the
Perry Awards. He’s been commissioned by The Makers’ Ensemble to write
a brand-new play, to be workshopped at their yearly retreat in April.
His work has been performed at the 24-Hour Plays, Intar Theatre, The
Barrow Group, The Tank, The Makers’ Ensemble, Teatro Latea, New Jersey
Play Lab and Montclair State University. Angel writes to leave
something behind that is pure and sometimes funny, but almost always
heartbreaking. His stories, which are often expressed through the lens
of the Hispanic community, strive to be archival, nostalgic and
personal. Angel is a proud member of The Maker’s Ensemble. Education:
BFA in Theatre, Montclair State University.
2022
And Every Creeping Thing by Eric Craft
In the beginning, the angels are hard at work designing and managing logistics for Creation, but in the Department of Beasts, an unbalanced food chain threatens to destroy the world before it even starts. One little angel’s passion project may just hold the key to saving Creation, and the creatures that may just be the world’s secret hope. Bugs. In this office comedy of biblical proportions, corporate politics clash with spiritual and artistic fulfillment in a story from before time itself.
Life After The Lab
Workshop Production Sussex County Community College August, 2023
Come Rain, Come Hurricane by Edwin Rivera-Arias
“I survive Hurricane Flora, Batista, the zafra, el calabozo, y el paredon. I survive anything.” So says feisty old Cubano, Don Berto Remedios, who awakes one rainy morning to discover that he’s been robbed of the $9,000 he was hoping to take back with him to his homeland paradise. And the thief, a young Boricua with dreams of his own, is closer to him than he ever could have imagined.
Laced with sparkling humor and resonant emotional drama, Come Rain, Come Hurricane explores the bonds (and bounds) of friendship; working-class Latino families; and the agony of forced migration. Who can stand tall when the storms ring down and lives are blasted to pieces?
Exit 1 by Ravin Patterson
Employees and patrons of a rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike struggle to overcome the challenges their lives have placed before them, one hour at a time. Set in the early 90s amidst the national backdrop of racial and political tensions, Exit 1 offers a glimpse into the determination of everyday survivors and shows that family are the people who show up, everyday, or just at the end of a long haul.
The Golden Door by Lia Romeo
Un Hombre: A Golem Story by Stephen Kaplan
Rebecca Wolfson, a sculptor, is struggling to get back on track after the untimely death of her husband. She is suffering from intense artist’s block, and her son is withdrawn, failing Spanish, and unprepared for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. All seems hopeless until a lot of wine and a little magic transform a hunk of clay into the hunky answer to all of their problems. But when her creation begins questioning his own purpose and existence, both mother and son are forced to confront their grief and grow in ways they never expected.
Life After The Lab
12th National Jewish Playwriting Contest Finalist
WINNER! Barbour Award Virtual Reading: EAG & The Skeleton Rep(resents) (NYC) June 2023
Production, Wild Imaginings, Waco. TX January 2024
TRU Voices (NYC) Reading February 2024
The Cousins (Rhymes with Dozens) by Benjamin V. Marshall
2020
we have to hold hands by Kait Kerrigan
Allies by Michael John McGoldrick
So a Christian, a Liberal, and a Black guy walk into a corporate conference room….what seems like the premise of a joke ends up being much more when a company asks its employees to wear a rainbow-colored badge in support of LGBTQ+ rights. This seemingly innocuous gesture sets off a chain of events that eventually threatens to destroy the company. Allies is a biting, satirical look at the tangled intersection of religion, progressivism, and capitalism in today’s culture.
Life After The Lab
Digital Reading: Questors Theatre, London, England, UK; June 2020
Staged Reading: Up Theater (NYC); October 2021
Runner-Up in Paterson Performing Arts Development Council‘s Show Me The Monologue Competition; Paterson, NJ; 2021. Virtual reading June, 2022
A Perfect Existence by Lesley Scammel
The Incels by Ruth Zamoyta
From his lonely urban hovel, Tom records his vlog, immortalizing his fruitless encounters with women. From his hunter’s den in the hinterlands, Derrick streams his survivalist YouTube channel, losing followers as he bemoans his hopeless love life. Pat’s MGTOW (“Men Going Their Own Way”) Facebook show seems like the perfect answer for these “incels,” but the more involved they become in each other’s lives, the further they are driven to despair. Will they be able to truly connect before crossing the line into violence? The Incels asks us to look beyond the chat rooms and forums to the humanity that lurks within.
Life After The Lab
Live reading; Urban Stages (NYC) January, 2020
Digital Reading; Urban Stages (NYC); September, 2020
2019
We Victorians by Matthew Cole Kelly
A 21-year old assistant brings a sexual harassment suit against a respected white-glove attorney. A bedroom is transformed into an Intergalactic Court of Justice to try the Greek gods for acts of rape against mortals and to decide whether their monuments – the constellations – should be ripped from the heavens. Oh, and it’s raining cattle in Manhattan. Queer empowerment and old-school privilege collide in this radical interrogation of power in the Me Too Era, blurring distinctions between reality and myth, between the past and the present, and between victimization and liberation.
Life After The Lab
Digital Reading; Spooky Action Theater, Washington DC; May, 2020
The New Jersey Play Lab 