Backwards from Winter is a modern opera, a “monodrama for soprano, electric cello, computer, and video." Composed by Douglas Knehans with libretto by Juanita Rockwell, is the story of a young woman who loses her lover in a fatal accident. The story is told in four scenes – one representing each season.
Structured as a nonlinear narrative, a film location scout named George takes us on a trip through his past, reflecting on his adventures in the film business as well as past relationships, particularly with a dancer who he came to love and eventually lost. His attempt to come to terms with that loss drives the action of the story.
College students return to class after the pandemic to find love with a hint of betrayal that could end Alex and Savannah for good. Foreign exchange students find new friends at the drama club's spring musical audition. Can Toni lead this group through personal inhibitions and a lack of self-esteem with the magic of music? Working with Keith, Toni helps him learn to dance in his wheelchair igniting a mutual passion. The “People R Ready”—are YOU!!!
ROBERT ARTHUR'S EASTERN SHORE by Robert P. Arthur, twice nominated for Virginia's Poet Laureate: The book includes 4 one-act plays, a selection of his award-winning poems, and "Hymn to the Chesapeake," a play with music. The culture of the Eastern Shore watermen and waterwomen has long been threatened by the erosion of winds off the Chesapeake Bay and a dwindling supply of crabs and "ersters" to be harvested. These poems and plays celebrate that life and allow us, to share the triumph and the pain of finding one's livelihood and reason for being in an environment that is both beautiful and unforgiving.
4 skilfully adapted plays for young audiences: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, A Midnight Summer's Dream, and Macbeth. Plays are each around 45 to 50 minutes, are fast-paced, engaging, and make the language more accessible to young audiences, while including both Shakespeare’s original language and theatrical devices. As exciting participatory theater they appeal to elementary school students. With the participatory elements removed, each play's frame story is producible as a play for teens or for teen drama groups to perform for a younger audience.
A one-act playadapted from "The Dead" in James Joyce’s “Dubliners”
During an annual Christmas celebration, Gabriel Conroy has to cope with his doddering aunts, discover the true nature of his relationship with his wife, Gretta, and confront his own academic pedantry. He condescends to the provincialism of his friends, family, and his wife. But a big surprise about Gretta awaits him after he retires for the night.
