Maryland’s annual ten-minute play festival The Variations Project returns for its 16th straight year with two collections of world premiere short plays by the region’s playwrights. Rapid Lemon Productions’ second offering of their 2020 season was originally scheduled to appear in June, then postponed and re-planned as an online presentation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Audiences of 2019’s Variations on Myth voted to select this year’s theme “Vision.” Playwrights from across the Mid-Atlantic region created and submitted plays for consideration. Readings and development of all the submissions took place with writers during May, and a final group of 11 plays was ultimately chosen for the production, which will be directed by Sydney Pope. An additional group of nine submissions will also be presented, in a staged reading directed by Arthur Cleaves.
The production will stream live at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, August 7; the staged reading at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 9. Both will be recorded and streamed again throughout the month. These performances will be free to viewers, thanks in part to a generous co-sponsorship by Motor House. Registration and a full schedule are available here.
These 11 plays comprise the production and are performed by an ensemble featuring Whitley Cargill, Ruth Diaz, Erin Klarner, Valerie Lewis, Colin Riley, Crystal Sewell, Noah Silas, and Louis Williams III:
“Seeing the Guru” by R.A. Pauli
“20/20” by Shelbi Lauren Nelson
“Gone Vision” by John Sowalsky
“Next Wind” by Sharon Tyrell
“Little Birds” by Chad Short
“Freedom” by Danielle DuPree
“How Women Dance” by Sharon Goldner
“Take Out” by Brandon Rashad Butts
“The Walls You Cannot See” by Rosemary Frisino Toohey
“A Recipe for the Future” by Archie Williams
“Three Cucumbers” by Deborah Carry Amland
These nine plays comprise the staged reading, performed by Zipporah Brown, Holly Gibbs, Dominic Gladden, Flynn Harne, Autumn Koehnlein, and Linda Wellman:
“Good Mothers” by Danielle DuPree
“Paint Me a Picture” by Erin Klarner
“To Be Determined” by Elizabeth Shannon
“Milton Avenue” by Christopher A. Kess
“Box” by Joshua Scheid
“The Unseen Truth” by Linda Wellman
“In the Dark” by Pamela Wilterdink
“A Sight for Sore Eyes” by Colin Riley
“No Rules Pasta” by Emma Howard
For more information, visit the Rapid Lemon website here.
