The Pandemic Plays
What happens when playwrights are quarantined due to a worldwide pandemic? They write plays, of course!! The Pandemic Plays is a series of world premiere one-act plays that react to the COVID-19 world we all share. Portraying coping mechanisms ranging from ill-advised scientific experiments to paper bag puppets to hip hop and more, these plays tell stories about how we’re navigating a world that suddenly feels smaller and less certain.
Each Pandemic Play will be performed live at 18th & Union and broadcast on a live stream via Zoom. And if we have to lock down again? No problem, performers will stream from their homes. But no matter what, these shows are going on!
Shelter in Place
(Oct. 11,24 )
Greetings
(Oct. 15, 16,17,22, 25)
Duplicate
(Oct. 8,9,10,18,23)
COVID Dreams
(Oct. 8,9,10,18,23)
407C’s Puppet Theatre
(Oct. 15, 16, 17, 22, 25)
TICKETS : 18thandunion.org/pandemic-plays Discount for 3 play series.
Details about the individual shows are on the next page
Shelter in Place
by Danny Bryck
directed by Jasmine Joshua
featuring Noel Pederson and Brad Walker
As COVID-19 tears through the country, two New York actors take shelter in a relative’s cabin in rural Maine, keeping busy with self-tape auditions and Zoom readings. But the longer they’re isolated, the more the lines blur between their real lives and their feverish fantasies. In this witty and dangerous tour of cabin fever, Amelia and Benny race against time, space and cyberspace to come up with a script that works.
COVID Dreams
by Jaqueline A. Ware
directed by Merri Ann Osborne
featuring CJ Dudley and Ashanti Procter
A witty, finger-snapping, and foot-tapping play loosely inspired by Hamilton. As two college-aged students wait for classmates and the Professor to arrive, they kill time and entertain themselves by singing acapella pandemic-laced songs written by CJ Dudley while discussing personal COVID challenges.
Duplicate
by Maggie Lee
directed by Amy Gang
featuring Mary Brown and Michael Blum
Deep in a secret lab below the great city of New Providence, a brilliant scientist tends to a woman dying from a mysterious illness. In order to find a cure, he turns to his greatest invention, the Corpus Duplicator, to create cloned duplicates to keep his experiment alive. But as his obsession for answers spirals out of control, the struggle becomes less about finding a cure and more about losing his soul. When illness and death become abstract puzzles to be solved, what happens to our humanity?
407C’s Puppet Theatre
by Darby Sherwood
directed by Sadiqua Iman
featuring Kerry Jacinto and Rosslyn Cornejo
Tim has been very responsible, quarantining in his apartment in the midst of the pandemic. To create a bit of social interaction in his life, he’s been re-enacting dreams and past memories with a cast of paper bag puppets.
Greetings
by Lenore Bensinger
directed by David Gassner
featuring Cassandra León
Jo creates greeting cards: cute and irresistible cards for the kids and funny pandemic cards for the adults that both bring cheer around the world. It’s all fun and fulfilling, but then Big Pharma comes knocking with the opportunity of a lifetime: Jo is asked to create cute, irresistible and hilarious greeting cards to help Big Pharma sell the ultimate COVID-19 vaccine. With her integrity on the line, what will Jo do?