It’s writing season, or at least Alicia’s at her most creative in the Spring. She wrote you a little script to celebrate World Theatre Day.

We don’t mean to be flippant about this year’s theme “Art is Peace.” A small conflict is resolved in this script but it’s small and safe and doesn’t even think about addressing the violent and deadly horrors happening around the globe.

But in the meantime, we need to keep believing in the power of theatre to change the world because it can.

Art may be the only thing that can save us. Cheers!

Download .pdf below or scan down for script page photos. It’s two pages for two actors. Roles say “she” and “he” but are gender-flexible.

xoxo

Many thanks to the marvelous Erika Funke for talking this week with Maureen about Remember You Must Die: A Comedy! Listen up!

We’ll be in the Junior Ballroom (basement level) at the Scranton Cultural Center at 420 N. Washington Avenue with shows on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 8:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 6 at 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 7 at 4 and 8:30 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased via the Scranton Fringe Festival website.

We are buzzing with excitement to preset the first reading of Maureen McGuigan’s new solo show Remember You Will Die: A Comedy this evening at The Bog in Scranton.

Collecting audience feedback at this stage of development – after several drafts have been wrought but before the script gets set in stone – is a crucial step in the life of a play. We are deeply grateful to those who will take time out of their summer adventures to experience this early version of the script and share their thoughts with Maureen.

If you attended the reading and lost your survey slip with the QR code, you can find the survey here:

Remember You Will Die reading survey form.

We look forward to sharing more news about this play, expected to premiere in Fall 2023, as the summer progresses. –ag

Common Play Factory has been in hibernation due to a number of overwhelming factors and hopes to reorient, energize, and reemerge with new productions in 2023.

Thank you for your patience and compassion.

-Alicia

Common Play Factory is planning another Virtual Play Reading event for Spring 2021 (to be livestreamed on our Facebook page) and would love to consider a couple more short plays to round out our program.

We are looking for writers who have work that they would like to hear read by our participating actors as an aid to continued to development of a script. There is no fee to submit your script, but as this event will be produced without formal funding, we are also unable to pay any royalty at this time.

Preference is given to resident playwrights of Northeast Pennsylvania, although we are happy to consider work from anywhere in the world.

Please inquire at dramastruction@gmail.com for more information or send us your work (30 minutes or shorter) in a .pdf document with relevant information about your experience as a writer.

Although there is no deadline to submit, the program will be set as soon as we identify the scripts which best complete this Spring’s program.

We are always open to hearing from playwrights who would like to collaborate with Common Play Factory in the future.

-ag

We’ll be streaming tonight’s program to Alicia’s YouTube page as well as the Common Factory Facebook page. THANK YOU!

Donations will be accepted at PayPal.me/AliciaGrgea.

Our debut livestream program to be broadcast on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. will feature readings of Mark’s new short play, titled “Our Love is Here to Stay: I Need You Like I Need a Hole in the Head,” and Alicia Grega’s “Grip,” an absurd dark comedy in which exhausted woman goes to drastic measures to challenge her privileged sister’s aloofness while on a much-needed vacation.

Cast includes Deirdre (Lynch) Navin, Heather Burdick, Eric Lutz, Kimmie Leff, and Tim McDermott.

Born out of the ashes of the Jason Miller Playwrights’ Project which Alicia coordinated as a program of Scranton Public Theatre for five years, Common Play Factory has been limited in what we’ve been able to produce by a lack of resources (space, funding). It’s hard to bring new collaborators in when you don’t know what or where is next.

But now here we are in the middle of this pandemic even those with a homebase are not able to gather there. Virtual production spaces are not the theatres we’ve loved for so many years and can’t wait to get back to, but they are a means by which we can continue to practice our craft, as writers and actors and designers and story weavers.

This is what we can do right now with what we have.

We’ll let you know more as the next couple of weeks evolves.

-ag