Alice Abracen
What Rough Beast has been produced by the National Theatre School, Underlings Theatre (Boston) and the New Renaissance Theatre Company (Northeastern). It was chosen in the third play in Centaur Theatre's 50th Anniversary Legacy Reading Series. Its April 2020 production as Centaur Theatre's Brave New Looks was cancelled due to Covid-19
Name, Title
What Rough Beast
95 minutes, 7 actors
A controversial professor. A campus divided. A family torn apart. In What Rough Beast, a controversial professor is invited to speak at a progressive campus. The students are divided; while some see it as an opportunity for dialogue and discussion, others dread the violence the speaker’s inflammatory words may unleash. As the factions form and rhetoric flares, on the other side of the city a young man slouches down the rabbit hole of radicalization with devastating consequences.
The Tour
70 minutes, 2 actors
A tourist and a tour guide visit ruins in the desert. Both come armed with their share of secrets. Over the horizon, an army approaches.
The Tour was developed at the National Theatre School of Canada. It has since been produced as The Guest at the Montreal Fringe, and with the Underlings Theatre in Boston. Its
unannounced London production with Night Train Theatre Company has been pushed due to Covid
The Covenant
95 minutes, 5 actors
Set in June 1944, the Red Cross dignitaries are marveling at the lively town of Theresienstadt: a haven for the Jewish people in the heart of Czechoslovakia. Little do they know that this paradise is a ghetto and a concentration camp, elaborately staged in order to conceal Nazi crimes against humanity. Forced to participate in the terrible charade, the ambitious politician Peter and the dedicated doctor Hilde find their idealism, their faith, and their love put to a terrible test. Inspired by a true story.
The Covenant, developed at the National Theatre School, won the 2017 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition. Its Theatre Ouest End production has been pushed to 2022 due to Covid.
Omission
95 minutes, 5 actors
The popular, ambitious favourite for the papal throne is visited by a journalist on the eve of Conclave– she claims to hold a secret which could destroy him. She begins to question him about the happenings of thirty years ago under a military regime, and when he turns the recorder off, the most spectacular confession emerges.
Omission has been featured in Alumnae Theatre (Toronto's) Centennial Season and the Women Playwright's International Conference in Chile.
Guesthouse
60 minutes, 5-7 actors
Linda loves her home– after years of hardship, she’s earned it. Then a young man appears on her doorstep, claiming the house is his. He says that his family was forced out– and insists they’re coming back. Linda’s husband is sympathetic, her daughter is curious, and they welcome the stranger in. But Linda is going to protect what’s hers– at any cost.
Developed in the Advanced Playwriting Class at Harvard College and featured in the Harvard Playwright’s Festival.
Untitled Theatre for Young Audiences Play
40 minutes, 3 actors
Olivia, Julian and Sarah have been inseparable all through high school. Then the morning after prom, Sarah accuses Julian of sexual assault. Sarah and Julian both want Olivia’s support– but how can Olivia choose between her two best friends?
Developed at the National Theatre School with dramaturgy by Dean Fleming
Players
115 minutes, 8 actors
A director attempts to reunite his fractured theatre company years after a violent conflict tore them apart. Can harmony on the stage create peace beyond the theatre doors or are the players in blood stepped in too far?
Directed by Lelaina Vogel with the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club.
Good News
80 minutes, 5 actors
A gospel in rhyme. Four high school students miraculously survived the flood that claimed so many lives. Rumors abound as to how, but the truth remains elusive… until now. Today, the students will share their secret. You are among the chosen few. Will you hear their good news?
Developed at the National Theatre school with Dramaturgy by Nick Carpenter.
Sacrifice
15 minutes, 2 actors/audience members
A summons home to the side of an ailing parent exposes an ideological rift between siblings. With the clock ticking on the climate crisis, Blake has renounced air travel to curb emissions- even if it means arriving too late to say goodbye. As the world lurches toward disaster, which do you put first: your principles, your planet - or the people you love?
Commissioned by Boca Del Lupo for the Red Phone Project and premiered at the Centaur Theatre, summer 2020.
Stapled
20 minutes, 5-7 actors
There’s a Mouth in the Sky. It’s thirsty. Stapled figures dot the landscape. They’re bleeding. Water wells at their feet. It’s rising. What would you do to survive the flood?
Developed at the National Theatre School with dramaturgy by Jonathan Garfinkel.
Operas
All Things Lovely
In Collaboration with Composer Sophie Kastner.
Drawn from the letters, love, and lives of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.
(in progress)
The Chair
In Collaboration with Composer Maria Atallah.
The Chair won the Mecenat Musica Prix 3 Femmes and was presented atthe COC Lunchtime Concert series The Next Wave, Tapestry Opera, & Highlands Opera Studio’s Women in Opera: Then & Now
(in progress)