 Broken Fences by Steven Simoncic
"In a neighborhood on Chicago's deep West Side, the momentum of gentrification has taken hold and things have begun to change forever. As property taxes rise and demographics shift, Hoody and D struggle to keep the only home they have ever known. But when April and Czar -- a white couple intent on starting a family -- buy their first home and move in next door, the very definition of home is called into question. With unflinching honesty and unapologetic humor, Broken Fences examines identity and invisibility, community and security, hope and hostility in a modern American urban village that is at once foreign, and the place these characters call home." "Broken Fences made me acutely uncomfortable–and that’s the highest recommendation I could possibly give a production grappling with this difficult subject. It’s much truer to life than Act II of Bruce Norris’ acclaimed Clybourne Park, which purports to address the same issue, and much more even-handed. What Broken Fences manages to portray is the usually hidden face of institutional racism: a system in which no amount of good will can compensate for the economic fact that my gain is your loss.Broken Fences is the “conversation about race” people are always claiming to want. Once you see it, you’ll know why the discussion never takes place: getting new ideas is always painful, and people rarely volunteer for discomfort." Kelly Kleiman, Dueling Critics Published by Original Works Publishing
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 Carol K Mack is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been produced in theaters throughout the U.S.A. and abroad in Scotland, London and Japan. Her one acts are included in four editions of Best American Short Plays.
WITHOUT A TRACE & Other Plays A Collection of four award-winning plays By Carol K. Mack Once in a very great while, a new play comes along that is genuinely new... "Seeing such a play we have the sense of suddenly looking over new terrain; a new part of the map of our psyche falls into place. THE ACCIDENT by Carol K Mack is such a play. I came away believing that Mack is a major new playwright and that her play is one of the best new things that has been produced in Boston in quite a while. The comparisons here are to Pinter and Beckett. This is a challenging, fascinating, elliptical play, stunning a convincing in its power." -By Jon L Lehman, The Patriot Ledger, Boston... Buy The Book  One out of every 54 homes in America received a foreclosure notice in 2008. Award winning playwright and author of Love in the Time of Foreclosure, Stephanie Alison Walker, takes us on a deeply personal journey through recent history as she shines a light on three out of the millions of stories of loss. A young couple faces eviction from the dream house they stretched to buy, an elderly widow falls prey to a reverse mortgage scheme, and a minister of the prosperity gospel must face the flock she’s led astray. American Home takes an unflinching look at the impossible choices people make when faced with losing everything and, ultimately, celebrates the powerful resilience of community and the human spirit.
Before she wrote American Home, Stephanie Alison Walker wrote Love in the Time of Foreclosure.... "Foreclosure was in the news. Stories like, “Man Bulldozes House in Foreclosure,” and “Woman Takes Own Life Before Auction of Home,”and “Husband and Wife Set Fire to House in Foreclosure, Killing Selves and Dog.” First of all, no one sees this as their future when they buy a home. No. You see gatherings and traditions, holidays and parties, babies and neighbors, cozy nights and a safe space. Safe space. Safe. You don’t buy a house anticipating failure. You don’t foresee the cloud of shame hovering, surrounding your safe space…choking you while you try to just breathe..." And from that came...American Home "Eight years later here is what I’m hoping– that this play gives voice to those people who lost everything or who are currently in danger of losing everything. I hope it serves as a reminder– you are not alone. We have no idea what each other is really going through. The shame around financial hardship is so thick– it keeps it hidden. We’re really good at hiding that shame. We don’t really know what each other is experiencing. So, be kind and be there for each other. Be kind. Be there." American Home by Stephanie Alsion Walker August 26 - September 24 Little Candle Productions TECHNICOLOR LIFE BY JAMI BRANDLI Now playing at the Depot Theatre, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville through August 12th TICKETS  "Technicolor Life by Jami Brandli rolls on like a steam train at The Depot Theatre in Marrickville. A quirky, poignant tale of adjusting to circumstances beyond one's control, this play is engaging and refreshing....Technicolor Life is a bold and vibrant play." - Emma Caldwell, Weekend NOTES  "In her commitment to giving voice to female protagonists, playwright Jami Brandli makes no apologies for writing complicated, big, sometimes messy and often times funny, plays about women... Far from being messy, Technicolor Life is very cleverly crafted...(The) play covers aspects of love, ambition, war, rape, post traumatic stress, voluntary euthanasia, divorce, remarriage – and the need to stay strong and independent. And it does so without preaching or moralising!" - Carol Wimmer, Stage Whispers  "The award winning US play TECHNICOLOR LIFE by Jami Brandli, is now having its Australian premiere as part of The Depot Theatre’s 2017 Season...The unravelling of intergenerational female relationships are brilliantly explored. The right to die movement, friendly fire, women in the military on the front line in Iraq, hiding sexual assault on military women." - Lynn Belvedere, Sydney Arts Guide  "Technicolor Life is an example of modern theatre at its best; a refusal of a sanitizing aesthetic; complex narrative strands stumbling their way through a comparative structure; repurposing history for the right to create a definition of the present. It refuses the moral imposition of “meaning” and allows for a bawdy truth to encroach upon a mannered real. It is, in short, the theatre we have to have." - Lisa Thatcher  "Jami Brandli's play TECHNICOLOR LIFE brings women's stories to the forefront in an emotional rollercoaster of dramatic comedy...Covering issues of PTSD, rape and assault, infidelity, cancer and simply trying to navigate adolescence, TECHNICOLOR LIFE draws on the humour that invariably surrounds tragedy to provide a balanced and entertaining work." - Jade Kops, BroadwayWorld, Sydney
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