The National Theater Institute
The following productions are all new works written at the National Theater
Baptisms for the Dead
Baptisms for the Dead is a new work written by Emma Jackson-Smith. Kate is about to go to college. As a young queer woman growing up in a Mormon household, she must find love, respect and resilience in a family struggling to stay together. Kate's mother Julie works to be pious and maintain her relationship to God while working through the cycles of violence she recognizes in her husband and young son and the masculine power emphasized in her church.
And of the Daughter
Mary Elizabeth is a fictional teenage girl who plans to die by crucifixion in order to obtain equal rights for women in the eyes of the church. It is a comedy in the mode of Saved and Superstar. The play pits teenage angst against the plight for equal rights.
End of Play
End of Play, a new play written by Caleb Featherstone, explores gender, class and ability through the surreal narrative of a nearly suicidal son and his mother, a woman who must constantly clean up after others. She is suffocating in her loss of identity until she finally finds a way out.
Dog God: A Musical?
The Rose Barn Theater
National Theater Institute
Waterford, CT
2016
Dog God: A Musical? Is a new work written by Kathy Ung. The Little Red Guard have everything they ever wanted - glorious Chairman Mao as their supreme leader and a place of power and respect. But what will they do when their own families betray them? This satirical musical mocks authoritarian regimes and humanizes its enforcers, empowers youth and denounces religious extremism; it criticizes the past and challenges the future.
Tuna Phish
A devised piece created with the mentorship of the Debate Society, Tuna Phish centers around a vegetarian meatpacker in a cannibalistic society. Ami is called a "freak" by her coworkers. After work she goes home, washes her bloody hands, uses that dirty water to water her plant, puts salt in the bowl with her pet tuna fish and drinks four diet sodas. What happens when the audience no longer must suspend its disbelief and is subject to what is really happening? 4 cans of soda will be drunk on stage.
© Eugene O'Neill Theater Center