Schedule Of Events

January 17, 2025

Join us for the 23rd Annual Newburyport New Works Festival. Kick off the New Works Festival 2025 with an evening showing of the Honegger Prize winning full length, An Institution by Daniel Takacs. Daniel A. Takacs is a playwright and director from Oberlin, Ohio. His original plays have been developed or produced by The Black Experimental Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, and Boston Playwright's Theatre, and he has taught and directed theatre in Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, and in Boston, where he received his MFA in Theatre Education from Boston University, with a focus on playwriting and directing. Favorite productions he has directed include “The Millennials” (CPT), “The 39 Steps” (Chagrin Valley Little Theatre), and “The Adventurous Adventuress” (Dobama). Dan lives with his wife, Linda, his peanut Greta, and the twins, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

January 18, 2025

Extreme Gridlock by James Ferguson

A couple struggles to understand why they're stuck.

James C. Ferguson is an award-winning writer whose plays have been produced throughout the United States as well as in the UK and New Zealand. He has written two novels, numerous screenplays and a number of projects for television and the web. James is also the co-writer and director of the well-reviewed feature length independent motion picture Happy Holidays, available through numerous digital platforms. In 2023, his play Thanks, Nick was produced as part of The Magnetic Theatre’s One Act Play Festival in Asheville, NC.

Home Invasion by Candace Perry

An uninvited guest shows up at the home of Martha and Paul, and they must figure out how to manage this unwelcome intruder.

Candace Perry is a writer, teacher, and social justice activist who strives to change the world, one play at a time. Over 40 of her short plays have been produced in the US and Ireland; her four full length plays have had readings, workshops and productions in New York and at Cape theaters; and a dozen of her short plays have been produced online. She lives in Wellfleet with her husband, Charles Thibodeau.

Meteor by Tori Stubbs

Two strangers meet on a roof hours before the end of the world.

Tori Stubbs is a Massachusetts native and a New Hampshire resident. When she isn’t working or chasing around her two rambunctious kids, she loves to write. Her short stories have been published in magazines such as Daily Science Fiction and The Story Shack as well as an anthology, Enter the Rebirth. She is fairly new to playwriting but has “caught the bug” and has finished writing more than 30 short plays since her start in August of 2023.

What Is Due by Deirdre Girard

Suzanne is about to lose everything, but she’s come up with a series of solutions that grow more and more surprising….

Deirdre Girard, who tells women’s stories, received her Playwriting MFA at Boston University. She has had dozens of award winning one-act plays produced both nationally and internationally; her full-length productions include The Christina Experiment at The Firehouse Center for the Arts, Reconsidering Hanna(h) at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Short and Scary at the Lynn Arts Center. Short and Scary II will be produced at the Actors Studio of Newburyport in October 2025. Her work has been published by Applause Books, Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press and Heuer Publishing. Deirdre was named a 2012/13 and returning 2013/14 Playwriting Fellow at New Repertory Theater, and was selected for both the Company One Play Labs and Central Square Theater’s TWSS play development programs. Her one-act play In the Buff was commissioned by Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and subsequently won QC Theatre’s Susan Glaspell National Playwriting Award. Most recently, Women at the Center, her collection of short plays featuring female protagonists was published, her short play Fungus was filmed for the Recover-Me Festival in LA, she was selected for Barrington Stages 2023 10 x 10 festival and The 2023 Boston Theater Marathon, had a monologue from her full-length play In This House selected for The Best Female Monologues of 2022 anthology by Smith & Kraus, had her play Soulmate selected by Smith & Kraus for their Best 10-minute plays of 2023 anthology, had an evening of her short plays produced at The Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, MA in February of 2024, and had two NY productions with outstanding reviews of her short play A Year to Grieve. She is a playwriting instructor/mentor for several organizations including Gloucester Stage, Boston University’s Massachusetts Young Playwrights Project, and Northeastern University’s Silver Masque Theatre as well as a member of the Boston Playwright’s Theatre Advisory Council and a founding member of the Newburyport Arts Collective.

A Woman in Need by Martha Patterson

On the patio of a New Orleans bar, a detective investigating a crime meets his Maker.

Martha Patterson’s 27-story collection “Small Acts of Magic” was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her work has also been published in more than 20 anthologies and journals, and her plays have been produced in 21 states and eight countries. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and loves being surrounded by her books, radio, and laptop.

January 19, 2025

Meridian Summer by Candace Perry

Civil rights are challenged, argued, and obstructed in Meridian, Mississippi in the summer of 1964.

Candace Perry is a writer, teacher, and social justice activist who strives to change the world, one play at a time. Over 40 of her short plays have been produced in the US and Ireland; her four full length plays have had readings, workshops and productions in New York and at Cape theaters; and a dozen of her short plays have been produced online. She lives in Wellfleet with her husband, Charles Thibodeau.

Ellen Talks About the Bird by Donna Sorbello

Two sisters, seemingly mundane lives, of coupons and coffee but also a heart filled with a secret.

Donna Sorbello’s theatre works have been produced at the New Market International Festival, Canada, Lincoln Center Library Theatre, Odyssey Festival at Asolo Theatre, Boston Theatre Marathon, International Festival for Peace and Justice, Studio 620, Gloucester First Night, Open Voices, BPT (staged readings) Turtle Lane Theatre, Priscilla Beach Theatre and Tampa Bay Festival, with online fundraisers for Theatre Alliance and Wellfleet Harbor Theatre. A past winner of the Robert J Pickering award, she has been a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Center, New Dramatists, WCVB Prime Time Drama Contest, and the Kennedy Center College competition. Her historical novel for middle-school girls, Daughter of Liberty, Latticework Press,(Barnes and Noble, Amazon) combines American Revolutionary history with magical realism.She has many published articles and interviews. As past Director of Emerging Playwrights, a grant-funded program for City High School students at Wheelock Theatre, she helped foster and bring to production the work of young playwrights. She has taught Playwriting for the past twelve years. She is a graduate of Emerson College, and Boston University, studying under Derek Walcott and Kate Snodgrass.

Grammy G by Christopher Lockheart

We all have a need to hear our mother say, “I love you.” So who cares if she raps it?

Christopher Lockheardt of Groton, MA, has had 45 of his short plays produced over 260 times by 95 different theaters in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong, Egypt, and Australia. His work has been included in ten short play anthologies, including four of Smith & Kraus’s Best Ten-Minute Plays of the Year collections.

Pass the Salt by Leslie Powell

Two “mature” sisters revert to their younger selves over a saltshaker.

Leslie Powell (she/her/hers) writes plays, fiction, nonfiction, essays, and poetry. “Baby Ghost” as creative non-fiction published through Cool Bean Lit can be found here: CoolBeansLit.com/issue2 Her plays have been read and produced throughout the U.S. and in Toronto, Canada. Most recently “Baby Ghost” appeared as a staged reading at the Scottsdale Desert Stage theatre, January 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Baby Ghost” was developed and presented under the title “The Way Life Should be” at the Actors Studio of Newburyport, Massachusetts and the Firehouse Center For the Arts, also in Newburyport. “Heart-Land: a Lesbian Drama” was selected for National Pride Month in 2022 and presented as a staged-reading for Aria Production in San Antonio, Texas, Her first poem “Stuffed” was published in KYSO zine and selected for ‘Best On The Net’ in the print version. Her fiction “Benediction for a Murderer” has appeared in Zoetrope online and her essay “Son of Man” appeared in Pandora magazine.

To Our Beloved Shareholders by Gregory Hischak

The torch of corporate-speak has been passed to a new generation. Gregory Hischak is a writer and performer living in Yarmouth Port, MA.

Date : January 17-19, 2025

Time :

January 17, 2025 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm

January 18, 2025 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm

January 19, 2025 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Location :

Firehouse Center For The Arts

1 Market Square

Newburyport, MA

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