Our Home States

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Scott Feiner

Leah Stern, Joe Verstynen and Miranda Belle in "Swimming to Tuftonboro."

Leah Stern, Joe Verstynen and Miranda Belle in "Swimming to Tuftonboro," part of "Our Home States," Broom Street Theater, 2024.

Broom Street Theater is sending it back to the states with its ongoing short play festival Our Home States, now in its second year. Last year BST covered 12 Midwestern states. This year BST’s piling in the car and heading east to the New England and Atlantic states. The nine short plays cover the eastern seaboard from Maine (On the Beach by Arthur Boatin) to Pennsylvania (Hellbender: Live by Valerie Work). They also visit New York (Über by Ron G. Rosenfeld), New Jersey (The Jersey Who? by Andrew R. Heinze), New Hampshire (Swimming to Tuftonboro by Mitchell P. Ganem), Rhode Island (Same Jokes by Mark Sawtelle), Massachusetts (The Other Side of the Street by Laura Neill), Vermont (Like a Kite by Ron Fromstein), and Connecticut (Feeder by Julie Linden). Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.

media release: Broom Street Theater is proud to present Our Home States, a short play festival presenting one play from each of our 50 "united" states.

This is the second year of our festival. Last year we celebrated the 12 Midwestern states, and this year we'll turn our attention to the Northeastern U.S.

Broom Street Theater put out a nationwide call for submissions asking for writers who were born in, lived in, or had some connection to each of the nine states for this year's festival. We received 130 submissions for the festival, and we're pleased to announce the plays for the Northeast:

• NY - Über by Ron G. Rosenfeld
• NJ – The Jersey Who? by Andrew R. Heinze
• NH – Swimming to Tuftonboro by Mitchell P. Ganem
• RI – Same Jokes by Mark Sawtelle
• ME – On the Beach by Arthur Boatin
• MA – The Other Side of the Street by Laura Neill
• VT – Like a Kite by Ron Fromstein
• PA - Hellbender: Live by Valerie Work
• CT – Feeder by Julie Linden

This year, the plays in the festival will be directed by Melissa Minkoff, who is making her directorial debut at Broom Street. Steven Smith is assistant director. 

"We received a wide variety of entries from an array of skilled playwrights, which made the selection process very competitive," Minkoff said. "Our talented cast and crew is excitedly working on bringing these pieces to life. We hope audiences will enjoy our homage to the Northeastern U.S."

Cast:

Miranda Belle

Matthew Bialo

Maria Dahman

Joel Davidson

Andres Guzman

Peter Olson

Jessica Smith

Steven E. Smith

Leah Stern

Joe Verstynen

Performance Details:

Location: Broom Street Theater, 1119 Williamson Street

Dates: July 26 - August 17, Thurs-Sat, 8pm

Tickets: Available in advance at bstonline.org, or at the door the evening of the performance. Tickets at the door are pay-what-you-can.

Broom Street Theater always reserves a block of seats for walk-up audience members. Walk-up tickets are always Pay-What-You-Can. Even if the website says we're sold out, we're not sold out, you can always get in line at the theater and see the most affordable show in town!