…A brutally honest drama about marriage and infidelity – one that chronicles the inevitable big damage and ugly fallout engendered by a ceaseless pursuit of selfishness and an unrestrained search for personal happiness. An emotionally and physically lacerating ordeal, it is at once fiercely adult, shrewdly observant, often painfully graphic and most definitely not for the meek.” – The Chicago Sun-Times

 “Uncommonly intense and intimate ninety-minute drama…quirky, raw and nervy...” –The Chicago Tribune

Belinda and Cody Phipps appear to be a typical midwestern couple: teenage sweet-hearts now married with children and a luxurious home. Typical except that Cody is in almost every respect an outsider-“rich and black and different,” in the words of Belinda who finds herself attracted to a (white) former classmate. As the battle for her affections is waged, Belinda and Cody frankly question the foundation of their initial attraction, opening the door wide to a swath of bigotry, deception, and betrayal.

Staging his work on a continually shifting moral ground where nothing is sacred and the unexpected is a given, LaBute unblinkingly challenges the reader’s received notions of gender, ethnicity, and even love itself. Powerful, profane, and above all unpredictable, This Is How It Goes is a devastating exploration of the myriad ways in which the wild card of race is played by both black and white in America.

 “LaBute…continues to probe the fascinating dark side of individualism…his great gift is to live in and to chronicle that murky area of not-knowing, which mankind spends much of its waking life denying.” –The New Yorker

Disgruntled outcast Yul Carroll takes a job as an attack dummy in a women’s self-defense class and finds himself mysteriously drawn to Sadie, the repressed bookworm mercilessly honing her skills on him. Meanwhile, all’s not well on the unassuming Midwestern streets of Bloggs: with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend, and a motley assortment of poets, butchers, and punk librarians prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town.

“…A terrifically impressive debut for new U.S. playwright Adam Rapp. Froggy and Baylis are two wrecked drifters in a New York squat… Blackbird could, in the hands of a lesser dramatist, be a crude mix of in-your-face grunge and sentimentality…actually, the squalor here is both appalling and cryingly funny and Rapp has a brilliant ear for talk.”

Film Festival. Short and feature films from around the world are considered and selected for an Akron debut at AIFF 2008. Don’t miss this special event!

A one-man show featuring Sean Derry.

“Cagelove is a compulsively watchable mix of melodrama and horror.” –The New York Times

 “An accomplished work by a distinctive new voice… Christopher Denham’s gripping new drama does what few new plays do: it tells the truth about a great many things…those who seek it out will have a powerful and gratifying experience.” –nytheatre.com

An uproarious, brilliantly provocative farce that b rings the gifts of a quintessentially American playwright to bear on the current American dilemma. Frank and Emma are a quiet, respectable couple who raise cows on their Wisconsin farm. Soon after they agree to put up Frank’s old friend Haynes, who is on the lam from a secret government project involving plutonium, they’re visited by Welch, an unctuous government bureaucrat from hell. His aggressive patriotism puts Frank, Emma and Haynes on the defensive, transforming a heartland American household into a scene of torture and promoting a radioactive brand of conformity with a dangerously low half life.

 “Startling…apocalyptic…a confident and unsettling scenario of surreal doom.” –New Yorker

 Deliriously entertaining and deeply scary…a shivering work of existential mystery.” –NY Newsday

A wealthy New York couple, strained to the breaking point by caring for their severely disabled daughter, Emily, weighs their own happiness against that of their child-with shocking consequences. Emily’s lyrical poetry, the bitter volleys of the couple’s disintegrating marriage, and the appraisals of the outside world frame the narrative of this insightful play. A Nervous Smile is a brutal portrait of love, lust and despair set against Belluso’s fiery brand of social satire.

“A brutal portrait of love, lust and despair set against Belluso’s fiery brand of social satire.” – Dramatist Play Service

On a lonely road on the island of Inishmore, someone killed an Irish Liberation Army enforcer’s cat He’ll want to know who when he gets back from a stint of torture and chip-shop bombing in Northern Ireland. He loves his cat more than life itself, and someone is going to pay.

“…Cunningly constructed, deeply and intensely felt, bitterly blood curdling and breathtakingly funny.” –The Sunday Times ( London)

“McDonagh weaves the strands of his plot together with superb panache and his dialogue is a joy, full of debunking humor that reveals the terrorists in their absurdly dim true colors.” –The Daily Telegraph ( London)

“The plot is so sublime, the script so witty and the twist at the end so clever that I was won over…” –The Stage ( London)

Looking for a little rest and time by herself, Betty rents a summer share at the beach. But Betty’s luck turns to delicious lunacy when this sensible Everywoman gets drawn into the chaotic world of some very unsavory housemates-her friend Trudy who talks too much; the lewd, semi naked Buck, who tries to have sex with everyone; and Keith, a possible serial killer who hides in his room with a mysterious hat box. With sand between her toes, walking a thin line between sanity and survival, poor Betty will leave her summer vacation more terrorized than tan.

Betty’s Summer Vacation is not only wickedly funny but a trenchant commentary on the state of American culture and the most original play to hit the New York stage in years. -MSNBC

Set in 1986 in County Armagh, Ireland, historically one of Ireland’s most IRA-friendly regions, the play uses the era’s violence to mirror the collapse of a community. A dairy farmer leads the local fight against the British. He is angry because someone has been diffusing the bombs planted by the resistance. As he hunts the rat, he drives his friends and his son to drastic, paranoid action.

“How His Bride Came To Abraham creates an extraordinary modern pacifist myth in which a wounded Israeli soldier and a female Palestinian terrorist experience each other’s passionate hunger for their home and rights…it indelibly etches itself upon viewers’ souls.” –Contemporary Dramatists, London

“…Its events seem ripped right out of today’s headlines. …pacifist tragedy…a fateful night that profoundly changes them-and us. It’s incisive dialogue, riveting action, and searing audience impact…” –Plays international, London

Sarah Kane’s first play, lambasted by critics when it was first performed in 1995 as “a disgusting feast of filth” –The Daily Mail, is now considered a classic of 20 th century theatre. This is a rare chance to see this powerful anti war play set in a hotel room in Leeds, while war rages outside in the streets.

Oct. 24 – Nov. 22
In A Dark, Dark House
By Neil LaBute
Directed by TBA

On the grounds of a private psychiatric facility, two brothers confront each other. Drew has been court-confined for observation, and he has called his older brother, Terry, to corroborate his claim of childhood sexual abuse by a young man many summers ago. Drew’s request releases barely hidden animosities between the two men: Is he using these repressed memories to save himself while smearing the name of his brother’s friend? Through pain and acknowledged betrayal, the brothers come to grips with and begin to understand the legacy of abuse, both inside and outside their family home.

“…creates an extraordinary modern pacifist myth in which a wounded Israeli soldier and a female Palestinian terrorist experience each other’s passionate hunger for their home and right…it indelibly etches itself upon viewers’ souls.” – Contemporary Dramatists, London